Sick of Spotify or music?

[Johnny Textface]

Feel bored with music and I'm putting it down to Spotify's UX. Every time I open it now I immediately feel bored as fuck.

A few years ago I thought my 'collection' was stupidly vast, too much choice etc.. So you can't really hide stuff as such so you just have to unfavourite stuff. Now I feel like that was bit reckless and I wish I could undo it. (I can't).

Having switched to a family account my listening habits and recommends have been poisoned by my 8 years old. My most listened to song this year was some utter bollocks called "I'm a Banana" and I should really listen to the next hit from Disney's latest.

Also it's consistently losing connection with my devices, the ceo likes buying weapons (have I made that up?) and the artist royalties are shit for cunts.

Anyone else like fuck Spotify?  Tidal any good?

[shagatha crustie]

Yeah, I'm the same. Ever since they shifted their business strategy to be more about selling listener data to brands, the algorithm has been designed much more to find out when and how you listen to what you like, rather than show you stuff you might like. My Discover Weekly used to have the occasional song or two in that I'd heard; now it's about 50% stuff I've listened to before, on Spotify no less, which is taking the piss a bit.

I suppose they would counter that you can find new music via their millions of curated Spotify playlists, but a list of random obscure artists, titles and artwork with no contextualising factors beyond an annoying title like 'Comfy.' strips away all the joy of properly getting into an artist.

[kngen]

A few years ago I spent what felt like a lifetime burning all my CDs as FLACs and putting them on a network drive (which I really should back up). I've had similar feelings of indifference to Spotify recently, and so have been using Plex to listen to stuff that Spotify wouldn't/couldn't offer in a million years - or even things they do have, but that just never pop up due to aforementioned algorithms. It's been quite refreshing, and has made me really engage with a lot of music I'd almost completely forgotten about.

[Beagle 2]

100%, I blame Spotify for my diminishing interest in music. I've really lost interest in it over the last year. It's never recommended me a single thing I've enjoyed, I don't want to know stats about how I listen, I don't want to see my friend's end of year lists like listening to music is a competition. I don't want to feel like someone is watching what I listen to.

If I could access the library through a clean UI that looked like an old iPod, just artists and albums and no bullshit, then okay. Yes, I could switch to vinyl but it's an overpriced, oversized faff. I have considered going back to CDs and getting a decent hi-fi, but I've invested in a locked Sonos system that is pure shit and would need some other bullshit £500 bridging thing to work with a it.

[greencalx]

In my case, Spotify mostly recommends my own CD collection to me. Which I don't think it knows about, but maybe the app looks for music collections on the local network without asking?

I have found some reasonable things via its suggestions, but its algorithm is very conservative. So mostly I end up having to search for stuff to listen to if I don't have it as part of my collection. Also getting annoyed with how difficult it is to get it to play album tracks in their actual order, and not start playing random shit when it gets to the end. (I've turned off Autoplay, but it's still doing it...)

I was a bit of a streaming refusenik for some time, but a few years ago took a punt on a BlueSound Node with the hope that I wouldn't regret it (given the expense). I've found it a great bit of kit that copes with digital audio in all the forms I throw at it (from my CD collection on the network drive, from Spotify as well as a range of streaming services I've not used, internet radio and from the TV). The app works just as I like it - shows you your albums, which you tap, and then when you hit "Play all" it plays the thing from start to end and then stops.

[only_sleeping]

I've invested in a locked Sonos system that is pure shit and would need some other bullshit £500 bridging thing to work with a it.

With Sonos, you can play files from a NAS drive plugged into your router, or just a standard hdd plugged into a raspberry pi running the right software like I do.

[ProvanFan]

I would like to agree since they're evil and all that but I find the recs really good. Sometimes you can smell the payola but sometimes it's genuinely obscure shit that's right up my street and I'm like, AI, mate, you've done it again.

[greencalx]

It turns out that continuing to play random shit after you reach the end of an album on a connected device is a feature rather than a bug. (The Autoplay setting only applies if you listen via the mobile app, but who does that?) Apparently Spotify have had a lot of complaints about this and are slowly rolling out a preference that allows you to revert to the previous behaviour, but I'm confused as to why they did this in the first place. Presumably anything that's autoplayed is counted as a stream and involves paying a fee to the content provider. No matter how derisory, this still eats into their profits, and seems only to have caused aggro with customers (certainly making me look at the competition) so why?

[PlanktonSideburns]

Imagine if dinner came like this, piped through the letter box at 1.2mph, 8 hours a day, straight into your mouth

What are you eating from that pipe in your gob there Steve?

Dunno, part of a relaxation comfort eating playlist mate

If you treated a waiter like a spotify user treated a musician, he would wipe his arse with your steak

[bgmnts]

Spotify in general has just done so much to wreck it's own interface I dont really understand why. But then it's the only music service out there not owned by the monoliths isn't it?

[Crenners]

I moved over to Tidal because the sound quality is better, albeit at twice the cost, but I realised how little I really use it. I  just ripped all my music, shoved it on a DAP and that'll do me. Cancelled TIDAL. I have a couple of thousand albums there I still haven't listened to properly and which I always think I should explore further. I don't need recommendations, I just come across stuff from time to time which I might buy off bandcamp if I really like it.

[Custard]

I mainly use Spotify to scrobble the stuff I play on vinyl or CD to Last.fm, so it's mainly just a handy tool rather than having to fire up the laptop every time

I never pay attention to their recommendations, as like others it's nearly always stuff I already know about. Not really the AI's fault, but I wish it'd turn up some properly leftfield or different stuff

That said, it's still just incredibly handy to be able to find an album in a click or two, and have it in your ears. Still think a tenner a month is a bit much though, especially when they give fuck all to the actual people who make the music

[The Mollusk]

A few years ago I spent what felt like a lifetime burning all my CDs as FLACs and putting them on a network drive (which I really should back up). I've had similar feelings of indifference to Spotify recently, and so have been using Plex to listen to stuff

I'm considering going this route. Soon as I discovered Plex I rekindled my love affair with Mr. Torrent and fucked Netflix off. Would be a long winded process to slowly build up a huge music collection again from scratch (thank the lord for Soulseek!) but I've heard good things about the Plexamp app for listening to music via smartphone.

