[Music] Personal Rating of Music

[Hideaki]

It would be awesome if it was possible to give a personal rating to your songs and albums (and artists), and then sort them after it in your playlists.

Hope to see it in the future, it shouldn't even be that hard. 

Thank you!

[atava]

I'd say it is almost primitive not to have a track rating system for such a useful piece of software as Spotify, one which helps people gathering their favorite music. I was already a computer user in the 90s and that was always and naturally one of the first things cared for in such pieces of software.

Sadly, nowadays companies completely miss the point when it comes to features extremely needed for or wished by the community. They even change things when they work, in an apparent morbidity for "originality" which often just removes, instead of adding.
I'm not saying this meanly, it is just like things seem to be. I guess that often it has to do with software being made by a bunch of people with very different interests, or simply not of the passionate, "hardcore" type of user.

What they should really understand is that if a feature is requested by someone on the Internet (I mean, by one person only), it already means that there are at least dozens of thousands of people out there who would like to see it operative, or who constantly miss that feature.
And if - like in this case - hundreds of people are strongly looking forward to the feature being implemented and go as far as writing a comment here, then it means that a very large portion of the userbase is dissatisfied with regard to how things are handled in that regard.

It is a matter of scale, you see, ever so missed by those responsible of software who come and read support forums. Even when the software is used by millions.

Note that in addition to feature requests, this rule also applies to users' frustration (in such a case, for not seeing the problem adequately cared for or for seeing it simply dismissed).
Among the thousands leaving your service now and then be sure that there are many being dissatisfied with the lack of a track rating system, possibly reverting to the infamous iTunes-downloads solution, the bad they want or need ratings.

I myself - who love Spotify so much and have been gladly paying for the subscription for years now - have searched the Web for similar services implementing ratings, and I admit that I would have already switched to those (despite my daily, heavy use of Spotify) had I found what I was looking for. This is something that would have not even crossed my mind weren't for such a core feature lacking.

Concretely speaking, you're forcing us to make ludicrous "****"/"***"-playlists just to cope with this. Which is, needless to say, so wrong for so many reasons that it isn't even worth talking about.
Please step up to the next level, and don't follow other services in this. Because when you will be implementing "stars" just to catch up with what others are (finally) doing, it may already be too late. And faithful users like me may not be here anymore.

Cheers,
Antonio

P.S. To prove that what I said is true, I invite anyone who has done a better or more recent search than mine to suggest music services with ratings to me, if there are any. Thanks.

[mrfart]

I a way, I really hope the lack of a rating system is incompetence.

However, it's far more likely that it has been left out on purpose.

When I open spotify, I see all sorts of recommendations lists. Few, if any, have anything to do with the music I listen to.

Once people rely entirely on the spotify algorithms for their music 'choice', these algorithms can be monetized beyond limit. It's similar to what clear channel did with radio. Buy all the radio stations, and play the music of the people who pay you the most. Do this long enough and listeners will experience this music as 'their' music, creating a vicious circle.

[atava]

The scenario you depict is a sad one, but by no means unrealistic. I hope
things are different with Spotify, though (at least partially).
With regard to ratings, they could always ignore them when making
suggestions for new music, although I guess that would look kind of
suspicious and hint to some policy of the sort you describe.

I do think like you that there is some monetization problem involved, but I
left that out of my post because I felt it wouldn't do it (nor Spotify) any
good.
I just wish things could be like there were once... you know, when software
(of any kind, be it music programs or video games) was made out of a
passion or simply to cater to people's needs. Not primarily to cash in,
like they do today, and such huge sums even.
Money nowadays seems to be the only drive that keeps people doing stuff,
and so now I'm here, in 2017, unable to tell my music library that I like
song X more than song Y, something which I've been allowed to do since
ages. Unable to neatly arrange my songs according to my preference, so that
I get an instant view of what I like the most or the least in any given
album or playlist.
This is some core stuff. This is what everyone of us wants, or would use if
it was already there.

