The Spotify Faithful Thread

PJ_Soul

This is for those of us who use and love Spotify. There is so much to discover, I thought a place where we can share our favorite playlists, our own playlists, share our new music discoveries, ask about or share little-known service features, etc etc would be fun and useful to have. This is not a thread for debating which streaming service is better or worse, but for people who have already made the choice or for folks who just want to know more about the service because they are considering it.

My first suggestion is Spotify's "Release Radar"! The playlist contains all the newest releases, including Spotify Sessions (which are awesome), that fit your own listening habits (so the playlist is made just for you by Spotify, just like Discover Weekly is). If you follow it you'll get a playlist full of new releases every Friday.

Indifference71

I actually just signed up for a free 2 month trial....some deal that popped up through my Starbucks app.  Really liking it so far....some pretty good playlists out there.  I'll definitely have to check out the Release Radar and Spotify Sessions....thanks for the tip.  Feels like there's a lot more to it than what I've discovered so far.

dankind

You kids today. 

Thoughts_Arrive

Not a fan of ads and not being able to listen to albums in order.

PJ_Soul

Thoughts_Arrive said:

Not a fan of ads and not being able to listen to albums in order.

Well you have to pay for it to get it ad free and for albums to be in order (and for a ton of other features too). Otherwise nobody would pay for it obviously, lol. Well worth the $10 a month though, IMO! I always say it's the best $10 I spend every month. I don't think that the free version is really worth my time.

PJ_Soul

Indifference71 said:

I actually just signed up for a free 2 month trial....some deal that popped up through my Starbucks app.  Really liking it so far....some pretty good playlists out there.  I'll definitely have to check out the Release Radar and Spotify Sessions....thanks for the tip.  Feels like there's a lot more to it than what I've discovered so far.

Yes, I'm pretty impressed by what it offers - I'm still discovering things after probably 18 months. I.e. Artist Radio. Every artist has an Artist Radio "station" (really a continuous playlist that adds songs as you move down it), which plays lots of that artist, but also other artists mixed in who fit into the same kind of style. I.e. Eddie Vedder's artist radio contains, besides EV stuff, Neil Young, Cornell, Blind Melon, Smashing Pumpkins, Jane's Addiction, Jeff Buckley, etc etc. PJ artist radio has a playlist full of PJ, QOTSA, TOTD, STP, FF, Mad Season, etc etc. You'll find these by clicking on the three little dots menu thing next to each artist's follow button.

Spiritual_Chaos

Thoughts_Arrive said:

Not a fan of ads and not being able to listen to albums in order.

Well there is a reason there are ads. And there is a way using Spotify to support the artists ad-free.

PJ_Soul

Another good curated playlist that updates weekly is #ThrowbackThursday. Updates every Thursday, obviously. Some weeks are way better than others (depending on your tastes). Today's new list is the most modern I've seen, for a throwback list, full of The Strokes, The Vines, The Hives, The Raconteurs, The Fratellis, The White Stripes, The Vaccines, The killers, The Dandy Warhols, The Wombats, The Walkmen, etc etc .... obviously the theme this time is "good hipster bands that start with "The".

Spiritual_Chaos

PJ_Soul said:

Another good curated playlist that updates weekly is #ThrowbackThursday. Updates every Thursday, obviously. Some weeks are way better than others (depending on your tastes). Today's new list is the most modern I've seen, for a throwback list, full of The Strokes, The Vines, The Hives, The Raconteurs, The Fratellis, The White Stripes, The Vaccines, The killers, The Dandy Warhols, The Wombats, The Walkmen, etc etc .... obviously the theme this time is "good hipster bands that start with "The".

Should have been called #ThrowbackTheday

RoleModelsinBlood31

Never used Spotify but it’s prob cause I’m too cheap, I don’t want to pay for it.  But I hear it’s great!

i still use Pandora like the artifact I am.

2-feign-reluctance

I dumped Apple Music a year ago and am so happy with free Spotify!! I'm a believer!

2-feign-reluctance

Let's see, currently listening to every Pearl Jam album released on shuffle, have a killer Ryan Adams collection playlist. If you love pulling together and entire artists catalog and hitting shuffle, you'd love Spotify. The commercials are easy to drown out!

