Is Spotify really dropping Squeezebox support?

[aapthorp]

I just had a message flash up from the Spotify plugin on iPeng to checkout an important message at http://mysqueezebox.com/byeByeSpotify which redirects to https://support.spotify.com/us/listen_everywhere/on_speaker/why-cant-i-use-the-spotify-app-on-my-spe... telling me that Spotify support on Squeezebox will cease by July 20th. But elsewhere Spotify is promoting to listen to Spotify on Logitech Squeezebox and no mention that it's only for the next 7 days.

Which is it Spotify? time to return to listening to my ripped CD collection?

[aapthorp]

Thank you for clarifying that. You may note that this is the same link as the original post in this thread.

Can you advise how exactly the Spotify experience is being improved for those users who were disappointed to receive one week's notice of withdrawal of support? Disenfranchising your customers doesn't seem to be a great way of improving experience.

[aapthorp]

Thank you for clarifying that. You may note that this is the same link as the original post in this thread.

Can you advise how exactly the Spotify experience is being improved for those users who were disappointed to receive one week's notice of withdrawal of support? Disenfranchising your customers doesn't seem to be a great way of improving experience.

[user-removed]

Thre is an easy workaround available from a squeezebox developer, 3rd part app called spotty - works great

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?107615-Announce-Spotty-v1-1-0

[endoherman]

but the Logitech UE Smart Radio was still supported, until Spotify dropped its support!

[sj_ferguson · Accepted solution]

True, and I certainly applaud the external community for keeping it going.  However, even as a reasonably computer-savvy person, I looked at that thread, look at my Synology NAS, then look at the support for Deezer and simply take the easy way out.  See you later, Spotify.  Music streaming services are interchangeable.  This seems to be  something Spotify doesn't realise.  If Spotify drops support of my Squeezebox devices, then I prefer to subscribe to Deezer than jump through hoops to get Spotty working on my NAS.  No hard feelings, but my 20 bucks a month goes elsewhere now.  They won't miss me, I won't miss them.

[francissull-299]

Ive used spotify premium on squeezebox for a long time now but can no longer support a service that does not support me. I have switched to deezer and after getting use to it I am very happy with deezer. I even think that there streaming quality is consistently better than spotify so I dont think I would ever go back to spotify even if they change their mind. Deezer rules.

[penarthur]

A very bad decision.

[will177]

On a brand new Raspberry Pi 3 I installed Raspbian Jessie Lite (downloaded from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/) and then installed the following packages as user root (or use sudo if you prefer):

apt-get install -y libsox-fmt-all libflac-dev libfaad2 libmad0
(downloaded LMS 7.9 deb package from http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.9)
dpkg -i logitechmediaserver_all.deb
chown -R squeezeboxserver:nogroup /usr/share/squeezeboxserver/

Then I just had to install one Perl library (IO-Socket-SSL) that wasn't there by default, to make Spotty happy:
apt-get install libio-socket-ssl-perl
(it installs a couple of dependencies, libio-socket-ssl-perl and libnet-libidn-perl )

And that was it - LMS and Spotty all works wonderfully.

[1151440388]

Spotty working fine thanks to Michael Herger.

[user-removed · Accepted solution]

2 Prenium Subscriptions that will not be renewed

Bye Bye Spotify

My annoncement for today and future

[francissull-299 · Accepted solution]

Not sure why everyone is trying so hard to get spotify to play on their squeezebox. I did have spotify premium but after their drop of support for st I simply cancelled my subscription and subscribed to deezer who still supports st. I am very happy with deezer and see no difference except maybe their streaming is consistently of a higher quality. Forget spotify and subscribe to deezer.

[SkullOne]

Hmm... Thanks for this tip!

I've unsubscribed my parent's Spotify account and gave them Deezer Premium. And it indeed works like a charm! The interface (on the players) also runs a lot quicker than Spotify's plugin ever did. Pricing is the same as Spotify and I was surprised to see Deezer has a larger library than Spotify has. Audio quality is the same. So switching to Deezer seems to be a very viable option. Just install the Deezer plugin through www.mysqueezebox.com and you are set. 

[hfgermany]

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@Frede wrote:

I just don't think it's reasonable to demand that Spotify support old technology indefinitely. It's like saying that any software vendor should support their products indefinitely.

Well, but THAT should be the case. or do you expect to build yourself new roads, just because Apple decides, their cars won't run on the ones already here? Like someone said before, you're just desentizied by the industry, that you just don't think about it, that you have to buy a new phone every two years, because there won't any updates after that. It's just obscene how this behaviour developed. BTW, there is NO technical obstacle to keep a functioning API running, even if you develop new features (which isn't even the case with the new API, as someone mentioned)

[hfgermany]

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@Frede wrote:

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@SkullOne wrote:

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Nobody said anything about 'indefinitely'. But 5 years is not very long when talking about an audio device. I have a Denon AV receiver. It doesn't have Spotify on it because it's too old. Newer ones have it though. How long will Spotify support those, and other (sometimes expensive) equipment? 

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I bet your old Denon receiver does not have any software clients at all, so this does not really apply.

As he said, todays Denons have it!

For how long do you think that Spotify should have to  support, all their technologies? 10 years, 15 years? Do you also think that this should apply to all other kind of software services?

not only 10-15 years. Lifetime! That way all those Venture Capital Driven Projects get a small glimpse of real economic thinking instead of their "disrupt, fire and forget" attitude.

Yes of course it should apply to all Software Services!

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However Spotify itself is 'just' a software service. No hardware involved at the moment. Spotify's focus should be to be able to run on as many devices as possible. Sacrificing a chunk of old clients this way isn't very smart. Especially so when not giving ample notice. And they didn't have to do anything to support these older devices. What they have now works. If they want to introduce a new API older hardware can't play with they should give ample notice and consider the repercussions it involves for many old Spotify users. They clearly didn't care and for that they can (and will) by booed. And they could have opted for a separate service so the new API can coexist next to the old. It's **bleep** software so don't tell me it isn't possible. And cost wise it wouldn't be much for sure. No, there are other motives at work we can only guess at. I bet it involves maximising profits and not satisfied customers. 

Spotify provide an API to which 3rd parties can integrate and support. It is in their interest to make this integration as easy and attractive as possible which means supporting new technology (Web API). It is the 3rd parties interest to keep their devices up to date to support the functionality made available through this API. 

Saying that Spotify does not have to "anything" to keep the old services running is of course not true. The cost of maintaining software is not zero. If so, why are not all software ever released still supported, the cost should be negligable, right? 

Maximizing profits and keeping happy customers go hand in hand. 

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Sorry, but streaming Music is not the rocket science you paint a picture of. Streaming has been here for 20 years and the most maximizing profit wise would have been to not fiddle with a functioning stable API, that is established and has a large Partnerbase. Not doing anything would have cost ZERO maintanance for the API.

So all they wanted to do, is blast of 3rd Paty Partners to push Users to their App, selling them to Advertizers, allthough you are paying for their service.