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.

[wocalax19]

Forced betas? Are you serious Spotify? This is how you treat customers who pay you?

1) Why am I in this test group I never asked to be a part of?
2) When are you going to roll this back?
3) Why on Earth did you think this was an appropriate way to handle this?

Please answer all of these questions because I am now forcing you to be in wocalax19's question answering group. You have to answer. Sorry, you just have to. I know you didn't sign up to, but you have to.

PS - this was after my original less nice post errored out, so you can thank your subpar forum hosting servers for the much friendlier wording here.

[bunny_spot12]

Ya like seriously Spotify I am starting to really dislike Spotify I am extremely disappointed and disgusted with it and how I am getting disrespected. Like seriously Spotify calm down and treat costumers with respect.(I hate giving bad reviews and like being negative. But I have to.) why Spotify any else agree?

[bunny_spot12]

SCREW YOU SPOTIFY.

[spinkick]

Why wouldnt they use volunteers like every other software company out there? At least give discounts/free service for those forced into it.
Where is the mini player on the desktop version? Its been an idea for years and votes in the thousands.
Can you point us to a post where Spotify can let us know how they decide to add features? Top of the list is probably monitization, but what comes after?

[nadiaamad]

Hello!

I usually like changes. I was thinking that Spotify needed a refresh. However, I must say that I don't like this new version at all. Now, this is a Feedback, so I want to give you reasons for my dislike:

- Style. It's like "oldie" or vintage. I was expecting something more "modern".

- The organisation. It's more complex, not more easy. 

- In "last listened songs" you don't have anymore the last songs, playlist and artist all together. Now you see Playlists, Podcasts, Artists and Albums for separated. So, If you want to see your last listened songs, you have to see it one by one.

- Playlist can't organise by Artists anymore.

- In Playlists, when I want to see my "last listened playlists", the "This is..." are separated from the rest of playlists.

I'm thankfull for being in the beta group. I just don't like this version, but I do want to recongise the team work you made for us.

PS.: sorry if my english is not that good, it's not my native language.

[listadam]

It doesn't prompt a warning to add a duplicate song to a playlist. It seems like a bug, a side effect of the new desktop app.

[emi1880]

I really dislike that I was not given the option of whether or not I wanted to be a part of the testing group in the first place, and that I cannot revert back to the old layout. 

I don't like this new desktop layout for many reasons (not going to name the ones that will be fixed in the Nov 30th rollout):

- There is no artist column in my playlist. I only found out after extensive googling that I can still sort playlists by artist as long as I click the "Title" column 3+ times. In my opinion, this is very unintuitive and not very good design. The previous layout with a separate Artist column that can be sorted is much preferred, in my book.

- When going to an artist's page, I now have to know exactly which album a song belongs in in order to find it. This is often difficult for me. I preferred having all of the songs listed out, and I could just scroll until I found the right one.

- The search bar is now only found in the top left corner. I preferred it when it was more central in the viewing panel, and also having it in multiple places was honestly fine with me; I didn't find it redundant, rather it made things easier.

Overall, I'm not a fan of most of the functionality changes to this version. I really would like for there to be a way for me to revert to the old version.

[9qll-gg_8go6a]

In response to https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/New-Desktop-Experience-your-feedback-wanted/m-p/508...

Of course they will not give any information about a rollback because they will not rollback. They will force this on us because then they don't have to maintain the desktop and web app separately, they simply only have to develop the web app and just package it on the computer.

"We appreciate  your feedback" only relates to us reporting bugs, not honest feedback about the user experience. 

[puawai]

So it looks like everyone here hates the new update. I actually quite like it, overall.

Some may dismiss this as shallow, but I've always felt aesthetics were quite important. The old Spotify UI was starting to get on a bit, and I'm glad that it's been refreshed. 

I love how this one has placed a bigger focus on having album art, and the playlist list format in general maintains a nice mix of functional and modern looks. I like how it's placed a bigger emphasis on the social side of things by promoting the Friend Activity sidebar, which felt neglected before.

Of course, it's not perfect. My main problems that you haven't mentioned you're fixing yet are:

- It still seems a little clunky, but mostly because it can't quite decide if it wants to commit to the new look or not. Are you trying to go for circular/rounded icons, like in the top bar, the 'profile/settings/account' menu button, or the back button? Or are you trying to go for square icons, like the 'New Playlist' and 'Liked Songs' buttons to the left sidebar?

- It doesn't look like the now playing bar down the bottom has changed at all, it still matches the old look.

- I'm not sure how I feel about the giant title on the playlist screen, profile screens, etc... it feels a little like you're trying to unsuccessfully copy Apple Music circa 2016, which was known for making it's headings giant then. It seems a little dated now.

- Sometimes the 'skip adding duplicates' dialogue does not show up when adding to playlists.

- Now I'm unable to resize any sidebars, which is annoying because I have lots of playlists with longer names.

- When you go onto someone's profile and look at their playlists, you can't see the playlist description, and you also can't tell if it's a playlist they made, or one that they follow. It makes it a lot less personal than before.

- Not sure if this is a bug or not, but the scrollbars are permanently displayed, even if I'm not scrolling.

- It's so difficult to search for music now! Both the general search bar and search in playlist are difficult to get to.

