Spotify Launches Offline Backup Feature for Premium Users

[ignatius345]

Orrrr, Apple Music could just have a button "Download all Music in Library".

I got curious about this and checked and insanely there is no easy way to do this. Weird omission for sure.

My approach is to take the "Favorite Songs" playlist that Music generates and set that to download. That way any track I favorite is available offline. Works pretty well for me, and doesn't overwhelm my storage the way downloading everything would.

One workaround for keeping ALL tracks downloaded would be to make a Smart Playlist in Music on a Mac that includes all your songs. (Just set some search criteria like "artist is not hhkjdgkjhf" so it catches everything). Then, on your iPhone, set that playlist to download. Irritating, but once you set it up it should just keep itself updated and download tracks. I've set up quite a few smart playlists on my Mac and they all work and update nicely on the phone.

 

[wbeasley]

If they play you cached content do they also pay the artist a play fee?
Or is this just another way to avoid paying musicians?

 

[sflagel]

I got curious about this and checked and insanely there is no easy way to do this. Weird omission!

My approach is to take the "Favorite Songs" playlist that Music generates and set that to download. That way any track I favorite is available offline. Works pretty well for me!

After thinking about it, it's probably a commercial, not technical, omission. I am sure that music labels would require higher royalties if the percentage of saved music significantly increases - they would consider this to be "bought" music (e.g., no one can measure how often these saved tracks get played).

 

[ThirteenXIII]

offline mode? wah? this is has been a feature since Walkmans, CD players, iPod, lol. sync/download your music lol. what? whats old is new again? so strange.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

I love all the naysayers thinking that we know about network notspots in advance. What if a cell tower goes down? or a last minute trip somewhere? But a download all would be useful (maybe not for my massive library though lol.

I would be more worried about not being able to contact anybody rather than streaming my Sabrina Carpenter playlist tbf

 

[ignatius345]

It's probably a commercial, not technical, omission. I am sure that music labels would require higher royalties if the percentage of saved music significantly increases - they would consider this to be "bought" music (e.g., no one can measure how often these saved tracks get played).

Sorry, I misunderstood your post. I thought you were looking to solve a problem but it seems like you were more interested in complaining. Carry on!

 

[progx]

Aren't they bankrupt yet?

I wish, but it won’t happen any time soon.

Still stealing money from artists? Now they offer backup for stolen music?

How is their music stolen? Spotify doesn’t offer any service where you can upload your library to their service for streaming. I agree they steal from artists, but the customer isn’t able to upload their own tunes.

Apple is the only one who offers the cloud music library, which offers 100,000 song limit. Google used to offer one, but discontinued it. You can use Plex to stream your own tunes as well, but hardware is required on your end to make it work.

 

[sflagel]

Sorry, I misunderstood your post. I thought you were looking to solve a problem but it seems like you were more interested in complaining. Carry on!

No no sorry, I just thought about it after the post. My mistake.

 

[timeislove]

Is it becos of incorporating the new feature?

I used to download the podcast for offline listening. These 2 days clicking the download button is not responding, and select download from 3 dot menu prompted me to”remove download?”

Which version is the app which incorporates the new backup feature?

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Aren't they bankrupt yet? Still stealing money from artists? Now they offer backup for stolen music?

It's criminal, right? I mean holding a gun to the artists head until they sign the contract! Oh wait...the artists actually choose to put their music on Spotify...and Spotify has more subscribers than anyone else, so artists get more exposure. I compare it to other businesses selling a product -- the larger your customer base, the cheaper you sell your goods for because you're selling higher quantity. You familiar with Costco?

 

[ignatius345]

No no sorry, I just thought about it after the post. My mistake.

ok, sorry for pouncing!

 

[diskrisk]

The new feature promises flexibility by allowing users to filter and sort songs within the Offline Backup playlist by artist, mood, and genre.

