Is this the onion? They add the basic feature of a media player where you can listen the title you clicked and not random stuff? If I understood correctly, this is not a feature, it’s just a restriction being removed
Spotify will now let free users pick and play tracks | TechCrunch
Submitted 1 month ago by ardi60@reddthat.com to technology@lemmy.world
https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/15/spotify-will-now-let-free-users-pick-and-play-tracks/
Comments
rayf@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Australis13@fedia.io 1 month ago
The mobile application has always had this restriction for free users (as far as I know), but the desktop application has not.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 month ago
I don’t think it was always that way but it has been for years now.
crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Wait, free users of Spotify could not pick which track they listen to???
sircac@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Well, on PC or tablet you still can, but on mobile it is always album random shuffle… and if you create an album of less than N songs, in mobile they add related tracks in the reproduction (radio-spotify like) so it remains not possible to control what you listen
Joelk111@lemmy.world 1 month ago
No, you could tap shuffle on an album-by-album basis, or on a Playlist with like 10+ tracks or something.
ballgoat@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
This is why I never even gave Spotify a chance. It didn’t make sense to me.
cabbage@piefed.social 1 month ago
Easier to let users play music for free when you don't pay the artists I guess
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 1 month ago
None of you were. Y’all were stealing it for years.
null@lemmy.nullspace.lol 1 month ago
Talk about projection
Tiger_Man_@szmer.info 1 month ago
cool, my “music” folder filled with mp3s could always do that
eronth@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I’m so confused. Couldn’t you always pick what track you wanted to play?
_g_be@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Nope. At some point spotify forced FREE users to shuffle play playlists. You couldn’t pick which specific song you’ll hear first. And with ads, obviously.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Damn, when I joined way back when, you could pick the track you wanted you just couldn’t skip and had to hear ads. Being able to pick a track is the whole reason I moved away from Pandora.
bob_omb_battlefield@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I think it depends on whether you used the web interface or mobile app. Mobile app was more restrictive.
sircac@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Currently, for free users, only PC or tablet allows to control what you listen (caveat occasional ads) but mobile constraints to a shuffle reproduction of albums, and if you dare to do a short album they spice it with additional related tracks, so you are never in control of what is likely to play…
MelonYellow@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
K. Still waiting on the lossless that supposedly dropped
FireWire400@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Keep waiting then lol
Fizz@lemmy.nz 1 month ago
wow the music app finally lets users select music! I’m sad that this is actually something to look forward to.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Be happy it was free and ads could probably be blocked.
Would you appreciate it more if they blocked the view of the library like the videostreamers like Netflix or D+ do?Fizz@lemmy.nz 1 month ago
Idk I haven’t used the free tier of Spotify in a decade. I think add supported listening is enough and all features should be available to the free user except offline listening.
douglasg14b@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I love product updates as part of my technology feed…
I miss old technology feeds in the classic internet days. That actually posted and listed out technology
Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
RSS is still going strong. I’m in the process of shifting my screen time from lemmy to RSS. Just articles, no comments. Makes me realize how addicted I’ve been to comment drama, I say as I post a comment.
goodboyjojo@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Winamp with a cool custom skin and downloaded mp3s was better than Spotify imo.
blackn1ght@feddit.uk 1 month ago
I know it’s cool to shit on spotify and streaming services on Lemmy, but personally I disagree. I loved Winamp and had tens of thousands of songs back in the day, downloaded on my zippy 56k dial up connection. But being able to search for and play virtually any song available instantly and share collaborative playlists, no matter where you are, is so much better.
60d@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Or you’ve been using spotube and been doing this all along
xianjam@programming.dev 1 month ago
Spotube doesn’t actually use the Spotify API. They used to use the Spotify API for their music database, but they stopped when they received a cease and desist.
kiwifruit@lemmy.world 1 month ago
They’ve updated the app and you can again! You just need to select an external metadata provider. If you use Sonic Liberation, you can log into spotify again just like before. spotube.krtirtho.dev/downloads/
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 month ago
is spotify being desperate, or there is an ulterior motive?
qaz@lemmy.world 1 month ago
YouTube Music allows this, maybe they’re losing ad money on the people that weren’t going to get premium anyway.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 month ago
Too late, already got sick of their shit and went back to downloading everything myself. I have to have two media player apps on my phone to account for podcasts and music but it’s still better than using spotify. Probably a better way to do that too but haven’t been bothered enough to look into it.
sircac@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I still let spotify to discover me things from time to time… but regularly I download/obtain those that I like, I never abandoned my offline library, I am old enough to know that nothing online perdures…
tino@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Call me a hardcore Spotify fan boy: I paid for Spotify for 15 years, I loved it, I even applied to worked for them. The product was great and unmatched so as I didn’t care about the problems, so many problems. things were getting progressively more problematic but in the end, King Gizzard who convinced me to quit. I don’t regret it a single minute. Fuck Spotify.
bigb@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I had an account day 1 when Spotify launched in my country. It was such a big deal to me, a person who spent their teens and 20s hoarding music. One service and it was most of the music I wanted. I could sideload my own music and shuffle it all together.
