[Mobile] Preview albums for free users

[ollylee03]

Recently, Spotify took away the ability for free users to see what songs are in an album or by a particular artist.

Before, free users were able to select an album, press “preview” or “and more”, and see a list of all the songs in the album, each with a short audio demo. This made it much easier to discover new artists, and created a much more convenient user experience.

The only way to hear samples of songs now is to listen through Spotify-made playlists. Unfortunately lots of smaller artists don't feature on many of these playlists making it very difficult to sample/discover their music. 

Obviously, I understand that as a free user there are compromises that need to be made by users like listening to ads, only being able to shuffle and not being able to listen to specific songs, but removing the ability to see what songs I'm shuffling is silly; so silly in fact that many users thought it was a glitch in the app at first. 

It's clear that this is an attempt to force more free users into going premium but some users simply can't afford it, so this is an unnecessary punishment. Many users, including myself, will be looking for alternative music services if this change isn't reversed. 

[spicynoodles14]

ok what the heck spotify? free users have enough limited features in the first place but now we can’t even look at songs in an album. what’s even the point of a app that lets you browse music without being able to actually browse music? it’s a pathetic money grabbing attempt to tempt users into paying subscriptions when the only thing your tempting me to do is get an apple music subscription just so i won’t give y’all want you want. really toeing the line here.

[LogicNamedJesse]

Yes! Please give this back.

It's irritating to have to jump through hoops and dig through other playlists just to find songs of an album, when a simple click to the tracklist was perfect. It's not fair. It's been there for how long for free users and you took it away, why? I don't think it's enough to push people into subscribing if everything else offered wasn't enough. They either don't want it or can't afford it. Don't start taking things from the free users, it's not going to have the effect you want, like people choosing a different music app.

If you want to get more subscribed, add brand new ideas and things to offer. Don't just screw over most of your consumer base because they don't pay. They're still worth having. They give the numbers you like to show off about the amount of plays/streams/app users/ETC., plus being the people listening to all the ads. Any person using your app is a plus to keep hold of.

[Uan5]

I love how the idea has reached the required votes for months now but has still not been responded to.

[Scamper623]

Idk how to upvote this cuz it's not letting me, but I wholeheartedly agree with this post! I just assumed it was a glitch for the longest time, but now that I know what's actually going on, I'm even more **bleep**.

[yasemingokce]

One thing that has been frustrating using Spotify free is the restriction to click on any album and view the list of the songs.

This limits any information we want to access e.g. name of the songs, quantity and the choice to listen to previews also to be able to add songs to personalised playlists without having to type out the name of the song specifically on the search bar if we have missed to add it while listening to the album on shuffle. I could easily just access the song through the album without having to type it out if Spotify allowed which wasn’t an issue before a while back. 

[tysol]

I have never used community Spotify before, but I came across this page when I was googling if there was any way to reverse this. It seems we're all out of luck, though.

The removal of this feature has irritated me for months, and it's hard to believe it's still going ignored.

For the record, I like to pay for premium when I can. Sometimes I do, but I don't have a steady income, so often I use free. I am very grateful to Spotify for its massive library, and that free users are still allowed access to it in full with the price of features being taken away.

This feature being taken, however... It's a bit of a doozy. Clearly the goal is to frustrate people enough that they buy premium. I get that.... but you can still find an album's full tracklist if you type the album + artists name into the search bar and choose "all songs." Likewise, any community made playlist allows you to Actually click through on the "and more," and there you can listen to previews of those songs.

So, theoretically, you could search up an album in the search bar, add every song listed onto a playlist, and then go preview the songs in that playlist.

But if you create playlists typically like I do by browsing artist's pages, flipping through their albums, and adding songs that are interesting, that method becomes all the more exhausting and inconvenient.

It just makes me wonder what the point is of taking album listings/previews from artist's pages if you can still go find them in a roundabout way anyway? It's pointlessly inconvenient.

I don't really consider being able to read a tracklist a "perk;" if you browse CDs at a music shop you can read the back. They don't go "nuh-uh! No peeking!"

I'm rambling on and on here, but obviously I find this very annoying. Others have said it better than me, but not being able to look at album tracklists on artist pages feels more like a free user punishment than a premium member exclusive. It doesn't make me want to buy a subscription; it makes me want to take my business elsewhere where maybe I'll be treated with more respect... Honestly, buying used CDs, breaking out my old iPod, and paying small artists directly for their music seems like the direction I'm headed eventually. 

[Youweiparra]

why did you have to remove the "This Is: (artist)" playlist Spotify...
now my phone is better for finding new songs... wUt?

Also @tysol thanks for the tip on how to see an artist's library

[user-removed]

This needs to be fixed, seriously, its not cool.

[Tonyonthehill]

Agree with ALL of the above comments.Miffed pensioner!!!!!!!!

[soniaherrcres]

it would be a good idea to return that option because it is very useful to know what song you are listening to