Spotify for iOS Adding Streamlined 'Touch Preview' Controls After Record-Breaking 2014

That's great and all, but why oh why does Spotify continue to ignore their users's requests for a landscape mode for their iOS app? The Android counterpart has it already and their previous excuse was that the screen for iOS devices was not big enough to warrant landscape mode. But now with the iPhone 6/6+, there's really no excuse for not having that feature.

rvs007 said:

That's great and all, but why oh why does Spotify continue to ignore their users's requests for a landscape mode for their iOS app? The Android counterpart has it already and their previous excuse was that the screen for iOS devices was not big enough to warrant landscape mode. But now with the iPhone 6/6+, there's really no excuse for not having that feature.

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They've also ignored the most requested feature of all time (per their forums) for Chromecast integration. At this point, it feels like they're looking to add features that will garner new users rather than appeal to existing ones.

I think Spotify is the weakest of the streaming services I've tried (been a user of Beats since it launched). Took WAY too long to get a music library that didn't require creating playlists for each album you wanted to save, for instance, and I've never liked their interfaces.

Rdio is better at what Spotify does. I like Beats's curated playlists and The Sentence a lot. The only thing that makes Spotify worthwhile is the fact everyone uses it (which tempts me back to it occasionally).

15 million subscribers though; hard to imagine anyone, including Apple, beating them at this point. I'm looking forward to the revamp whether or not Apple just bundles Beats into iTunes. I think they're going to have to if they want it to stand a chance. Last I heard Beats had a few hundred thousand subscribers?

Sounds like a cool feature if it plays the chorus of each song to preview an album.

A lot of these streaming services are missing some key features the biggest being smart list. Spotify also needs a way to quickly start rate songs even better if you could do it from 1 to 5 stars again to have songs quickly go into smart lists to quickly add to downloaded playlists on devices.

Currently a Google play music all access subscriber since it's $2 cheaper for me than Spotify and at least has easier access to thumbs up a song.

Awesome! I'm so glad Spotify exists. The regular new app features just make this service better and better.

hemanwomanhater said:

I think Spotify is the weakest of the streaming services I've tried (been a user of Beats since it launched). Took WAY too long to get a music library that didn't require creating playlists for each album you wanted to save, for instance, and I've never liked their interfaces.

Rdio is better at what Spotify does. I like Beats's curated playlists and The Sentence a lot. The only thing that makes Spotify worthwhile is the fact everyone uses it (which tempts me back to it occasionally).

15 million subscribers though; hard to imagine anyone, including Apple, beating them at this point. I'm looking forward to the revamp whether or not Apple just bundles Beats into iTunes. I think they're going to have to if they want it to stand a chance. Last I heard Beats had a few hundred thousand subscribers?

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I've stuck with Spotify since it launched in the U.S. and actually found it to be the best. One area where I think Spotify excels is its desktop app, especially on OS X.

There's a lot to like about Rdio, but last time I used the desktop app it was reliant on Flash, and it would eat CPU so much my fans were always running; has this changed?

I've tried Google Play All Access a few times, and am actually doing another trial right now. But the web player is unreliable, glitchy, and just not a great experience. Using the 3rd party app that wraps the web app makes for an even worse experience, and it appears to require installing Flash even though I configured HTML5 in Labs.

Looks like Beats also has a web player but no native app. How is the experience with this? Also, I wonder if Beats is going to become an Apple device exclusive in the near future -- this would make it less appealing in some respects, though wouldn't completely exclude it for me (after all, I still use iTunes with Mac, iPhone, Airplay). If the Beats iOS app ends up with tighter iOS integration than 3rd parties can achieve, that might be appealing, even though it would unfairly compete that way. Also, I wouldn't mind if Beats was integrated into iTunes and incorporated iTunes-like features (smart playlists, 5 star ratings, etc) -- I'm one of the few people who actually loves iTunes for music playback and appreciates it's strong feature set.

I also find Spotify has a good community in its shared playlists, though I haven't compared with other streaming services.

I love Spotify's preview feature in the desktop app, happy to see it in the iOS app.

hemanwomanhater said:

I think Spotify is the weakest of the streaming services I've tried (been a user of Beats since it launched). Took WAY too long to get a music library that didn't require creating playlists for each album you wanted to save, for instance, and I've never liked their interfaces.

Rdio is better at what Spotify does. I like Beats's curated playlists and The Sentence a lot. The only thing that makes Spotify worthwhile is the fact everyone uses it (which tempts me back to it occasionally).

15 million subscribers though; hard to imagine anyone, including Apple, beating them at this point. I'm looking forward to the revamp whether or not Apple just bundles Beats into iTunes. I think they're going to have to if they want it to stand a chance. Last I heard Beats had a few hundred thousand subscribers?

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As a student, I pay 4.99 per month for Spotify. It's an amazing service with a great library. I was using Rhapsody and it doesn't come close. I can't see myself switching unless Apple does something really unique with beats, at the same price.

