I’ve been using Spotify since it came out and I’m starting to feel it’s time to move on soon. My main gripe is that the UI is getting less user-focused and more interested in pushing content and shitty social media-like features. It’s getting bloated and annoying. Plus of course whatever major labels are pushing gets weighted in search results and recommendations. Just a few days ago I got a marketing pop-up (“what QUESTION would you like music to answer for you?!”) which feels like the last straw. I paid for premium, I know what I want to listen to, just get out of the way. And if you absolutely must have some shitty “reels/shorts”, give me the option to turn them off. (I see my kids wanting to listen to a song, getting distracted by some crappy flashing video, swiping around for a while, then exiting the app out of boredom. Luckily they have parents that can help them understand music from a different perspective than 20-second endorphin flashes.)
I guess I’ll just go to Bandcamp full time and piracy if I want to listen to something before I buy a physical copy.
20-second endorphin flashes.
your kids are into Grindcore?
Not yet, though I play some Napalm Death or Brutal Truth records now and then to sneak it in there
One of my daughter’s favorite songs is 32-seconds long.
It’s called “I Like Short Songs” and it’s by the Dead Kennedys and it’s on their album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death, recorded in 1979. She laughed really hard when she first heard it and has loved it ever since.
Short punk songs have been around for a long time.
“Rick Wakeman eat your heart out!”
You’re raising her right
Well yes, that’s not really what I’m talking about here. I play old HC albums around the house all the time, though they don’t really like screaming vocals (perhaps that’ll change with puberty…). It’s more the zeitgeist of just hearing 20-second snippets of songs and skipping around that’s problematic to me. It fosters an ADD mindset for everyone, not just kids.
I guess that’s not a thing my kid does. She listens to songs in their entirety.
Mine do too, most of the time. I’m trying to make a point about what kind of user behavior spotify UI (and similar apps) encourage and that it’s not a good thing, for kids or adults or for music in general.
Fair enough.