PJ_Soul

2-feign-reluctance said:

Let's see, currently listening to every Pearl Jam album released on shuffle, have a killer Ryan Adams collection playlist. If you love pulling together and entire artists catalog and hitting shuffle, you'd love Spotify. The commercials are easy to drown out!

That is awesome you're happy with the free service! I gave it a shot, and it wasn't so much the ads that bugged me. It was not being able to get albums off shuffle. I couldn't handle that. Sometimes listening to a complete album the way it was made feels like a necessity to me. But some obviously don't mind.   Oh, and sharing playlists is fantastic - I love to be able to just copy and paste and send playlists to people, and so easily. Links from Spotify even post in instant messaging apps so that the person can play directly from the post, like an embedded video.

2-feign-reluctance

https://open.spotify.com/user/dustyofcolumbia/playlist/0qRLShB1m8l66LIWYwBPVQ

2-feign-reluctance

PJ_Soul said:

2-feign-reluctance said:

Let's see, currently listening to every Pearl Jam album released on shuffle, have a killer Ryan Adams collection playlist. If you love pulling together and entire artists catalog and hitting shuffle, you'd love Spotify. The commercials are easy to drown out!

That is awesome you're happy with the free service! I gave it a shot, and it wasn't so much the ads that bugged me. It was not being able to get albums off shuffle. I couldn't handle that. Sometimes listening to a complete album the way it was made feels like a necessity to me. But some obviously don't mind.   Oh, and sharing playlists is fantastic - I love to be able to just copy and paste and send playlists to people, and so easily. Links from Spotify even post in instant messaging apps so that the person can play directly from the post, like an embedded video.

Ah, I only use it at work on desktop or laptop where you can listen to anything in order.

PJ_Soul

2-feign-reluctance said:

PJ_Soul said:

2-feign-reluctance said:

Let's see, currently listening to every Pearl Jam album released on shuffle, have a killer Ryan Adams collection playlist. If you love pulling together and entire artists catalog and hitting shuffle, you'd love Spotify. The commercials are easy to drown out!

That is awesome you're happy with the free service! I gave it a shot, and it wasn't so much the ads that bugged me. It was not being able to get albums off shuffle. I couldn't handle that. Sometimes listening to a complete album the way it was made feels like a necessity to me. But some obviously don't mind.   Oh, and sharing playlists is fantastic - I love to be able to just copy and paste and send playlists to people, and so easily. Links from Spotify even post in instant messaging apps so that the person can play directly from the post, like an embedded video.

Ah, I only use it at work on desktop or laptop where you can listen to anything in order.

Oh, I didn't even know there was a difference. I started out on the my phone, and then went to paid service before ever trying it on a desktop.
Are there library limitations with the free service? Can you save music to your library at all, or only make playlists?

Listening to your playlist now. Good selections. I clicked on your playlist link, and then Spotify opens in the browser and started playing, but then I closed my desktop app, and suddenly I couldn't hear what was playing in the browser. I had to reopen the desktop app to continue. Weird. 

Noteable feature that I guess isn't included in the free version: following friends. For me, any friends who are logged in via facebook can be followed, and they can follow me, and then we can view what the other is or has been listening to, and see when they are listening in real time. This is cool because 1) I can discover new music by checking out what my facebook friends have been listening to, and 2) if we are interested in what they are listening to at that moment we can communicate about it, so it's a shared music experience.

PJ_Soul

Wait, I take it back. I didn't have the option in the browser version, but I searched your user name in the app and I am able to follow you through there 2-feign. I just did. Maybe that feels invasive to you, lol. I see what you're playing right now, like a creeper.

New lesson learned: The desktop app is WAY better than the browser version.

Spiritual_Chaos

PJ_Soul said:

Wait, I take it back. I didn't have the option in the browser version, but I searched your user name in the app and I am able to follow you through there 2-feign. I just did. Maybe that feels invasive to you, lol. I see what you're playing right now, like a creeper.

New lesson learned: The desktop app is WAY better than the browser version.

I prefer the browser version. 

Instead of getting the albums in a loooong list, you get them in a grid system for example.

