New Desktop Experience - your feedback wanted!

[Hubo]

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.

[Windyce]

I feel like the moderators are ignoring hoping I will go away.

I've been a paying spotify user since at least 2014. I have a picture to prove it.

In that time I've had basically no complaints. UI changes occasionally but I'm fine with it.

But then after I come home from work a few days ago I find the UI is both really weird and then I delete all 1500 of the songs I have download because of some weird UI choices. So I google about the new UI to see if anyone else has had the same problem and it turns out that I've been put into a brand new UI Experience Program (as the customer support people said. Who were lovely).

I'm not a QA person. I hate beta testing anything because its work. But I made 3 posts here. First two you can see still, but the third one you can't. Because it contravened some guideline about respect.

I've challenged within this thread and the two moderators who spoke with me to show me where I was disrespectful. The only thing they came back with is Condescending, but still not showing me how it was condescending. I've asked multiple times for them to either show me or put my post back.

The post they deleted was where I was critical of Spotify's decision to use people as QA testers and that they shouldn't have used Rockstars to support it. I've made multiple subsequent posts saying the same thing that haven't been deleted because as you guessed it, none of them where disrespectful.

I think I'm owed an apology, as everyone else here is for being put in a QA program without our permission or consent. QA testers are professionals who get paid. I know because I work with QA testers. Spotify is stealing wages by  having us do the job for them. An appropriate step would be reward everyone who posted here with free premium time as a thankyou for helping and to pay us for our labor.

Next I certainly owed an apology for having my post deleted. It should be returned and the guideline should be changed to be more clear. Condescension does not equal disrespect, not that I'm even saying I was condescending. I think they just said I was to save face for accidentally deleting my post.

[Ophe]

@Windyce. it’s just an app man, take a chill pill.  If spotify were removing all feedback that hate the client they could delete almost the whole thread. I really don’t mind using the new client and i actually kind of like it. of course there are a lot of things that could be better but they can’t just snap their fingers and satisfy everyone.

9.99 isn’t really much to be able to access all music you want. back in the day you had to buy an album starting at 9.99 so i think it’s actually really extreme to be asking for a refund. 

[hanntoby]

I was surprised with the new design this morning.
And what can I say: I don't like it.

The "delete" button on my keyboard can't be used anymore to delete one or more songs from a playlist, need to use backspace. 
When I go to one playlist and copy songs for another playlist all works, when I then go back to the first playlist I always start at the top of the list and not at the point where I was before. 

These are the main things I don't like. Hopefully these are the only ones.

Feels like a downgrade 😞

[httpamy]

Hi Spotify devs,

This beta update is terrible. It removed a lot of basic functionality that Spotify had. You guys removed two of the sorting options for playlists. In non-collaborative playlists, there’s no “artists” option and in collaborative playlists, there’s no “artists” or “date added” option. Also, when you go to another playlist your selected sorting option goes away and you have to re-click the sorting option that you want. I also do not like how the search bar was moved to the side because it just make Spotify less functional with searching for music. Having a search bar everywhere was way better and very functional. Bring back the option to adjust how big your playlist can be with the sidebars. Also bring back the option where you can see your friends listening with the little 🔊 instead of a blue dot. All in all this beta update is terrible, removed a lot of basic functionality and should’ve kept it the same or at least have young people design the layout...

[Doyle4]

What the **bleep** has happened!? I feel Spotify has taken a huge step backwards.. the new Desktop UI works like first stage testing when it was in development...

No search bar at the top
Icons feel a little small.

But the worst one... by FAR the worst decision Spotify have made...Why would you remove All Songs from Artists? You now have to go into each album to find the track... what if we dont know what album its from? what if we dont know the track title? I just cant get over why you would remove that function.

On a family plan, rest of the family agree with me also, its looking like we'll be canceling our service for now, for us Spotify is unusable as it is.

[Windyce]

Replying to ->@Windyce. it’s just an app man, take a chill pill.

It wasn't that they changed the app. Its that they enrolled me into a Beta program without asking as well as deleted a post without being able to tell me why because the actual post was far more pleasant than anything I've posted since.

