Spotify is a pile of shite

Subject: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 Oct 12 - 07:04 PM

Well, I reckon it's just above the line. Spotify is about music, right.

Anyway, I sent a message to their support to ask why I can no longer log on. I got back

"Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch.

If you have a question about Spotify, your first stop should be the Spotify Community http://community.spotify.com/ for support from other users. This is also a great place to read up on any company updates that might affect your service as well as posting your own ideas and feedback.

Then check out our Help pages http://www.spotify.com/help/overview/. The FAQs contain solutions to the most common queries and guides on how to use Spotify's features.

You can also now follow or Tweet our Spotify Customer Service Team @Spotifycares for all things Spotify.

We're sure that these solutions will help you with your query. Remember that we'll keep you in the loop on any major service updates via our Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/spotifystatus @Spotifystatus

Kind regards,
Spotify Customer Service Team


ref:_00DD0pxIW._500D0KrlAa:ref"


What a pile of fucking useless shit.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Leadfingers
Date: 27 Oct 12 - 07:20 PM

Do you have to Log On to get where they advise you ? I've never used Spotify so dont know anything about it

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Oct 12 - 07:47 PM

It's called "Social Networking."

Since Vista, and even more so with Win7, when you click HELP in any Microsoft programs, you get a "canned response" that never varies to relate to a search term you've entered before clicking, and recommends you go to the "community help" site and see if some idiot there can blather about something similar.

I was once able to find about 300 separate threads at Mickey's network all stating essentially the same problem. After picking the 80 threads where responses indicated some plausible intelligence (i.e. someone could type almost in sentences) I eliminated approximately 24% of the responses as "probably malicious" and capable of destroying the computer for anyone who tried to follow the "help" instructions given. Another 47% clearly had no idea what they were talking about. The rest appeared to be just passing time. NONE of the replies was in any way helpful.

A few posts were identified as coming from people(?) "at Microsoft" but there was no way to tell whether the comments came from one of the idiots who f***d up the OS to begin with, from some marketing twit who thought he had a good line, or were from somebody in the mail room who'd already misdelivered the daily quota of lost mail and had some free time.

Problem still not addressed by any credible(?) or identifiable Microsoft comments, about a year later. (I've even gone back to the Mickey sites a couple of times to look, although other places are more suggestive of at least "vague awareness.")

Updates have apparently added some local search capabilities in some Microsoft Help files, for a few trivial bits, so a few times (I think it's been at least three) clicking on Help actually returned something vaguely related to my query. Even then, it wasn't very helpful, but at least it was "sort of related."

I suspect you will see this kind of non-support increasingly common, at all kinds of sites.

John

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: GUEST,mando-player-91
Date: 27 Oct 12 - 07:55 PM

I never use spotify well one it's not available in Canada 2 it's not the greatest from what I heard I use Rdio or Deezer

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Oct 12 - 08:00 PM

Still works fine for me. I've got Richard Thompson with Hokey Pokey from a 1975 John Peel session.

I believe they've changed some of their conditions very recently - I had to click on an "accept" when I opened it up this time. I rather imagine that in time it'll get less useful than it still is. That's how things always seems to go. They callit "improvement" and "progress".

But so far it's still pretty great. Touch wood...

Generally I use "exit"rather than "log-out" to maybe be slightly on the safer side.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: michaelr
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 01:28 AM

I've yet to see a site whose "help" features are in any way helpful.

I reckon it's s few sadistic bastards who are behind it all, having a laugh.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: GUEST,999
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 01:39 AM

Ditto, michaelr.

You want an adventure in lame? Write to Mr Google. Just like writing to the government.

"Your thoughts are important to us. Check out FAQs and if that doesn't help, you're seriously screwed. We provide the things we provide, and if you don't like it, fuck you.

Warmest personal regards,

Your government, Google, Myspace, et.al.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 02:18 AM

Generally I use "exit"rather than "log-out" to maybe be slightly on the safer side

One of the common "exploits" used to take control of someone's business was to look for accounts that were left logged in when the user left. If the login is active, it's much easier for someone with malicious intent to pretend to be the regular user and go through "all of your stuff" and sometimes to post, pretending to be you, and/or to change your password so that they can get in but you can't.

At mudcat it doesn't matter all that much, since there's probably nothing very personal here unless you care if someone reads your PMs, and Spotify may be similar(?).

I've had a hard time convincing "her" that it is absolutely necessary to log off everytime she disconnects from her Facebook account; but I think she's convinced by now. (It might have been easier if I had a FB accout to act as a "good example" but I've never been all that good at keeping up a reputation.)

