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Updated Spotify desktop client yesterday (about says v0.9.8.258) and the 'Library' option has dissappeared and been replaced by a rather useless and blank looking Your Music 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?

[AbsolutelyNoFB]

---

@mdewater wrote:

Well, I'm certainly sorry you feel that way. I've been using it for about 2 years now, so I haven't been around REAL long, but at least long enough to have a solid impression of it. I definitely agree that they take far too long to implement changes. Even so, I do feel satisfied with the current product. The features they took away were of no use to me personally, so no loss there, and I genuinely like the new features. The "collection" aspect is something I've wished Spotify had since I first started using it, so I'm very happy it's finally here. Certainly there are fixes to be made, but it's still better than anything else out there, that I've tried.

Anyways, I hope they're able to sort all this out in a way that fits everyone.

---

Personally, I use find/search quite a bit in my large playlists and I like to be able to have offline music.Yet this core functionality is now gone as far as I understand. The "stars" system wasn't something that I cared much about, but whenever functionality is taken away from the client, customers should (a) get a warning about it (b) have the choice of whether or not to update their client, no have it forced on them and (c) have the new system thoroughly explained in a guide/video. Spotify pretty much never does none of these things. It was a war to get them just to make release notes available. Do you remember that?

The other thing I like about the older clients, is that there are fewer ads/recommendations/intrusive things. The new clients are obnoxious.

Anyway, I hope for the same thing you do -- that Spotify is able to make a client, or set thereof, that works for all their customers. In the past, I advocated for multiple client versions, i.e. one for free users and one for paying customers. Maybe we will see something like this in time.

[jazzyjez]

---

@kingkwong wrote:

I feel like I've just had a service that I pay for snatched and stolen away from me. I stored a ton of songs in the general "Library" tab. Songs that weren't necessarily worthy of being starred but still worth keeping and because they weren't stored in an actual playlist, they are just gone now, into oblivion??! As a paying customer this really makes me upset that I wasn't warn about this. The software update was done without my authorization or I would have stayed on the previous version. So much time I've put into collecting/importing these songs into my library are just gone...

---

I didn't now you could previously store tracks straight to library. If that's right and you've now lost it all then that's by far the worst aspect of the change. I would be devastated if that happened to me.

[jazzyjez]

Mdewater, is it correct that you could previously add tracks straight to library? If I'd done that and lost it all for good, the bottom would have dropped out of my world.

I'd also like to say thanks for spending time trying to field questions on this without any pay or gratitude.

Also, understand that I'm on here because 1) I've believed that streaming is the future of music listening for well over 30 years and 2) I want Spotify to succeed as I've made a huge investment of time and energy into it over the last 4 years and I still believe it's the best service of its type.

[jazzyjez]

And one more thing - Spotify staff should read all the comments on this forum very, very carefully. The reason is that we might be a tiny minority of users but we care. That silent majority that Spotify seem to think are so important will be made up mostly of lukewarm users that will happily jump ship as soon as the next shiny new product comes along: and we all know what that is. So if I were Spotify I'd seriously consider treating my customers with respect.

[passingbat]

---

@mdewater wrote:

The majority of users in the beta test were big, hardcore, power users. Not many casual users, as many in this thread here are.

---

Interesting. Someone representing Spotify in these forums has said that the features in the new update have to meet the needs of the majority of users, not a minority of users. Are the majority of Spotiy's users 'big, hardcore, power users' then? I doubt it. They should have had a representative spread of users in the beta test. There is a massive number of people who are not power users but are also not casual users.

[Peter__]

@jazzyjez - They may not post a lot, but I can assure you the Spotify team do read the vast majority of the feedback in these forums.

It is an interesting comment about the beta testing, however it is also worth knowing that Your Music was pushed to non-beta test people too (as a random roll out) before the public release - so Spotify would have had some usage data from that too.

[mdewater]

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think it was possible to save music directly to the library. Library, if I remember correctly, pulled from three places - playlists, starred tracks, and local files. So nothing that was previously saved should be *gone*.

