Does Spotify have a library option? I haven’t been a heavy Spotify user, but last time I tried it, it seemed like I could “follow” artists as a proxy to adding something to a library, but I found it all pretty confusing.
I know they have playlists, but I was looking more of the feature like, “these are all the songs I’m interested in, that I will use to build my playlists or shuffle… because I don’t want to try and remember everything as I wade through a 60m track library of all the songs available on Spotify.”
Um, yes they do. The left sidebar on the desktop app is titled "Your Library". On the mobile app, it is the third nav icon at the bottom right of the screen.
You can save albums to the library by opening the album page and clicking the circled-plus "Save to Your Library" button. It then appears in your library under "Albums". You can search the library, sort by recently played, recently added, alphabetical, creator. You can also save singles, playlists, podcasts and artists to your library. If you go into settings, you can connect your library to locally stored files.
I could go on. This took me literally 1 minute of opening up Spotify and looking at the UI.
This is from the Spotify support page for the web player (what I was using):
> To add something to Your Library:
> - Click Like on any song, album, or playlist to save to your Liked Songs playlist
> - Click 3 horizontal dots on any song or album to add them to a new or existing playlist
> - Click FOLLOW on any artist, podcast or show
So the “Library” is a proxy for artists I follow, songs in a playlist, or songs I like.
I find that confusing and it’s not really what I want. For example, there are songs I wouldn’t say I like enough to click the heart on them, as I wouldn’t want them inflicting my recommendations, but I might still want them in my library for easy access. Others I might like well enough without loving them.
The alternative would be to make playlists where I just throw stuff for storage, which seems like a messy way to managing things.
Then the followed artists seem like a wrench in the whole system, as it’s a totally different concept.
For mobile it mentions the + to add to Library, without mentioning the 3 bullets for doing it on the desktop/web. Why would mobile have a completely different mechanic for managing the library than the web, when it’s managing the same collection for the user? That also makes 0 sense.
Spotify hides the ability to just have your own stuff in favor of their algorithm they want to shove down your throat. It isn't just library management, but every part of their UI feels more like algo-driven exploration and recommendations as opposed to 'I'm in the drivers seat, and I decide when I want to explore'.
Its so frustrating, and I find it hard to explain to folks who have never had their own music collection finely curated - whether physical, in mp3s carefully renamed and organized (probably to be played thru winamp), or now in something like Roon or Apple music or one of the winamp-like local music apps.
Don't get me wrong, I've discovered great stuff via the various algo-radio things every service offers now and auto-plays if your queue ends. But I find much more great music via friends or music sites or reddit. And I want to be in the drivers seat when choosing music - starting with things I've added or favorited or added to playlists.
Anytime I have to use Spotify (typically to share w/ friends) its clear their product is all about _them_ and the stuff they want to push, and not about me.
It’s not the same because with Apple Music you still have an iPod like library you can go through with artists/albums/songs.
If you like a song on Spotify it just adds it to the massive playlist. It only adds it to its library management thing if you like the Album. If you click an artist in your library it takes you to their main page rather than to your library of saved songs by them.
Apple Music's library features much more closely mirror the iTunes style, i.e. you have a library you can browse outside of just the "liked songs" pseudo-playlist. For instance, in Spotify (AFAICT) there's no way to browse all the songs in your library by artist; you can only list the artists you've followed, which is unrelated to whose songs you've liked, and go to their general artist page.
Personally, this is the top contender for a reason for me to switch away from Spotify.
If you only stream your music then the difference is negligible, but Apple Music blends Spotify-like streaming music with your personal library of music you own. It's built off of iTunes in this regard. One perk of this is that you can upload your own music and it shows up everywhere matched to the real albums and artists; Spotify's support for streaming local files is much clunkier.
