Give us your feedback - 0.9.0

[Richard]

Hey everyone,

Following on from our previous thread on 0.8.8, we've started up this thread to gather feedback from you on 0.9.0.

We want to hear what you love, what you hate, and any other emotions you have towards the app.

You'll find a list of everything that's changed in the app in our release notes here. And we'll be keeping this post updated with the changes we're making, along with where you can give us further feedback.

What we've changed:

1. The app should be a lot quicker now. So if you were affected by any slow behaviour previously, this shouldn't be an issue any more.

2. Clicking anywhere in the Now Playing box, rather than just the album art, will bring you straight to the song. This was reported here.

Where you can give us further feedback with your comments and kudos:

1. Change the white interface [we're currently reaching to users about this directly]

2. Changes to the activity feed -

     i. Bring back the old activity feed

     ii. The Favourites feature

     iii.Greater control of content in the feed: 

3. Bring back the total playlst length:

4. Filter option on artist pages

5. Go back to the old artist layout 

6. Ability to view all Facebook friends in the Follow tab:

7. View all playlist followers: 

8. Block/Remove followers 

9. Separate artists and friends

10. Remove 'who to follow'

11. Revert the font back to the original size (or provide an option to do so)

12. Restore 'View as Album List'

Thanks for all your support. We appreciate that there are a lot of changes going on at the moment and it can be a bumpy road at times. But we're confident that you'll like where we're going.

All your opinions matter and go into making Spotify the best product it can be. Keep it coming!

[Richard]

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@hans-jürgen wrote:

Could you give more information about the distribution of the web player clone which only some users seem to get and why they are not informed that there is a native desktop client, too, and how they could download that version instead?

---

As we've posted here, we're trying some things out at the moment. We'll see what we can do to make it a bit more transparent though.

For the best possible music experience on your computer, Spotify's desktop app is still your best option by far, offering so many benefits - greater speed and sound quality, offline mode, advanced social features and apps, to name just a few - that aren't available on the web music player at present.

[AWill]

First of all bring back the album view option, why that went away I will never know.

Second, when ypu upådate to v. 0.9.0 it resets your cache location to the default under usersettings, very annoying when you like me use the client at work where there's a limited profile size and spotify suddently takes up all of it.

No matter how many times I set spotify to open but minimized under preferences this never happens, so look into that as well please.

[genkakuzai]

The font size is awful, my eyes work just fine thank you very much. It truly looks awful with that change. Also I, along with many others obviously, would like the dark theme back, everywhere.

So basically the changes made in the last 2 versions have been pretty terrible.

[Aritos]

I actually like the font size change, just the little things make things nicer.

[genkakuzai]

What I simply don't understand is why they don't simply give people the OPTION to change font size. Same with the background. Why in earth force people into the same fold? Let people decide what they like instead of them trying to decide for us.

[olejon · Accepted solution]

Here are some useful links.

Downgrade instructions:

• How to downgrade to an older version and block auto-updating on Windows
• How to downgrade to an older version and block auto-updating on Linux
  
• How to downgrade to an older version and block auto-updating on on OS X (Mac)

Future of the native desktop client:

• Give kudos to this idea if you want to keep the native app, and have it as native as possible
• Download the new "web player in disguise" preview to see what your future may be like
  If you don't like ut, remember to give kudos to the idea above and make your voice heard. Spotify has not answered any of our questions regarding the future of the native client, so we only know what they said to The Verge

[jchris252]

where has all the album artwork gone, spotify now looks crap on my big tv!

[ThatEpicDude]

the reset of the cache is a real problem for me too

this definitely needs a hotfix

[Aritos]

no.. no.. If that new web player replaces the current client, I'm going back to xbox music. I couldn't sort my music, or anything. Absolutely horrid. I complained. I'm not afraid to cancel my subscription, I will have been subbed for a year in june. And I will not hesitate to stop using spotify if that client becomes default.

[Brian]

Sometimes when I'm in a playlist and have it sorted by date Added (most recent first) I am when deleting a track from the playlist being taken/scrolled down to the bottom of the playlist, to the first added track. This never happened before and there is no logic to this happening either. I should stay at the original position/work area.

Edit: Happens everytime on my Mac. Seems to be an added feature which, as much else, is quite the opposite. This makes working playlists a pain whenever I want to sort most recently added track first in the playlist - for quicker access. Now I have to scroll back to top everytime I've deleted a track (imagine that when a list includes hundreds of tracks).

[speedfightor]

"Removed option to "View as album covers" "

WHY on earth did you do that?

Before removing useful features (such as the famous playlist sorting http://community.spotify.com/t5/Bugs/Desktop-Sorting-options-not-saved-in-0-8-8/td-p/283760 which is still not reimplemented) please consider what those features are USED AND USEFUL for your users (premium like me, or not)!

Do you ever perfomed some regression testing on your own application before release it?

I'm really desappointed by those last updates. Never been so close to go somewhere else for my music...

