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So where has my library gone?

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So where has my library gone?

Updated Spotify desktop client yesterday (about says v0.9.8.258) and the 'Library' option has dissappeared and been replaced by a rather useless and blank looking Your Music > Songs / Albums / Artists. Also I cannot star anything, a plus seems to have replaced the star. The Library was my goto screen on spotify as it contained all my local files and playlists....Spotify has rendered itself rather useless for me in 1 update, unless I go and manually create a library playlist which I would then have to manually update each time I added new music.

 

Please advise how to get the library back or a suitable workaround which provides the same functionality. Also, why the hell were users not notified of this big change?

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@mdewater wrote:

Interesting to read these comments. During the beta testing for the new design, the Library function was brought up maybe once or twice, and we pretty much came to the conclusion that it (along with stars) wouldn't be missed. From what I understand, a very small percent of users actually use the Library. Interesting to note that even a feature that is not widely used is still a lot of people's GO TO method of using Spotify.

 

I for one always thought the Library was completely and utterly useless. A giant pile of thousands and thousands of songs? No thanks, I could never listen to music that way.

 

Just more proof of how many types of users there are here.


Thanks for sharing some of what was said in the beta forum.  I don't think you understand how I use the library.  I use it as a reference to see if I've come across a track before.  Between EPs, full album releases, remixes and such, I might come across the same track several times.  I'll give something new and interesting a listen, if I like it, I'll add it to my "heavy rotation" playlist, if not, I throw it in a "nope" playlist.  (I start a new "heavy rotation" playlist every month and save the tracks from last months into other playlists). If I come across a new track that sounds familiar, I can check to see if it's in my library to see if I've listened and rejected it before.  If Spotify had an easy way to check to see if something was already in a playlist, I wouldn't need the library.

 

As far as power users and casual users go, I remember when iTunes Match came out and some power users were howling that it was limited to 25,000 songs.  While I don't have nearly that many tracks, I sympathized with them.  They were obviously passionate about music and were hurt by the limit.  My husband doesn't use Spotify, and he listens to his entire music library on shuffle all the time. He will listen to Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and then the Dead Kennedys.  (I'm not making this up). It's not what I would do, but he likes it.

 

You should open your mind that not everybody enjoys music the same way you do.  You don't know me.  Don't judge me.

 

Haha I'm not judging anyone!! I've been the one advocating others not to judge ME! There's all kinds of different users, and it's interesting to hear how different users use these different features. Yours is especially unique, with a "no good" playlist.


@mdewater wrote:
Haha I'm not judging anyone!! I've been the one advocating others not to judge ME! There's all kinds of different users, and it's interesting to hear how different users use these different features. Yours is especially unique, with a "no good" playlist.

Glad you still have a sense of humor.  As for my style, I used to have a limited budget for music.  I used iTunes wishlist to come up with a list and then cut it down to fit my budget. I was still spending twice what I spend now for Spotify.

Ain't that the truth.... I have not bought any music for a heck of a long time... Have not bought a "CD" for about 5 years...  Loaded all of my 1700 cd's to the computer and sold them (yes I know that digital music in general is lower quality... I will live... the convenience outweighs the loss of quality...). I love that aspect on online streaming... Spotify has been veru innovtive and has changed the streaming business; mainly with the approach they took to paying artists for their work; revolutionized the industry. The monthly fee is cheap for all the enjoyment I get...

 

I hope that the Spotofy business model can be modified to allow them to survive... According to the business publications they are still operating in the red... Course they are just guessing... I want Spotify to Live Long and Prosper... 😉

La Rube: Naïve but experienced

mdewater:

 

You missed the point completely... I was not talking about the labels, I was talking about how YOU have generalizing about the users here... Your generalizations do not help the discussion... I do not care how Spotify categorizes people... You assumed that all "power users"use the system like you do... Just not true... That was the point I was trying to make...

 

Thanks for the dialogue however... Ain't it great when the internet works like it 'sposed to work? Open free discussions! Wow! 😉

La Rube: Naïve but experienced

I don't feel I was generalizing anyone. I just pointed out that those of us who did the testing must indeed use Spotify in a similar manner, or else the issue of losing stars and library would have been a bigger deal during beta. Not generalizing if I'm going based on what actually happened. I was grouping the beta testers together, not the "power users". I understand that each user is different, even within those similar categories.

Regardless, I apologize for having offended you. I was certainly only trying to make sense what Spotify was thinking when they made these changes, as so many people have asked. Of course I can't speak for them, but I thought I'd try.

Really Peter - "not a tab most people used" - that's a bit presumptuous - I used it all the time because I did not want to make playlists out of every song I saved and if I wanted to listen to a song or group of songs I could just click on the list randomly - now all the miscallaneous songs I saved over the last two years are just gone poof because of someone's arbitrary decision - why were they not moved into the new songs tab as a default ?  I am really sorry I upgraded to the "new" version .

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I want my library back !!! - I had tons of songs on there not in a playlist - why were they not simply tramsferred tp tje new "songs" tab with the new version ???  Very inconsiderate and presumptuous thinking by Spotify - two thumbs down !

