Picture on Profile

[Holly_A]

I would like to suugest the option of adding our own pictures or avitars WITHOUT linking it to our Facebook accounts.

I know there are some of us that were fortunate enough to get Spotify before it linked with Facebook and I would love to add my picture on the account page.

[bilby91]

It's a shame that this feature is missing for so long. I expected something different from Spotify. There are a lot of users expecting for this!

[xellos_81]

I connected my facebook account just to try this feature and after disconnecting the account, my name and picture still appears in the application. It is sad that you cannot change your picture, if that is the case then you should not show any picture at all!

[karenfsmith]

How is this not fixed yet? Must be something to do with an agreement with facebook....for those who do not have facebook and are valued customers of spotify the ability to have a picture should be independent of whether you have facebook or not. Please change this as some of us do not wish to be pictureless on spotify!

[AlexanderTsui]

Well, because this looks like it's the thread of a forgotten popular idea that Spotify community moderators/staff keep redirecting duplicate threads to, I guess I should post something useful.

Reasons as to why Spotify should implement

custom profile photos without Facebook ASAP

Voila, here we are with one of the world's most successful streaming music services with a social network, sans a few features that define a social network aspect of a social network. Spotify is crowned one of the top services to have a large international library with hits of today and yesteryear with over 24 million active users filling their lives with more music than they could ever imagine. Of those users, many of them have noticeably taken advantage of social features, including sharing their playlists, profiles, or simply what they're listening to. What's missing from the social aspect of Spotify that holds as a key need to prove a successful social network - visual identity... or as the people call it, "Profile Pictures." 

Profile pictures, if you haven't been awake for the last century, have been a cornerstone for which social [networking] profiles have considered a necessity to uniquely identify a person, group, brand, or a name visually; without it, we would all be friends with at least 5 strangers you wouldn't have the pleasure of meeting in heaven. The first thing a user thinks about when visually identifying a person is "Am I following the right person?" and first impressions call for visual identity. The right person is only defined as the user sees it - a friend from back in High School or some attractive other (and I'm not suggesting anything in particular.) Take it or leave it, in this day in age, you cannot go without a profile picture and a placeholder is socially inacceptable.

Bringing our focus back to Spotify's social interactions, the number one loss is part of a user's identity - Spotify users must borrow from another one of the world's most successful social networks to fulfill a part of its social network (Facebook) to obtain a profile picture for a user. There is yet for Spotify to eliminate the need for Facebook to set a profile picture on Spotify, but, at the same time, Spotify believes it is not necessary to implement the essential feature that visually gives a name to social networks for the masses. A variety of users have already announced their disappointment at the lack of a basic feature, but it is beyond the common user to discover what truly holds Spotify from implementing a feature everyone has taken for granted.

Why solely relying on Facebook for a photo is a bad idea…

What's so excellent about social networking on the Internet is the user's choice, principally, and that it comes in multiple platforms. With so much to choose from (Twitter, Google+, Last.fm, LinkedIn, and Facebook, to name a few…), the question of naming a social network to the general public is virtually answerable with at least one answer everyone will know. That goes with regard that not everyone will choose one answer or certain answers (and by that, I mean Facebook), let's get with reality here: Facebook isn't the only social network. Facebook is the top platform to reveal data, so it is, without a doubt, the first platform any developer or company will go to for any data retrieval (which, to some people, can be seen as an evil) and, like Spotify, those companies are fearless in using it even as a sole agent. We can group the users who admire this singularity for an entire day, but it would not put the case to rest just as war wouldn't solve the world's problems. 

Technical Setback

As far as technology is concerned, software development is not a language taught in elementary schools (yet) and, conceivably, is not a spoken language in a consumer-developer connection medium. In respect to the developers who work on creating a streaming-social media platform, the explanation to the technical standpoint of the absence of this feature can be a simple explanation or complicated to the aspect of total software functionality. In short to the user, having this feature can either make or break the entire piece of software that is Spotify. As far as a general Spotify user knows, an upload could cause all hell to break loose when the system cannot process the image properly for the software. The technical block that not all can comprehend is best unquestioned. Users have been able to live without a feature, whether they realise it or not. However, the developers will surely remain atop the issue.

The statements presented are the opinions and speculations of the writer and is not that of Spotify, its staff/employees, or anyone internally. This article was written from self-will and is presented to the members of the Spotify Community. 

For those too lazy to read this article, please highlight the following white speace beneath this line:

Why are you too lazy to read? I'm explaining to you why this might not be happening for a while in a neutral, journalism format. I support this idea and I've given everyone what I believe is going on through speculation.

For those of you who DID read the article, you deserve a cookie.

[AmberMetalhead]

I really want to have a profile picture , or change my name , but of ALL things , HOW did they froget about this!!!!

[GŌRGĀ]

I do believe tht this should be one of the priorities, since spotify has a social side to it. 

It is quite strange that no one from the spotify team has thought about this yet. I see topics as old as two years that has been asking the same questions.

Cmon Spotify we are still waiting.

[Sfchic11]

I recently requested this in the spotify feedback contact form and got an email back saying "Profile pictures are stored on Facebook's servers so at the current time it's only possible to do if your account is attached to Facebook I'm afraid." If users can go on the spotify site to edit their profile, there should be a simple upload form for a profile pic. Let us out some JPEGs on your server spotify! Stop being stingy and Facebook exclusive, I don't pay for this service to be forced into a Facebook account!

[thejoshh99]

Please resolve this already. The only excuse for this is a deal with Facebook. It's not rocket science to let a user upload an image and distribute it across your CDN, so I don't buy the "we don't have time for this right now" garbage.

[misterdix]

do it.

[vlatko019]

We are still waiting.....