I think Spotify is a great app, but I think Beats Music is a much better experience. It's a fun interface, and the curated playlists are really good!

Apple needs to buy spotify. I could see them integrating this technology into the music app. It would be amazing and would fit in with the iCloud music theory that you can download for offline use. If you pay for iTunes Match then u can download. Free version you can stream only.

hemanwomanhater said:

I think Spotify is the weakest of the streaming services I've tried (been a user of Beats since it launched). Took WAY too long to get a music library that didn't require creating playlists for each album you wanted to save, for instance, and I've never liked their interfaces.

Rdio is better at what Spotify does. I like Beats's curated playlists and The Sentence a lot. The only thing that makes Spotify worthwhile is the fact everyone uses it (which tempts me back to it occasionally).

15 million subscribers though; hard to imagine anyone, including Apple, beating them at this point. I'm looking forward to the revamp whether or not Apple just bundles Beats into iTunes. I think they're going to have to if they want it to stand a chance. Last I heard Beats had a few hundred thousand subscribers?

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You can just click on an album or even an artist, click save and it's all yours. Getting a whole discography at once had never been easier. They changed the whole "having to make a playlist just to get an album" thing a while ago.

Apple won't beat them cuz it would most likely be US only. how many countries get iTunes Radio again?

peteullo said:

the curated playlists are really good!

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The basic idea of curated playlists just sounds horrible to me. That sounds like listening to public radio to me.

The best bands I've ever found generally had very few fans... it just seems to me that the probability of such amazing music ending up on a playlist made by someone else is slim to none, since someone making a playlist would be aiming to have more than 20 K people that listen to it.

But I'll bite - is there a playlist with Fear of Domination (3 K fans), Birthday Massacre (280 K), Blood Stain Child (10 K), and Insomnium (220 K) on it? Eluvetie? Korpiklaani? Turisas? Project Silence?

These are the artists that I never knew about before Spotify recommended them to me. There was no human touch involved - Spotify saw what I was listening to and made suggestions based on what people who liked similar things were also listening to. It was cold, calculated, and perfect. I feel like the odds of a human curated list having more than half of those bands just wouldn't happen.

Edit:

Wow. I have to pay? Really? I can't even look at your lists? No. F that.

I know the Mac Spotify app is flat and blends in with Yosemite from before, but just like how Spotify on iOS looks really close to Android, the iOS counterpart has translucent material scattered here and there, which they could try to implement to the Mac app considering Yosemite has the same translucent design like iOS.

As of right now, it looks really flat, like really really flat. Translucency could bring a more varied design and visual to the whole desktop experience for Mac users.

As it looks on Mac right now, fits more with Windows 8/10.

Just my personal opinion and hope for future updates.

It's their way of not paying the artist. Because their contract with the music industry is that, if the music is played for certain amount of seconds its counted as played. Basically, that's what most people do, play for a few seconds when searching song to be added on their playlist. That's going to save them a lot of money.

nilk said:

I've stuck with Spotify since it launched in the U.S. and actually found it to be the best. One area where I think Spotify excels is its desktop app, especially on OS X.

There's a lot to like about Rdio, but last time I used the desktop app it was reliant on Flash, and it would eat CPU so much my fans were always running; has this changed?

I've tried Google Play All Access a few times, and am actually doing another trial right now. But the web player is unreliable, glitchy, and just not a great experience. Using the 3rd party app that wraps the web app makes for an even worse experience, and it appears to require installing Flash even though I configured HTML5 in Labs.

Looks like Beats also has a web player but no native app. How is the experience with this? Also, I wonder if Beats is going to become an Apple device exclusive in the near future -- this would make it less appealing in some respects, though wouldn't completely exclude it for me (after all, I still use iTunes with Mac, iPhone, Airplay). If the Beats iOS app ends up with tighter iOS integration than 3rd parties can achieve, that might be appealing, even though it would unfairly compete that way. Also, I wouldn't mind if Beats was integrated into iTunes and incorporated iTunes-like features (smart playlists, 5 star ratings, etc) -- I'm one of the few people who actually loves iTunes for music playback and appreciates it's strong feature set.

I also find Spotify has a good community in its shared playlists, though I haven't compared with other streaming services.

I love Spotify's preview feature in the desktop app, happy to see it in the iOS app.

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These are fair points for sure. I prefer apps over web players and Beats only has a web player, and even then it's limited in functionality (no Sentence at all, for one). I don't listen through my computer ever really so it doesn't bother me too much. Spotify definitely has the best desktop experience as far as what I've tried goes. The community is really what makes Spotify work though, and what draws me back to it every now and then. Nothing else comes close in this aspect, but I still prefer the playlists in Beats over this. I've discovered so much music without ever leaving the Beats app, way more than I can say for Spotify or Rdio when I was using them.

bushido said:

You can just click on an album or even an artist, click save and it's all yours. Getting a whole discography at once had never been easier. They changed the whole "having to make a playlist just to get an album" thing a while ago.

Apple won't beat them cuz it would most likely be US only. how many countries get iTunes Radio again?

