Spotify now frustratingly defaults to autoplay for connected devices
Apparently, its a new feature and not a bug
- By
- on November 10, 2021 5:10 pm
Spotify quietly updated its autoplay feature with a seriously frustrating quirk. When you play music on your Spotify Connect devices, autoplay is now enabled by default and theres no way to turn it off. This means that after your album, playlist, or your song selection is done playing on any device other than your phone or computer, Spotify will continue playing recommended tracks indefinitely.
Users have voiced their complaints in the Spotify Community forum for weeks, filling an ongoing thread with their grievances. It caught the attention of a Spotify Community moderator, who provided some more information about the issue which is apparently a feature and definitely not a bug.
We can confirm that Autoplay is the default setting for any connected deviceWe can confirm that Autoplay is the default setting for any connected device, a Spotify spokesperson said in an emailed statement to The Verge. This means that whenever you play music from Spotify on a device other than your phone or computer, Autoplay will be enabled, and tracks will be added to continue your listening experience.
However, the spokesperson says that Autoplay will not commence if you play a track, album, or playlists with Repeat enabled. That obviously doesnt help if you want an album or playlist to end after its done playing. The spokesperson also mentioned that Spotify updated the experience during the last couple of weeks.
In the aforementioned thread, the Spotify moderator suggested that users cast their votes in a post in the Spotify Idea Exchange to show support for an option to toggle autoplay on and off, but the page that the moderator links to doesnt address that exact issue. In the posts description, the user asks for Spotify to bring back the settings menu on the Spotify web player that was recently removed, which prevents users from changing their autoplay options when listening from the web player.
Other than the title of the post: [AutoPlay] Option to toggle Autoplay on/off across all devices/platforms, it doesnt have much to do with the problem users were initially discussing, causing confusion in that entire thread comments on the post concern both the settings menu and the problem with Spotify Connect. Its unclear whether bringing back the settings menu on the web player will help resolve the autoplay issue on connected devices [or vice versa].
When a post on the Spotify Idea Exchange receives over 180 votes in under six months, the suggestion gets the Live Idea label and will be looked at by the Spotify team. Right now, this so-called idea is currently a Good Suggestion, meaning it received more than 50 votes in under three months. The status should be upgraded soon, though, since it has a total of 259 votes at this time of writing.
Its ironic that Spotify calls something thats essentially a bug report an idea. After all, music on connected devices wasnt set on an infinite loop too long ago. With Spotify projected to increase its user base from 381 million to 400 million users by the end of this year, its going to have a lot more users it needs to satisfy.
At Spotify, were committed to delivering the best possible listening experience. We recently updated our Autoplay settings for connected devices, and are actively gathering feedback from the Spotify Community, the Spotify spokesperson continued. As always, well continue to evolve this feature over time based on user feedback.
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Comments
"The Spotify moderator suggested that users cast their votes in a post in the Spotify Idea Exchange [] but the page that the moderator links to doesnt address that exact issue. "
Spotify Community moderators excel at this jiu-jitsu move. They do it over, and over, and over. It must be a purposefully obsequious misdirect, but to what end I cant readily surmise.
By Mick*O on 11.10.21 5:36pm
So I get the shitty response from Spotify to the complaints, but I cant see why its that big of a deal in the first place? Is wanting a single album to play once and then stop with no action on your part such a big demand that this caused that much outrage?
By mkvii1989 on 11.10.21 5:45pm
Yes.
By Mick*O on 11.10.21 5:46pm
Youve never experienced YouTube Music if youre asking that question.
By iAmDeathTheKid on 11.10.21 9:24pm
Is wanting a single album to play once and then stop with no action on your part such a big demand that this caused that much outrage?
Abso-freakin-lutely.
I want my shit to play and then stop and not play anything else until I tell it to.
By Analog Spirit 2.0 on 11.11.21 12:35am
I dont know if Im in the minority, but having your album finish playing then stop or having it repeat indefinitely when youre 1 and a half hours into a 5 hour drive is extremely infuriating. Especially when its just you in the car. I welcome this change, mostly because I think the auto play feature might finally work in my experience, prior to this it did not.
By NEJM on 11.10.21 5:52pm
I wont try to speak for everyone who dislikes this, but I personally want Spotify to play the music I choose, and not some random recommended tracks [unless I ask it to].