- Just an observation that having a grey indicator instead of green to show that you've downloaded the playlist makes it look like it's incomplete and is still waiting to download. Also, why is this icon grey in the sidebar, but still solid green on the actual playlist page?

- You are still able to sort by artist in a playlist, but it's not very clear that you have to click three times under sort by title to get there. I discovered it by mistake!

[Melissaaakilic]

YOU DESERVE NON OF THESE MONEYS YOU GET,I WILL GO ON FROM YOUTUBE MUSIC. THIS UPDATE IS DISGUSTING AND FULL OF DISAPPOINTMENT !!!

[randomuser3]

This is the worst change I have ever seen. Please stop changing stuff for the sake of changing them.

The UX and the UI are awful. The "Liked Songs" section is everywhere and I do not care for that section at all.

But worst, now the Saved/Liked album is useless. If I click on an album it shows me all the songs in the album and not simply the selected songs I liked individually. This means I never see or can play just the few songs I like in an album.

Now the Artist section is useless. It is basically just a redirect to the artist page. How do i listen to just the 5 songs I liked from an artist ? Well not it is impossible and this is very annoying.

The artist page is terrible. Now I have to go and click on every album while before I could see all the songs included directly in the album.

Please solve these issues.

[Melissaaakilic]

BRING ME BACK TO OLD VERSIONS

[garbaste]

I find the new desktop interface has some bugs 
The 4 most important to me at the moment are:
1) The 2 side windows (Navigation Menu and Friends Feed) are no longer resizable
2) As there is no longer the single Artist column, it is not possible to sort by artist but only by title
3) The "search bar" is no longer fixed on the desktop

4) If I add an already present song to a playlist, Spotify asks me if I want to add it.
If, on the other hand, I add 2 or more songs at the same time, Spotify doesn't ask me the question and adds them anyway, even if they are already present.

I don't like this version and I don't think I'm using it yet, is it possible to go back to an old version, at least until the existing problems are solved?

Thanks

[mlidbo]

---

They will force this on us because then they don't have to maintain the desktop and web app separately, they simply only have to develop the web app and just package it on the computer.

---

If this is what is happening you (Spotify) really need to be honest and tell us. If this is a way for you to get rid of a ton of legacy code and move on more agilely from there I can totally understand that (Been a developer for 20 years). If, that is, you commit to make sure to restore the functionality as soon as you have gotten rid of the legacy ball of mud. So please Spotify. If this is the case, let us know clearly and loudly and assure us that you will implement the lost functionality as a top priority going forward.

[randomuser3]

Why can't I resize the left hand side panel anymore ?

Why are my playlist, artist and album automatically sorted by date added and revelant ? I want them sorted by alphabetical order and every time i leave the page, the order goes back to the default. THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANT.

AND THE LIKE SONGS SI ANNOYING.

[Melissaaakilic]

BRING ME BACK TO OLD VERSIONS THIS **bleep**

[einweibmitvibes]

This update has brought more bad change than doing any good. There are several things that seriously make me have a hard time using Spotify right now.

- Not having a separate sorting column for Artists. Why is that gone? It's common sense , why would you remove it? Give me one good reason. There is enough space to add a column, so that can't be it.

- The discography on an artist's page. Why is it not possible to just scroll through the discography and see them all in a list? The option that we had before (being able to choose whether you want a list-view or a cover-only view was fine!) was perfect. Why remove it? Give me one good reason.

- When I click on an artist in my library>artists I am only being redirected towards their page, but I'm not able to view the songs I have saved of them. This practically makes this category in my library useless. And it is, again, common sense to be able to see your saved songs of a specific artist if I view an artist in MY library. 

Overall this update makes me lose the overview I had of my music. Using the application is just frustrating right now. And it seriously gives me anxiety because I am not able to find what I am looking for, not matter what I do. If this doesn't change (aka restoring the features that have been removed) I will have to cancel my Spotify membership unfortunately. Although I really love Spotify and I would very much miss it. Listening to music right now just isn't a pleasant experience.

Also, why force certain people to test this experimental version? I understand that it's important to evolve and to test what might work and what doesn't, but with such massive changes, it would be smarter to specifically ask people if they want to test it. I, for one, definitely wouldn't have been one of them.

[Blotevogel]

As others have mentioned already:

• Please bring back the dislike button in e.g. release radar
• Please bring back "old" discography where I can see all songs sorted by the albums and not only the albums
• Please bring back the Search function available everywhere
• And if you send me in an update a new version for testing which is not finished please let me know in the desktop app by a clearly visible text or banner or something like that.

Thanks!

[rockclimberclow]

"- Not having a separate sorting column for Artists. Why is that gone? It's common sense , why would you remove it? Give me one good reason. There is enough space to add a column, so that can't be it.
- The discography on an artist's page. Why is it not possible to just scroll through the discography and see them all in a list? The option that we had before (being able to choose whether you want a list-view or a cover-only view was fine!) was perfect. Why remove it? Give me one good reason.
- When I click on an artist in my library>artists I am only being redirected towards their page, but I'm not able to view the songs I have saved of them. This practically makes this category in my library useless. And it is, again, common sense to be able to see your saved songs of a specific artist if I view an artist in MY library. "

It's because they don't care about artists.

[bunny_spot12]

Exactly it is *bleeps*