2-feign-reluctance

PJ_Soul said:

Wait, I take it back. I didn't have the option in the browser version, but I searched your user name in the app and I am able to follow you through there 2-feign. I just did. Maybe that feels invasive to you, lol. I see what you're playing right now, like a creeper.

New lesson learned: The desktop app is WAY better than the browser version.

@PJ_Soul
Haha! You aren't a creeper! Follow away!

PJ_Soul

Spiritual_Chaos said:

PJ_Soul said:

Wait, I take it back. I didn't have the option in the browser version, but I searched your user name in the app and I am able to follow you through there 2-feign. I just did. Maybe that feels invasive to you, lol. I see what you're playing right now, like a creeper.

New lesson learned: The desktop app is WAY better than the browser version.

I prefer the browser version. 

Instead of getting the albums in a loooong list, you get them in a grid system for example.

I think that's just a setting issue. I have all my albums showing in a grid view on the desktop app.

Dr. Delight

Albums not in order?
I'm listening to Vitalogy now and its playing in order. I only have the  Free version too.

Spiritual_Chaos

PJ_Soul said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

PJ_Soul said:

Wait, I take it back. I didn't have the option in the browser version, but I searched your user name in the app and I am able to follow you through there 2-feign. I just did. Maybe that feels invasive to you, lol. I see what you're playing right now, like a creeper.

New lesson learned: The desktop app is WAY better than the browser version.

I prefer the browser version. 

Instead of getting the albums in a loooong list, you get them in a grid system for example.

I think that's just a setting issue. I have all my albums showing in a grid view on the desktop app.

Oh, great!

PJ_Soul

Dr. Delight said:

Albums not in order?
I'm listening to Vitalogy now and its playing in order. I only have the  Free version too.

I've heard both statements. I know I couldn't play albums in order on the free version either... I'm wondering if this is a difference determined by what country we're in? Sounds like Americans can get them in order on the free service, but Canadians and Australians can't. If that's the case, that is really shitty.

Indifference71

PJ_Soul said:

Dr. Delight said:

Albums not in order?
I'm listening to Vitalogy now and its playing in order. I only have the  Free version too.

I've heard both statements. I know I couldn't play albums in order on the free version either... I'm wondering if this is a difference determined by what country we're in? Sounds like Americans can get them in order on the free service, but Canadians and Australians can't. If that's the case, that is really shitty.

Before I upgraded to the paid version, the albums would NOT play in order on the app on my phone.  But they did play in order on the desktop app on my computer.

PJ_Soul

Indifference71 said:

PJ_Soul said:

Dr. Delight said:

Albums not in order?
I'm listening to Vitalogy now and its playing in order. I only have the  Free version too.

I've heard both statements. I know I couldn't play albums in order on the free version either... I'm wondering if this is a difference determined by what country we're in? Sounds like Americans can get them in order on the free service, but Canadians and Australians can't. If that's the case, that is really shitty.

Before I upgraded to the paid version, the albums would NOT play in order on the app on my phone.  But they did play in order on the desktop app on my computer.

Ah, I see. I guess I never tried with a PC before I started paying. Well... that is stupid. Why should it be different between the mobile and PC version?

lolobugg

I have been using the free version since it was introduced in the USA back in 2009/2010.

it is the only streaming service I would use.

Spiritual_Chaos

PJ_Soul

^^ Cool! Thanks for the tip on that! I hadn't seen that yet. Wow, my stats are 99% from my time at work alone. I listen to Spotify almost exclusively at work - at home it's vinyl and out and about it's an mp3 player... My top songs are a bit bizarre. I don't really listen to Fiona Apple or Secret Machine, but I remember I did listen to them both only to decide if I wanted to pay for the Vinyl Me, Please subscription when their albums were the record of the month, lol. I guess that means I don't tend to listen to the same songs repeatedly on Spotify. I'm always after the next song. Interesting.

PJ_Soul

Good #ThrowbackThursday playlist today - The theme is Winter. https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWWwaxRea1LWS

2-feign-reluctance

PJ_Soul said:

Good #ThrowbackThursday playlist today - The theme is Winter. https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWWwaxRea1LWS

Thanks for the heads up! Will check that out.

Indifference71

I think I'm officially all-in on Spotify.  Will gladly pay the $9.99 per month once my free trail ends in February.