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Spotify Downplays HomePod Support, But Promises to Add AirPlay 2 Yet Again

So sad. I really like the algorithm that Spotify has. Their recommendations are just way and beyond Apple. Their playlist enhancement options are just amazing. I discover so much music that I actually like through that.

I also prefer their UI. I have tried Apple Music many times, but I just can't get used to it. It just misses some of the fines, the details that Spotify just nails.

But I dislike their behaviour SO much. What a bunch of crybabies. Just playing games over the backs of their customers. Just add the stupid support, I bet every IT student on the planet would be able to implement this... They are just not willing to.
The lack of Airplay 2 support is also horrible, it takes a few seconds for music to pause or play... this is not 2002 anymore...

Anyway, nothing we can really do about it but complain on their forums.
 
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Spotify is mainly for people who just want a glorified radio station without the ads. Apple Music is noticeably better for people who enjoy more than just the "hits".

The fact that you still cannot pre-save an album natively on Spotify tells you exactly who their target audience are. Even Youtube Music allows you to do this, and that service is a joke (you can't sort albums by artist on YTM still).

The only faults I have with Apple Music is the painfully slow and unoptimised UI (the stutter when scrolling a basic list of albums is embarrassing), and the slightly slower time to actually start streaming any content whereas Spotify is pretty much instant.
 
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Vol Braakzakje said:
So sad. I really like the algorithm that Spotify has. Their recommendations are just way and beyond Apple. Their playlist enhancement options are just amazing. I discover so much music that I actually like through that.

I also prefer their UI. I have tried Apple Music many times, but I just can't get used to it. It just misses some of the fines, the details that Spotify just nails.

But I dislike their behaviour SO much. What a bunch of crybabies. Just playing games over the backs of their customers. Just add the stupid support, I bet every IT student on the planet would be able to implement this... They are just not willing to.
The lack of Airplay 2 support is also horrible, it takes a few seconds for music to pause or play... this is not 2002 anymore...

Anyway, nothing we can really do about it but complain on their forums.
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People always say their algorithm is better, but anyone with a programming mindset can see exactly what it's doing and it's infuriating.

Doesn't matter how much of the 4000 songs I listen to in my Spotify library, it keeps recommending the same junk with the highest amounts of plays. If you still have to dig into the albums of the artist just to find something good, then it's not really discovering anything.
 
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Apple Services are my patronus.
Waytrix said:
They literally said that they didn't think people wanted to run without their phone SMDH.
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What if they were right? What if a majority of people don't use their Watch that way? I mean, I have no idea if that's the truth or not, but the walls of the bubble here on Mac "Apple Services Are Our Patronus" Rumors are pretty thick.

The moment the HomePod matters, it will get support. It doesn't matter, it doesn't deserve support. Don't think Apple makes the exact same engineering priority decisions? Ask an Aperture user how they feel. Actually, no need. They'll tell you without even asking.
 
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Zc456 said:
Does Spotify expect everyone to own their "Car Thing" hardware?
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Why? It works fine with CarPlay + Siri and MultiRoom on Amazon Echo devices

JuicyGoomba said:
Spotify is mainly for people who just want a glorified radio station without the ads. Apple Music is noticeably better for people who enjoy more than just the "hits".

The fact that you still cannot pre-save an album natively on Spotify tells you exactly who their target audience are. Even Youtube Music allows you to do this, and that service is a joke (you can't sort albums by artist on YTM still).

The only faults I have with Apple Music is the painfully slow and unoptimised UI (the stutter when scrolling a basic list of albums is embarrassing), and the slightly slower time to actually start streaming any content whereas Spotify is pretty much instant.
Click to expand...

You can indeed pre-save upcoming releases on Spotify
 
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LeeW said:
As much as I don't like Spotify for messing about on this I really can't agree that Apple Music is better, it's worse. Way worse than Spotify.

YMMV of course but Apple has nothing on Spotify and their interface, music selection, and more. It makes so much more sense for me to use Apple Music and I have tried many times. And I am in no way in the minority.
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Absolutely my experience as well. I have tried Apple Music many times because of its built-in compatibility with Apple Devices but it is the worst app experience I have ever tried. Back to Spotify Premium again.
 
