Application Critique

 Let's discuss Spotify! This is an app that I feel very passionate about. I have spent thousands of hours using this app as well as a great amount of time with others. I feel this makes me qualified to evaluate this app. I am sure I am not alone in how much time I spent with Spotify. 

 

Spotify's unique capability is creating curated playlists based off of your listening history. The algorithms that are in  place are usually a great way to find new music and mix things up. Overall the design and usability of Spotify are great. I have used many other music streaming applications such as Apple Music, Google Play music, and Youtube Music. Out of all of these I am still a fan of Google Play music, however google shut it down in favor of Youtube music. I believe this was a terrible mistake.

Usability:

Spotify is very easy to use. The playlists and homepage are easy to navigate and provide a great visual to get me to click on new music. The app is cross platform and my music spot carries over no matter if I'm listening on my phone or computer.

 

Functionality: 

Spotify is amazing at playlists. You can edit and manage playlists, or use the playlists created for you by the algorithm. The search page makes it easy to find new music or podcasts. You can cast to different devices, easily create playlists from songs, and like songs. A lot of songs have a section to view lyrics so you don't have to look them up. Another great aspect is the ability to find similar songs or artists based off of what you are currently listening to. 

Design: Spotify has a unique aesthetic that is easily recognizable. The green is a color that everyone can recognize. The app is easy to navigate, the bottom features a home icon, search icon, and your library icon.  The home page features recommendations, recently played, and curated playlists. The search tab allows you to search for artist/podcasts and sort by top 100 or top songs in a specific genre. The Library tab is hope to all the artists you follow, as well as your playlists and downloaded content.

Improvements:

 

I have some major gripes with Spotify.

When I am running or training for a run I tend to listen to random playlists of EDM music to help me run for long periods of time. The problem with this is that all the random EDM I listen to while running adds to the algorithm of what Spotify suggests to me. I do not listen to EDM unless I am running so it makes artist recommendations almost always useless for me. I also run for 2 hours at a time so the app thinks that is my favorite type of music. There needs to be a way to listen to music without it affecting your recommendations.

One thing Spotify is missing that others have is a shuffle all function. In Apple music, if I add music to my library I can shuffle all songs. In Spotify you are only able to play all/shuffle all songs in a specific playlist or by specific artist.

Lastly, I would add the feature to add custom media to Spotify. I have some audio that I would like to listen to in playlists but it is not easy to add my own downloads to Spotify.