If you’re gonna do all that you might as well just… make a playlist…

Spotify says the playlist will evolve over time based on

OH GOD PLEASE NO. That’s literally the worst case scenario I can think of when it comes to downloaded music, trying to listen to something that was downloaded before and not finding it because almighty algorithm said you don’t want it anymore. But hey, look on the bright side: knowing Spotify, you WILL have the newest Drake album in your “offline backup“ as soon as it’s out. You didn’t want it? What do you mean “you didn’t want it”? It’s Drake! Here’s Hotline Bling for the 7th time on your Death Metal radio:

 

[diskrisk]

I compare it to other businesses selling a product -- the larger your customer base, the cheaper you sell your goods for because you're selling higher quantity. You familiar with Costco?

Now that’s dumb. Costco’s model is selling goods for cheaper TO CUSTOMERS, not paying the brands less because they have more customers. If this is how it worked, Apple couldn’t pay artists 4x as much per stream despite only having half the user base of Spotify.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Wow, people in here really have a hate rager for Spotify. This is a pretty clever feature, taking advantage of things the software already does anyways.

 

[kylelerner]

This is just like the YouTube Premium "Smart Downloads" feature.

 

[211]

The data signal in the United Kingdom is horrendous. The phone says there is a 4G/5G, but you cannot use it. When I travel by train, my music stops streaming, even though there is, apparently, a data signal. So an offline mode is still needed here, even when outside with a supposed signal.

BTW, my Music app is storing 5GB of data, even though I haven’t downloaded any song. Why can’t this massive cache be used for offline music? There doesn’t appear be a way to delete this data

 

[dba415]

I take a train every week day. I get a 4g signal at least usually, albeit no tunnels on my route.

If people know they are going to be without a signal in these situations wouldn't they just download the content ahead of time?

Because people are busy and have lives? There are millions of different things people worry about, and people also are forgetful. Also this feature seems to download new songs as well for discovery which is not the same as manually choosing which songs to store offline.

I take it you've never forgotten to do something, then.

 

[JapanApple]

One of the most pointless apps of all time

 

[hans1972]

How come? This is a welcome feature for people who commute to work via train (I'm often stuck without a connection when having to through a tunnel). Especially annoying for streaming apps so I've learned to download my content offline ahead of time.

For music I often have to fall back to an offline playlist that I've gotten sick of and too lazy to create/download new playlists.

Because some of us are using offline playlists all the time just like we did with an iPod or a MP3 player.

 

[hans1972]

Sir, it looks like you don't take trains, fly or go camping in remote places very often.

Or we use offline playlists all the time. You can have thousands of songs stored locally at least with Apple Music.

 

[hans1972]

Tunnels can be pretty bad, it's more than half than my daily train route, including time to reconnect.
Downloading everyday as a routine can be annoying and you end up listening to the same stuff.
It's a welcome feature to me but, again, making regular downloads better would have been enough.

The playlists don't have to be static.
They're updated automatically when connected to Wifi and you charge your phone.

 

[hans1972]

I love all the naysayers thinking that we know about network notspots in advance. What if a cell tower goes down? or a last minute trip somewhere? But a download all would be useful (maybe not for my massive library though lol.

Or just continue what you did when you had an iPod or MP3-player. You only use offline playlists.
I never stream music directly from my phone. In fact, Apple Music is set up to not use mobile connections.

 

[cgs1xx]

More curated rubbish from Spotify? We want less interference, not more 😃

I mean, who doesn’t download some of their music library whether using spotify or other services…

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Because people are busy and have lives? There are millions of different things people worry about, and people also are forgetful. Also this feature seems to download new songs as well for discovery which is not the same as manually choosing which songs to store offline.

I take it you've never forgotten to do something, then.

Idk can't remember?

The data signal in the United Kingdom is horrendous. The phone says there is a 4G/5G, but you cannot use it. When I travel by train, my music stops streaming, even though there is, apparently, a data signal. So an offline mode is still needed here, even when outside with a supposed signal.

BTW, my Music app is storing 5GB of data, even though I haven’t downloaded any song. Why can’t this massive cache be used for offline music? There doesn’t appear be a way to delete this data

Which network are you on?

I'm in Manchester and it's pretty good here with EE, not so much with the other networks.

 

[wbeasley]

Wow, people in here really have a hate rager for Spotify. This is a pretty clever feature, taking advantage of things the software already does anyways.

Spotify have brought on much of the hate by their actions.

And their broken promises to deliver things like HiRes music streams and havent.