I don't understand why Spotify didn't just copy all people's tracks from their Starred section to the new library. Seemed like a very idiotic oversight. Who exactly designed this program? When I copy all my tracks from Starred to "Songs," they only look they're there until I restart Spotify. They dissapear after I restart the program. Seriously? Really shotty programming here people.

Or simply make it a new funtion... Clear your history? Something that could be done as wanted or needed...

 

There has to be more at work here than just the beta testers oppinions... There has to be some fundamental business or technical reason for the change that has to do with the future of the business... So a good business decisions often has consequences both good and bad... This may one that answers the underlying business issue but will not serve a small minority of customers... This is the sort of business decision that some times has to be made...

 

Guess it is time for me to re-evaluate Spotify as it stands and decide if it is better than what else is available... It is what it is and I will move on one way or the other... I am but a small voice in the wilderness... 😉 ... and although it is fun to have these discussions they will not change what is extant today...

 

For instance, this is a prime driver for me to test the radio feature which I almost never used... See if it is smarter than Pandora... I know there are over 20 times the available tracks... just have to test the algorithms for customizing the station...

 

Just imagine if I had signed up with Spotify today... I would wonder what all the brouhaha is about! I would probably be happy with the offering as it is... Ciao,,,

La Rube: Naïve but experienced

These discussions can influence things, eg when Spotify reversed their decision to make signing in and sharing by Facebook mandatory. I certainly wouldn't waste my time having pleasant discussions on here if I didn't think it could make a difference.

 

In my experience, the Spotify Radio function is incredibly good - light years ahead of crappy Pandora.

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@wewantsthering Check out this bug topic which explains about what goes wrong when you drop too many tracks into My Music at once and how to work around it.

I've just spent three hours digging through all the comments about the library having disappeared, which for a last part consist of people being accused of condescending behaviour and then apologizing for that. Which of course is all very interesting, but the real bug for me is that Spotify doesn't automatically put all my added songs in one folder, like a smart playlist in iTunes. Consequently if I want all songs in one folder, I'll have to do that manually. I would really appreciate it if someone could give me a simple yes or no on that.

Thanks for your help!

I don't like your tone of voice.

Well, I'm very sorry to hear that. Hopefully somebody else will be able to overcome that and answer my question, which, I can't emphasize enough, would be very much appreciated. Really.

Humaart, you are correct. There is not a way right now to get a smart playlist that shows all of your music in one place. It has to be done manually whether by adding the songs to Your Music or playlists that you put in a folder. FYI, you can click on the folder to see every song from every playlist inside of it. Kind of a workaround to the lack of the automatic library.
dinomightSpotify Star
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Note: I'm not a Spotify employee.

If you prefer to wait, they have said they will give us a way to import from playlists into My Music here @humaart .

Thanks @dinomight & @jwylot! Now I know how I'm gonna spend all those rainy nights until Spotify comes up with a solution 🙂

So after writing the company, I learned they do not plan to change the library issue. And while they acknowledge removing the library, they do not apologize or even acknowledge that they failed to give customers any notice or choice to not upgrade to what I feel like a major change. I still feel like they cannot even justify the change - was it to help them give out fewer royalties to artists? For myself, I used the search option in the library to constantly update my catalog with new music and to make sure I wasn't adding duplicates of songs, not to mention the tons of songs that were only in the library, nowhere else because they weren't good enough to star or put in a playlist but still worth having. The sad thing about the whole situation is that with even just a one-minute notice, we could have just added our libraries to a playlist and all those songs would have been saved. Now they have disappeared into oblivion. Here's the response I received:


"I'm sorry about the trouble the new update has caused you. Unfortunately, as you already know, the Library feature has been removed completely, and won't be returning in the foreseeable future. 

And, as sorry as we are about this, if you had songs in your Library that weren't either starred or stored in a playlists, we won't be able to recover them. We aren't able to restore you back to a previous version either. 

However, if the majority of songs you're looking for are in either you Starred list or various playlists, you can simply drag & drop each playlist into the 'Songs' section of 'Your Music'. That will then create a Library style feature, where all your songs will be in one place. 

Again, if the songs you're missing aren't in either you starred list or a playlists of yours, we won't be able to recover this. I'm sorry if this has caused you any kind of inconvenience. 

As our way of apologising, why don't we go ahead and add a month of Premium to your account, free of charge? Hopefully that'll make up for the inconvenience caused, and also show some gratitude for being such a loyal user! 

Let me know 🙂

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Jon
Customer Service Advisor
Cambridge, UK"
 
If nothing, if you express your anger about the change, they will probably offer you a month free of service. Hope this answers some things.

@kingkwong: I like your last sentence, which could also mean that if you communicate your anger, you won't get any service for a month. But seriously, it's beyond me as well why they're doing this. It hardly can be hard to imagine why people like the library function. I used it as an addition to iTunes, but then with music that I only have on Spotify. I mean, every music nerd wants to have his whole collection within reach, right? Anyway, thanks for the extensive message.

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