If I joined the Beta it would be insane for me to be as worked up as I am. I don't even hate the update, everything is just too large but it will be sorted in the Beta. Only I didn't want to be a participant in this Beta.

[Doyle4]

THANK YOU!! someone else who is like me! 

I use to enjoy pressing on an Artists and seeing a huge list of tracks, sometimes id randomly press one and hear it, or choose shuffle.. now all I see is Albums and no idea where anything is! its even worse when I have no clue about an artist but liked a song and want to hear more.. Im not happy with pressing on an album.. Dont like anything? well.. press back, then press a new album... then back... then new album... UUGHHHH this new UI feels its from the 90's, no functionality.

[headshot305]

Playlists:

The program no longer remembers your preferred sort for each playlist, as soon as you click out of the playlist, it goes back to default sort. [THIS IS THE WORST ISSUE OF ALL]

The playlist search bar no longer works with spaces. for example if I type "kanye west" it will not show anything. However "kanyewest" will find all the kanye west songs in my playlist.

Searching:

Why is the full spotify search now hidden behind a button? Stop making me click more things to access the most basic of spotify functions.
Friends tab:

The entire point of this feature (and it is a cool one) is to see at a glance what my friends are listening too. The fact that this is closed by default and all i can see is their pictures makes no sense. I should have the ability to have this tab fully open permanently (and without it covering other elements). Just revert this to how it used to be with a simple button or preference to open and close it)

Artists:

Why have you removed the albums and singles tabs? I should be able to see on the artists main page their most recent singles and albums in seperate tabs, I shouldnt have to click into discography to do this

Latest Release, there used to be a latest release box that would show near the top of an artists page (no scrolling or clicks were required to see this after you entered the artists page). It would allow me to quickly search an artist and see if they had released anything new very quickly.

Finally I would enjoy if you could revert me to the previous version of spotify, this is actually disgusting. And while im here, can you put the playlist search bar back at the top of playlists on android, I shouldnt have to scroll through a menu to find "search in this playlist".

Thank you for listening to my ted talk.

[shanedeether]

Please please bring back popularity bar and full-screen mode...

[9qll-gg_8go6a]

I've responded to this thread before (https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/New-Desktop-Experience-your-feedback-wanted/m-p/507...), but what displeases me most, of all things, is how we cannot opt-out of these changes. 

Spotify some way decides you get a beta update, probably to do A/B testing and there's nothing you can do about it, at all. I understand that for those tests, you probably select a random group and finding beta testers always creates an inherent bias. However, those responding to this thread are also probably super users, those that use Spotify in such an extensive way that it is hard to have their opinion represent the whole group of this beta test.

So, I understand it's not opt-in. But I don't understand how this is NOT opt-out. It's a disservice to people using your service, especially those who've paid years of premium (like myself). I just cannot understand some of the decisions being made (like, not being able to sort by artist in playlist, I... I just... how? How can you make such a decision).

Again: why is this not opt-out? It's consumer unfriendly.

[Joegod]

Where is the search bar?
Do we have to use Google Maps to locate it?

[TakeFive]

This update is not good.

Can't resize now playing artwork size, can't sort playlists by artist, playlist don't remember how I sorted them (e.g. date added), so much empty space even on my pc monitor I can only see a few songs at a time in a playlist, artist pages look worse, harder to access albums on artist pages (discography instead adds a click), have to scroll to see related artists on artist pages, have to scroll even further to see artist about page, the "like" heart is invisible unless you have already liked a track, can't view track by track in albums on artist pages, can't resize the left hand toolbar so all my playlists look like "The Microph..." or "Danny Brown - Atr..." - I can't even fix this by changing the zoom level, and finally the search bar is gone.

A lot of these features are things I took for granted so I was actually excited about the update at first. Turns out any good thing is overshadowed by the fact that the product has become worse. This is the worst update to spotify yet. I've used and loved Spotify for 8 years but I am actually considering changing services or just downloading music again because the features that were so core to Spotify being better than anything else are gone. Even windows file explorer can sort by artist playists. Just like that it's gone. No option to keep the last design (or the excellent 2012 design).

