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Spotify: Browsing through genres not possible anymore

  • 14 November 2019
  • 37 replies
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D
Userlevel 3

Dear Sonos team/community,

since one of the more recent Sonos Controller updates, the experience when browsing Spotify through the controller application totally changed.

Since basically the beginning of (Sonos-)time it has been possible to browse the Spotify catalogue for the featured/highlighted playlists which change throughout the day and the thousands of playlists which are available in the different genre sections. E.g. you could go to genres and choose between rock, electronic, mood playlists, rap and many many more.

I used this workflow a lot every day to play exactly the playlists of which genre I want to hear right now.

Now, as mentioned, this experience has entirely changed. As far as I can see in the iOS or Windows controller apps, it’s now only possible to browse though folders with playlists which I either recently listened to or which are recommended by the Spotify algorithm.

Like I said, this breaks a workflow I (and my entire family) was using for quite a few years already. Now I can’t find an option anymore to manually browse the Spotify catalogue as it was possible before.

Can someone maybe issue a statement on whether this is intended behavior which is not going to change anymore or it’s some kind of bug or something?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Best answer by Airgetlam 11 December 2019, 18:30

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37 replies

P

How can you possibly think taking away the ability to browse all genres is a positive use experience?

T

Huge user experience flaw

Airgetlam

This is still a responsibility of Spotify, all Sonos does is display what the Spotify service hands them. I don’t think Spotify maintains an official presence on Sonos’ boards, you may want to send them a note directly. 

Bruce
A
Badge

Solution is to use the Spotify app & port it to the Sonos player

The sound isn’t the same, but it gets the music playlists you want.

Sonos, please work with Spotify to make this change back to get Genres on the Sonos app.

I

I totally agree with all that is written above. The solution for me at the moment is to use the iOS app SonoPhone instead - hoping, that Sonos will fix this soon.

Ingo

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Interesting, I tried my Windows apps and sure enough the old Genre behavior is shown, as it is in SonoPad. However the official Sonos app shows a completely different experience for Spotify, so I did some digging.

Spotify are detecting the version of the Sonos app and showing the new stuff, which people on this thread hate. However 3rd party apps (like mine and SonoPad which behave like “old” Sonos apps) get the older, preferred experience.

TL;DR this is a deliberate change by Spotify and if you don’t like it, use a 3rd party app and/or complain to Spotify.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
I

What is the status of this? I can still easily browse genres through the Spotify desktop application. There is no such option via the Sonos interface. So how exactly is this a Spotify problem?

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

What is the status of this? I can still easily browse genres through the Spotify desktop application. There is no such option via the Sonos interface. So how exactly is this a Spotify problem?


Please ready my reply directly above yours, which explains clearly why this is a Spotify problem.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
I

What is the status of this? I can still easily browse genres through the Spotify desktop application. There is no such option via the Sonos interface. So how exactly is this a Spotify problem?


Please ready my reply directly above yours, which explains clearly why this is a Spotify problem.


Thanks for the reply but you’re misinformed. Spotify’s genres can be read at the “https://api.spotify.com/v1/recommendations/available-genre-seeds” enpoint.  If you take one of those genres and use it as a seed for “ https://api.spotify.com/v1/recommendations” endpoint, then you have the exact functionality that used to exist in the Sonos controller.

 

This is a design decision by Sonos, not Spotify. So I’ll restate my question: Why was the functionality of a product I purchased reduced?

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

No, this was a decision by Spotify, not Sonos. Sure, Spotify’s own API exposes Genres, as does the older SMAPI endpoint they exposed, but the newer SMAPI-json endpoint does NOT expose Genres. This was a deliberate decision by Spotify, no question about that.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
I

@controlav Why do you keep arguing this point? Did you need me to write you some sample code that proves that Spotify genres can be walked via their API?

 

“SMAPI” is Sono’s API. Are you claiming that Sono’s API doesn’t support Spotify genres and it’s somehow Spotify’s fault?

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

@controlavWhy do you keep arguing this point?

“SMAPI” is Sono’s API. Are you claiming that Sono’s API doesn’t support Spotify genres and it’s somehow Spotify’s fault?

Because I am right.

SMAPI is Sonos’ API specification, yes. But they define the API, each music service implements it as they deem fit.

If you want to Browse genres on Spotify, use my Windows app, or SonoPad/SonoPhone on iOS. These apps still use the old Spotify endpoint. More recent official Sonos apps use the newer Spotify endpoint, which does not include genres.

At some point i will update my app for the modern Spotify experience, and will lose that ability.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
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