Spotify - anyone heard of it?

ok so i rebrought up the auto-play of "boom clap" page (and auto-play? seriously? that's like a "bad restaurant website" mistake) and the only text is

FIRST STREAMED ON DECEMBER 9, 2013
CHARLI XCX
KUDOS, YOU'RE IN THE FIRST 3% OF ALL LISTENERS

her picture, and below is a Tweet button and Share button (No thanks! apparently all my friends got Charli too).

There's a spotify logo in the upper left corner, the "oh you don't wanna hear boom clap right now?" button on the upper right.

aaaaaand in the middle far right there is 1/1 (representing the one artist i've been an early listener to, despite having playlists with literally every top 40 act from 1960-2000 and every modern rock charter from 1989-1999). Below that, a little white nub.

Now, I had not scrolled over the little white nub yet (gee, with this user experience, you'd think i would have been inclined to explore). Now I am, and it's revealing that my 1/1 is Charli XCX (good info), and below that are the words "Your Playlist."

So I guess that's how I click through to get the playlist I had no way of knowing was being offered until I either a) scrolled over a tiny white nub on the far right of page or b) bitched about this stupid exercise on a message board and was heard by a spotify employee.

As the only information I've been given is "You listened to charli xcx before boom clap came out" - I can't say that's enough to make me want a playlist devoted to this factoid. Sorry.

I love that Run the Jewels is coming up in a lot of these. Congrats everyone who discovered some dudes with a decade of experience, one of them who has been on album that went 11 times platinum

smh @ da croupier who exhausted every way to interact with this program then says "this is not for me"

lol whiney "every way to interact" consisted of scrolling over a single nub and turning off auto-play

"after I pounded five beef 'n cheddars, I was like, 'You know what, Arby's is terrible'"

ok now you're really projecting

dogg, you logged in, used the program, posted your results on a message board (and who knows what other social media), bragged about your weird "literally every top 40 act from 1960-2000" playlists, thus completely satisfying everything Spotify wanted to accomplish with this program

in that way, i would say it's a grand success

whiney this would sting a lot more if you didn't try to troll me at every possibility

i can promise you i posted these results on no other social media

the beef goes on and on and on and on and

i inhale it

also i wasn't bragging about my "weird" playlist (only thing i find weird is when a nerd tries to call other nerds nerds), just giving evidence as to why i expected more than a picture of a single pop star and autoplay of their big hit when offered "who i heard first"

lol katherine

da croup, why would a top 40 act from 2000 show up in a "you listened to them on spotify before anyone else" playlist?

I didn't find anyone first, and I blame that mostly on Canada not having Spotify till late last year, but the playlist that Spotify made for me consisted of several artists that I have already listened to on Spotify, like Susanne Sundfor, so perhaps it's just a matter of time.

But the playlist permission thing is so we can create your "Found Them First" playlist, not so we can play you the songs by the artists you already know. Did you click through to get yours?

― glenn mcdonald, Thursday, September 10, 2015 1:57 PM (35 minutes ago)

I was just kidding around really, Glenn. Will have a look at the playlist when I've some free time later.

Becuz I didn't realize it was strictly hot new artists - somebody had to be in the first however many to listen to Hendrix on spotify, Terence Trent or the feelies, etc

In hindsight I can see this is a buzz bin congratulations thing, but nothing in the text actually suggests as much

So outta curiosity, what IS on a found them first playlist? Those 200 acts? The rando older acts you spun before most? There's no info on the site and Ive been schooled on playing into their game.

Because a program that tells you that you were among the first on Spotify to listen to an already popular artist feels even more niche than what this one already does?

That being said, if I had been listneing to some obscurity from the 60s that suddenly sees a huge jump in popularity due to its use in something like a Tarantino film, it would be kind of neat to see.

I'm willing to admit I was prob naive to expect some kind of "yes you were among the first 20% to play Taylor dayne, you champion" nerdery but I still don't see how this app is in any way rewarding (and if the playlist is the reward its existence shouldn't be a near-secret).

Figuring everyone who found FKA Twigs first got Nao on their playlist.