For some sites that you log into leaving yourself logged in is fairly harmless, but it's not really a good habit to get into for your general wandering about. I don't know enough about Spotify to suggest that staying logged in there could be questionable, but you can probably figure out for yourself how safe you feel in doing it that way. Just be aware that in some places it does matter.

John

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 02:28 AM

When you subscribe to a service that requires you to have a username and password, they usually send you a confirmation email that shows your username and sometimes your password. I have made a practice of saving those emails in a folder called "subscribed."

I've been using Spotify for many months without having to remember my username or password, because I never log out. Then one day recently I found myself logged out, probably due to some update to Spotify that had been downloaded automatically. So I opened that folder, found the email, and was logged on again in seconds.

As it happens, in my case it was the username I had forgotten, not my password. I had assumed my username was my email address, but it wasn't.

On the login screen, there is a link at the bottom that says "Forgot your password?" If you click that link, it will take you to a web page that gives you instructions for resetting your password.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 02:31 AM

I got 2 useless replies from yahoo recently, both the same - they obviously identified words in my enquiry, but like the examples above they didn't help.

My webmaster & I couldn't log into one part of our yahoo site, & I was told all kinds of helpful things: get someone else at another location to log into the address (been there, done that), check that I could log into other bits of yahoo (yes, we both could) ...

I spent a while looking at their phone number, but decided to finish my crossword or jigsaw cos I could see I'd achieve something with them.

2 days later I had no trouble logging in.

weird

sandra

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 02:33 AM

Well, their setup for obtaining your user name and resetting your password seems easier and more clear than many.

Follow the login link on the upper-right corner of the page. Click the link that says "forgot your password?" Enter your user name or the e-mail address you used to sign up with Spotify, and "submit." You'll immediately get an e-mail with your user name, along with a link that will allow you to reset your password.

This all seems easy to me, but maybe your problem is more complex. If you already have your user name an password, try a "disk cleanup" if you have a Windows computer. That may remove something that not allowing you to log onto Spotify.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Will Fly
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 08:15 AM

Well, not quite a pile of shite, Richard.

I was reading the re-opened thread on "The Bold Fisherman"/Bogart song just now. I went to the link in Grishka's post, which gave me the published music. I copied down the complete lyrics from a post within the thread - and I've just listened to various versions on Spotify, where I heard a band called Oh! California do an American version which, with some changes, could have come straight from the music-hall style in the UK.

So, we get these problems with programs and get angry with them, but they have their uses.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 11:21 AM

I can't get into the bloody thing. I can log in (der, which involves using my email address and password) and get to the "help" - as the above indicates. It plays nothing. It says I am offline, when I am not. I ask it to send me a new password. It says it has but it never arrives at that (or any other) password. It tells me it looks as if I am trying to log in from my Facebook account (which I'm not, and if you think I'd let an app have access to any of my facebook details, dream on - and I NEVER did).

In short, it's fucked.

Maybe I'll try to set up a wholly new account.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 12:19 PM

Sounds as if they might have sent you a new password to the wrong email address and deactivated the old one.

Setting up a new account might well be your best option.

I've got Coopes Boyes Simpson and Fi and Jo singing Shepherds Arise at the moment. I'd get severe withdrawal symptoms if Spotify shut me out.

Geberally speaking I've found the Mudcat to be a much better source of help than so called Help buttons. Notb necessarily this time. Or rather, maybe better but still pretty useless...

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 01:24 PM

If you can't get help, put a complaint on twitter using @Spotifystatus in the message and I suspect you'll get an answer pretty quickly. These sites pay people to pay attention to social media complaints.

SRS

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 03:11 PM

Ah! That's the first sensible use of twotter I have heard of. But getting it into 140 characters could be tricky.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: nickp
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 04:06 PM

Have a grand clear out of cookies before logging in. I had similar trouble wth a family treepage. found I coiuld get in with Firefox but not IE using the same credentials. clearing cookies can't hurt and might sort it.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 04:12 PM

Just say something rude about it like use the title of this thread. It'll get through.

"@Spotify is a pile of shite; logon FAQs are useless, am locked out of my acct. #Spotifystatus" Without the quotes that leaves you with 47 characters extra. You're catching the eye of both Spotify and the repair folks that way.

SRS

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 28 Oct 12 - 04:50 PM

I've done exactly that. Let us wait and see.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Howard Jones
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 03:41 PM

Software and internet companies seem to operate on a strange business model. Most successful businesses keep listening to their customers and provide what the customer wants. If there's a problem, many of them will go out of their way to fix it, perhaps going beyond any statutory obligations. They recognise that the key to their continued success is not only providing a good product but providing a good service to back it up.

