If you're trying to convince me that the people who use Spotify mainly for the radio feature is such a small group of people that Spotify doesn't want to take the time to cater to their basic needs because they think its wasting money, than why the hell would you include the radio feature in the first place. If it doesn't make a difference in your profits, than there is really no point to add a feature that takes time and man power to create.
I can tell you why they added it. They included the radio feature as part of their service to make their product stand out from the crowd. If the majority of people using Spotify do not use the radio feature, atleast they know its there if they want to use it. It makes people feel like they are getting their money's worth, and that the product is of a higher quality compared to similar services without the radio feature. Right? I mean, if that was the case, the radio feature would be severely lacking and would feel "tacked-on" as a last minute feature. But this simply is not the case.
The radio feature works quite well. I have had a pleasant experience using it. And to me, its part of the Spotify experience. I can start a radio station and its probably going to begin by playing music that I already know and enjoy. But eventually it will play something new that I haven't heard before that I really like, and so I'll click on their profile. And than I can follow them for updates, and add their music to a playlist. This should be what spotify is about, atleast it should be a big portion.
Furthermore, the radio feature appears to be a primary function of Spotify because it allows me to find new artists and save their playlists like I mentioned before, but it also has other features. Such as, I can play and pause radio, I have unlimited skips, and I can move the time slider to any position to skip part of a song, to rewind it, and to fast forward. Other radio services such as Pandora, do not include these features! So why does Spotify include them? Because they obviously understand that many users will use their service for the radio feature. They included the above features to make their product stand out from other services. Because they understand that there is a market for radio listeners. If they did not want to market their product to radio users than they would have not spent the time to include those features.
I am a long time Pandora user. When I first heard about Spotify I was amazed that I could do the above features, this made me want to pay for the product. However, I like to test-drive products before buying them if possible, so I did. I found the radio feature to be really nice, but it did not meet my needs completely, so I have yet to sign up for spotify premium. And trust me, that 195,000 results may not be a lot compared to a million results, but it is still a lot nevertheless.
I would not be spending my time to reply to this thread if I felt the radio feature was poorly developed, because I know that if part of the software is poorly developed, than the rest of it is going to be. I am talking from experience. The thing that is confusing is that the radio feature is quite nice, but it is not the best it can be. And this is why I am voicing my thoughts on here.
In summary, clearly Spotify knows that there is a market for radio listeners, and that is why they include a lot of features and that is also why it doesn't feel tacked on, but why not include a few more basic features. We are not asking them to create some new feature that nobody has ever done before, and its going to take a lot of manpower. I would never do that. However, we are asking them to provide basic features that other radio services provide. And if they want to keep up competition with those other services they should include them. And you can't try and convince me that they do not see a market in radio listeners, because its evident that they do, albeit may not be their main audience or source of profit.
Staff / Moderator/ 2 years ago in Social & Random