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cateye said:
Apple Services are my patronus.


What if they were right? What if a majority of people don't use their Watch that way? I mean, I have no idea if that's the truth or not, but the walls of the bubble here on Mac "Apple Services Are Our Patronus" Rumors are pretty thick.

The moment the HomePod matters, it will get support. It doesn't matter, it doesn't deserve support. Don't think Apple makes the exact same engineering priority decisions? Ask an Aperture user how they feel. Actually, no need. They'll tell you without even asking.
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I wish I could run without my phone by using Spotify....as dk millions of others
 
I'm trying to understand all the over-the-top "WELL I DON'T EVEN LIKE A SPOTIFY" replies here. I suppose it makes sense that it's Sunday, everyone's busy praying at the Church of Jobs here.

So, let's consider who would choose a HomePod:
  1. Someone heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem and therefore will seek out Apple solutions first for other needs.
  2. As a result, someone likely to take advantage of the Apple-specific integrations that comes from using all-Apple products.
  3. Someone who finds some... sense of pride of brand uniformity. No judgement. well, a little judgement. That's that weird KoolAid thing Apple users bring on themselves, but let's allow it for the sake of the conversation.
So, if we assume those three things, if someone buys a HomePod, what music service are they most likely to use with it? Apple Music. Probably to the exception of almost any other service.

Compare this against someone who buys a Sonos. You buy a Sonos (or similar brand) because you expect flexibility. You'd like to use your Sonos with a wide range of music services, or at least have it be open to future opportunities. This is why Sonos products support a wide range of music services, multiple voice AI, and include features like line-in. These are all minority options, but Sonos is serving a broad-stage group of users.

The HomePod supports none of these things. That Apple supports third party music services at all is, if anything, contrary to its positioning and likely audience. Why would someone buy a HomePod to use with anything but Apple Music? It doesn't make any practical or logical sense. In fact, it's not just Spotify that doesn't support native use on the HomePod, none of the major, top-of-line music streamers do. Deezer would probably be the closest to a mass-market streamer other than Apple Music that has chosen to support HomePod natively. Where's the article about YouTube Music not supporting HomePod, MacRumors? I assume that will be published later?
 
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Chiromac81 said:
I wish I could run without my phone by using Spotify....as dk millions of others
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Millions! So, millions of people who use an Apple Watch, who use Spotify, who run, who don't want to take their phone (and by the way, the Spotify app on AppleWatch does support fully phone-independent use, but you seem convinced it doesn't, so let's go ahead and continue this just for fun) ... all that, and millions of people.

Surely you must have sources for this bold claim?
 
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hagar said:
Exactly.

And it’s not like HomePod support is earth shattering. It’s pretty useless to control Apple Music with Siri, there’s no reason Spotify would fare any better.

So it’s seems logical Spotify focuses to support technologies and features that do work.
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Then where's Airplay 2 support in Spotify after 5 years of it being out? Seems Airplay 2 is a technology that does in fact work.
 
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BuffaloTF said:
Apple has more music. It also has better audio quality. The interfaces are nigh identical. What?
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The average user doesn't care about those points. They want a simple interface, cross-platform app, and good music suggestions - this is where Spotify really shines compared to Apple Music.
 
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Spotify is only an app - it's not an ecosystem. Therefore it should be their #1 priority to support every platform under the sun better than anyone else because they don't have a platform to rely on like Apple. The lack of Airplay 2 or HomePod support is stupid. It doesn't harm Apple, it harms Spotify costumers who use Apple products. The ranking of Spotify on App Store tells me that's probably millions of users.
 
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They can’t assign a dev intern to experiment? Unless they’re doing some really custom stuff in iOS it’s not exactly hard to implement Apple’s APIs…
 
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Until the last couple of months HomePod was a terrible product. My personal experience, moved on to other products. Not much upside for Spotify.
 
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NT1440 said:
They can’t assign a dev intern to experiment? Unless they’re doing some really custom stuff in iOS it’s not exactly hard to implement Apple’s APIs…
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This isn't about can/can't, this is about will/won't.
 
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