Removal of desktop notifications

[Rorey]

On May 15th, we will be turning off the in-app notifications "bell" on desktop. We are continuously working to improve and simplify our notifications features, and this change will allow us to shift our focus to email and push notifications. We are also working on completely new ways of keeping you up-to-date with new album releases, helping you discover new music, and know what your friends are up to.

To make sure you have your email and push notifications set up the way you'd like, check out the steps here.

Please share any feedback you have here in the Community. We're listening, and will pass it all on to the team.

[milesisok]

Hi, I've been a paying Spotify user for a long time. I listen to the desktop version of Spotify all day long at work. I do not use the mobile version.The removal of notifications combined with the inability to save more albums (reached max limit) has really hamstrung me. I will be discontinuing my account. Please shoot me an email if you reinstate notifications in the future. 

Thanks,

Miles

[djbreakfast]

What the heck? I mean that is why I am paying for spotify all these years - to receive notifications. It was like the best feature. And I always used desktop because on mobile they just disappear. How is that a simplification? And why do they have to turn off one feature if they do not have any replacement for it. What would be in the way of focususing on new features if you let the notification bell be, Spotify?? I can't imagine the answer.

[krmathis]

WTF! I've been a loyal paying Premium customer since 2010, and now you force me to enable email notifications (aka: SPAM) for both new album and playlist updates?

For every single software update lately I feel you have taken one step ahead and two steps back, removing useful features that has not been broken.

Guess It's about time I pay with my wallet and put my money elsewhere.

[jawman]

This is the stupidest thing ever...remove more functionality from Spotify. This provides no benefit to anyone...it was awesome being able to click that icon and see all the latest releases to artists I follow so I could stay up to date on music, as well as share releases with friends.

Who thought this was a good idea? I'm seriously baffled by this.

Edit: The more I think about this, the more it's clear to me that Spotify will be pretty much useless without this feature. I spend a lot of time on my desktop, especially at work 45+ hours of the week where I listen to the majority of Spotify. This was how I got the notifications of new music, and to have it removed is truly mind boggling to me. As a long time Premium user, I really don't see any benefit from using Spotify now if I can't get notifications for the artists I follow. What the heck is the point of following the artists then if you won't get notifications? Sure, I can get email notifications, but when I'm on a work PC for 90% of my Spotify listeninig, I am not signed in on my personal email, so that's pointless. Also, I never liked email notifications, because it sends a single email per artist, and that's just more clutter in my inbox that I don't want. I like having the notifications in the app, right there, can click on it and queue up the track/EP/album instantly. These notifications aren't in the mobile app, but at least they were on the desktop app. To remove this functionality and awesome feature is pure idiocy. Can someone please explain the benefit of this to me?

Edit II: We are a society and generation that LOVES notifications of whatever it is we are following. Think Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. They all have a notifications section in their app. We want notifications of what matters to us (what we follow) so that we can stay on top of what we like and be kept informed of the latest trends, music, etc. And Spotify thought it was a good idea to remove notifications? Someone at corporate please read this. Spotify is shooting themselves in the foot here. Worst decision ever. 

[krifu]

Quite an unpleasant surprise. Email notifications on an environment that is rich (desktop)? Is this some kind of devilish joke? 

Can someone confirm any method of reverting version and get it back?

Edit: Truly mind boggling decision to pull the bell. Let me guess, Big Record hated Independent getting the listens.. 

[bjornhamra]

So, when you guys switched application framework from the blazing fast old client you used to push a few years ago to the slow nightmare of a desktop client you're pushing these days, I lived with it. Because that was about the same time connect dropped and connect was awesome.

So when you crippled the playlist system, dropped support for viewing aggregate playlists (Viewing all tracks inside a folder of playlists) and forced everyone to adhere to the "My music/Tracks" stuff, I could live with that too. (Although I sincerely hope you'll fix that one day because the current playlist folder main view is useless)

When you removed the filter function for almost a year, I could live with that too. 

When you removed all the other useful features you introduced merely months before, time and time again, most users accepted it. Because what could they do?

But this, spotify, .. is just pathetic and entirely illogical. What the f**k is a "follow" button even good for if you can no longer receive updates on said list/artist? What on earth is the rationale for such a retarded move?

[blubbo]

Anyone wanna guess how many of those are positive to the change?

I ain't gonna bet anything cause I think ALL of you are gonna get it 100% right ...

[nematic]

First you ditched the awesome Songkick intergration that I loved, then you killed Windows Phone development, and now you ditch notifications. Well, that's the last straw for me! Cancelling premium, switching to Groove Music.

[qrter]

Incredibly unhappy with this.

Bring the in-client notification function back.

How is this helping users? So now instead of having all functionality inside of the client, I have to go outside of it to my e-mail. How is that simplifying things?

