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!

[user-removed]

Why do I receive notifications of Daft Punk's new album? I do not like them have never done and will never do it. I have downgraded from Premium to Unlimited because the new Spotify sucks. But as long as I'm here, waiting for a better option, I want to avoid advertising and that is the only reason that I give you my money, it's a breach of contract. F*****g idiots!

[o-l-a-v]

Wow! Asked Spotify for free premium month until they fixed their client. Actually listened to me 🙂

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That sounds entirely reasonable. I've gone ahead and credited your account with one month of Spotify Premium. Just our way of thanking you while we work out the issues with Windows 8.

Not bad Spotify. That maybe means that you are working on a fix!

[brandAnonymous]

Just a few words after syncing 190 tracks with 9.0.133 to carry on from what I was saying:

1. What's New is still as it should be....probably my slow connection took a long time to download.

2. The offline cache: Updating from 8.7 to 9.0.133 appears to have deleted my offline cache & started a new one. It certainly waited until I pointed it to the drive that is not C! Maybe upgrading to 8.7 from 8.5 did that....I didn't check. I did play many offline tracks with 8.7 the day I upgraded to 8.7 from 8.5.... 8.7 appeared to have lost the cache overnight. It is a complete waste of energy to to delete the offline cache with an updated version, Spotify. Let me manage my cache, I can handle that!

3. It took 11 hours to sync 189 tracks with my slow connection. DO NOT DELETE MY OFFLINE CACHE!! At this rate it will take 15 days to resynch my cache. I'll be back in the UK by then & that connection will take 3 days, I believe. Spotify Desktop App needs to be able to let me point the Spotify Application back up my offline cache local location. I synced all my playlists before I traveled out to where I know I have a slow connection but Spotify broke itself & ruined my service that I pay for (offline playlist functionality).

4. Album Artwork seems to be gone. The only Artwork 9.0.133 shows is the playlist top 4 mosaic & the now playing artwork.

Looks like I need to start thread specifically about this syncing issue I am having.

thanks, anyway... 

[brandAnonymous]

Well, I started writing a new message to these boards when i realised that I can control the deletion of my offline cache as Spotify appears to do with their new updates. Maybe I'll send a direct request & create a new message just to get heard a in a few more places. Previous versions of Spotify did not appear to reset my offline cache. It has only started in 2013.

Here's what I can do:

1) get my spotify all synced up at my faster internet connection location before I go out to the country house.

2) ensure the Update prevention files are where they need to be to stop updates

3) back up my offline cache (which is pretty much pointless if new updates wipe the offline cache & if it is impossible to manually point Spotify to the offline cache)

4) never allow updates at my slow connection location

its a workaround & the most elegant option, but should keep things going ....thing...that is what I did & then Spotify dev broke 8.5...which is the whole reason I am writing here in the first place...hmmmmmm....starts to really look like a deteriorating service...hmmmm...looks like it is time to do some shopping for a new jukebox application...

[mrgalep]

How is this still continuing - ?  If I pay you a load of money I would expect your service to work!  I've been following these threads for ages . I'm not a coder and thats why I pay your company so I dont have to look under the hood and spent hours working out how to make YOUR application work !

MAC OS 10.5   - as you know , it WAS workiing fine , the issue still isnt fixed and its been MONTHS ! The " solution " leads to a load more threads . 

I cant even see a work around 

Help Pleaae 

[Peter__]

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@mrgalep wrote:

How is this still continuing - ?  If I pay you a load of money I would expect your service to work!  I've been following these threads for ages . I'm not a coder and thats why I pay your company so I dont have to look under the hood and spent hours working out how to make YOUR application work !

MAC OS 10.5   - as you know , it WAS workiing fine , the issue still isnt fixed and its been MONTHS ! The " solution " leads to a load more threads . 

I cant even see a work around 

Help Pleaae 

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The Mac OS X 10.5.x issue has been resolved (again). You just need to download the legacy client from this post and you should be good to go on OS X 10.5.x again. 