I miss that little app store on the desktop client. You could join shared radio stations and vote on the next track while people wrote to each other in a chat.
parmesancrabs@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I’ve not seen anyone recommend an alternative like Qobuz in these “fuck spotify” discussions - I think it’s a good honest alternative?
clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I use Musify on Android. (From the F-Droid store) It pulls the music off of YouTube and works pretty well. Save playlists,download individual songs, it has recommendations but u didn’t know how they work.
HereIAm@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I was looking to try Qobuz, but they didn’t like my email domain, so skipped it.
parmesancrabs@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I have a custom domain and they accepted it a couple months ago - maybe give it another shot if it was a while back?
elvis_depresley@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I switched to Qobuz, it’s great!
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
I recommend <your jellyfin instance>.
Jokes aside, the only reason I use Spotify is for discovery and the vast catalog (primarily the JP music market).
And I havent seen Qobuz be mentioned in any capacity by japanese artists.parmesancrabs@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Ah this is an interesting point. I think Qoboz are active in expanding their libraries and they do take requests on site. Do you have any JP recommendations - its not a region I’ve ever really listened to?
victorz@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Seen the recommendation plenty of times.
Is it better than TIDAL? I’m interested in switching to either of those, perhaps.
parmesancrabs@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I only used Tidal a while back during a free trial, so can’t comment too much. I think Tidal might have more wide spread functuonality adoption than Qoboz - but they do seem to be pushing out updates to meet feature parity.
Qoboz has been great to use though. I actually find I get a wider spectrum of recommendations than Spotify. Spotify seemed to type cast my current listening habits agressively, and it would take a while to break out of that loop each time.
jjlinux@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Spotify being nice? Absolutely not. There certainly is a hidden agenda behind this.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Probably ads. It’s always ads.
Lemminary@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I don’t mind ads, probably because I never see them. :)
Icedrous@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
My theory is, since they’re releasing lossless audio for premium users, they had to make the free version more appealing to the casual user.
LordCrom@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I dropped my Spotify account after last price hike.
jaschen306@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
me too. I pirate instead now.
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I haven’t used Spotify, until recently, since it was first released. Its big value over Pandora was that it let you choose what to listen to…when did that change?
I’m using spotx on Linux so I don’t get ads, can search individual songs, etc. I thought the free tier was just ad supported, I didn’t realize that they didn’t let you pick what you wanted to listen to.
vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
only premium subscribers could pick individual tracks previously
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 1 month ago
What a ripoff.
Oh, there’s a Spotx for Windows too. There ya go, anybody using Spotify free who doesn’t want to buy into the tiering enshittification go patch your Spotify client. No ads, pick your own tracks, like Spotify used to be when it was a new and a good value for the service.
I’m just too lazy to find a music private tracker and setup Lidarr, I’ll do that eventually and then just stream through Jellyfin like one of the cool kids.
elucubra@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Arrrr
yamamoon@lemmings.world 1 month ago
I’m glad I avoided the spotify bug ever since I saw it.
titanicx@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Spotify is trash anyways.
harfang@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
Move to Qobuz which is more ethical
harfang@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
Move to Qobuz which is more ethical
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 1 month ago
When I was making money, I’d buy albums from bands I liked. Built up a nice library.
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
That’s why I originally went Google music. I thought Spotify was garbage and didn’t have that shit I wanted, still true today 🤣
weaselsrippedmyflesh@lemmy.pt 1 month ago
AFAIK, yes, and they’re around the same ball park, I think cheaper on the individual plan, but a dollar more than Tidal on the Family Plan, IIRC. Nothing like trying them out.
waldo_was_here@piefed.social 1 month ago
You guys use spotify ?
dan@upvote.au 1 month ago
It’s probably the most popular music streaming service at the moment.
DampSquid@feddit.uk 1 month ago
Sure, for the morally bankrupt
desmosthenes@lemmy.world 1 month ago
hell no
waldo_was_here@piefed.social 1 month ago
Sailing the high seas ,is the way ,yep
deacon@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Plexamp.
ramenshaman@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yeah. Just started my self hosting journey a few months ago, looking to replace Spotify at some point. I got a NAS with Jellyfin set up, my next step is replacing Google photos with Immich probably.
sircac@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Mostly for random song discovery considering my previously liked songs, I regularly download/obtain those songs I like for offline reproduction and preservation… online stuff has short lifes
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 1 month ago
YouTube, but yes it’s insanely popular and an excellent value.