[Michaelkmd2]

I also think it's a big step backwards to remove the album cover artwork in playlists.

Updates should enhance a product, not remove valuable features. Latest updates have been poor btw. What's happening? Should I reconsider my premium account?

PLEASE RESTORE THE ALBUM/COVER/ARTWORK OPTION (ctrl-g) NOW!

Michael

[dsegs]

Like everybody else here, I also want the album covers back. It's a big part of how I organize my library, not to mention how much better it looked. Also, a font size option would be great, I really don't like the big font.

[wbaccus]

Have to agree with others, bring back Album art in playlists. And give us some options to turn the font-size back down.

[ruccola · Accepted solution]

Just adding my voice to the choir letting you know that you need to bring the album list back. Please also put it in the Iphone / Ipad apps.

Or at least tell us why it was removed. Maybe you're doing something with the Collection that we don't know. I think most of the frustration on these forums come from you not telling us anything whatsoever.

Give us the big plan and we will be happier. Like this: "We're moving towards a completely HTML based app and in the meantime you might encounter bugs and loss of functionality, but don't worry, it's coming back, with new great features like the Collection". See, it's not hard.

Instead we have to vote to get stuff back, and be angry for months while your reputation goes down the toilet.

[ChrisRM]

This morning I opened Spotify to see that all of my playlist followers have been removed.

This must be fixed within the week or I'll find another solution for my music needs.  $10 a month for this kind of service is unacceptable.

[hans-jürgen]

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Richard schrieb:

We'll see what we can do to make it a bit more transparent though.

For the best possible music experience on your computer, Spotify's desktop app is still your best option by far, offering so many benefits - greater speed and sound quality, offline mode, advanced social features and apps, to name just a few - that aren't available on the web music player at present.

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Maybe those users getting a web player clone as desktop client should be notified during the installation that this is a beta version and you would like to have feedback from them, but that the native client "for the best possible music experience on your computer" can be downloaded elsewhere, too.

By the way, does that version also feature Last.fm scrobbling now, as the original web player can scrobble with its latest version from today?

[jayy]

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@Richard wrote:

---

@hans-jürgen wrote:

Could you give more information about the distribution of the web player clone which only some users seem to get and why they are not informed that there is a native desktop client, too, and how they could download that version instead?

---

As we've posted here, we're trying some things out at the moment. We'll see what we can do to make it a bit more transparent though.

For the best possible music experience on your computer, Spotify's desktop app is still your best option by far, offering so many benefits - greater speed and sound quality, offline mode, advanced social features and apps, to name just a few - that aren't available on the web music player at present.

---

Richard,

Not to sound harsh but you guys shouldn't try things out and break things... Isn't this the reason for preview releases or coming out with a release put to the side and then come and communicate with the users on the forum and say: "Hey, we have a new release we want our users to try those that would like to try it feel free to download it here."  I'm not sure you guys know how to run a company but I hope these users on this forum is helping you right this second and understanding how to run a business. You may only work for the company but again even employees are afraid to go to their bosses and tell them that Spotify is going in a backwards motion...

For example: Radio - New and Improved - Excuse me more like New and Downgrade

And all the other complaints of features that were within' the client and now gone or broken or whatever else you guys plan to do next maybe create a funny HA! HA! animation for trying to change a setting in preference who knows.

Spotify needs to do something and if nothing then I could assure that your fan base that you once had is def. on the edge. I would hate to live my day without supporting something I once liked.

Just remember: We are users / customers we are not guinea pigs trying out what you guys want to try... Make a seperate client, come back to forums announce that a new client is avaliable but not publically and let those who want to try it help you make a better product before destroying the once good product you already destroyed. (Which sucks!)

Anyways... I hope you guys really listen but who knows only the next few updates will tell and it is sad you guys are having a BAD YEAR, but it isn't OVER yet and there is still time to say yes we SCREWED UP and downgrade... because honestly thats the best thing to do right now.

[Smurführer]

I decided to play along with the new activity feed and started adding people I could "Follow". I followed 80 people - which once again made program startup incredible slow - more than 5 minutes before I could play music.... on a brand new 64 bit Ultra-book!

I went back and deleted all 80 people and chose "Hide Activity Feed". Program now starts up swiftly.

The activity feed is dragging the whole program down, making it semi-unusable. It's insane! You're ruining the entire program just for the sake of these 'social' features'.

[Eddy555]

I've had to uninstall 0.9.0 (PC Desktop) as it kept forgetting my proxy username so wouldn't connect. Even when I typed it in it doesn't connect.

There's no obvious way of refreshing the connection when it's gone offline either.

Maybe clicking on the offline icon in the bottom right would be a useful feature.

Personally I'm not that impressed with how Spotify is evolving the desktop client. It feels likes it's becoming more flaky and unrelaible with each update.

And whatever happened to the collections? It desperately needs a better way of organising albums that using playlists. I'd take that over the underwhelming social aspects of the play every day.

Incidentally the Spotify web player won't connect for me either, even though 0.8.8 is working fine :-S