Regarding the beta testing, I guess the reason why most of the testers were power users is simply because those are the users that are most interested in the Your Music feature. I know I've been waiting eagerly to try it out since they first announced it in December 2012. So when they posted here that they were looking for testers, I jumped on it. Most other testers were probably of the same mindset. People who didn't care about a collection feature just didn't sign up to test it.

Unfortunately it seems that wasn't the best way to go about it. The testing should have included more casual listeners, for whom features like library and stars worked well.

[LaRube]

Would it possible for you to be any more condescending mdewater... Good lord...

[mdewater]

Wait, what? Where? I've been saying that I hope they fix things in a way that people that liked the old features will be happy! How is that condescending??

I'm just trying to pass on some info that happened in the beta testing, very sorry if I came off as condescending...

[dinomight]

---

@LaRube wrote:

Would it possible for you to be any more condescending mdewater... Good lord...

---

Don't think they were being condescending, just trying to help people understand the mindset that has led to the current state of the software. While I can't speak for anyone else, I can say that for myself it's been really interesting to see the negative reactions to Your Music in general and what's going on with the starred playlist. The beta testing was fairly limited and we clearly didn't have a wide enough range of users within that group. Now, the beta test has been expanded and the new Spotify has been rolled out to a large number of users, so it's helping the developers figure out what people really want. The way I see it, this really does come down to communication issues more than anything. As others have mentioned before, release notes, a tutorial, anything could've probably lessened the shock this release has had. But, it's too late now, and there are a lot of people doing the best they can to make things better.

[AbsolutelyNoFB]

---

@LaRube wrote:

Would it possible for you to be any more condescending mdewater... Good lord...

---

I don't know 'mdewater' but he appears to have good intentions.

That said, he also appears to be part of the Spotify inner circle with more knowledge the beta test was run, how many people participated, how many of them were power users, etc. than the rest of us.

The language used by the Spotify insiders can be arrogant and condescending at times. For the most part, they never apologize for making bad decisions. They blame poor customer experience and other bad outcomes on "lack of data" and other externalities. Sadly, this sort of behavior is the hallmark of a low morale and/or low competence team.

[LaRube]

mdewater:

I own over 20,000 tracks and had added thousands more from Spotify.... I have had just under 20,000 when i joined Spotify... I listen to music almost constantly wherever I am... I am not a casual user... I have always enjoyed hearing the new music offered by Spotify and I loved the mix I got when I shuffled through that mix... That mix was created with no effort on my part except normal use of Spotify. Pointed to my local files, added playlists and used the Discovery feature often... Now I am told that because the beta teters were all of a like mind (who picks beta testers that think alike? Good god!), I have to spend weeks recreatibg that over 2 year history that was available as a mix... As you say my moods changes so I skip some of the tracks depending on my mood... but I love the way it works... I get the idea that SONGS can be the same thing, and if it actually were the same thing I would never have posted here... I do not care what label is on the function as long as it functions... There are many ways that SONGS does not function like the old LIBRARY function... If you had read the posts here you would have known how the discussion had developed before you responded... There is also a bug in SONGS that does not allow me to recreate the same mix... I started adding all my playists into songs and it stopped allowing me to add anymore songs... I have probably added about 1/3 to 1/4 of my playlists and cannot add anymore... How is that even remotely the same functionality? Beyond me... Course there are always bitches and moans about changes... I work in Stratetic Management and understad the process of change as well as anyone... But I spent over two years developing the way Spotify works for me and now it is gone... So I move on... If as you say we are a rare few, a tiny minority than Spotify should move on... There was a business reason for this change I am sure (probably to do with rolyalty payments...) and if  that purpose is served as well as the overwhelming majority of users that is a business decision I understand... I just wanted to see if stating my views made a difference...   Business is business... I get it... The few are sacrificed for the many... I do not quit understand why both cannot be served in this case... Of course there is the business decisions behind these sorts of things... And thanks Spotify for letting me post my view... That is a great thing! 🙂

[LaRube]

Not only that can you imagine having to skip over half your tracks when you listen on shuffle? Get rid of the junk so you do have to skip... But as one says... Different strokes for different folks...

