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Spotify does not care about its customers. If apple implemented Spotify's suggestions algorithm it'd blow it out of the air.
 
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For a company who loves to complain about “unfair treatment” from Apple, Spotify sure loves to drag its feet on implementing the features it has control over on iOS.

You can't but laugh at Spotify's hypocrisy though. It's been at loggerheads with Apple on the issue of App Store's 30% fee but at the same time can't find a way to compensate artists more fairly after years of criticism. They rail against Apple's monopolistic behaviours on iOS but display the same type of behaviours when it comes to streaming services. Their dragging their feet at providing native HomePod support is just another sign of their hubris.

It’s always been about the money. Not empowering developers or artistes.
 
I cancelled my Spotify for this exact reason. They’re clearly not interested in adding the feature. I now use Apple Music and haven’t looked back.
 
The only major thing Spotify used to have on Apple Music was audio quality. Apple flipped that on its head with the addition of lossless audio for the same price. No brainer for audio people like me, not to mention syncing with my 5000+ songs in my personal legacy iTunes library across all of my devices. Spotify has better playlists, though.
 
So it was a sizable amount of apple devices too when there is a “gate”

I mean a 100 page thread proves that. Right?

Not sure what you’re trying to say here. Compared to most of the other feature request threads on Spotify’s forum it’s a pretty significant number of comments and votes for the feature.
 
Not sure what you’re trying to say here. Compared to most of the other feature request threads on Spotify’s forum it’s a pretty significant number of comments and votes for the feature.
Many here are quick to defend any “gate” as just a few out of millions. Even after apple admits and offer a program. These threads are often hundreds of pages.

But you knew that. Come on.
 
The only major thing Spotify used to have on Apple Music was audio quality. Apple flipped that on its head with the addition of lossless audio for the same price. No brainer for audio people like me, not to mention syncing with my 5000+ songs in my personal legacy iTunes library across all of my devices. Spotify has better playlists, though.
The playlists are AM's weak spot...
 
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Many here are quick to defend any “gate” as just a few out of millions. Even after apple admits and offer a program. These threads are often hundreds of pages.

But you knew that. Come on.

Your comment was worded ambiguously, or maybe its my afternoon slump. So you’re saying Spotify should implement this feature similar to Apple offering a repair program because there are so many people asking about it?
 
The real story here is, what is Apple demanding from Spotify to be granted native* support? The issue was completely missed.
Has Spotify indicated that this is the case somewhere that I am unaware of? If the delay was cause of apple, I can’t imagine Spotify not broadcasting that given they seem to absolutely hate apple.
 
Maybe Spotify has (or had) ambitions to launch their own speaker (I've heard of wackier). If so, they would definitely launch a major marketing campaign to tease and support such a development. [Given the radio silence] It's possible they were targeting "in time to hit this holiday shopping season" and as it became clear that they were not going to hit that targeted timeline (for a myriad of reasons, least of which are the potential complexities that are a software company getting into hardware design, manufacturing and distro), they pressed Pause, choosing to take their lumps (with their loyal user base) and remain tight-lipped about the topic until they have better visibility into when they can deliver a hardware solution.

Or maybe as Apple's HomePod effort seem to be cooling (despite launching new colors for HomePod mini), Spotify is rolling the dice and believes this will be a non-issue in time. We shall see...
 
It does really peeve me to have a HP and HPM and not be able to speak to them and have music play.

Perhaps you should schedule a visit to the Genius Bar.

I have five HPs and two HPMs. And have been speaking to them going back to when the first HP was released. All are superb music players.
 
Apple Music is too focused on one type of music. I have an original Homepod and use Spotify but only the free version so I can't complain. Having been burned by Apple with Homepod, I won't jump into the headphones, the AI glasses, or anything else till it been around awhile. (Airpods Pro are awesome though.) But that's me. To each their own.

I've yet to find a music genre that's not available on Apple Music. But then I live on planet Earth. :)
 
The percentage of users dumping Spotify due to lack of Home Pod support is a rounding error.

In fact, Spotify has increased subscribers.

This is totally a slow news day story

Interesting how more Premium subscribers actually result in less net income, isn't it?

Most new users Spotify managed to get are most likely from new markets, i.e. non-OECD countries where HomePod isn't available. You also have no way of telling how many users actually stopped subscribing due to the lack of HomePod support just by looking at the bar chart. More importantly, we're already well into Q4.