As for the cache resetting issues above, there was a cache restting bug which was introduced in one of the 0.8.8.x clients, which would imply there where some behind the scenes cache changes in those versions. It is entirely possible the cache files from 0.8.7 and before are not compatible with the latest 0.9.0.x clients. However, the chances of you getting help from Spotify running an unsupported client are pretty slim.

Peter

[Fukah]

Right now it seems working fine, except on the artist page when double clicking a song it actually plays the song on the following album (i.e.: if you click 3rd song on an album it playbacks the 3rd song on the successive album)

[brandAnonymous]

Peter,

Spotify broke the cache in April with "supported (current) version". My version of Spotify was essentially useless for several days. In order for me to use Spotify Premium offline availability (the main reason I pay for Premium Subscription) I was forced, by Spotify, to revert to an earlier version.

Then Spotify broke the old version I reverted to! They broke it at a time where I had previously worked hard on setting up the reversion (8.5). I had ensured my Spotify service would work offline when I temporarily relocated to my house where I have pretty much no choice except extremely slow internet connection.

So I subsequently took your advice to install a "supported version", the current offering, 9.0.133. I have been able to sync about 400 tracks in the past 48 hrs. If Spotify breaks the cache again in the next week or so, I am back to square one. I do not have time to spend mostly on sycing Spotify cache. I DID THAT ALREADY!!!

This is unacceptable forced beta testing as Spotify irons out whatever they are tinkering with to the detriment of the paying fan base. Pure & simple bad business.

As far the comaptability, or lack thereof, of cache files related to new releases, I can absolutely buy that. That makes sense. So far, tho, no one, besides yourself, has said that. Personally, I had guessed an encryption issue with hanging onto a backed up copy of spotify cache. Also, encryption may occur "on the fly", so to speak & therefore could be specific to particular time stamp related parameters (ie randon encryption starts up & can only be decrypted by specific encrypting prog version.). Hey, I accept that, but for goodness sake, TELL US when that stuff is going wrong! Keeping us all in the dark leads to speculation for the customers. Especially when Spotify is ruining the experience of their product.

take it easy, I will

thanks for interacting.

[miles_351]

What's the point of this thread... or this entire forum for that matter? It doesn't seem like Spotify wants listen to customer feedback anyway.

The selection of music seems to be declining rather than increasing. Are users as well as artists and record companies losing their patience with Spotify?

Over 6 months ago Spotify made an announcement about new features that were going to be released shortly after. Only one of the mentioned features has been released (Follow).

Other popular features are removed while bugs are not being fixed.

WTF IS GOING ON?

[Sam]

brandAnonymous - The recent 0.8.5 app trouble was nothing intentional. It was fixed as soon as the error was found. There's nothing nasty going on.

miles_351 - We are listening and keeping updated with the thread, don't worry. Regarding the library, it is expanding. We're well over 20 million tracks now. Regarding the other new features, we're hoping to get these out to you as soon as we can.

[miskidomleka]

Two notes for complainers.

0.133 was released three weeks ago and it wasn't even a full update, just a fix for the cache issue. Since then there were no fixes and no information about new plans. I think that it is quite probable that Spotify did listen, and at this point they are sort of re-thinking the strategy and preparing to roll out something new. Maybe changing direction. Maybe testing a new release more thoroughly this time to avoid further embarassment.

My point is that at this time whining about 0.9.0.133 probably makes little sense, why don't you rather wait until something new appears? Most complaints about 0.9.0 are repetitive, and many are just emotional statements instead of feature requests and bug reports. Not particularly useful for developes, I think.

The second note is about cache. I am surprised how many people complain that their cache was "broken". Well Spotify is a streaming player, and I think that the primary purpose of the cache is to ensure smooth streaming and support p2p operation, not to create large permanent libraries of downloaded local files. It would be called "library" or "local files"; even the name "cache" kind of implies that it is not permanent but rather temporary. If you want to set up a large and permanent local library, I am afraid that your solution is iTunes or Amazon, or a CD store.

