Type in your question below and we'll check to see what answers we can find...
Loading article...
Submitting...
If you couldn't find any answers in the previous step then we need to post your question in the community and wait for someone to respond. You'll be notified when that happens.
Simply add some detail to your question and refine the title if needed, choose the relevant category, then post.
Before we can post your question we need you to quickly make an account (or sign in if you already have one).
Don't worry - it's quick and painless! Just click below, and once you're logged in we'll bring you right back here and post your question. We'll remember what you've already typed in so you won't have to do it again.
Spotify is testing a new way for you to connect with your music on Desktop. The new desktop experience features an all-new design, streamlined with the Spotify apps on all your devices.
This is a brand-new experience and some parts are still being fine-tuned. Be sure to give feedback with the steps below to let the right folks know what you think could be improved.
The other Rock Stars and I got the chance to test the new desktop experience first and now more users will be able to test it out and give their feedback for the team. If you are a passionate Spotify user and would like to join the Rock Star Program and be part of cool experiences like this, then check out this help article.
How do I know if I’m using the New Desktop Experience?
The new desktop experience is not hard to spot with its new design! Your Library looks like this for example:
Why did the app change?
This test is rolled out to a specific group of users at this moment. It’s not possible to sign up for this right now, but your interest is really appreciated. If you’re interested in testing out new versions of Spotify before everyone else, check this out: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Answers/How-do-I-become-a-Spotify-Beta-tester/ta-p/4551518.
If you’re looking for more information about how tests work and about how features are released, take a look here: https://support.spotify.com/article/why-am-i-seeing-different-features-than-my-friends/.
How to give feedback?
This thread is your go-to destination for asking questions, getting help for issues you may have, as well as to share your impressions and feedback on this new desktop experience.
Keep in mind that pictures can say a thousand words, so if you have any screenshots of something you’d like to share of your experience be sure to post them here as well! The right teams at Spotify take their time to read the posts in this thread and use your feedback to fine-tune this new experience for everyone.
Solved! Go to Solution.
+
I'd like to clear something up. Us Rock Stars don't only just post positive feedback. When we have some honest feedback to give, we say it.
I haven't gotten the new desktop redesign yet, but as an advanced user who uses most of the features of the current (old) desktop app, I will definitely post about things I do not like here in this thread when I get the new desktop app rolled out to me. I did the same here in the community for the last desktop redesign in 2015 and I will do it again when I find some things I do not like about this new design. I give my honest feedback.
It's ok to post about things you don't like because it helps the team know what to improve. However, changes that are good usually get passed over and we tend to look at the changes that we don't like. These posts from some of the Rock Stars are personal opinions on some of the changes they like. It's great to focus on changes you like as well, and not just entirely on the changes you don't like.
Hello,
Truth be told, I have spent the past five hours of my life going through different various emotions all because of this Spotify update and I am going to share every one of my thoughts on this. I am going to try and be as constructively critical as possible.
Personally, I use Spotify to discover, stream, sort, organise, format and arrange music. To do this, I use many of the different sorting tools inherent to the software, and whilst over the years some of these tools have been removed or changed, none of what I would consider the core tools have actually been made worse until now.
I was first introduced to the update when my Spotify client was taking a while to stream a new song. So, I decided to restart the client and was met with the new UI. Initially I thought that it looked very visually pleasing, everything looked softer, less grid-y and overall nicer. However, when it came to actually using Spotify as a music streaming service, that charm quickly fell apart.
The new interface is disorientating and less direct when it comes to finding things that the user intends to find. Things have been streamlined and reduced in a way when they were already at their most efficient state. Features have been added which objectively should be optional/customisable. This update is what I consider one specific category of Spotify user's personal preference for how Spotify should appear, but then applied to every type of other Spotify user very discriminately. Unfortunately I am definitely not that specific type of user.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am now going to go through each and every thing that I think that this new update has done right, done wrong and should, at the bare minimum, be customisable. I am also going to order them in what I believe the most important which, whilst including my own personal bias for how I use Spotify, I will try to generalise for a typical Spotify user. I have consolidated the opinions and comments of other users that I also believe to be very important.
0. As a precursor I did not sign up for this update. I do not want to be a beta tester. Given the choice I would immediately opt out of this and want to use the legacy client. Rolling this out to a small number of people to test it is understandable, but why not ask people from the community who wants to be a beta tester? Those people are much more likely to give better feedback and be more responsive to any changes that you want to make. Instead, you have chosen to give this responsibility to some people who really don't want to do it, and this is evident by how few people are happy with the changes that you have made.
