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.

[Hubo]

Hi Everyone,

Dan here from the Desktop team again.  Desktop 1.1.55 is starting to roll out now and I wanted to let you know what to expect.

Fullscreen mode
We’ve brought back a new and improved fullscreen mode for Desktop, making better use hi-res artist imagery where available.

Playlisting

• The “create similar” playlist context menu item has been added to the main playlist list in the app
• We’ve improved playlist loading performance when navigating throughout the client
• Show the downloaded badge in the liked songs button when it’s available offline
• Improvements to the use-case of filtering to find a track within a long playlist
  

General

• Episode sorting on podcast show pages, back with improved performance
• Podcast play order improvements, better selecting which episode to play when playing from cards/search etc
• Added the ability to see subtitles on videos where they are available.
• Improved refreshing of content on Home to ensure fresh content
• Show the top 5 cities where people listen to an artist on the artist about page
• Where there are multiple versions of a release, show a dropdown on the album page allowing the user to switch between them

As always, please do ensure you’re fully updated and are running the latest version. We again thank you for the feedback provided. 

Thanks,
Dan

[ShelleyDecker]

I totally agree with you.

[22u35lxsvi3tglt]

Please bring back the desktop app as it was before. So many options were lost in this new one...

[Marvbrav_DE]

I HATE it! Like I'm not mad that its looks changed but rather annoyed that a lot of functionality has been cut for no reason!
For example:
- You can no longer drag the playlist-list further into the playlist view in order to make the cover art larger (even if I already clicked on the enlarge button - it still is too small in comparison to the old UI)

-You can no longer click on the cover art and be taken to the songs location in the playlist it is currently played from, instead it just takes you to the top of the playlist 😞

-Newly added Songs in a playlist appear at the top above all my manually ordered songs instead being appended to the end of the list WHICH IS HOW A LIST USUALLY WORKS!!! This is especially sad because it messes up the playlist cover art if you didn't manually select one!
And now let's say you want to create a playlist that chronologically has all the songs you listened to in 2020: Of course you want the songs from Jan 1st to appear at the top and those of Dec 31st at the bottom. Doable if you just sort by "date added" but NOT DOABLE IF YOU ALSO WANT YOUR OWN ORDER FOR A FEW SONGS!!!!! WHY WOULD YOU CHANGE THAT??

-> Also you just can't select those songs at the top of the playlist anymore and press "Ctrl" + "C or X" and copy/paste them to the bottom of the playlist, since that functionality has also been removed... Instead you now have to drag your selection manually to the bottom of the list, which may be A BIT of a problem if the playlist is a couple HUNDRED OR EVEN THOUSAND elements long!

And that are just some examples of what I found out about in the first couple of hours of using it!

All in all I'm really disappointed by this update and would rather it let me just revert to the old UI because the old one is so much more friendly to us power-users... 😞

[LordGigapiller]

Fullscreen needs to be added to the beta (it used to be an option at the bottom right, taking this feature away is ABSOLUTELY BAFFLING), I like the beta in some ways but I'd honestly rather not have it due to that one fact. Likewise, the ability to search for songs at the top any time has been taken out, which is really frustrating. Also, what other people said about it being aggravating to click on albums before seeing the songs, the old UI was way better when it came to artists. In addition, stuff like similar artists being displayed at the top right in the old UI was way better, instead of having to scroll all the way down to find it. Honestly one of the only things I like is more options when it comes to stuff like album suggestions, though even that is messed up because it will almost always have duplicate suggestions. Beta should be something that you can opt-in and out of for this very reason. 

[Marvbrav_DE]

Also, it appears as if you can't even remove songs from playlists with the "del" key anymore...
I'm honestly speechless. Why would you remove every keybound-functionality???
It just doesn't make sense anymore!

Really bad work @Spotify imo, and this is coming from someone who's used spotify for 4,5 years now...

[LordGigapiller]

Also, Yes. What Scarox said.

[andrxi]

@dan nice, but:

• “Adding a new track to a playlist puts it to the top instead of the bottom of a playlist”

Personal i like this feature, i think it would be useful if we had the option:

• for each playlist to choose if we want to add new songs on the bottom or in the top (or in settings, like the ''Make my playlists public'' option, with toggle)

Example: Add new songs at the top:  (ON/OFF)

[jasmine_d]

Hello,

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere (and is the first thing that I noticed!) is that the new version doesn't have the ability to sort playlists by date added. In fact, I don't think there's any way to even see the date added. I liked that feature, and used it to organize my playlists (and remove old songs). Why was this functionality removed? Especially when song length, a feature whose use I cannot fathom, is still taking up space?

***Edit 11/25: I realized that I can see "Date Added" again if I zoom out. Still, now the rest of the text is oddly small, since that's what zooming out does. It would be nice if the date added column were added as part of the default - without making the rest of the text tiny. ***

Like other users, I liked being able to click on an artist and scroll through all their discography. It is much easier to browse that way. Now everything is hidden in a series of clicks.

Like other users, I find the new playlist layout with artists being listed underneath the song title rather than in another column frustrating. 

Like other users, I'm confused about why the option to dislike songs in release radar, discover, and radio was removed. Unless you're intentionally trying to make these less useful and personalized...?

Like other users, I feel a bit claustrophobic with the new layout. The middle part of the screen is way too small relative to the sidebars. This effect is abated somewhat by making each song entry in a playlist/album taller, but that solution is inadequate and inefficient since it makes me scroll almost twice as much to get as far down a playlist.