IT companies seem to work by providing what they think the customer wants, and providing no mechanism for feedback or support. Their customers are left to sink or swim. Sometimes they will change the product regardless of the opinion of their customers - for example Myspace. Sometimes they judge that the product is too important for this to matter, as with Google's black bar of death (although it remains to be seen in 12 months time what the impact switching off iGoogle will be). In other cases - for example Myspace - it is a disaster.

I changed my anti-virus software after I was unable to get any support from Norton, even though they published address, phone number and email address - most nowadays seem to provide no point of contact at all.

I don't know why they do this. Is it a cynical disregard for the customer, or lack of ability to understand that people might have problems with their product?

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 04:11 PM

Can I ask how much you are paying for this 'pile of shite', Richard?

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 05:37 PM

They make their money off ads. No viewers, no ads, no revenue. Kapische? Twat.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 06:18 PM

Does anybody actually look at the ads or listen to them?

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Oct 12 - 06:33 PM

They also make money from people who pay for an account. I pay and am happy to do so. No adds, and all the music I can eat. Wonderful stuff. I love spotify.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 04:36 AM

I started out with a "guest" account (gift of a UK Mudcatter) before Spotify became generally available in the USA. No ads, just music. It was too good to be true. Shortly after Spotify came to the US, I lost my "special" status, and I started getting ads. I could listen to about two or three songs before getting an ad, and that was fine for music research. Then they integrated my MP3 collection with what they had available online, and I found I really liked Spotify. So, I broke down and subscribed for five bucks a month, and I don't regret it. It's a great way to have access to a huge amount of commercial-free music.
I'm glad I have my own collection to supplement it, but Spotify does have a lot of folk music - almost everything from the Smithsonian-Folkways and Topic labels, for example.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 07:27 AM

I don't mind the ads. I simply turn down the volume on my speakers until they're over. Or I pop my earbuds out, if that's what I'm using.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: GUEST,buddhuu sans cookie
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 07:58 AM

Spotify is crap.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Noreen
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 09:06 AM

I prefer a civilised intelligent discussion to a tirade of coarse abuse.

I like Spotify for the access it gives me to all sorts of music- groups or artistes my children refer to, for example, I can look up easily and find out what they're talking about- and Richard Thompson's back catalogue that I had on tape and so can't play any more.

Not bad for free.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 09:07 AM

Spotify is good at what it does, but... Whilst Richard's situation is annoying for him, it's nothing compared with the main problem with Spotify: here

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Howard Jones
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 09:21 AM

buddhu, why do you say that? From a listener point of view, Spotify is excellent - it contains a large amount of music of all types. It's easy to use, and it's free if you don't mind putting up with the ads, or you can pay a modest amount for an uninterrupted service. What's the problem?

It's not very generous to artists - the amount it pays for a streamed track is a few 100ths of a cent, so I won't be ordering the Rolls just yet. But it does provide exposure, and if people like what they hear they can buy the track. Artists don't have to join up if they don't like what's on offer.

Where it is not very good is in providing support, if your answer is not in its list of FAQ, just like most other internet services.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 09:32 AM

I suppose an artist can opt out of having his music on Spotify (but if you have a contract with a record company, it might be their choice, not yours).

A few months ago, I looked for Bob Dylan on Spotify and found nothing. (I could find other artists covering Dylan songs, but not Dylan himself.) Now I see practically all of his work is there. Something must have changed; I suppose he either changed his mind or he worked out a special deal with Spotify.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Howard Jones
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 04:31 PM

It's actually an opt-in - a record company distributes an album online through whichever outlets it chooses, which may or may not include Spotify, it's up to them. It's correct that whether the artist has a say will depend on the terms of their contract, but that's one of the prices you pay for working with a label.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 05:25 PM

Some good advice on confirming login information, but it should be noted that when you click on "forgot your password" a lot of sites will respond with an email that may or may not confirm your username for the site, but may assign a new, temporary password rather than telling you what your password was.

Sometimes they don't tell you that the new password is "temporary." It's probably best to assume that any PW they send you that doesn't look like something that might have been your old one is a temporary one.

When a "temporary password" is returned, you need to log on using that password and immediately "reset your password" to something you choose for yourself.

If the "temp" PW isn't reset within some arbitrarily chosen time that they choose (but they may not tell you how long you've got), some sites will return to your original password, and some just "go dead" until you do the "forgot password" thing again.

