Spotify

[canexplain]

Also I don't know what the Android app was like in April of last year but I have no problems with it as it stands now. I use it all the time; I have a series of playlists filled with music to listen to on my commute; it's real easy to switch that music out.

Also thanks to Spotify (with some help from apps like Ulysses' Classical) I am basically listen to new classical and opera all the time. I love it so much.

Dude I generally trust what ya say. I have my new pc. Should I download itunes or Spotify or pandora or ????? tnx cr****

[tmac]

i use spotify & songza over pandora

[mountmccabe]

Dude I generally trust what ya say. I have my new pc. Should I download itunes or Spotify or pandora or ????? tnx cr****

If you want to pick what you listen to use Spotify. If you want to listen to music in a more radio-station style use Pandora or Last.fm. If you want both, get both.

If you have a big mp3 collection and an iPod then I would use iTunes in addition to the above. Spotify is supposed to be able to sync with an iPod but I have not actually tried it; I don't really change the music on my iPod anymore; I just listen to Spotify playlists.

[amyzzz]

I don't really change the music on my iPod anymore; I just listen to Spotify playlists.

yep.

[NachoCat]

Is there a way to play all of your playlists on shuffle?

[lt.roast.a.botch]

create a playlist, name it something all encompassing, drag and drop all your current playlists into new playlist, play new playlist on shuffle

[NachoCat]

sounds like I would have to do this from a computer. I only use it on my phone.

[mountmccabe]

Try to avoid the new version of Spotify (for Windows) as long as possible. They worked hard to uglify it and take away functionality but it sure paid off.

[Somewhat Damaged]

Just to confirm, if I use my Spotify app at work, am I using WiFi at all, or is it just playing the music without utilizing data the way my iPhone music app does?

[mountmccabe]

The music has to come from somewhere. If you are playing music downloaded onto your phone then that is not using WiFi or mobile data. But if you are streaming just any playlist or random songs or whatever, yes, you are doing that over WiFi or mobile data.

[mountmccabe]

I will also note that somehow Spotify uses more mobile data on my phone than any other app, by far. I have it set to only download over WiFi and almost always have WiFi on while I stream.

It is almost entirely background data. It does not appear to be tied to when I stream music. That is to say I can tell when I have watched a movie over 4G via Netflix because there are corresponding jumps in the mobile data usage for Netflix. I just listened to Otello (presumably over WiFi) after not having streamed any music since Sunday but the rise is steady.

I don't know what the app is doing but it is doing it a lot. If I was close to using my 4 GB/month I would actually be concerned and do something like disable background data for the app or somesuch. But, man.

But to your question, Rick, your data usage might go up due to Spotify synchronizing playlists or whatever it is doing in the background.

[kreutz2112]

For both of you: I'd recommend completely turning off your cell data when you are at work. That way you can be sure that everything spotify does is done over WiFi.

[mountmccabe]

That does not solve my problem. And if I did have a problem with how much data Spotify used it would cut just it out from mobile data, not my entire phone. I want to know what it is doing, how it is using that much data.

[mountmccabe]

Also has anyone seen any actual enhancements from the Spotify (non-mobile) update?

This is my list of downgrades:

• Activity shows fewer actions (each takes up more room).
• Can't highlight specific friends anymore.
• More steps to find/connect with other users. "People" became "Follow".
• "Follow" includes artists but there is no indication what that means or why I want to follow artists.
• Every time it starts up it suggests that I follow artists I have no interest in.
• More difficult to get songs from an artists page to a playlist, drag/drop functionality lost.
• When you look at an album and then go back to the artist's page it jumps to the top.
• Playlists no longer show duration.
• Light grey background for everything looks awful.

And upgrading reset all my settings, from scrobbling to telling it to not start automatically.

I would post a list of improvements but I haven't found any.

I am still going to use Spotify because access to music but wow.

[bemerritt]

wow, looks like i'm staying away from the upgrade. However 90% of the time I use the mobile app. Thank god for Sprint unlimited data.

[bmack86]

John, I built a few playlists after the upgrade. The drag and drop function is not completely gone, it just is much more finicky. Usually it worked but sometimes it just didn't and I could never figure out why.

[ocbruin84]

If anyone's paying for Spotify just spend it on Rhapsody instead. Superior unless the social/Facebook aspect is crucial. In any case you can still use the free version as a supplement (like me).