Be it some subtle economic reason or only "incompetence", as you quite
strongly put it, things like this simply hurt, and make me feel less and
less sure that we're bound to go forward and only add incrementally in the
IT world (as I've always naively thought), to never go back.
I'm talking about Spotify here but I've seen the like of this over and over
again in the last years, even by such unthinkable companies like Google
(but I guess that good programmers eventually die, and are replaced by
others; in the end software is made by people).

Sorry for digressing. Thanks for your comment, although as I said I hope
all this economic theory is just speculation.

[user-removed]

What great posts!
Thank you atava and mrfart, I totally agree with your opinions!
In the meantime, I've given up wondering which simple things in Spotify could make our lives easier.
I have:
1. The programmers friendly addressed - no reaction
2. The programmers critically addressed - no reaction
3. Meredith (Community Manager) personally contacted - no reaction
4. Improvement suggestions made - no reaction
There have been many updates in the last few months.
In none of them was one of the ideas that I wanted to influence realized. All were blocked!
Some ideas were already 2 to 5 years old!
I wonder what has been "updated" and will ....
My last suggestion here again
1. Use Kudo control only for overall product ideas.
2. Consider the user ideas separately and implement them.
I will also send this comment to Meredith (Community Manager).
A good time!

[mrfart]

True,

Spotify updates its app all the time, but never gives any real explanation on what has been changed.

It's always the standard line "we're continually..."

There seems to be no real communication toward the users what they are changing and will be implementing in the future. Or maybe I'm missing something?

[atava]

I've just stumbled upon this: Google Music had implemented a star-based rating system for their service, then abruptly removed it for no reason.

Implementing a feature which instantly gets the approval of many (with no-one complaining), then removing it for no reason and replacing it with some dumbed-down alternative of it... must mean some precise plan has begun.

This is very sad, and almost makes the above assumptions about money really being behind all this more plausible.

I'm so forced to repeat what I wrote. They don't make software like they used to.

[mrfart]

Yeah, Netflix also works with a thumbs up/down system now.

To quote the verge:

"Apple Music overlays iTunes’ existing "star" rating system with a binary "heart" system — stars are how "good" you think the music is, while hearts represent whether or not you want that song to be a part of your personal music delivery algorithm.

It began to dawn on me that a broader shift was happening across all these streaming platforms: value was being placed on how often a song was being played, but not how much we actually like it. Björk is one of my favorite artists of all time, but I’m not going to tell Apple Music to deliver me a lot of random Björk songs; most times are not optimal Björk-listening times. Meanwhile, I’m playing a Justin Bieber and Diplo song three times a day. I bought Post as a physical album in high school; I’m never going to pay for a download of the Jack Ü album. And I suspect many other people have experienced a version of this. What do streaming platforms think they’re learning about our listening habits? Am I contributing to a future pseudo-meritocratic music dystopia?"

Personally, I'm still getting sixties music recommendations from spotify because I played a playlist of it in the background of my dad's birthday party. I don't like any of it, but because I played it hours on end one day 6 months ago spotify still thinks I love it. Like I said before, if it wasn't for my family using my family subscription a lot, I would cancel it in a heartbeat.

It's not worth all this work trying to overcome simplistic algorithms, and in a way, it's even insulting.

[atlboy4k]

Make this a premium feature then, I would love to be able to sort my songs by rating.

[4lightz]

This is the only feature Spotify desperately needs imo!  Often times I want to remember which songs in a Playlist or Album I like the best/least, but there's no way to do that. 

Please please please add this feature asap!!

[MikeGahrns]

I think it is become quite clear that Spotify does not want you to be able to play the music that you like the best.  They want to choose the songs they feed you.  Since so many people have wanted this and it is rather simple to implement, I have come to the conclusion that they are doing this monetary reasons.  e.g. getting payments for song placement, or doing things based on the royalty payments they need to pay rather than letting you listen to the music you want.