[sweetrelief]

For users like me that do a lot of their Spotify listening on their laptop via the app, this appears to be a huge negative.  I say this because when you click on a link from an email, it takes you to the website instead of the app and requires a fresh login at which point you've lost me.  Artists will sure see a massive drop in streams for their new releases because of this.  I understand that most people use their mobile device for Spotify but even still, the fact that I have to leave the app to see what is new just seems counter intuitive to me.  On a secondary note, although I have notifications set up to email me for pretty much everything, I have never gotten one email notification from Spotify so I also question whether or not Spotify has shown they can handle that.  If anyone has feedback on why I am not getting emails (and yes, I check spam regularly, and I still receive email notifications on my older freemium account that I don't use), I would appreciate the help on that. Bill @ SweetRelief

[sergioro]

Hi spotify, you can do what you want, but don't forget that who pays my family subscription is me, i'll repeat I myself control 5 accounts.

So I think that in a world full of alternatives playing around with loyal customers is a very very danger move, as you can see by the opinions on this feed. For any complaint costumer there are 100 that even don't express their anger, but that doesn't mean that they aren't.

That said, I hope you reconsider on this, if not I'll move out of spotify family premium!!

[bitelaum]

The more I think about it, less it makes sense.
How on earth someone thought it was a good idea?
@Rorey, what was the rationale behind it? Less features, cleaner client and code, less developers, less paychecks and more money?
If that's it, then you need to rethink your business model.

For **bleep**'s sake, how does this make any user's life better, could you answer me?

[dayshabass]

Notifications appeared for a few hours and then disappeared again. If it doesn't come back I see no reason to include my artists in the catalog. It's just a jukebox full of major label Backline garbage.

Seeing how fans and users are treated here on your forums, as well as seeing how out of touch the developer and product teams are with the people that use their product... I'm regretting years of lending our reach to recommend Spotify to our fans. Even if notifications come back, the trust in this team to make responsible and rational decisions in respect to future product updates is gone.

What a waste of a potential.

[ethan-j]

Ah so Spotify want to monetize their playlists section now. Stopping their customers listening to new music by the artists they follow via notifications, and instead trying to force them onto playlists paid for by music companies or created by corporate interests. Labels will have to pay to be featured, the more you pay the further up the vacuous playlist you’re placed, is that how it’s supposed to work?!

Sorry, but we’ve already got radio stations rinsing the same major MOR crap 24/7 across the world for free. Why would anyone want to pay $9.99 for a glorified jukebox? Well unless you’ve got time to sift through 100s of e-mails, or can stay awake until the small hours of the morning to catch, blink and you’ll miss them, push updates on a phone! It’s probably only a matter of weeks/months before these substandard methods of notification are surreptitiously removed as well!

Time to wake up and start putting the wishes of your customers before those of record industry luddites and the next quick buck, or you’ll quickly find you’ve already peaked and the decline will happen faster than you think!

[gareth8]

---

@ethan-j wrote:

Ah so Spotify want to monetize their playlists section now. Stopping their customers listening to new music by the artists they follow via notifications, and instead trying to force them onto playlists paid for by music companies or created by corporate interests. Labels will have to pay to be featured, the more you pay the further up the vacuous playlist you’re placed, is that how it’s supposed to work?!

---

This is it! This is *exactly* it! It's the only possible reason I can think of behind this move. I'm sure the fact that the Activity Feed and Recently Played Artists is no longer updating is related, too; can't have people finding out what their friends are listening to; that would never do.

I think they're pushing the, 'We're working on this' BS at the moment. Expect an announcement from Spotify soon that these features have also been removed from the client.

[gareth8]

Well, that didn't take long: Activity feed removed

[XsomX]

It's so cking ridiculous that I needed to download an older version from some fancyshmancy page and make some changes in places in my OS, where I've never been before.

1.25.127 is working for me but this is some kind of a bad joke that I had to do it. Dunno if this means something to you but I will repeat what I said. You've got time till the end of the next month. After that my premium ends and I won't renew it without that cking bell in the top right corner.

[sergioro]

hey guys, lets start a huge movement on the social networks, against this spotify attitude and desrespect for their paying users.

fight for bring back the bell notifications on spotify!

join the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bbbellnotifications

Best,

[Gladiomortis]

I cannot comprehend what could have possible promoted this train of thought and lead to this outcome, while i do enjoy receiving the notifications on my android phone, I do not stop what I am doing everytime i receive a notification in order to take a moment to listen to the new song, album etc.

I no longer have all my notifications in one place, once you delete a notification on your phone then it's gone forever. I do not want more useless e-mails in my inbox because it's yet another application, another window/tab, another inconvenience, it's bad enough we have to put up already with all the other spam nonsense from other sources, I do not want to add to this.

Centralizing spotify functions is the best way to optimize it's service.

[turbomaskin]

Give me the Bell back!..the best weekend feeling was when I sat down by my computer and checked the new releases...all my effort of searching and following are now gone!!..Stop messing upp my weekends!!...I need my Notification Bell!!..My precious Notification Bell!!