[involvelemons]

Regarding the year stamp, I've had Spotify for two years now and as far as I can tell, that's the year they put the album on Spotify. Sometimes. Because obviously Electric Ladyland was not added to Spotify in 1968.
So we can pretty much just decide to not trust the year stamp.

[mountmccabe]

John, I built a few playlists after the upgrade. The drag and drop function is not completely gone, it just is much more finicky. Usually it worked but sometimes it just didn't and I could never figure out why.

It has worked for me when going from an album (or EP or whatever) and a few similar places but it has not worked for me from the artist's page, as it once did. Thus if I want to grab "Slow Hands" and "Obstacle 1" and "The Heinrich Maneuver" via drag and drop (rather than right click/send to) I have to go to each album individually rather than selecting them all from Interpol's page.

Regarding the year stamp, I've had Spotify for two years now and as far as I can tell, that's the year they put the album on Spotify. Sometimes. Because obviously Electric Ladyland was not added to Spotify in 1968.
So we can pretty much just decide to not trust the year stamp.

The year is the year the album was released (in many instances) or the year the CD or digital album those data files came from/are associated with was issued. Many, many CDs are reissued, reprinted, etc. and they don't all have special editions/bonus tracks/T-shirts to differentiate them.

[TallGuyCM]

Damn it. I have more than a few complaints about the new version of Spotify, but I just discovered the absolute worst thing about it - it doesn't look like you can truly listen to a band's catalog on shuffle anymore. When you bring up a band, and turn shuffle on, it just stays within the album of the song you clicked on.

Fucking bullshit. How do I go back to the old version?

[amyzzz]

Put all their albums in one playlist.

[ocbruin84]

[mountmccabe]

Also has anyone seen any actual enhancements from the Spotify (non-mobile) update?

This is my list of downgrades:

• "Follow" includes artists but there is no indication what that means or why I want to follow artists.
• More difficult to get songs from an artists page to a playlist, drag/drop functionality lost.

The newest updated fixed the drag/drop functionality. That is to say I can once again select and drag songs directly from an Artist page without having to click through to the album page. This is good.

Oh and this update did not reset my settings, which was nice.

And searching around I found that if you follow a band it supposedly notifies you when new songs are added to Spotify. I am not following very many artists but I haven't seen anything yet. I might add a few bands that have music coming out soon just to see how it works.

All the other stuff noted earlier is still bad.

[mountmccabe]

Also so this is here, too, I have a 2013 Collaborative Playlist and am glad that folks are starting to add songs. There are currently 33 tracks with plenty of room for more.

[lt.roast.a.botch]

^cool idea.

Glad they fixed the artist page drag and drop. That was annoying. I've been using the follow artists to follow electronic artists over bands since I tend to know when releases are coming out for a band on the board before it is on Spotify. A lot of electronic artists do not have all their EPs and Singles on Spotify and will release them randomly or months later.

[NachoCat]

If you use spotify, primarily on your phone like me. Make sure all the music you want is downloaded so it’s available offline before your trip. When you go to put on your dance pants playlist at your campsite and only half the music is available you are not going to be a happy camper.

[mountmccabe]

Thom Yorke/Nigel Goodrich/AfP removing their music from Spotify saying it is bad for new artists. Billboard article on same.

EMI has the rights to most of the Radiohead catalog so they don't have control there.


This seems to be a significant change from their attitude in 2007 when they were too full of themselves to realize why every band couldn't pull off the pay what you will model of In Rainbows.

That being said it is hard to say what to do about any of this. Pre-Spotify was pretty shitty for new artists, too. With Spotify - as with downloading - artists can be heard but that doesn't mean they make any money.

[mountmccabe]

What if Spotify required a premium level (that could be added on to any other level of service) for streaming releases less than six months (or whatever) old?

How much would that kill their general audience and how many people (like myself) would be happy to throw in another $10 a month?

[amyzzz]

Goddamnit. I do most of my music listening on Spotify.

[mountmccabe]

There are plenty of artists that have nothing/next to nothing on Spotify. I barely notice this at home because I can play my Gillian Welch, Big Black, Placebo and the Tet Holiday mp3s through Spotify. I notice the lack from my work computer and on my phone. So most of the mp3s on my phone are from artists/albums like that.