So where has my library gone?

[QuirkBit]

Updated Spotify desktop client yesterday (about says v0.9.8.258) and the 'Library' option has dissappeared and been replaced by a rather useless and blank looking Your Music > Songs / Albums / Artists. Also I cannot star anything, a plus seems to have replaced the star. The Library was my goto screen on spotify as it contained all my local files and playlists....Spotify has rendered itself rather useless for me in 1 update, unless I go and manually create a library playlist which I would then have to manually update each time I added new music.

Please advise how to get the library back or a suitable workaround which provides the same functionality. Also, why the hell were users not notified of this big change?

[Peter__]

I would imagine library has been removed as it in my eyes a tab that not a lot of people use. I can see how that will be a big loss for some users though.

The new "Your Music" feature, is meant to be a new way of keeping content organised in Spotify, meaning you can keep a collection of your favorite tracks/albums in a format separate to playlists. It takes a bit of getting used to, but I have found it is actually great and addresses the "playlist only" drawbacks of Spotify in the past.

[QuirkBit]

To be honest if Spotify automatically organised my library into the new "Your Music" sections I would be happy. As it stands though I would have to click the "+" button next to each track I have stored Locally and in Playlists. I tried selecting multiple items and then clicking the "+" button but this did not work 😕

Plus their is no "+" for local files. I'm seriously considering ditching paying for spotify over this, especially as their free offer is now more attractive.

[Peter__]

I think you can highlight a whole playlist by pressing Ctrl+a then drag and drop the tracks onto "Songs" in the sidebar. Does that work?

[QuirkBit]

Sort of...Seems that local files cannot be added to "Your Music" however.

[Peter__]

That is currently true unfortunately, I know that was passed back as feedback to the guys previously but I don't know if it is going to be fixed/changed.

[Rollo_]

My workaround, I've made a master Library playlist folder, and have moved all of my other folders and playlists into it.  Actually, it cleans up my playlist area nicely, and newly created playlists stay out until I'm ready to organize them.

To be honest, I don't find the "Your Music" section nearly as flexible as the tried-and-true existing Playlists methed, but to each his own.  Until Genre or Tag support is introduced, I don't have much time for Your Music.

I just received the 0.9.8.258 update this morning, no visible changes, likely bug fixes, I'll withold judgement until I've had a chance to play with it.  They may have fixed the CPU problem that's been happening when the Activity Feed is offline.

[QuirkBit]

Thanks for that. That solves my problem. I think "Your Music" seems a bit pointless if you can't include local files however.

[mpj]

Hey guys, great to hear from existing Library users. Your Music is hot from the oven,  and it's to get feedback like this that we have the community forums. I'll make sure that we'll talk about this thread at the next planning meeting.

In the mean time, as has already been alluded to in the thread, a dirty workaround is to keep all your playlists in a folder and click the folder to list all tracks in the playlists of the folder.

[Peter__]

There is also another feedback topic about starred being missing @mpj :

http://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Other-Partner-Devices/What-happened-to-the-stars/m-p/709237/hig...

[Rollo_]

mpj wrote:

In the mean time, as has already been alluded to in the thread, a dirty workaround is to keep all your playlists in a folder and click the folder to list all tracks in the playlists of the folder.

The point is not only to list them, but to PLAY them, or FILTER them.  You can do neither in YourMusic.  OK, you can to a point, but its not as flexible as the existing Playlist structure.  I shuffle my Library and individual playlist folders all the time.  Think of the folder structure as a directory tree.

Library > Genre Folders > SubGenre Folders > Artist Playlists

This sort of hierarchy also enables the user to keep their collection well organized.  One of my Genres is New Albums and Artists, stuff I'll listen to when I have time.  Its another way to make discovering new music easy.  With YourMusic everything gets lost.  For me, it's not much more than a glorified Starred list.  I guess its OK if you listen to the same songs over and over.

Say you're in the mood for some Grateful Dead, and you want to mix your Dead, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, etc playlists.  In YourMusic, you can't do this.  I have each of these artist playlists in a master Grateful Dead playlist folder.  Simple.  Right-click on the playlist folder and play it.