1. The moving of the artist's name to underneath the song title within a playlist.
By having different sizes of texts it becomes visually disorientating and gives the song name and artist different significances. Realistically, there are situations where you are only searching for an artist name, except this update makes it harder to see the artist name as it literally hides it under larger text. Why was this better than what it was before? I can understand that it may look visually sleeker, but it removes a whole functionality and search tool, whilst also alienating a whole group of users who primarily sort by artist. Please put the artist name back in it's own column. Furthermore and still very importantly, why is the "sort by artist" function hidden. That's what it is. It is hidden. You cannot see it and have to search to find it. Core functions need to be obvious and easy to navigate.
2. Everything is larger, more spread out and the scale has changed.
It is understandable that visually impaired users need the font and images to be larger, but what I actually liked about Spotify was that it was crammed full of only useful information. Zooming in and out doesn't change the scale, and so objectively less information is on the page. This requires you to scroll more to find the same amount of information as you did before. This is the definition of inefficient which is undesirable. At the bare minimum this needs to be reverted, but idealistically it should be customisable to suit each user.
3. The moving/removal of the search bar
Whilst the search bar is only one single click away, those one clicks add up overtime. I find it quite ironic that whilst the scale has changed and so there is always more space at the top, that the search bar has been removed. There is plenty of room for the search bar to always be there. Please, for the love of God, put it back.
4. The consolidation of other playlists and sections into the "Your Library" category, instead of as they were previously, directly accessible from the home screen.
Just like how there is plenty of room for there to be a search bar at the top at all times, there is plenty of room for these playlists and sections to always be available. Why do they have to be locked into the "Your Library" section? Please put them back.
5. Removing the ability to adjust the width of sections.
There is absolutely no reason to remove this. Removing it prevents customisability and the ability to see large artist, song or album names.
6. Moving of an artist's 'about' page to the bottom
This is a much smaller thing that I consider to be very personal to me, but I actually really enjoy reading up about the artists, seeing their photos and finding out about them. As much as this isn't a deal breaker like some of the other things that I've mentioned, it just feels really, if anything, rude to the artist because this is their story and that is a big part of their music. Why not just have a tab, like before, at the top that is immediate and one click away.
7. Removal of the dislike button for discover weekly, daily mixes, and other personalised playlists.
I don't personally use discover weekly and daily mixes, but I understand that it is Spotify offering you new music, and it is valuable for you to be able to say that you liked that song/artist, or that you disliked that song/artist so Spotify can learn. By removing the ability to say that you didn't, why would people want to continue to use this feature if it doesn't listen to you.
8. Unable to resize the left sidebar - this will cover long playlist names.
This is a small thing, but for those with large playlist names, being unable to resize the left sidebar will always annoyingly hide those names. I do not understand any reason to remove this harmless customisability.
9. Adding album covers next to every song.
I apologise for how this sounds, but I did not pay for a music streaming service to see album art; I paid for the music. When you play a song, the album art appears and I like that. I do not care to see each and every song's album art next to it, especially if I'm not actually going to listen to that song. Furthermore, some album art's are explicit and actually inappropriate for children, and so it seems wrong to display these album art's when not actually engaging directly with the music. Also, as I am personally dissatisfied with the change in scale and reduction in information available on the screen, and so the addition of this objectively less useful information feels extra painful to see.
10. On an artist's page, the discography is not actually in chronological order.
I'm not sure if this is a bug or is unintended, but I sure hope it isn't. Chronology of music is important when sorting and finding things, by putting the music on the home screen of an artist page in a random order it is just confusing and unnecessary, and nothing else. However, when you click on their discography, it then appears chronologically. This is even more confusing.
11. The colour of the downloaded icon is now grey.
Why? Green is rightfully what people are used to, there is absolutely no need to change this, so please don't.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following are things that I consider to be bugs or = features that will be changed in the new update on the 30th. However as this is a beta version, it is disrespectful not to change thing immediately if possible because we did not want, choose or pay for this broken or buggy version of the Spotify client. Ultimately, please fix these things immediately.
1. Cannot remove songs from playlist in the playback menu.
If you give people the option, it must be possible. If the option is unintended, remove it.
2. Cannot use the delete key to remove a song from a playlist, or to delete a playlist.
There is no need to remove this.
3. The volume slider is slow to actually change the volume when you move it and is not immediate like before.
It is also very rough and inconsistent in how extreme the music changes in volume. Please keep this as close to how it was previously.
4. The addition of new songs to the top of a playlist, instead of the bottom, as it was previously.
Simply put, this messes with how myself and others have made playlists for years.
5. The songs are no longer grouped per album within a playlist when sorting by artist
Simply put, this changes how people have interacted with the sorting tools, in a way that is not beneficial, and instead is inherently disadvantageous because you are changing what people are used to.
6. Local files are not sorted in track order
I do not personally use this feature, but I can imagine that for those that do, this is deal breaking.
