Announcements
The Spotify Stars Program: Celebrating Values Week!

Help Wizard

Step 1

NEXT STEP

Introduction of closed Beta testing programme

Coming from an Android perspective, in which case this is similar to a previous Idea (http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/Release-a-ICS-beta-Spotify/idi-p/37113), but this could applicable to all platforms (except maybe iOS as its relatively closed)

 

Many other companies allow users who are familiar with techincal concepts and are happy to tweak and test to sign up for beta programmes for testing new software features and versions before they are released generally.

 

Spotify would definitely benefit from such a programme. Spotify could control it in a few ways:

- make the sign up process relatively open - an example is Chrome where users can switch into the beta or even development release channels with a simple software switch

- control it by making it invite only based on finding users on the forums who show technical/trouble-shooting ability - an example is Sonos where key members of the community definitely get to test-drive new releases.

 

Spotify could also enforce an NDA on beta users, if it so wished, in order to ensure the general level of secrecy it likes to put around new features - again I'm pretty sure from previous experience that Sonos do this - it was obvious after the release of their Spotify tie-in that some forum users had been in the closed beta.

 

As you can probably guess, I'd be more than happy to be involved in such a programme 🙂

Now that we've started inviting people to join our beta testing (including Spotify for Android,) I think we can safely say this is implemented. For more info, signing up for betas and finding out the status of all our beta tests, have a look here.

Comments
krikelin

I think Spotify already have a sort of this. The previews section of the downloads page is probably the best way for now, but I think it might be better done. However I think Spotify has a policy that hinders this as Spotify want to not reveal any new features on forehand as Spotify has a special release window.

licenced

Yeah, it's the lack of willingness to discuss new features or any kind of timeline that kills the preview section. Hence, me angling for more of a closed beta programme, perhaps with the requirement for users to agree to an NDA. I've asked about this before and was told that such a thing doesn't exist, so thought I'd post it here as an idea.

 

Cheers

SmokeyDP

As a 15 year software developer by trade here are some suggestions for your team:

 

- Impliment a voting system for secondairy features to see what your clients actually want.  Could be a simple as a 'google form' that allows someone to put a number next to features on a list, or select 3.  This gets stored in a main document.

- It's been a month since the last the beta was released.  While it's a BETA and a great start, there are a ton of features missing.  Since you have a large group of paying customers waiting for these features who are getting frusterated, releasing milestone updates of the beta as new features are implimented is your best bet.  It shows people something is happening, and gives you feed back.

rferrett

Sounds like a blooming top idea to me! 

Gameforce20

Nah, I'd rather have beta releases open, that is, unless a closed beta would allow more frequent updates to the Beta.

alexh3791
Count me in for a beta team! I'd love to help out...
Rorey
Status changed to: Under Consideration

 

Great, great idea. I'm not sure I can say we'd be able to implement this, but given the amount of votes this idea has gotten in such a short period of time I'm compelled to mark this as "Under Consideration". Please watch this space for updates.

krikelin
Spotify already have a voting system with this community
cr3amy

I'll go ahead and offer to be a part of this. I've been a pretty active member in the Android forums for some time now.

overfloater

Bit late spotting this topic, but I fully support it. Especially since it comes from the community's unofficial lead beta tester/documenter. 😉

 

And offering to participate too: Android, iOS, Windows and Mac.