Some sites also may "lock" an account if someone using your username makes a certain number of login attempts that fail. This could happen if your username for the site is just similar to someone else's and they can't type very accurately, or if they forgot their username and "guessed" and hit on yours; or it could indicate that someone is attempting to "hack in." For most sites that do this, you will inexplicably not be able to log in as usual, and the "forgot password" button is the usual way for you to have the account turned back on and a new (usually temp) password given to you.

Both of the above are mainly used by sites that think your stuff may contain "personal information," but nothing prevents any site from using similar policies (usually without telling you much about their policies).

John

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 06:31 PM

Still no Beatles. And there's a fair number of folk bands you won't find there - New Scorpion Band, Cock and Bull Band, Oyster Band...

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 07:29 PM

For sites where it's optional for a band (they call them a "product") to be advertised, a distributor who can make the choice may choose to put "the product" only in a few places where they can "guess" it will get exposure of the kinds they want.

With the extreme emphasis on "targeted marketing" it's likely that Google or Bing et. al. of the "search engines" offer information on what people who go to a site look for, and/or on what sites people look for a particular "product." In some cases a few requests at a site for something not already there could trigger (inspire?) a distributor to "put something up" on a site that they hadn't already saturated.

The more general "tracking cookies" that allow tracking where you go on the 'net are used similarly, so:
a.) if you went to site x and
b.) if you looked for product y,
ads for (or in this case samples of) product y often begin to appear on site x (and everywhere else you go, sometimes).

For overkill, turn off you cookie blocker and search for what you want. Wait two or three days and search again (with the blocker on or off as you prefer), and you very likely will see significantly different results in enough cases to decide whether you need to leave more or fewer "tracks" on what you do.

Many Advertisers are really pretty easy to fool, although there are limits to just how completely stupid** you can get them to act.


** It's difficult to get good results from a written test given only to illiterates(?).

John

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Oct 12 - 10:46 PM

There is still "Torrent " and a score more "mutations."

The "use net " and all the FTP ... groups of old still function.

U R 2 cheap to go main stream...N 2 lazy to go 2 root.

Stop the wine and bring the cheese...PLEASE

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 08:28 PM

? Write English please...

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 04:17 AM

You want English from GARGOYLE, McGrath?

The How Much Do Artists Earn link is interesting. If the figures are correct, then only the most popular of musicians can make a reasonable income through a medium like Spotify. Folk performers, who count their fans in the hundreds, may get enough in a month to buy a cup of coffee.

I've bought CDs from the UK and Australia for $25, and listened to them a couple of times. I just bout a US Mudcatter's CD from CDBaby for over 19 bucks. I've had it a week and haven't listened to it yet. That's an awful lot of money for very few listens.

Spotify has introduced me to a lot of new music I wouldn't have discovered otherwise, and it makes me more discriminating about what I buy. But if artists deserve my money, they'll get it. I often go to house concerts and pay $20 admission, but end up spending $45 on CDs. Don't give up - just do good music.

But in the meantime, buy my kid's recordings. He needs the money.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 04:21 AM

Well, it ain't introduced me to anything because I can't get into it, and their "support" is non-existent. Bye-bye shittify.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 05:11 AM

Oh dear. I don't suppose that they'll miss your patronage.

Now if only we could stop you getting into Mudcat...

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 07:02 AM

Didn't it work setting up a new account, Richard?

I suppose checking out sonething on Spotify might save me from buying something I find I don't like. But it'd be more likely to alert me to something I decide I do want to buy.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: reggie miles
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 12:51 PM

Had to wade through similar piles of nonsense via a few other sites. It reminded me of the auto phone answering services that many businesses employ. "Press one if you'd like to continue to speak to this machine in English... Press two if you'd like to flush our services down the toilet... You have pressed two... Is this correct?"

After months, or maybe it was years, of patiently waiting for MySpace to get their digital act together and make my site there functional, I recently canceled my account there. It took them about two weeks to manage to help me with that task. However, CD Baby, my online distributor for 3 of my past recordings, still maintains a skeletal site there on my behalf. That site is barely functional and impossible for me to update.

Since CD Baby was acquired by Discmakers, not much has gone right with that site either. The first thing that the geniuses at Discmakers did with CD Baby was to go about fixing what wasn't broken, in ways that removed any of the unique character and charm that it once possessed. The result of their attempts to make 'better', what was already an industry leader in digital sales, has diminished any hope that I might have had regarding that site as a viable tool for the success of my efforts. My sales have dwindled to near nil. Another one bites the dust.

Subject: RE: Spotify is a pile of shite
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 02:40 PM

I don't think I've ever come across a "Help" for a program that actually helps me. So in a crisis I depend on Googling around - and of course, the Mudcat.