I think the main issue is that they took away the option. People like to listen differently and shouldnt be forced into something they dont want.
By SilverSee on 11.10.21 6:44pm
Exactly.
By Analog Spirit 2.0 on 11.11.21 12:28am
Dude, thats why you have a toggle which you can set to "on", as that is your preference. The issue here is not that this feature exists. The issue is that everyone who set their toggle to "off" is now being ignored by Spotify.
By Riley Ponce on 11.12.21 4:47am
I cant imagine caring one way or the other about this.
By Cols714 on 11.10.21 8:48pm
Ah, the I-have-no-opinion-but-I-must-post, post.
By EmuRage on 11.11.21 11:41am
Spotify is remarkably incompetent when it comes to basic functionalities:
- Android widget goes blank after a while;
- if the mobile version is set to store downloaded songs on an sd card, Spotify will switch to internal storage upon reboot of the phone and redownload everything there;
- when creating an account it is very easy [default] to end up with some ugly autogenerated user name like nd3d56lhj2bv4k473b that is impossible to change;
- no easy way to switch between accounts of a family plan on a shared computer [HTPC], best way I found was to install multiple instances of the app [messy but possible on Linux] and rename their launchers "Spotify []".
Stuff like this has been known for years, with many looong complaint threads. There is never a fix, all you get from support is "suggest this in the idea exchange" or "reinstall the app" ad nauseam. It feels like they have a single coder working on such things. I have been in the Spotify HQ, it is not a small place. I really wonder what they are all up to.
By Elethiomel on 11.11.21 1:27am
Spotify is getting worse and worse because they never listen to users at all. The amount of issues Ive had where the response is "reinstall the app" or they close the thread without addressing the issue.
Theyre starting to sneak in distinct advert streams into their podcasts which makes me wonder why I pay for it to be add free [for the record "this podcast is sponsored by X" is fine because its part of the podcast itself, these are marked as "Advertisement" and have their own unskippable timeline]
By BaronBricks on 11.11.21 3:57am
The podcast ads thing is absolutely insane.
By ReplicantZero on 11.12.21 2:30pm
^ This. All of the above are mainly why I stopped using Spotify.
By Analog Spirit 2.0 on 11.11.21 6:37am
Apple Music
By leedsT on 11.11.21 4:05am
Spotify is awful. Not the music playing bit but the controls are bizarre and constantly shifting. I have never had a reply to an eMail that did not make me angry, because of the deliberate avoidance of the issue I was asking about. And I absolutely hate their music choosing algorithm
why we bother to spend time adding likes to playlists I dont know, to like a track is to pretty much guarantee you wont hear it again for a very long time. If you put half a dozen favourite tracks in a playlist, spotify tags on a dozen tracks that are infuriating in their complete irrelevance
to the previous tracks thereby spoiling the experience.
By Onlybighorse on 11.11.21 6:26am
If they can do this, then they can create a feature to turn off shuffle when you start playing an album. Drives me up the wall that they wont implement something so basic.
By razza83 on 11.11.21 6:53am
Spotify never listens to user feedback in the ideas forum. You still cant even sort albums by release date. Its honestly a joke.
By sandros77 on 11.11.21 9:08am
Spotify gets worse and worse every update. When I first created a spotify account 5 years ago, everything was easy to find and simple. I could download all my music to listen to when I didnt have internet access and easily search and sort my library. Now I cant even listen to a downloaded podcast without internet connection.
By nickguy69 on 11.11.21 9:34am
Same. I loved Spotify in its early days when it was actually pretty simple, straightforward and user-friendly. Now its gotten so frustrating to use that I dont even use it anymore.
By Analog Spirit 2.0 on 11.11.21 2:20pm
I started using it about 2 years ago and was very happy with it, but its been getting progressively worse since.
By ReplicantZero on 11.12.21 2:33pm
Spotify could care less about user input.
They understand autoplay is annoying for many, they dont care. They want you to use your phones Spotify App to play music. If you use your Roku App/Roku Remote they are not nearly able to gather the same quality user data from the Roku App that they can from your Android phone.
All companies want you to use Apps, data is king.
By Davos1 on 11.11.21 9:36am
Man, some people really do complain about frivolous things.
By bigpapaluv30 on 11.11.21 3:40pm
Oh no, people dont like bugs. What idiots.
By Riley Ponce on 11.12.21 4:51am