Spodcast is a caching Spotify podcast to RSS proxy. Using Spodcast you can follow Spotify-hosted netcasts/podcasts using any player which supports RSS, thus enabling the use of older hardware which is not compatible with the Spotify (web) app. Spodcast consists of the main Spodcast application - a Python 3 command line tool - and a PHP-based RSS feed generator. It uses the librespot-python library to access the Spotift API. To use Spodcast you need a (free) Spotify account. Spodcast only supports the Spotify podcast service, it does not interface with the music streaming service.
Source: I'm the author.
I use it a lot while driving, and have to reach down to swipe the screen to skip a song. This is a pretty mindless, natural motion. Sometimes though (till I found out you can disable it) it would switch into car mode with no warning, meaning I need to look down, see the difference, and push the skip button with some precision, potentially dangerous. Why the car mode couldn’t use the swipes is beyond me, or why it exists in the first place.
I’ve since turned that off but my frustration is now from the lyrics feature. It’s neat, and interesting in very specific scenarios, but I wish I could turn it off. A diagonal swipe brings it up, meaning I have to check it, swipe down, and then try again, too much for a previously thoughtless action.
Yeah I don’t use it for its “intended purpose”, but these are little ux roadblocks that could improve others experiences. I don’t see why it can’t be slightly different.
It really pisses me off that they charge what feels like a disproportionate amount (certainly more than I've ever spent on music elsewhere), offer a very simple service only passably well, then waste their revenue on SV dev salaries (with no obvious benefit to the users in features or stability) - and of course their illustrious podcast hosts.
wouldnt really call that a waste if those devs are producing meaningful features and/or fixing bugs.
devs work on the features they are told to, they don't direct what features get put in place or even how those features should behave in UX, most of the time.
seems more a design and/or project management failure, to me.
Trivial example: the Home button that doesn't reliably take you home. It's some sort of home/back hybrid where you're never quite sure what it's going to do (this is on iOS). Instead have two buttons: one for Home and one for Back. Then we'd all know what to expect when we pressed one of them. Not difficult, is it?
More substantive example: poor integration, to the point of being dangerous, with Apple Carplay, and a generally crappily optimised, unresponsive and, yes, dangerous experience for driving with or without it. Every time my Apple Carplay connection fails it's due to Spotify. Every. Single. Time. Screw you, Spotify: I couldn't give a damn about Joe Rogan but if you don't fix your poor quality, dangerous user experience I'll cancel, because it's not worth a horrific car accident just to switch to a different playlist.
(Tangentially, since I mentioned Joe Rogan already, I'm unpleased that a bunch of songs have disappeared from my playlists because of Spotify's poor and purely reactive handling of his podcast. I like the fact that he talks to people from a range of viewpoints, many of which I disagree with: I don't like the fact that it took a social media fiasco and a bunch of artists leaving to label and tag his episodes more responsibly. You should have known what you bought when you acquired rights to his podcast: it's called due diligence. You should have had, and implemented, a business integration plan, in place from day one. Who spends $100M+ without doing this? I'm guessing all you saw is subscriber numbers. Stop being lazy.)
I wish I could reincarnate Steve Jobs so he could go and work at Spotify and fire Daniel Ek and Gustav Söderström in an elevator because I honestly can't think of two individuals more deserving of such a fate.
(Btw, I realise the thinking here is likely that if you have the artists maybe the product doesn't matter so much but, as the Rogan incident shows, having the artists isn't guaranteed. You need subscribers onboard too, to ensure that artists are less tempted by other platforms an options, which means the UX needs to be solid. Clearly it's not at the moment.)
That's why Spotify has been slow on introducing new features or fixing existing ones.
On iOS it's fairly simply to remove songs from the active queue. God help you on desktop. No consistency in design.
Please pay more UI/UX staff, and less Rogan.
Google Play Music was the only app to really nail it, but Google sadly put it out to pasture.
For what it's worth, I have had good results with Apple Music. It works great as a "custom jukebox in the sky" for me.
I use iTunes installed from the Windows Store and just drag my own music files onto iTunes. It syncs them to Apple Music where the files stand right alongside the streamed tracks from the paid service. I can put them in playlists together, edit metadata for my own tracks or Apple Music ones, see (and add!) lyrics, and so on. They even have an Android mobile app.
You're dead on, though, that Apple Music is lightyears ahead of Spotify wrt local files.
The trade off for that very cheap renting model instead of owning it, is you can get kicked out anytime for any reason.
Clients would need to keep checking once in a while to see if your account is still active.