[dinomight]

---

@AbsolutelyNoFB wrote:

---

@LaRube wrote:

Would it possible for you to be any more condescending mdewater... Good lord...

---

I don't know 'mdewater' but he appears to have good intentions.

That said, he also appears to be part of the Spotify inner circle with more knowledge the beta test was run, how many people participated, how many of them were power users, etc. than the rest of us.

The language used by the Spotify insiders can be arrogant and condescending at times. For the most part, they never apologize for making bad decisions. They blame poor customer experience and other bad outcomes on "lack of data" and other externalities. Sadly, this sort of behavior is the hallmark of a low moral and/or low competence team.

---

Mdewater is not a member of the "Spotify inner circle," but simply a beta tester. It was freely available months ago for anyone to sign up for. I'm a part of it as well. That's the only reason we have the information we have. For the record, we do not work for Spotify, but are simply members of the community like you, just trying to help.

[mdewater]

So, to clear thing up - I'm in no way affiliated with Spotify, I simply signed up to be a beta tester for Your Music. The only inside info I have is that which they have posted in the beta forum that we used to share our thoughts and experiences with the new features and design.

I know before I was a beta tester, I would have loved to know what kinds of things were in development (because frankly Spotify themselves are not very good with communication), so I thought I'd share that info with you guys to hopefully help better understand why changes were made, and what they were thinking in designing the new features.

[LaRube]

mdewater:

Have you done a survey of "power" users? I imagine I have as much or more music than you do, and listen to music almost nonstop... but cannot imagine listening to it in the way you describe. I enjoy the shuffling... I may hear something during the shuffle that makes me want to play that artist or album and then do that... but I feel that without the shuffle I tend to forget all the tracks available to me... It can be a rela revelation when shuffle pulls up a cut you had forgotten about... Oh yeah... Love that... Than go listen to the album... That is fun... Please stop trying to categorize folks so you can make your point... It is faulty logic and really does not convince anyone... It is just sn attempt to make you look like an expert so your view holds more weight... Sorry arguments based on icomplete data does not carry much weight...

[LaRube]

mdewater:

Good to know... Thanks... As I said previously I do not have a problem with the concept of SONGS replacing LIBRARY... but of course it doesn really do that... The chsnges you mention will be welcome...

[LaRube]

cohenfs:

Unfortunately this fucntionality does NOT exist in Spotify... These things are forseen in some future release that is not available...

[dinomight]

Spotify has something better than surveys...they have direct access to the analytics of every user. It's not a difficult thing for them to see how a majority of people are using the software. "Power" and "casual" are broad classifications. There's obviously more to it than that, and there are more subdivisions and trends.

@LaRube I listen to music like you. I spend a lot of time shuffling and love to rediscover tracks and artists that way, but I also enjoy just browsing through my collection spotting an old album I've missed, or checking out my most recent additions.

I've said this in many places, but the current track limit is a major problem. Spotify is aware of that and are working on solutions.

[mdewater]

LaRube, you should know that *I'm* not the one categorizing you into "power" or "casual" users - those are the terms the Spotify team shared with us during the beta test. As dinomight mentioned, they have complete specifics on how each an every one of us use Spotify, and they've classified us into (I believe it was) 6 different user groups. Power and casual are the terms they used, and then they must break it down further from there. To me, you certainly sound like you're in the power user group. I was never using those terms in a condescending manner - just using the terms that Spotify themselves does.

It's good that they classify us, because it means they understand that everyone uses their service differently, and they need to accommodate everyone.

As for the way I listen to music - I'm glad you're way works for you. I'm not a fan of shuffling. End of story. There's no need to try an make me feel like I'm somehow "doing it wrong."