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If anything, Spotify has reasons to start focusing on its users rather than the pursuit of growth at all costs. It's only by focusing on its users (quality) that Spotify can justify fee increases that it will surely implement in the near future. People have to know that Spotify has not made a profit since its founding. While for Apple and Google, this kind of sustained loss is next to nothing, for Spotify the forecasted slow growth could spell financial trouble because Premium constitutes the bulk of its revenue. If Ek thinks like you do, that HomePod owners are inconsequential, he's got another thing coming.

Notice how Apple Music, YouTube Premium, and Amazon Music can all be bundled. Apple Music is part of Apple One, YouTube offers more than music, and Amazon has Amazon Prime. Spotify doesn't have this kind of advantage and could see gradual "defections" when services offered by its rivals start to mature.
 
New stuff discovery, playlists, UI and speed not to mention alternative genres artist availability.
Apple music what? p
Please tell me how to disable all of the UI bloat and anti-friendly UX Spotify has added over the years!

I recently cancelled, because I was so sick of podcasts being shoved down my throat and the poor UX of the artist page redesign. I've always been frustrated that they removed CMD/CTRL + F from artist pages a few years ago, but the move (at least on desktop) to remove all songs from showing was the final nail in the coffin. I believe Apple Music is similar in showing the top 10-ish songs from a given artist, but they at least provide a "show all" link versus having to click album by album.

The other super frustrating thing to me is how Spotify believes they are infallible in knowing what I want. I listened to a white noise "podcast" a single time to drown out background noise; from that one listen, it has become the #1 highest priority piece of content and is recommended at the very, very top of both mobile and desktop UI. I never went back to it, and I've played multiple albums front to back since I listened to that "episode" and nothing can unseat it from that spot. I guess it's because that UI slot is deemed a podcast slot, but that's even more frustrating because in all of the years I've had this account, I've listened to ~3 episodes of Lore, ~5 episodes of a YouTube channel's podcast, and that 1 episode of a white noise podcast. Contrast that to the hundreds of albums I've listened to front to back or even just the few I've had on non-stop repeat this year, and I still have podcasts being recommended to me and thrown in my face. Why? I have absolutely no idea, and there's no quick and dirty way for me to say "I do not ever want this piece of content recommended to me." You may say, "but thunder, you can!", and you're right you can do that with artists - but only artist and only in the iOS app, because the Windows app on Spotify doesn't have the "don't play this artist" option. Great UI, right?

Plus, that's not even getting to the fact that when I open the app, I'm recommended 1 podcast, 1 album I have enjoyed, a bunch of Spotify recommended playlists they made "just for me", and then a whole row of podcasts. I have to scroll an entire screen just to see music I've recently played. I truly get the feeling either their UX designers are paid by the number of rows they add to the homescreen, or they've fired them all and let the backend engineers moonlight as UX experts.

I'm not sure if Apple Music is the best alternative for me, but I figured I would give it a shot before trying some of the other available options since there was a free month; so far, I've been less frustrated with its UX, but it may be because I am that frustrated with Spotify. I figure the only other options are Tidal, Pandora if they still offer the play any song package, and Amazon's service, because I have a feeling YouTube Music won't be much better in the UX realm than Spotify based on their other service's UX lately.
 
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I’m not sure how this is a main page article. It seems more aimed at getting people to make the same oddly ignorant joke (what all small amount of them) and then piling in anyone that diverges from their point of view on what a good product is (how dare you not acknowledge my taste in streaming service. WITNESS ME!).
Yeah okay. Comments. Pish.
 
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Billionaires' games. If Spotify wants to become the premier streaming music service then they'd want to provide the best experience on all platforms, not just their own. Instead, they are playing games to stroke the egos of their billionaire masters. Pathetic. Of course they are not alone in playing these games. It's endemic.
 
UPDATE #1: Spotify only streams commercial garbage
UPDATE #2: The HomePod is garbage, ULTIMATE EARS WONDERBOOM sounds better and is untethered…you know…it has a lithium ion battery as opposed to that ugly wire that APPLE keeps removing from the HomePod marketing promos. Connect your phone to a WONDERBOOM via Bluetooth and voila! You have a smart speaker. Class is dismissed.

This article is nothing but a win-win for everyone! ?
 
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