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Yea but that literally didn't happen until last year. It was about time but for me it was way too late. I had already moved on and by that time found other things I liked more in other services. It was definitely a big reason for trying out other services and had they had it from the get-go I might not have ever left. I don't know if this is still an issue with Spotify but back in the day it was also unclear if everything in their library was 320kbps for high quality playback. Beats (and MOG before it) has always guaranteed this. Rdio was also pretty unclear in this regard.

ArtOfWarfare said:

Wow. I have to pay? Really? I can't even look at your lists? No. F that.

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I'm thinking Apple will probably remove this limitation. Never really understood why Beats thought that was a good idea. But I've been paying the full $10 for streaming subscriptions for years and don't really see it as much of a cost compared to buying CDs or whatever. And I guess it also means more a contribution to the artists I'm listening to. This is actually pretty informative though it doesn't break down specifics on how much revenue a free listener generates compared to a premium listener http://www.spotifyartists.com/spotify-explained/

The desktop version had this about 18 months ago and I really liked it (you used to click and hold on the play button in the middle of the album artwork) but I noticed it doesn't work anymore, at least they've brought it back in one form another.

Now all they need to do is make it so playlists automatically arrange with newest items at the top instead of the bottom. SO SO simple!

Get rid of Spotify Connect!

They need to get rid of that stupid, buggy Spotify Connect garbage, or at the very least let us turn the damn thing off.

How's Beats looking, Apple?

lol

Seriously can't believe shareholders weren't upset at that billion+ dollar acquisition mistake. It will never take off. Ever, ever, ever.

Spotify is better than every other streaming service on the market, and their developers (not to mention marketshare) are only improving.

Bawstun said:

How's Beats looking, Apple?

lol

Seriously can't believe shareholders weren't upset at that billion+ dollar acquisition mistake. It will never take off. Ever, ever, ever.

Spotify is better than every other streaming service on the market, and their developers (not to mention marketshare) are only improving.

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Apple paid $500M for Beats Music https://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/29/apple-beats-3b-payment-breakdown/

Huh. Thought I had remembered it was way more than that, I was thinking 1.5-2B. Either way it isn't a lot of money for them, but it shows they're desperate for relevancy now that they can see iTunes isn't the way of the future. Not sure why they didn't just turn iTunes into a streaming service and revamp the entire app. It's long overdue IMO.

As a musician and someone who wants to end up working in the music industry, paying for music is a big thing for me and Spotify's always interested me at £9.99 a month, but as a student its still a little hard to pay ontop of all other bills on a low income.

Spotify in the UK at least has been doing a 3 months for £0.99 recently, and since using this service I can see myself paying the extra £9 a month in order to keep the service going. Extreme quality seems to be better than my iTunes purchases and my iTunes Match subscription seems a little wasted at the moment.

Spotify are making the user experience and music better. iTunes have come to a standstill as far as I'm aware in the UK. No 320kbps tracks, no streaming service, no iTunes Radio in the UK STILL?!

Spotify keep making yourselves more awesome. You've gained a new subscriber.

hemanwomanhater said:

I think Spotify is the weakest of the streaming services I've tried (been a user of Beats since it launched). Took WAY too long to get a music library that didn't require creating playlists for each album you wanted to save, for instance, and I've never liked their interfaces.

Rdio is better at what Spotify does. I like Beats's curated playlists and The Sentence a lot. The only thing that makes Spotify worthwhile is the fact everyone uses it (which tempts me back to it occasionally).

15 million subscribers though; hard to imagine anyone, including Apple, beating them at this point. I'm looking forward to the revamp whether or not Apple just bundles Beats into iTunes. I think they're going to have to if they want it to stand a chance. Last I heard Beats had a few hundred thousand subscribers?

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Beats: USA only
Rdio: USA only
Pandora: USA only.
iTunes Radio: USA and Australia?

No, Spotify is not the weakest

Oletros said:

Beats: USA only
Rdio: USA only
Pandora: USA only.
iTunes Radio: USA and Australia?

No, Spotify is not the weakest

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I don't really see the relevance of this point. This is like me saying my favorite donut place sucks because it's in New York while I'm in Colorado.

Just because you don't personally have access to a particular service doesn't make the service weaker where it's actually relevant. Deezer may very well be the most amazing thing ever but I wouldn't know, and that's fine. Use whatever is available to you obviously.

Who knows? Maybe this is something Apple is working on as we speak, and if not then I assume the cost of dealing with the rightsholders outside of the US is prohibitive. I'm sure all of these services would love to be accessible everywhere, if it made sense for them.

hemanwomanhater said:

I don't really see the relevance of this point.

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Then it is difficult to argue. If you don't see the point of saying that a service is no t weak because is the only globally accessible then yes, for you is the weakest, for the rest of the world outside USA (believe me, there is a world outside USA) it is the best service.

Oletros said:

Beats: USA only
Rdio: USA only

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Rdio is available in 60 countries ,including my own ,Denmark

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rdio