I understand you want to make a good service, but this latest change is *yet another step* in the wrong direction.

[jsannn]

Unbelievably bad update. Lots of missing functionality, no search bar, no sorting. Huge bugs. They gutted the desktop app. There is no reason to use it anymore, it's basically the web player with a desktop icon. It's terrible and Spotify will lose me as customer if they don't fix it soon.

[526veb-_3hxqk]

When I go to my library and then to albums, the default sort style is "Recently added" and I really dislike that. I like it being sorted by artist, because then I can actually find what I'm looking for. I can't get the default to change, and that is just annoying.

[AAAAAHH]

ever since the new desktop app update its been fine, although after a couple of days some kind of strange issue that i assume is a glitch has begun happening that doesnt seem to be happening to anyone else and i cant find any info on. basically from now on, whenever i add a new song to a playlist, it puts it at the very *top* instead of at the bottom as usual. this is very annoying and i would like to be able to change this if possible. is there some kind of option for this? i dont seem to be able to find it anywhere, atleast not on the desktop application

[tompos82]

I can live with all the changes except one that many people mentioned before me. 

Artist album/song list is gone - only album tiles are available

If I click an artist I cannot scroll trough all the albums with songs listed. Now I have tiles and I have to open every single one to look inside, than back out. This makes looking for a song or just simply discovering something very slow and annoying. Not to mention that nowadays artist don't come out with albums but singles/EPs and these are listed as an album with only one song in it. Now you have to open it, back out again and open another one which is unacceptable.

Suggestion:

Maybe someone like's this new look but some enthusiast definitely not. So a solution would be to give us an option how we would like to list an artist. Album tiles or album list with albums open as before. Many apps and website use the same layout with a toggle on top of how the listing should look like.

Please somehow give us an option the set it back to the previous layout 

I really liked to just sit down in front of Spotify and start clicking artist after artist and discover new music buy randomly scrolling trough albums that were open by default and click some songs, look over the structure.

Please don't take this away from us!
Thanks for reading my feedback.

UPDATE: Playlist not remembering the previously set play list order is also very annoying. I liked it sorted by the newest addition on top, but now every time I launch Spotify it defaults to the "added ascending date order"  playlist soring, rather  than to whatever you liked or want.

[pulane]

I don't like the new update AT ALL.
The lack of features is like going dozens of steps backwards. You cannot filter the podcast episodes for "not listened", sort them, the lost local files, the columns on playlists... it's like Spotify were doing more and more improvements and suddenly they remove them all.

But the worst is that, for some reason, my account was forced to be part of a beta, a test, that I didn't wanted. I cannot understand how do you select premium users that pay monthly to do test with them.
How is possible that if I create a new free account I have a standard desktop view with more options that I currently have with my premium account.

If you are going to update the UI make the beta for volunteers, and release the final version for everyone once the problems are fixed.
PLEASE, let us abandon this test if we want. With so many other music streaming services I cannot believe that you play with your users at this level.

[diripirate]

Spotify: Forces users to beta updates with less features.
Me: Cancel Subscription

I was holding on until I saw the message "We're marking this Idea as "Not Right Now" as there won't be an option to switch back to Classic"
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Desktop-Allow-an-optional-switch-between-desktop-and-web...

Thanks for listening the community

[lostechoes]

Please bring back "Storage location" option for us that have small SSD disks.
I'm a Premium customer and I'm deeply dissatisfied that I cannot select the Offline songs storage location anymore.

[Thekankin]

Removed the ability to stop seeing music from an artist or saying you don't like a song. Button removed that allowed you to scroll through different mixes etc, now we more clicks to do by pressing "See all". 

Playlists no longer save what they were set to, for instance, if you have change the "sort by", it will reset when you go back into the playlist, thus making us waste more time.

Artists music is now sorted in a way you can't see the individual songs/albums, you have to again, go into each album and see the songs etc.

Just a confusing update where I feel that no thought has been put in for someone who uses the app. I really hope that these things are changed back, the end user now has more clicks to make whilst nothing has been made better.