7. No longer a setting to change cache location
Why remove this option? Customisability is king.
8. No longer able to use a proxy.
Why remove this option? Customisability is king. Also, this is a way that many people use your service, removing it completely alienates them and might even prevent them from using the service. Unless this change is legally necessary and is ultimately a last resort, then you have to be prepared to lose customers from this.
9. Sorting preferences are not saved when hopping between playlists, or anything at all.
This is most definitely unintended and Dan mentions that it will be fixed on the 30th, but just please change it now. It takes so much scrolling to go back to where you were in big playlists. This saves me personally literal hours. Furthermore, when sorting through one's followed artist, the default is recently saved and not alphabetical, which is not actually called alphabetical, it is called "creator", which is actually quite vague. I always prefer my artists to be sorted alphabetically, and whilst others may prefer recently followed, I would expect alphabetically to be the default and most popular choice.
10. Using spaces in the in-playlist search bar breaks the search function.
This just needs to be fixed immediately. Nothing else, and there are no excuses not to because it makes searching certain things literally impossible.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite the vastly greater negatives and issues I have with the update, there are a few things that I think the update does well.
1. The immediate visibility of a number of plays a song has.
Personally I like seeing how many plays a song has, just for curiosity's sake, and so I am glad that this is present. However, I'm sure that others might not care for it, so maybe it could be an optional feature, or less prominent
2. Being able to see more playlists under the "Playlists" tab at the top.
More information = better. More playlists in view = better. Better = good. Good = people happy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other interesting things that I want to take note of.
1. The "Your playlists" page has been changed to allow for more playlists in the same screen view, yet almost every other visual piece of information has been massively spread out.
2. Whilst people like things looking sleek and modern, they also like consistency and coherency. This update is a massive shakeup to the beloved traditional visual style of Spotify in the name of sleekness, which loses many of the qualities that made Spotify the most loved music streaming platform on the planet. From looking at other platform's visual styles, this looks like a move towards what they look like, which I think loses some of Spotify's unique identity.
3. Excluding responses from the Rock stars, the feedback on the update from this post is overwhelmingly (90%+) negative and critical. Regardless of personal opinion, the fact that people have turned up, in numbers, to voice their dissatisfaction, needs to be taken into account. Some people will leave without saying goodbye and why they left. Listen to those are willing to give you feedback.
4. User @Sebasty responded that there are key binds to help navigate functions. This should not be a replacement for key functionalities because some people do not use their keyboard when using Spotify, and this alienates those people.
5. This is 2020. The world is moving towards customisation. This update has just removed so many customisation opportunities for arguably no valid reason. WE WANT MORE CUSTOMISATION, NOT LESS.
6. Folders have now got a play button - I cannot at all understand a reason to want to shuffle the songs from a whole folder. I'm sure there are a few people who would want this feature so you can still include it, it just seems very very obscure.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Closing thoughts.
I have showed this to my friends who have not been give access to beta test this update, and they are also dissatisfied. Unlike my friends, however, this Spotify update is deal breaking for me. I spent the first hour of my evening trying to find out if I could revert back to the previous visual layout. I spent the second trying to uninstall and reinstall a previous Spotify version. I cannot, and I can't stress this enough, don't want to pay for these changes. I spent the third hour of my evening looking at alternative music streaming services that still have the accessibility and navigation functions that I value. I have used Spotify for 5 years, and whilst having mixed feelings about previous updates, I will no longer pay for this service if most if not all of the issues I have pointed out are addressed. It feels so personally disrespectful to inflict this beta testing onto random people, because I feel unable to use Spotify how I want to with these changes, and I am absolutely powerless and can't do anything else about it. Spending two hours writing this essay (5 hours of stress in total) on why I care about Spotify is as much as I willing to do to try and keep the service I have loved for so long as good as it can be for as many people as possible. I know I am one person, and whilst I am among seemingly in the large majority of dissatisfied respondents, I have come to terms with the fact that realistically not much is going to change, and that in 10 days time as the update is rolled out, I will likely be switching to a competitor. I don't want to do this, but it feels like all I can do if I want to keep listening to music the way I want to do. Hope is all I have, but hope I have plenty.
Thank you Spotify, but this is likely goodbye.
Hello! It appears my desktop interface of Spotify has been updated. However, I can’t seem to copy + paste songs into my playlists anymore? They have to be searched and added in manually? Is there a new function that can continue to add/delete songs more efficiently i.e. copy+paste, or is that no longer possible? Thanks!
@NickParrotte
All of that, 100%. That is EXACTLY how I feel about this and more. God I hope the devs read that. Please don't make me switch to a competitor. 2020 has been bad enough already.
