Currently, I am a user of Apple Music. However I have been looking at rejoining Spotify due to the many amazing features that it has as well as the social features which make everything feel a lot more community driven, whereas Apple Music can feel a lot more lonely.
However, there is one big thing that is stopping me from rejoining. Whilst the playlists and discovery options are undeniable. The ‘My Library’ section is a mess. I know as a company you lean into the playlist side, but fixing up your ‘My Library’ section would bring in a lot of the Apple Music users including myself. It would really tip the scale. Currently it is way too messy and all over the place.
Firstly, the tabs at the top. A mix of playlists, artists, songs and podcasts unless you click those tabs to find what exactly you want. Finally you click on an artist and it takes you to their page rather than all your saved albums from that artist. It’s a complete mess. And doesn’t feel intuitive or most importantly, welcoming.
I understand the ‘home’ and ‘search’ sections feeling this messy as the hustle and bustle of finding music is what makes it exciting. But ‘My Library’ should feel cosy and like a collection. A place to escape when I know exactly what I want to listen to. This is what Apple Music excels at and is what is stopping me and many of the people I speak to that use AM from making the switch.
On AM, you click on your library and you have your pinned artists, followed by your categories which take you into specific pages for those specific things. This is so much more welcoming than tabs at the top of the screen that you filter between. Yes it’s quicker than opening a separate page, but quicker doesn’t mean better. With AM I feel like I’m flicking through MY personal collection. After all, isn’t it called “My Library” ?. So why doesn’t the layout reflect this? You shouldn’t have to filter things out that you don’t want. You should be able to access the things that you do. It’s so counterintuitive.
On AM, you click on artist and it actually takes you to the screen of your saved content for that specific artist. Rather than their AM page. If I wanted their page, I can then click on their name again and then go to that page. This again, is much better than Spotify as I’m not greeted by a multitude of things that I’m not interested in. If I wanted to check an artists Spotify page, I would search it up. If I’m entering through My Library. Then that’s exactly what I want to see. My library of songs from this artist, no?
Going back to the pinned artists too, these need to be like AM and be separate from the rest of the list. Having the separation between pinned makes them actually stand out as pinned. On Spotify they just blend in with the rest of the content. Which creates this part organised, part unorganised with an ugly green pin next to it. Again, it comes back to that one word … messy.
In conclusion, please please please fix up the My Library section. Many music enthusiasts such as myself would flock back to Spotify if this was actually organised properly and a pleasant experience to use! Because after all, isn’t that what’s actually important … the music?