[DennyEMufc]

Well the cache issue might be small potatoes to u, but this is the 21st century, not everyone sits by their desktop with huge HDS ! the whole principle behind Spotty was to make it easy to play on the go, on various devices, where large fixed HDS arent an option, so yes, for many many people, this is a deal breaker !

[BigKev57]

@miskidomleka: lol have you been watching the forum for the past 4 months? There has been two major updates (0.8.8 and 0.9.0) both with major problems. Features removed, slow loading etc. Just a whole load of bugs and issues that effect paying customers. So excuse me for whining when i don't get the product i am paying for. Not only have we got a rubbish client but we have next to zero information on what is actually happening. You can hold your breath if you like on getting something special in the near future but i certainly won't.

[miskidomleka]

@BigKev

have you been watching the forum for the past 4 months?

Yes I have. This is exactly why I said what I said. All these problems have been reported, most of them millions of time. Reporting them for 1e6+1th time won't change anything, I suppose.

[AbsolutelyNoFB]

@miskidomleka

My point is that at this time whining about 0.9.0.133 probably makes little sense, why don't you rather wait until something new appears? Most complaints about 0.9.0 are repetitive, and many are just emotional statements instead of feature requests and bug reports. Not particularly useful for developes, I think.

In an abstract sense, I agree with this sentiment. Yet, in the context of Spotify, there's a lot of frustrated people who have been giving the company the same input for a long time and there's been no action taken and very little communication. Take "delete radio station" for instance. Over a year on the "top 10" list of requested features, the forum topics related to this issue have 120,000+ views, etc. But no action on the part of Spotify. So people are going to keep talking until something happens or they give up on Spotify. This is a classical "lose-lose" situation and it's entirely of Spotify's making.

The second note is about cache. I am surprised how many people complain that their cache was "broken". Well Spotify is a streaming player, and I think that the primary purpose of the cache is to ensure smooth streaming and support p2p operation, not to create large permanent libraries of downloaded local files. It would be called "library" or "local files"; even the name "cache" kind of implies that it is not permanent but rather temporary. If you want to set up a large and permanent local library, I am afraid that your solution is iTunes or Amazon, or a CD store.

Offline playlists are an advertised and promoted feature of the Spotify clients for Premium customers. The feature should work and be reliable. There are many use cases for this sort of functionality, especially on mobile devices. Sometimes people forget that laptops are effectively mobile devices that may not always have Internet connections and offline playlists should work on laptops.

[brudy]

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@miskidomleka wrote:

@BigKev

have you been watching the forum for the past 4 months?

Yes I have. This is exactly why I said what I said. All these problems have been reported, most of them millions of time. Reporting them for 1e6+1th time won't change anything, I suppose.

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It's not just a single release. It's been the whole series of releases which have gotten progressively worse, it's how Spotify has dealt with these issues, it's about the lack of new features and the near moronic removal of existing ones, it's about the lack of implementation of top ideas (like Airplay in the desktop client for example) while they tweak the client for the worse.

The user population here is angry. They took a great client and keep making it worse with little explanation to people who give them money every month. We have a right to be angry and Spotify has not earned a free pass.

[shco]

Hi,

I am having problems with the destop interface not painting properly on Windows 7.  I like the program enough to put up with no interface most of the time but wonder about it.  From what I have seen, spotify needs to hire more programmers 🙂

Come on Spotify!  Shape up please - I like you more than Pandora.

- Sharon

[miskidomleka]

@brudy

 It's been the whole series of releases which have gotten progressively worse,

I disagree, I think that 0.9.0.133 is slightly better than whatever was the previous version. It's virtually identical, but the cache location bug was fixed, so it looks like the first step in the right direction.

[0o0o0ok]

I can't start a new topic for some reason. Why am I getting adverts about the new Daft Punk album? What's the point in paying if you're still going to shove stuff in my face that I don't want?

[Rollo_]

0o0o0ok wrote:

Why am I getting adverts about the new Daft Punk album?

 Because Sony says so.  😛