Why Spotify is terrible for me

Once a year I decide to cancel my Spotify and try new platforms. It's not a scheduled thing or a goal, it's just the fact that I frequently feel like Spotify isn't a good platform, it's just the most popular one.

In my music streaming life I've gone through: Rdio, Deezer, Tidal, Apple Music, Google Music, YouTube Music, and Spotify. Of all of these, two stood out for letting me upload my own music and listen to it online: Apple Music and Google Music. This was important in the early days of the transition from mp3 to streaming because I had a massive music library and didn't want to lose it. Over time this became less relevant.

Chaos vs calm

The reality is that I started using Spotify many years ago, I started with "Oi Rdio" and then migrated to Spotify when it officially arrived here in Brazil. I liked it, the interface was simple, easy to understand and use. It was possible to know where everything was.

Notice how simple it was: a simple music list, a mini player on the right, a "Your Music" tab where you naturally accessed your library, the Radio, discovery, and search tabs.

That was it. Everything was so easy.

Today Spotify borders on chaos. To be fair, I'll use an album screen, which is the "cleanest" one in the entire service.

Now answer me: Why?

Yes, maybe it got prettier if we look at aesthetics, but we have way more information that's not always relevant and a screen where it's hard to understand which path to follow. It's worth noting that the bottom mini player is perhaps a big hit.

Search moved to the top, as did the home icon. So supposedly the main navigation is there? No! It happens in the left bar where there's that almost indistinguishable sequence of stuff. Yes, stuff, because there's everything there: artists, albums, folders, playlists, podcasts... It's a miracle there's no Instagram-style stories in there.

And Spotify expanded its domains, decided it was going to offer podcasts, which until then was one of the few remaining media that hadn't been appropriated by any monopolistic platform. Well then, someone thought that just because both were audio it made sense to shove them all into the same interface. Now my chaotic "home" that looks like TimesSquare has podcasts too, look how easy to understand...

Anyway, chaos. I love having information, but sometimes I just wanted to listen to a song without being bombarded by every color in existence. I don't want to have on Spotify the same choice dilemma I have on Netflix. I want it to be easy and fast to choose and listen to a song.

And mind you, any other platform is not as bad. Not all are like Deezer, but at least the navigation makes sense.

Belonging

Another thing I looked for in other streaming services that Spotify didn't deliver and I recently discovered: belonging. After years of being bombarded by algorithm suggestions, ads, and even podcasts I realized I wanted to listen to my music. Not my old songs, it wasn't the feeling of nostalgia, but I wanted to have the sense that I had a music library that I chose and wanted to have easy access to those songs.

If for some reason I stumbled upon a song I liked, I add it to my library and it stays there forever. When I stop one day between meetings and just want to listen to a song, without knowing what I want, I'd play the library and maybe it would come up again.

They were my songs, the songs that for whatever reason I decided to carry with me to all places, moments, and times.

Guess what? Spotify killed the old "My Music". It doesn't exist anymore. There's nowhere in the entire platform where I can listen to all the songs I've saved. Tidal has it. Apple Music has it. Deezer has it. But Spotify decided that people can now only listen to playlists. "Oh, but there's the "Liked Songs" playlist".... So, you mean their solution was a playlist called "Liked Songs" when the platform doesn't even have a like button? Because excuse me, but a "+" isn't liking. And the best part... Open an album and "like" it by clicking the "+" button. Know what happens? The "+" button when inside the album doesn't add anything to the liked songs playlist, it adds to your library, which basically means it starts showing up in the side bar full of stuff. Yes, the same button, same design, in one place serves to like the song and in the other to add the album to the library, and these are two completely distinct actions.

So that's it. I know this doesn't bother everyone, but I think it's senseless. I wonder what kind of metrics were used in those A/B tests. I listen to music in a specific way, I almost never know what I want to hear. I put on a selection of songs I like (my library) and wait for one to come up that matches my mood. And now I can't do that anymore, at least not on Spotify.

Toxic Relationship

With so many music streams and with such clear hatred, why do I still find myself returning to Spotify sometimes?

Its recommendation algorithm is good. And it's the only one that manages to mix Brazilian music well with others. I recently returned to it, I spent ~1 year on Apple Music and was having a really hard time discovering new artists and songs because at a certain point Apple Music was just sending me more of the same, more of what I already listened to.

I'll give Deezer and Tidal another chance. I dunno. I'll come back here later to tell you about it.