I've delayed making the change for ages because for the last 5 years I've been using my ex-ex-ex-boss's family premium account so not paid a penny for it, but realistically they're still a shit company whose services I don't particularly want to be associated with.

I really wish mp3/minidisc players would make a comeback with updated interfaces for scrobbling to last.fm, artist recommendations, lyrics displays and stuff but that's never gonna happen is it? The only way to legally own digital music files nowadays is Bandcamp purchases or ripping your own physical media and it's abundantly clear that streaming goliaths want to squish that shite into the dirt.

[greencalx]

WTF is scrobbling and why is that useful? Had last.fm briefly many moons ago, but couldn't figure out what it was good for.

[phes]

Find the interface sucks for the purposes of actually listening to music, but I do find the phone app a useful tool for quickly skimming music that I'll earmark for proper listens, then acquire for DJing. The song/artist radio, suggestions and also liked etc are very easy to flick through, spread out from and get a superficial sense of a genre. Diving straight into something like bandcamp is too vast and slow.

[Custard]

WTF is scrobbling and why is that useful? Had last.fm briefly many moons ago, but couldn't figure out what it was good for.

It is largely pointless, but it logs everything you listen to and makes weekly, monthly, yearly charts etc. It's mainly out of habit these days, though to be fair it has a better recommendations feature than Spotify

It's also still enjoyable to see what yer pals are currently listening to

[danwho9]

It is largely pointless, but it logs everything you listen to and makes weekly, monthly, yearly charts etc.

I use Rate Your Music for that purpose myself - I also use it as a way of working out which albums I plan to seek out physical copies of through the rating system.

[Uncle TechTip]

I've been trying Volumio which you put on a raspberry pi and it turns it into a Bluetooth/hifi linein music player, it builds a library from nas sources and sorts in the usual manner, has a web interface or dedicated app. Unfortunately it's a little sluggish and buggy at times but it does do what it's supposed to, and I love the idea to reuse an old hi-fi and I wish there were more specially designed units that did this.

[greencalx]

It is largely pointless, but it logs everything you listen to and makes weekly, monthly, yearly charts etc. It's mainly out of habit these days, though to be fair it has a better recommendations feature than Spotify

It's also still enjoyable to see what yer pals are currently listening to

Ah, got you. I do see the point now that I acquire digital music through sources other than my own CD collection - sometimes stumble across something that grabs me, and then I forget what it was.

On the other hand, the few friends I have would probably disown me if they knew what I listened to...

[sardines]

I mainly use Spotify to scrobble the stuff I play on vinyl or CD to Last.fm, so it's mainly just a handy tool rather than having to fire up the laptop every time

Finally ended my Spotify subscription this year and found a couple of alternatives.
-http://universalscrobbler.com - has a few different options for scrobbling but for vinyl you can use the discogs search under 'scrobble from database', find your release and scrobble the record in one go
-the latest discogs app allows to do the same thing. I'm mainly using this as it means I can add the release to my collection and scrobble at the same time

[Captain Z]

So we're all just going to use the word scrobble now are we.

[The Mollusk]

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

[greencalx]

Arrrrgh! Took me five attempts last night to get Spotify to play tracks from an album in the album order. I know you have to hit the first track, rather than the big green play button, to set it along the most obvious course, but sometimes it switches shuffle mode on quietly and you have to go and find it and turn it back off.

Are there any streaming services that don't suck? Wondering about jumping ship... I know they all pay fuck all to artists, and I should probably be downloading from bandcamp instead, but I would miss the convenience of having a massive fuck-off jukebox in my own home.

[phes]

The green button now defaults to album order on Spotify, as of about a month ago

[greencalx]

Really? On all devices? There's some difference between what it does on mobile vs desktop, and whether you're playing straight out of the device or via Spotify Connect. (At least, that's what I picked up from elsewhere).

ETA: right I just tried hitting the green button on an album, and so far it's played the first two tracks in the right order... so somehow shuffle mode must be getting activated without me doings so consciously... maybe things aren't as bad as I thought they were.

[The Mollusk]

I'm baffled about this issue you're having. Spotify has literally always played everything - albums or playlists - in the correct order for me unless I specifically put it on shuffle, no matter whether I've been listening on mobile, laptop or smart TV.

Sorry this doesn't help at all, but it has to be a user-specific bug. Recently on laptop it's not been loading the sidebar of friends listening activity at all for me so I know their system is shite for random issues like this.

[phes]

Then presumably you must have changed the defaults. The default was to shuffle from the play button. Spotify changed this when Adele whinged about it

[greencalx]

Hmmm. I can think of a couple of things. Perhaps the behaviour of the green button vs tapping a song in the album listing has been reversed. Also the account is shared with my wife and although she doesn't use it very often, maybe one of her apps helpfully changes the settings from time to time.

[The Mollusk]

Then presumably you must have changed the defaults. The default was to shuffle from the play button. Spotify changed this when Adele whinged about it

Nah I've not! I switched off the other garbage settings like the auto play of other stuff when an album ends, the animated canvas art thing and the feedback noises when you press play or pause, but I don't even have a shuffle option in my playback settings at all. Can someone who has it show me a screenshot?

[earl_sleek]

I don't think such a setting even exists - I certainly can't find it in the Android or Mac Spotify apps.