Now also consider the cases where a single artist may have multiple Artist listings.  Until it was corrected, there were multiple artist listings for "Rolling Stones" and "The Rolling Stones."  I can point to several examples like this.  In YourMusic, these will show as separate artists.  Search for "Bob Wills" and see how many Artists you get.

Same goes with Genres.  The possibilities are nearly endless with the existing folder/playlist system.  YourMusic takes away a LOT of the flexibility.  I've said this before, but any new system should not force the user to change the WAY music is listened to.  I'm in the beta group, and I gave up on it early on.  There are just too many things you CAN'T do in YourMusic, that you CAN with the Folder system.

[rastadavid]

I completely agree. Please bring my library back. Would it hurt to have it there? or as an option at least.

It was so easy. All my different music in one play in case I am in the mood of different types of music. 

[Rollo_]

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@QuirkBit wrote:

Thanks for that. That solves my problem. I think "Your Music" seems a bit pointless if you can't include local files however.

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Quoted for truth

[muerteman2915]

If the local files are not integrated into the Your Music library soon. I'm out, and I know others will follow me. Get on it guys.

[clapton5000]

WHO'S BIG IDEA WAS IT TO LOSE THE LIBRARY?

The library is my go-to folder. I have 130,000 Spotify songs, which I've built up over the last 3 years, and 30,000 local files, and the best thing about Spotify was that I could just click the Library and get a random mix of all my music. This is the first thing I do in the morning, and I listen all day at work.

Not any more. BEING ABLE TO MIX ONLINE AND LOCAL FILES WAS THE ONLY THING THAT MADE SPOTIFY DIFFERENT FROM OTHER ONLINE MUSIC SERVICES. I can't fathom why you would delete the one thing that made you unique.

This needs to be addressed.

[Rollo_]

I've suggested a dirty workaround.   Make a master Library folder, and move all of your playlists into it.

[Joe]

I'm pretty sure that they're working on a way to include local files in Your Music and. meanwhile, Rollo's suggestion will give you the functionality you want.

[fzafran]

I seriously would like to swap my profile with people who don't like the new 'my music' features. I've been waiting for a long time and still it hasn't come to my profile yet.

[saji]

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@Rollo_ wrote:

My workaround, I've made a master Library playlist folder, and have moved all of my other folders and playlists into it.  Actually, it cleans up my playlist area nicely, and newly created playlists stay out until I'm ready to organize them.

To be honest, I don't find the "Your Music" section nearly as flexible as the tried-and-true existing Playlists methed, but to each his own.  Until Genre or Tag support is introduced, I don't have much time for Your Music.

I just received the 0.9.8.258 update this morning, no visible changes, likely bug fixes, I'll withold judgement until I've had a chance to play with it.  They may have fixed the CPU problem that's been happening when the Activity Feed is offline.

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The old library view had a search box in the top-right that searched just the songs in your library (local files and songs in your playlists).

The new version only has the standard search field.  And, that searches Spofity online as well as your local files.

Your solution would be sufficient for me there was a way to search a playlist.

I used to use the search in the library view to check whether I had starred a song before starring it.

[saji]

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@saji wrote:

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@Rollo_ wrote:

My workaround, I've made a master Library playlist folder, and have moved all of my other folders and playlists into it.  Actually, it cleans up my playlist area nicely, and newly created playlists stay out until I'm ready to organize them.

To be honest, I don't find the "Your Music" section nearly as flexible as the tried-and-true existing Playlists methed, but to each his own.  Until Genre or Tag support is introduced, I don't have much time for Your Music.

I just received the 0.9.8.258 update this morning, no visible changes, likely bug fixes, I'll withold judgement until I've had a chance to play with it.  They may have fixed the CPU problem that's been happening when the Activity Feed is offline.

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The old library view had a search box in the top-right that searched just the songs in your library (local files and songs in your playlists).

The new version only has the standard search field.  And, that searches Spofity online as well as your local files.

Your solution would be sufficient for me there was a way to search a playlist.

I used to use the search in the library view to check whether I had starred a song before starring it.

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Scratch that, the "filter" feature (CTRL + F) allows you to search any playlist.