The playlist you get at the end of the thing is new stuff you might be part of breaking next. Or that's the idea, anyway. Mine had some stuff I already knew and some stuff I didn't, but it was definitely worth checking out.

lol add me to the list of ilxors who didn't know there was a playlist

even if you do bother to scroll over the white dot and learn there's a playlist available - you still don't know WHAT the playlist is, other than tangentially related to your being on the cutting edge re: one of 200 (though seemingly in practice, 5) buzzy acts. not pretending this is actually a big deal or anything, no need for a "settle down," just kinda baffled by the obtuseness of how this is designed.

if the goal is have me let spotify make a RIYL Charli XCX playlist, it's a remarkably ostentatious yet uninviting one

The playlist is based on all your listening, not specifically the artists you "found first".

I didn't have anything to do with the design. You can tell, because there are hardly any screens packed full of tiny inscrutable numeric scores. And no metal.

i want the name of the one person responsible for the absence of tiny inscrutable numeric scores

I can't give you one name, but I could give you 1500 names with a fractional culpability score for each...

I didn't have anything to do with the design.

best thing about it imo - love the colours and animated fx on the artist pics

Would love a big ugly data dump of all the artists where I'm in the first 1-10% of listeners.

Cooler to show who was the first to STOP listening to an artist once they sold out...

i really do miss the snarky 'because you listened to _______ you should check out (horrifying possibly sarcastic suggestion)', really did replicate that old record store experience

I got some right now that sound like a bitchy record store clerk into giving humbling history lessons

You listened to Cheap Trick yesterday. Want to try Styx?

You listened to REM. Check out Chris Isaak.

If you like Soundgarden, we recommend Rush.

You listened to Neil Young and Pulp. Here's an album you might like. *large image of Jefferson Airplane's "Long John Silver"

You listened to the Pretenders. Here's a song you might like. *insanely large image of Neil Diamond's Moods album, track "Song Sung Blue"*

You listened to Cheap Trick yesterday. Want to try George Thorogood & The Destroyers?

I GET IT SPOTIFY, YOU THINK CHEAP TRICK SUCKS.

― da croupier, Saturday, July 27, 2013 12:50 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"you listened to The Battle Of Evermore. Want to try The Mamas And The Papas?"

Is there a way to view a list of every artist and how many followers they have?

In Found Them First, you mean? I don't think there is, and I don't know if that's intentional or not. I'll see if I can find out.

Not find them first - just overall total followers. Something like:
Lana Del Ray - 1,400,000
Grimes - 1,200,000
etc

Ah. No, that's not available anywhere public. Not sure why not, although i know follower numbers don't always track listening volume, so that probably has something to do with it. We used to have some artist charts, but I think it was never quite clear what they were good for, so at the moment all the charts are track-based.

all this themed stuff is fun, whether it works for me or not. discover weekly, fresh finds, found them first (which gave me 0 because i've only recently used spotify properly), throwback sodding thursday, everything.

this week's fresh finds glided so seamlessly through genres that i just let the whole thing play almost without skipping.

Discover Weekly is uncovering artists like NICK CAVE and PIL and WIRE for me this week.

^this. I mean, nice set of songs. I'm not the target consumer for this thing anyway, I have impeccable taste, don't trust rando people at Spotify to have better taste in music than me. *rewinds side b of invisible touch*

yeah i have to wonder if the goal is maintaining a set of songs i'll enjoy more than actually making me discover anything - increasingly i'm seeing songs - not just artists - that I KNOW i've already played plenty on spotify. i feel like the text would often be "you played World Party's second biggest hit last week, care to discover their biggest hit?" & "you clearly like 'black metallic' by catherine wheel, wanna hear 'black metallic' by catherine wheel"?

that said there ARE some "artist like artist you've played"s between the "other songs by artists you've played" and "songs you've played." I just wish it didn't come off so timid about leaving my safety zone, if it's gonna be sold as DISCOVER rather than ENJOY.

it's not unlike the bit in The Ten with bobby canavale and ad miles

"wanna hear roberta flack?"

"hey, how about Killing Me Softly?"

"eh, that's a little Roberta 101. Here, let's try Greatest Hits, track 2..."

it's possible the average spotify listener blasting early alt-rock on the reg doesn't wanna be pushed any further than "mind if we slip some guadacanal diary in with your cure and depeche?" though

This week I got Brenton Wood's Oogum Boogum Song on my playlist, which I may have heard before but couldn't identify, and I found it delightful. Though now I've just learned that's apparently been used in a KIA ad, so that makes me a little disapppointed.

wish there was a "I am familiar with this artist already, please exclude from future discover playlists" ticker

as much as I love Charli XCX I think I am all discovered on that front