Spotify - anyone heard of it?

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!

Me: Alexa*, play And Your Bird Can Sing by the Beatles

Echo: Playing And Your Bird Can Sing by the Beatles Tribute Band

* actually 'Computer' as my wife prefers that wake word to having a compliant (actually not so compliant) woman in the house

I'm also in the US. I'm pretty sure this happens with every Beatles track - I just chose that one at random.

And yes, when I go into the Alexa app, it says she heard exactly the right thing. Just DISOBEYED me.

I read someone online suggesting that Spotify does this because it pays less royalties to the Beatles Tribute Band but I would like to believe this to be a terrible conspiracy theory.

I mean, as conspiracy theories go, that one at least has a rational justification. But no, we're not doing this intentionally.

Seems like it used to tell me when I created a playlist but now I can’t find it.

My son asked Google home to "play some music on Spotify" and it decided to play a Dexy's Midnight Runners compilation which no-one on the family account follows. Not complaining tbh, just seemed an oddly specific choice for such a non-specific request.

be grateful you didn't get journey

boy would I love to see the complete code chain of the decision tree that came up with that

that's what sexist robot construction worker said

lol

Finally made a dent in my Epic Playlist this evening.

Epic Collection, I mean.

Basically most songs don't need to be me in the Liked Songs playlist. You just like the album and follow the artist and you can find them that way.

So listening to some Pearl Jam today and some of the songs have wee animations that go along with them: Lukin, for example. But my brother doesn’t get them! Anyone else?

Could be that Canvas is turned off in his settings

Do they still have that? Glad I switched that shit off.

Anyone else still having problems with Spotify Connect today? After it stopped working last night I briefly got it to work again but now it's crocked again and there's a Daily Star article about it so it must be serious.

I had issues as well

Actually not just Spotify Connect. Also the Spotify Alexa skill blithely says it's playing the song you ask for and then there's just silence.