Spotify - anyone heard of it?

I have 'blind dogs' also greyed out on the same compilation

Harry Nilsson lives and he's making kind of boring electronica according to Release Radar this week:

https://open.spotify.com/album/1NbsTlUFKmKHmIE2tXSisD?si=fkSrScKEQPOWMhf8jMtxmg

The labels control track availability, and sadly don't have to provide an explanation for why individual tracks aren't, so I have no way to know. Most likely it has to do with licensing peculiarities. "H.I.V. Baby" was originally a b-side on a Subpop single-of-the-month, right? So maybe there were different terms for that, and they've expired. Dunno.

I already noticed and reported that Nilsson thing, it should be fixed soon.

Thanks as ever, Glenn.

"HIV Baby" was also on the Born To Choose benefit album Ryko put out back in '93.

Posts starting with I have an interesting question for Glenn McDonald and i don't mean to pester him should already be frowned upon. But when the third line is so i never feel like I want to pester him, you know you're just being pestered.

Khala My Friend by Amanaz is a great, great song that I'm grateful to DW pushing my way once, but I think it's the fourth time now! Looks like the last compilation I had it liked from has dropped off Spotify so time to readd it again.

I get that one regularly too.

Just got that pushed to me last week! Really good.

the Amanaz album, Africa, is great

Have recently reactivated my account after many, many years to listen to the fantastic playlists Test Pressing have been posting.

I'm on the free version and haven't heard a single advert yet. Haven't put any credit card info in but do you automatically get some sort of one month trial of the premium version or something?

Advertisers! I remember them.

The premium version isn't just ad-free. It also allows you to download tracks for listening offline and, I can't remember what else, maybe even stream whole albums. There's definitely stuff relating to playback that you can't do on the free version.

Afaict Spotify basic (no subscription) is still add-free if you use the web browser

Ah, that could be it. I'm listening via the desktop app

been kind of at a loss for what to play around the house. Test Press playlists hitting the spot. Thank you, gp

the first track on the Test Pressing "On The Beach" playlist briefly made me remember what happiness feels like, this shit is dangerous

Don't really understand the decision to prioritise 'did you mean...?' results over exact matches in the search. E.g. searching for SND returns Snoop Dogg, Snap, Sade and Snoh Aalegra - you have to click through to see the actual artist (more than one actually) called SND.

weird, I do that on my phone and it comes right up as the 1st result (the minimal techno group, that is)

hmm, not for me (in the first results screen that shows albums, artists, playlists, and songs).

also i suspect these are not all by the minimal techno group:

https://i.imgur.com/CbIvR3K.png

lol

Short names are a constant source of pain. I'll ask to have that page cleaned up...

It would also help to have an exact-match option, e.g. by surrounding quotes as in Google.

so do the royalties for all the SNDs go to the same SND?

is there, like, something that differentiates them for royalty purposes that isn't carried over into the UI/search? or something?

Having barely listened to Spotify curated playlists before, I've played some over the last couple of days. It seems - at least on some throwaway 'alternative 80s or 90s' playlists - the volume isn't set to one and the same level. Is that correct, or is it my setup? Annoying to have to fiddle with it when every new song is louder/softer than the previous one tbf.

There's a "normalise volume" option in the settings.

Ah, thanks!

how well it works is another matter.

actually maybe it works fine except through sonos :/

... which is my setup :-/

Royalties are paid to licensors, track by track, so the artist pages you see in the app are basically irrelevant for monetary purposes...

yeah I figured. just wondering.

I recall that discover weekly playlists used to have a feature that seemed specific to DW; as you were listening to the tracks, there was an icon opposite from the heart that let you choose "I don't like this song" or "I don't like this artist". if you selected it, it would then grey the track out in your DW playlist (and presumably help refine the recommendation algorithm). has that moved elsewhere or did spotify totally remove it?

I still have that feature, on both (Mac) desktop and iOS versions.

Here's how it looks on iOS

https://i.imgur.com/nRo7GOk.jpg

that's what mine used to look like...

https://i.imgur.com/oZ4LmFK.jpg

same

Hey glenn - I've noticed the Spotify support on my Alexa devices has gotten worse and worse:

1. Trying to play a song by a band is near-impossible. Best case, I get one of those "This is xxxx" playlists started.
2. When I tried to play a specific song by the Beatles the other day, Spotify (or maybe this is on the Alexa end?) just wouldn't let me do it - kept playing covers or other SEO SPAM.
3. When I do Spotify Connect on my Alexa devices, I lose the ability to skip tracks.

#3 is probably on the Amazon side (and I'll pursue it on my end), but the other two items seem like a mixture of NLU issues and SEO mitigation. Any ideas?

spotify on google home loves to play weird versions of songs (demos, live versions, alternate takes) instead of the actual song. it happened two days ago, i asked for "near wild heaven" by REM and it played a demo version from the bonus tracks.

I've never grasped how this happens. I sometimes get weird amateur Led Zep covers instead of the originals.

I assume each track has a unique DB entry. Maybe if that entry gets replaced it attempts to make a best guess at the correct new entry?

Yeah, Alexa's preference for spammy cover bands over the real thing is a real problem but I'm not sure if the problem lies at Spotify's or Amazon's end. Playing the Beatles is pretty much impossible.

I don't see how Alexa would change what spotify plays

Getting a This Is playlist for an artist is, I think, the intended behavior. Part of the reason we HAVE those playlists is to have a thing to play when we're asked for just an artist.

Not actually sure whether the Beatles issue is an Alexa issue or a Spotify one. It's often maddeningly complicated what happens when you ask Alexa for something. The query we end up getting on the Spotify end isn't always the same as what you say. But I'll pass along your report to the voice team, at least...

I've gotten the This Is playlists a lot when asking for specific songs by an artist.

I'm not sure what the division of processing is on the voice input between Amazon and Spotify, but something seems broken lately.

Oh, DJI: do you remember exactly what your Beatles request was? Or what song? And what country are you in?

"alexa play you've got to hide your love away" and "alexa play you've got to hide your love away by the Beatles" is what the Echo heard. Both times I got (different!) spammy cover band versions. I'm in the US.

thx

as always, thank YOU!