How is the Spotify App for Roku so bad?

[Rattlemebones]

Let's check off the train wreck here.

You can't just see a list of all of your songs and play them. They have to be in a Playlist to play them.

But when you click on a Playlist, it just says loading but never loads forcing you to restart Roku.

Then when you restart and Spotify decides it wants to load, the songs keep freezing and skipping like an old 90s CD.

Oh, and if you downloaded new songs and saved them to your playlist during that session, the next time you log on and go through the above **bleep** show. they will ALL be gone.

Honestly they should just pull this god awful app until they can get a halfway working product. But I wouldn't hold my breath as a quick Google search shows these same issues going back 4 years.

[TheDWeinstein]

This is a funny argument. The fact is - this problem, the fact that SPOTIFY has the worst app on Roku - has nothing to do with Roku and EVERYTHING to do with SPOTIFY. They had a very decent app for years and when they got even more super successful they PULLED THE APP in favor of this
awfulness that is now the new app - with no way to access your own account or playlists. I know on some level of course the two companies have to work together to make the app work - but Spotify has not had a decent app in years since they pulled it and they are the most successful streaming music company in the world and what they have on Roku - is truly an obscene joke that they don’t seem to care about.

[TheDWeinstein]

This is a funny argument. The fact is - this problem, the fact that SPOTIFY has the worst app on Roku - has nothing to do with Roku and EVERYTHING to do with SPOTIFY. They had a very decent app for years and when they got even more super successful they PULLED THE APP in favor of this
awfulness that is now the new app - with no way to access your own account or playlists. I know on some level of course the two companies have to work together to make the app work - but Spotify has not had a decent app in years since they pulled it and they are the most successful streaming music company in the world and what they have on Roku - is truly an obscene joke that they don’t seem to care about.

[SBLocalGal]

Roku is the platform and Spotify is the application. It's up to Spotify programmers to develop their app to work with the platform it wants to use, not the other way around. A lot of the code in a platform (Roku) is already compatible with other apps that it supports and they can't just change it for one app (Spotify) and risk no longer being compatible with the other apps it supports. Spotify has the ball here...apparently, it isn't a priority for them to put resources on it. Very disappointing, from a company that has such a great product on other platforms. But like me, most subscribers are probably still using it and finding ways to get around the Roku issue (I connect via BT to my soundbar from my cellphone).

[BAILEY4545]

Honestly Spotify is pissing me off, I just renewed my premium subscription and I am very happy with the Mobile app and the newly added app on my Xbox One S which I can play through my TV speakers. Honestly the Roku app should look like the Xbox one. You have access to your full library and your playlists, it has a good search, it's really good and one of the reasons I'm still using it. But before the Xbox app came about a week ago I had to either rely on the Roku app or the app on my 2014 (I guess according to Samsung that's an old TV) Samsung SmartTV. Now the Roku app doesn't support playlist and I JUST got a message last night on my Samsung TV saying that they are removing the Spotify App! What the **bleep** Spotify?! Get your **bleep** together, this is pathetic. I'm lucky to have an Xbox that I can listen to, but if I didn't? I'd be screwed! A while ago Samsung got rid of the Skype app on their TVs that had a camera but then they added it back, I'm honestly hoping they take it away, build a new one and add it back and then do the same for Roku, but I'm not holding my breath.

[teal]

This total distain for the Roku app that Spotify has is what made me cancel my premium subscription. I don't know why this is the case but Slacker has an OK app that at least let's you get at your own music. Plus it integrates well into the Toyota entertainment system. Slacker is actually pretty good and I am not missing Spotify at all.

[anotheraudioguy]

The app is pathetic.

[user-removed]

Buyer beware. This app is worthless. Hope your stereo (or whatever you are plugging into) has bluetooth instead!

[rcflyr · Accepted solution]

Come on Spotify - the roku does everything I need but allow me to cast to it from my other devices to play music.  This app is so bad it would be better to not have it on the store at all - literally a waste of anyone's time who loves Spotify. 

If this app was the experience that users got using Spotify anywhere else, you'd have no company!

[teal]

That's the point people. You need to vote with your money since that is the only thing Spotify seems understand. There are many good alternatives out there. I myself went to Slacker which has a decent Roku app and have never regretted my decisin.

[the_unhipster]

I think that Roku's plan is to switch away from standalone players (like
the one that Roku originally used), and instead switch to players that are
controlled by a user's phone or desktop. This is what they do with the app
that's installed on the Blu-Ray player that I bought recently (the make is
Sony; although I bet other major brands that come with Spotify
pre-installed will also work, e.g. Samsung). Once I launch it, I have
little-to-no control over it, with respect to the content
(play/stop/skip/back all work). In order to choose what is played on the
Blu-Ray player, though, I have to use the spotify application on my phone,
tablet, or desktop to control what's played on the player that's on my
Blu-Ray player. In order to do that, I need to choose the Blu-Ray
player under the list of available devices that's listed on the
full-featured application on either my phone or computer (or tablet).

The problem is, however, that the Spotify Rocku app isn't viewable or
available from the list of devices on the Spotify app on my desktop (I just
launched the Roku app and re-started it on my desktop to verify). So,
effectively, they've lobotomized the Roku player, while preventing it from
being controlled from the other full-featured applications. It sucks, and I
really wish they would get themselves sorted.

[user-removed]

This is really bad, Spotify. Roku is not going away, so make a better app. Today I started playing music from my PC to roku using Roku media player. Bad news for Spotify is this is cutting Spotify out, and I have a premium family account, better get it together.

Also, why is this marked as solved when it is clearly NOT solved??

[scottypie123]

I believe it is solved: The solution is that Spotify has no plans to support Roku.

[user-removed]

Ok thats like saying the solution to stepping on someone's toe, is then giving them the middle finger. Cool bro thanks.

[paperbaggy]

GOOD NEWS!!!(HOPEFULLY)

I opened my *awful* Spotify app on my Roku earlier this week and it opened with a message that reads as follows:

Starting on Friday, Dec. 22, Spotify will be temporarily unavailable on Roku Devices

The Spotify team is making improvements and we expect the service to return as a much better overall experience in the future. We appreciate your patience as we work with Spotify to improve the music streaming experience for you.

Fingers crossed that we may be finally getting the app up to date!

[dalewisely]

I hate being skeptical, but I am. First, there's no hint of when we can expect this. Second, why would you take down the bad app before you have the promised better app ready? This smacks of some kind of contractual dispute between Roku & Spotify. 

[Sparky_Jackson]

Talked to a Spotify rep this afternoon who was surprisingly candid. Said the Roku API is incompatible with some of the Spotify legacy code and that the cost to rework the old code is greater than expected lost revenue, so they are abandoning Roku altogether. Roku has a policy for channel providers that allows them to post a message screen for 60 days following channel removal, and Spotify decided to go with a false-hope tactic to hang on to subscribers for as long as possible. Seems shady to me, but does make sense business-wise since that might buy them 2 more months of subscription fees from customers that will ultimately cancel when the Roku thing becomes public.

[rcflyr]

I don't know how Spotify thinks their Roku app helped keep subscribers
ever...

[user-removed]

Well, considering there is a Pandora app that reportedly works great, I would assume that those of us who would have liked to use Spotify significantly on their Roku, like me, will consider paying Pandora instead.

[dalewisely]

Thanks. It's good someone was willing to be transparent about this, at least 1-on-1 with a customer. 

[the_unhipster]

Wow! That is truly **bleep**ty of them.