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Comment by al_borland | Hacker News Reader

I recently moved from Apple Music to Spotify to see what all the fuss is about, thinking it might get me listening to more music, or different stuff than Apple keeps playing. Using it feels like work and I don’t really get the how they expect users to use the app. I’m tempted to go see if there is a video from the designers explaining their vision so I can use it right. As of now it seems like a mess.

Also, their AI DJ makes no sense. The worst part about radio is the DJ saying nonsense between songs, and they added AI to say nonsense between songs. I was just looking for a way for it to play songs I’d probably like based on other songs/artists I like. With Apple I’d simply tell Siri, “play good music” and it would play a radio station with my name on it (without an interrupting fake DJ).

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"The worst part about radio is the DJ saying nonsense between songs, and they added AI to say nonsense between songs"

Yup, sounds exactly like what a DJ does. I was driving, waiting at a traffic light, watching the minutes go by. 8 minutes. DJ still kept blabbing. Every radio station I turned to, there was a DJ saying nonsense. There's more DJ nonsense than music. That's the point I downloaded Joox, which I later switched to Spotify, and then later to YouTube Music.

I guess at some point, people listen to so much music that they want to hear a commentary or alternate view on that music. Spotify is probably at that maturity level where its listeners don't even want music anymore.

The AI DJ wasn't even saying interesting things about the song or artist. It was just interrupting to say, things like "let's switch it up and play something a little different."

If it was actually giving me some backstory or saying something interesting, I'd get it as a feature. Like VH1's pop up videos. That wasn't what was going on.

Apple Music has nice "radio" channels. One based on your preferences, many based on genres or periods ("downtempo", "90's" etc.) and you can also start one from any song and it will play similar ones.

Spotify does as well. In fact I think they had this feature before Apple Music was released

> The worst part about radio is the DJ saying nonsense between songs, and they added AI to say nonsense between songs.

I didn't know Spotify did this. Who on earth would want to listen to that nonsense by choice? That's like making a recipe app that removes all the random pointless SEO filler from before each recipe, but then uses AI to add it back in.

I too hate the DJ. Not sure why they're trying to push it, the existing system of "daily mix" and "discover weekly" playlists work well in my opinion.

I find the AI DJ's nonsense to be endearing in a funny cringe way, but I definitely understand why people would want a version without it.

If you've got a broad music taste I'd recommend using the song radio for a song which fits the profile of what you're looking for. I've found it much more effective for building playlists of new music then some of their other discovery tools.

>I'd recommend using the song radio

Thanks. Being new to Spotify, I wasn't sure what key words I was looking for in the UI to trigger this kind of thing. I see where to do that now.

"Start a Jam" sounded like it would be it, but after looking it up, that wasn't what I wanted at all.

Spotify plays the music when you tell it to though. I've heard Apple Music streaming can be a bit laggy to start.

This is true. Apple Music is excellent, but slower than the competition when searching and browsing.

I heard it also is laggy even starting songs.

Spotify has significantly worse quality than Apple Music.

So that could be one reason it takes longer to buffer.

Citation needed. This sounds like audiophile craziness. https://support.spotify.com/us/article/audio-quality/

256b/s AAC is well enough for it to be indistinguishable from lossless.

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