Spotify needs to become more Album "Collection" based, it's too track-focused at the moment

[philask]

Before Spotify I had (well still have, but mostly untouched these days) large MP3 collection organized into Artist/Album/Tracks folder structure.  This worked well for me and combined with Playlists meant that I maintained my personal "collection" of "Albums" as well as favourite tracks and Playlists for particular occasions / moods.

What I find these days is that I'm losing track of Albums, I have Spotify Playlists (although the flat Playlist structure tires me), but it's just not the same as having a personalized "Collection" of music.

Spotify needs to add the ability to build your own "Collection" (not Library, which is still track based), this should be organized however you like, but at least providing Artist / Album / Year drill-down structure (folders or not).  It'd be nice to match this against existing MP3 collections and Libraries.  The ability to tag playlists and collections (and/or albums) would also be a bonus.

What I'm getting at here is the missing part (for me) in Spotify is the ability to "virtualize" (cloudize?) my mental image of a music collection, which is shelves of albums sorted into some logical order (years, artists, genre, whatever), but mostly Albums, not just Tracks.

My 2 cents.

UPDATE 21/4/13: I don't seem to be "allowed" to embed images in my posts (sad).  I've recently been using Google Music on a Nexus 10 and I have to say it has almost the perfect Album / Genre / Artist interface.  I particularly love the way that in Artist view you see Albums stacked and they move subtly in 3D as you scroll.  The only thing missing here would be Year and latest-added sort/views.  Anyway here are the screenshots, this is DEFINITELY a better way to "visualize my collection":

http://community.spotify.com/t5/media/gallerypage/user-id/298076/album-id/3824

UPDATE 16/5/13:

Google Play Music All Access does this and more

Sorry Spotify but looks like you were too slow.  Google just ate your lunch, dinner and breakfast for the next 10 years.  Google Play Music All Access has the above functionality (add any album to "my collection") and more, including a MUCH better visualization of your collection, album based browsing and a considerably better radio implementation.

UPDATE 21/5/13:

Spotify ignore albums, again

It's pretty obvious now that Spotify have no interest in the albums or the art of constructing an album, don't they realize that most artists work for years to create a "piece of work" known as an album, not just a bunch of random tracks?  Today Spotify launched their "Charts", which once again completely ignore albums... What with Google Play Music All Access and Rdio I think Spotify are going down the slippery fail slope to irrelevance.

http://charts.spotify.com/

UPDATE 1/1/14:

Looks like Spotify took this suggestion seriously and have been beta testing Collections for quite a while (yes, they made me a beta tester 😉 )  It works well and I'd imagine it'll be mainstream soon.    (Keep giving the idea Kudos to continue to support it)

[hank_spotify]

Yo Bozos! Maybe somebody already suggested this, didn't have time to read everything here, BUT....

To create Album Collections why not just create a folder path like this:

MUSIC LIBRARY (folder) > 

MUSIC STYLE (folder: This folder is inside of the "Music Library" folder, and will basically be your "collection" of albums for whichever genre of music you choose, or however you want to sort your albums.) >

MUSIC ALBUM (folder: This folder is inside the "Music Style" folder. Within this folder you will create Playlists such as "Band Name - Album Title". After you do this, pull up that album, select all the track and drag them into the Playlist. Wa-La. You can now start creating a full library of music with as many collections of albums as you want.)

It is kinda convoluted, but I imagine anyone who has spent the time getting to know the available tools on Spotify has figured this out already. But I couldn't find anything explaining it when I searched for creating collections of albums on Spotify.

BTW, I much prefer the way it use to be as you could simply click and drag an album into a Playlist which would then  expidite the process of having to actually create a Playlist with the "Band Name & Album Title" as one would just automatically be created with all of the songs already in it (Why would you change that?). Oh well, work-around is easy enough. Plus you get a more intimate knowledge of how to spell the band name and album title. 

[magnusback]

Huh?
Not talking about already owned albums. For albums already on Spotify.

[Winder89]

I think this is a great idea and a step in the right direction, sinc I find Spotify lacks a good library management experience.

[Laurentdmam38]

Hello,

In the same idea i've just seen that when in albums library, you can display only saved albums : but can't find anything cause it shows every singles too...so no more interest than the titles library...

As the previous messages from 5 years ago, no real improve in the library for personal use and configuration.

I like spotify but thanks to improve regarding to all the apps that can replace spotify !

[Janjay2nice2]

I agree check this sound out https://open.spotify.com/track/1BWQjyX5O4odn4XbauzwD2?si=KCJyCXJUTRmsGJgL9Ie6hQ

[grahamthegrand]

I completely agree, i suggested to their twitter that they could let you re organise your 'albums' section in your own personal order

[tashahaan30]

Hi everyone! I would like to know what happened to the album Simple Plan. Their very first album, that is one of my favorites. You guys did have it on here and then you took it off. Can you please put the album back on Spotify??

[FedeJacobitti]

Yup, Dirt by Alice in chains missing half of the album, Paranoid by Black Sabbath is almost completely gone... It's a trend lately, so .. if this doesn't improve in some time, I'm afraid I'll consider the competition, sooner rather than later.

[stuhac]

Apparently this idea was implemented in 2014, but even a cursory look at the “Your Library” UX shows that Spotify don’t get it. We want to listen to ALBUMS by ARTISTS, not lists of tracks!

[Rene01]

Hi @stuhac,

What's exactly your problem. Library -> albums doesn't work for you? If so, why not?

For me it does, I have all my favorite albums in the albums hub.

Regards,

• René