Like other users, I resent being forced into this as a beta-tester, with no option to opt-out or revert. I should at least be refunded my premium fee for this month, as figuring out this new update sucked up way too much of my time. 

***Edit 11/25: It looks like Spotify rolled out a very similar version earlier this year, in a similarly non-consensual way, with paying customers. Have you not learned anything? Big yikes. https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Desktop-Allow-an-optional-switch-between-desktop-and-web...

The search bar's removal actually doesn't bother me, because I can still search with just one click. Many people have been commenting about how it's less accessible, but it's definitely not...

The update is visually appealing and I like the folders feature, but so many features and functionalities were removed in this update that on balance it is quite negative.

[teal_tea]

Please bring back "Recently Played"

[22u35lxsvi3tglt]

Bring back the option "Go to radio" instead of "Lauch radio" please !

Can't understand why so many features were taken out of that new version.

[Jakeprice1995]

I hate it.

Desktop users want more functionality; not less, stop taking away features and treating us like children.

Things I hate:

• No longer able to expand the size of the playlist / album art bar or the friends activity bars. Why?
• No longer able to magnify / zoom in and out (Mac zoom). Why?
• Searching now requires a second, unnecessary step. Why?
• The artist name appearing under the song title causes frequent misclicks. Why?
• 'Go To Song Radio' is no longer an option either, it's now 'Start Radio', now the only way to view the songs in the list is to look at the 'Queue'. Why?
• Page no longer scrolls when you click + drag a song to the top / bottom of the page. Why?
• The 'Copy', 'Paste' and 'Duplicate' function no longer works at all. Why?
• Song Popularity bar is completely gone; no way to tell what's popular / how many plays a song has when scrolling through an album now. Why?
• Users now need to know the exact album they're looking for when looking for a song on the artist page because the tracks are no longer listed on the artist page. Why?

Why did you even do this??? Can you please give us back the old version? We do not like this redesign / update at all. Read the comments, read the Reddit threads, Twitter blasts and Facebook posts complaining about it.

This is the single worst redesign / update that you have ever done, bar none!

I'll be joining Apple Music very soon if this doesn't get a major overhaul. Somebody needs to get fired for this F-up.

[LordGigapiller]

I was in contact with our comrade Gian on the inside. Even through the Tech support we cannot escape the throes of the beta. They won't even let you get out of the beta via tech support. They're forcing paying subscribers to deal with this

[acidchu]

yeah i hate it. spotify is completely broken as of this update thanks

[LandonDuncan]

Only major complaint- why can I no longer sort my playlists by artist? It was bad enough not being able to sort playlists by artist in the web player, but now you had to put that in the desktop app? Why? Who asks for features to be REMOVED?

[LandonDuncan]

Okay, I have some additional thoughts. 

Upon further examination, I see that you're trying to make the desktop app identical (or near-identical) to the web player.

Please don't do this. I'm begging you.

The web player is objectively worse than the desktop app in multiple aspects, completely removing very useful features in order to make it more "accessible", which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It takes away so much functionality from the app, and definitely values style over substance. 

UI updates on most websites are almost always improvements. This UI update, if it happens in its current form, might make me consider cancelling my Premium subscription. Please reconsider.

[remister]

I am sorry to say making this desktop app look like the web version or mobile version is going to kill the platform. I liked seeing the discovery tab and even the new release option. From here I feel so lost on my musical discovery. The extra clicks to go view certain discography is not better than seeing the whole list. Please let me go back to an earlier build. Thank you. 

[ratsaturngirl]

I just noticed someone in this thread mentioned that you can sort playlists by artists by triple-clicking on the title column. It still sucks. Songs by a single artist aren't sorted by album and track order anymore, which makes no sense. They're all in a random order which is not only unhelpful but ugly??? 

Also, the queue isn't working. It seems the Spotify app can not figure out what order the songs on my playlist are in. (Pics attached) In some cases, the queue, instead of playing in chronological order, would start three songs before the song currently playing?

Spotify saving the playlist sorting settings needs to be reinstated, not being able to access the search bar from anywhere is annoying, and give us back shortcuts to the "Made for You" playlists! They were so unhelpful and made the experience so much smoother.

[Howdydan]

Let me preface by saying Gian, you let me down.

The lord and savior, Gigametheus, has shared his knowledge of these dark tyrannical oversteps by the spotify sorcerers. I am deeply troubled to say the least. I have been a suscription user for the better half of a decade and i have had nary a issue in all those years. but now it seems, spotify wants to upset this perfect balance. Like the age of dinosaurs coming to a halt with the emergence of the meteors, so too with the age of spotify subscribers come to a haunting silence if beta ever rolls out to the greater public.

For the developers to decide to add features that remove the functionality of the user, and instead replace them with new "features" that, for better lack of a word, are absolutely imbecile at best. I wont get into the list of what these features are or why they are a bad idea to implement as there are people with more first hand experience than I.

What i can say is we brethren must stand and fight against this corporate wave of greed and lack of any humanity. If some die, then they died in the pursuit of a search bar at the top of the screen, and the ability for our children and our children children to enjoy full screen and the ability to search through artists in a playlist! You may take my subscription, but ye'll never take my freedom!

[Gigametheus]

gigametheus

[Howdydan]

huzzah, the second coming