[All Platforms][Your Library] Delete Songs from Account History

[juniper7997]

There should be a way for me to control my history of songs played. Sometimes I accidentally play things I don't want to hear or I try listening to songs I don't like. I should be able to remove them from my history so that my stats are accurate for song and music suggestions. 

Also....My account was hacked and someone played music I would never listen to. I can't delete those songs from my history. I can only remove them from my recently played section. I DON'T LIKE THAT!

I tried to ask a customer service agent to delete the songs, but they said it couldn't be done. Wow! Move to the 21st century, Spotify, and give your customers some more control. Sheesh!

[yannickm4a]

I just think there are too many examples of services or programs letting you delete your history that it is not antithetical. Even Excel let's you delete your history of recent opened Spreadsheets.

Also I don't understand why Spotify doesn't fit my use case? On the website it even tells you that it's there to recommend you "personalized features, such as Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Daily Mix." So it's made for my use case of discovering new music. (https://support.spotify.com/us/using_spotify/getting_started/what-is-spotify/)

So I am supposed to pay another $10 now instead of just having one button in my history just as in every generated playlist that let's me mark the track as "not liked" or delete them? Personalized means it should fit me and why shouldn't Spotify let me help them do a better job at finding what I like.

[user-removed]

Is that really the case, though?

Other services have "History" lists, but they're more like indexes. I actually prefer the Spotify approach to the History feature. Think about it. The reasons people list for needing History are in response to other problems: I accidentally clicked on something, my account was hacked, my kids got in, I don't have a way to curate what I listened to recently, etc. Adding editing control to History is a bandage and doesn't really address the root issues.

Give me global undo for when I accidentally click on something, yes. Give me two-factor authentication, yes. I'll buy the family plan and the kids can have their own devices, yes. Let me intelligently turn my recent history into a playlist or into existing playlists.

History editing is a kludge. Let's encourage Spotify to do innovative, smart things with their platform that open us up to new listening possibilities.

[jayinsult]

So your account is compromised, you make Spotify aware of the problem, and yet you have no recourse to undo what was done to your account when compromised, because reasons?

Absolutely ridiculous. This should be an easy and obvious fix, and the idea that it is mutually exclusive to pushing forward innovation is ridiculous as well. The platform should be continuously improved in every way possible.

As for the argument that it's a bandage? Sometimes a bandage is necessary! That's why bandages are available.

Why you seem to be sock-puppeting against this very easy, very obvious improvement that users have asked for and expressed support for over and over again is beyond me.

[user-removed]

Well I guess I'm just a more open thinker. You don't have to like it, or respond to it.

When Windows 95 came out, everyone was mad that the Start menu lacked many of the "features" that Program Manager from Windows 3.1 had. I mean, PM had sub-windows, arbitrary icon locations, etc. and it was very flexible and it catered to users who wanted to do things their way. The Start menu broke all of that, and they all threatened to boycott Windows 95.

But what happened next was the desired outcome: the Start menu opened up Windows to mainstream users, including Grandma and Grandpa, who had no idea what a Program Manager was, or why they needed a MDI interface to get to their apps. Sacrifice one or two power users to gain a thousand casual users? Sign me up.

The point is, just because edit buttons on History seem like an obvious feature, it doesn't mean it's a good feature. Think for a second what happens to your user base when you turn History into a hub for track management. It's the slowest, most cumbersome way to control my data. Why do I want that? Why do you want that? Why would anyone ever want Spotify to be associated with the words "slowest" and "cumbersome"?

So, again, if you don't like that music you didn't play is in your History, then attack the source. Get that 2FA. Get the kids their own accounts. Focus on your playlists and your library and let History be what it was meant to be.

[user-removed]

I'm sorry if you don't see the value in the points that I make. I will not be offended if you wish to ignore anything else I say.

I think it's pretty clear by the bare-minimum number of votes and relative lack of activity on the thread that adding clutter and unnecessary features to History is probably not a good idea. I think my point are pretty concrete and best summed as don't hack bad features to solve a bad problem.

Think about it more: let's say you do add controls to manage and edit your history. Now let's walk through the customer service scenario:

"Hi, my account was hacked and now I have all of these songs in my History that I didn't listen to."
"No problem, just manually edit a few thousand songs out of your history."

"What??? How is that a solution? You suck!"

See? The problem isn't solved. Adding this "feature" just introduces further frustration in the user experience. This is why I would instead advocate for 2FA and other real solutions to real problems that affect the Spotify experience.

[beems]

You clearly don’t understand this problem at all. 2FA is fine and dandy, but lots of others have made points here that you have utterly ignored yet you still continue to parrot the same ignorant nonsense. If you don’t agree with this feature request, simply move on with your life and let others request it. Go back to annoying your friends with your pointless blather and leave us be.

[yannickm4a]

I get the 2FA point but there are also still so many users that don't even understand what 2FA is used for and also see that as more as you like to call it "slow" and "cumbersome". There will always be someone complaining. Because this is no app where you just have a button to play music and to skip it and Spotify even tries to be more than this. 

Also I know lots of people that even deleted every of their thousands of Facebook Posts by hand just so they could be sure. But like I said of course there will be people complaining to just not have it deleted since a specific date or so.

You don't accept this as a "real problem" even though you claim to be so open minded! So try to be more open.

[MaethorVorn]

Not to be the "Negative Nancy", but there is the "private session" option, which does exactly what you're asking for. Here's a copy of a staff reply regarding this feature: 

"Further, anything you listen to in a Private Session may not influence your music recommendations, for example your Discover Weekly." - https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/What-is-the-Private-Session/td-p/135860

Since you were hacked, I'd personally recommend creating a new account, subscribing, using third party services to import the content you don't want to miss from your old account, and finally deleting the old account. In a matter of days the numbers will re-adjust to your preferences 🙂

[dj_gasm]

@ MaethorVorn   You aren't necessarily being a negative nancy. That said, someone earlier in this thread (and other threads about this exact topic) point out that private session does not consistently protect your taste profile/history. They thought it would but it mostly just hides your history from the social media components of the app. This is also evident in the language of your reference:

"Further, anything you listen to in a Private Session may not influence your music recommendations, for example your Discover Weekly." 

It may not influence your music recommendations... Or it may. There are other sources claiming it does that 100% but I've found comments which say it really doesn't.

[hulkstar2017]

Parrot what ?dikhead.