Honestly, I just want to use Foobar to access my Spotify library. Or MusicBee. Or WinAmp. I'd take Windows Media Player circa Windows XP at this point.
I really despise the direction your design team is taking. I think that it looks like another cheap, generic, attention-grabbing social media app that is unsure whether it's for desktops, tablets, or phones. I see these changes as a compromise between the design maxims of these platforms made at the expense of an enormous loss of functionality and an enormous waste of screen real-estate.
Please go back to the 2014 design or, in the alternative, redirect your design team towards opening Spotify to UI modding and plugins.
I've been using Spotify for a long time. Since 2009 I think. I have never been to this community before simply because I have never had a reason to. But in just 15 minutes of using this version. I knew I had to speak up.
I just have to say I really dislike the changes made in this update. A few of the concerns I've found within the first 15 minutes of using it:
1. If I jump back from an artist to a playlist I am no longer at the same place I was when I left it. This was a great feature for adding new songs to a playlist in the correct place.
2. The artists name under the song name is really screwing with my playlists (the feel of them) could there be an option to activate the use of artist as a column of its own? Just like with Album. I'm finding it hard to see what artist I am currently on in my playlists.
3. I can't seem to be able to drag and drop songs upwards in my playlist. It only works downwards.
4. Copy and paste functionality in playlists is gone.
And as I side note, I do not mind being a beta tester. But I would strongly advice you to ask people before enrolling them!
Edit: Had to add some more background to this.
Hi there
So my desktop app changed a few days ago and something that I saw that was gone is in the right bottom the button to make my screen "full screen". I can't find it anywhere. Did they remove it? If so that would be very sad, I thought it was a nice layout. (just the album cover and titel)
If anyone finds it let me know pls!
I have the desktop app for Windows 10 and a premium account btw.
Greetings!
I don't like many things about this new update but most of them are already written in the forum so I'll only say this: Not being able to control the width of friend activity column and especially the left column is terrible. I personally really liked the big album cover on bottom left so I made it huge but now it only gets 'kind of' big.
Also there is the big problem of full screen mode disappearing.
Operating System
Windows 10
My Question or Issue
Just getting used to the new update, I figure that complaining about unneccesarily oversized UI elements paired with unreadable text is a lost cause (I've seen much worse), so I wanted to share something that I assume is a bug
Previously it was possible to restart the currently playing song by pressing the 'Previous Track' button, but in the new update you cannot do this if the song is the first one in a playlist or album (the 'Previous Track' button is greyed out). Could this be changed back to allow restarting the first track? Having to navigate to the playlist and click the song again is quite inconvenient.
Operating System
Windows 10
My Question or Issue
Hi, I have some fairly long playlist names and I like to sometimes see all of these when I am managing my playlists. I also like to be able to see larger album art sometimes. However, the new update removed the ability to resize the sidebar, so I can't do either of these things anymore. I was wondering if it would be possible to get this functionality back?
Design-wise, the updates is great. But the UX is a bit tricky, specially when going to playlists. It takes a loooot of time to load them, even the downloaded ones. The previous version allows you to go to playlists and see the songs even without internet connections.
It's also difficult to follow back users now since you need to access their profiles to know whether they have alread followed you or not. I hope you bring the followed/not-followed indicator back when I visit my own profile > followers. I'm a person who instantly follows new followers even when I don't kno them. I don't want to go to my new followers' profiles just to follow them back, specifically when I have a slow internet connection.
Lastly, there seems to be a bug on the friend activity. There are times that they are suck and won't show the latest updates anymore. I had to log out and log back in to see the latest songs they're listening. Before I only had to tick show friend activity option or, more conveniently, minimize the app so that it hides the friend activity are, maximize it again and it will show the updates instantly. Please please please work on this one! If possible bring the ability to hide the friend activity when the app's minimized.
This new UX makes me think that the people that wrote it don't actually use the desktop app regularly. It's pretty and this version is way snappier than the sluggish previous version, I will admit. But it's missing some really obvious stuff that I liked about the previous one and ones before it and I don't get it.
Being unable to browse album contents on the artist page is a huge whiff of a UX decision, the previous method was way more conducive to browsing a new artist. It's an extra click for no reason besides to discourage that sort of browsing. The playlist row height is also bigger than it needs to be, the album art being there is nice and all, but it's so much scrolling to browse a playlist. Being unable to sort playlists by artist is also a weird omission.
Lastly, I get that you're a streaming service first, but the steady march towards making the Local Files stuff useless is crazy. Just take it out if you don't want it there! Being unable to search my local songs by Artist makes the entire virtual playlist useless. I use the desktop version on a daily basis and it's just like, c'mon.
Hey there you, Yeah, you! 😁 Welcome - we're glad you joined the Spotify Community! While you here, let's have a fun game and get…