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.

[Joa0]

but not in that order

[tylermetcalf]

111 pages of happy customers eh spotify.

Please respond to your customers at least.

[_dan_mooney_]

We're in the dark until notifications are back. 

Are you able to advise as to when you think we will be able to be notified of new releases / playlist updates? 

[cali-tpk]

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@Da76 wrote:

My 2017 wish-list: 

- world peace

- bring the bell back

---

I had given up, but I was just coming back to say the same thing! But I think our wishes will not be carry out ... 😞 (in french ) j'avais abandonné , mais je revenais juste pour dire la même chose! mais je pense que nos voeux ne seront pas exaucés ... 😞

[jvanwestendorp]

I started to use swarm.fm and it's rather nice.

Its really decently developed and given the fact that Spotify seems to hot on ignoring users and reducing functionality, I don't see much of an alternative for the moment.

Btw, I have also used Companion for Spotify but I find it less snappy. Just my personal preference.

[Catrik]

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@Rorey wrote:

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. 

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

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That hurts my head. How on earth is email and push notifications simplifying things??

Why would you remove the bell? How is that so much trouble for you to remove it? What are you trying to do? Why would you try to force emails or phone notifications for us?

When I come home and want to listen to music, I open Spotify and listen to music. If there are new releases from artists I like, I want to know about it. You agree right? What I DON'T want is having to open my email or go to my phone to know about it. That doesn't make any sense. Why would you intentionally complicate things?

I sure do hope you are listening and fix this issue.

E: I cancelled my subscription. You are abviously just trying to rip more money off us, I don't know how but I don't see any other reason for this. And I don't see you changing your mind about it either and I'm not going to support developers like this.

[rotox]

Wow yet another key feature removed without any consultation with the user base. Been a fan of Spotify for awhile and a premium user but lately it seems that lately the knocks I have against it are mainly for functionality that was once there is just removed. Its almost like doing an update is going to remove functionality instead of enhancing or adding any. Really getting disappointed with this approach especially with other services like Apple Music improving their platform.

This was definitely a feature I made use of to know when artists I follow release new music. Glad to see I'm not alone in thinking this.

[jonathansbetter]

Also, if on a Chromebook, you can go to settings a turn off notifications there. 

[Ronald0505]

Team of Spotify..... read this and react please;

Bring back the notification "Bell"...

... just simply bring it back...

[jonathansbetter]

I believe that we should have the option to turn off notifications on desktop, rather than just removing the feature entirely. 

[aperception]

Push notifications SUCK. Nobody has time to consistently take immediate action on new music push notifications (i.e. listen to a whole album / EP / single). They're simply not suitable as the primary notification medium for this content type. We need a persistent list of notifications, that we can go through at our own leisure.

The old notifications system within the app was ideal, I wonder who thought it would be a good idea to remove such an amazing feature. Now the only workaround is supposed to be using emails, which has now been broken for two months...

I'm going to seriously start looking into changing to a new provider, as this feature is a deal-breaker for me.

[Anamon]

I might have gotten something wrong here, but from what I understand, e-mail notifications are not broken, but officially decommissioned, as are push notifications. I don't think this is a problem Spotify isn't fixing, but a deliberate decision to no longer inform users about new releases. At least for me, I used to get several push notifications and e-mails a week. I didn't change any settings, yet I haven't received either for months.

Everything has been turned off in favour of Release Radar, which is much better for Spotify and the labels because they control what gets on it, not users by choosing which artists to follow. I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed that their Release Radar playlist only very rarely contains a track by an artist they actually follow. I might get one or two tracks by followed artists a week, despite dozens of artists having new releases on Spotify. Most of what's on my Radar is by artists I might or might not have listened to recently, but that I neither particularly like nor follow.

[Pone]

"I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed that their Release Radar playlist only very rarely contains a track by an artist they actually follow"

And that is why you should never look at your RR because you support this model.

[mikejadamson]

Exactly right.

[Anamon]

Looking at the list is fine, as is giving it a quick listen. Any tracks that you listen to for less than 30 seconds don't even count as played, and the label isn't paid.

I rarely listen to any of the tracks, of course, because it's mostly music I don't like. Spotify wouldn't consider the model a success if people just looked at the list and didn't listen to any of the tracks in full. And neither would the labels, their interest is in getting people to listen to the tracks, not just having the title on screen for a minute.

Back when notifications were still working, I listened to almost all releases in full. I'm sure Spotify's metrics can tell the difference just fine.

[KingSantos]

Edward Newett ''Engineering and Release Radar Product Manager'' said this>

“We had a notifications feature for a while that included new music suggestions based on the artists a user followed, (HUH? Music suggestions?... ex> i follow Katy Perry but the bell never showed that Lady Gaga released an album or song because i didn't follow her LOL) but when we looked into the data we found not many users actually ‘follow’ the artists they listened to frequently. (great excuse to put payola songs down our throats huh?) Release Radar takes the work out of keeping up with your favourite artists by connecting you with all the new music from the artists you care about in a single weekly playlist.” (Not really..i rarely see 2, 3 songs.. and they are released like 1 month before.) AND WHY I HAVE TO WAIT A ENTIRE WEEK TO KNOW IF AN ARTIST I FOLLOW RELEASED AN ALBUM? THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE... 

Borne out of the success of Discover Weekly, each week Release Radar looks through all the new music uploaded to Spotify’s catalogue and selects tracks for your playlist based on the artists you follow and listen to most.

“Most users have at least 30 artists that they care about, and in the majority of cases that’s enough to fill a two-hour playlist,” Newett says.

“But, in the case that there aren’t enough new releases by the artists that we know you definitely care about, we fill in the gaps with recommendations using the same technology as we use for Discover Weekly.” 

Why not keep it simple? The notifications weren't perfect but they helped A LOT.

“We’d like to learn when we’re making a bad recommendation for whatever reason. Maybe there’s an artist that we think you like, but you really don’t – it would be great for us to be able to give you the option to ‘ban’ that artist from your recommendation features.”

LOL

[tripwired]

Really Spotify? No notifications when a band I follow release something new!? Why remove an integral part of the service? This should be a non-negotiable core feature.

A key reason I chose Spotify over competitors was the music discovery (primarily via Discover Weekly and Song Radio) and ability to keep up with new releases from artists (via notifications). I shouldn't have to browse a curated playlist (Release Radar??) to find new material from artists I follow. Disappointed. 

[wolflambert]

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@Anamon wrote:

I might have gotten something wrong here, but from what I understand, e-mail notifications are not broken, but officially decommissioned, as are push notifications. I don't think this is a problem Spotify isn't fixing, but a deliberate decision to no longer inform users about new releases. At least for me, I used to get several push notifications and e-mails a week. I didn't change any settings, yet I haven't received either for months.

Everything has been turned off in favour of Release Radar, which is much better for Spotify and the labels because they control what gets on it, not users by choosing which artists to follow. I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed that their Release Radar playlist only very rarely contains a track by an artist they actually follow. I might get one or two tracks by followed artists a week, despite dozens of artists having new releases on Spotify. Most of what's on my Radar is by artists I might or might not have listened to recently, but that I neither particularly like nor follow.

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I'm inclined to believe this.

[tapenoon]

*ignore this*

[Da76]

Don't forget to rate/give feedback in the appstore/playstore ... you never know it might help.

You can also leave some feedback in this fb-thread

#bringbackthebell