Music streaming services keep raising prices but don’t deliver proper value for money. Sure, you have access to millions of songs, but there are some actual features I’d like to see—and would even consider paying more for.
1 Better Pay for Artists
Artist payouts will vary depending on multiple factors, and as Spotify outlines on its website, artists aren’t paid per stream or play. Apple Music has a significantly better pay rate (averaging $0.01 per stream), and if it weren’t for an issue where I couldn’t play music from my phone while connected to Wi-Fi, I would not have returned to Spotify after leaving for the latter.
I understand that businesses need to make money, but many music streaming services would still be profitable if they paid artists better. And while I don’t think it’s a good idea to rely on other people’s platforms, earning more would free up their minds to think more creatively (and subsequently create even better music).
2 Higher-Quality Audio
One of the main reasons I initially switched from Spotify to Apple Music is that the latter has much better sound quality. Apple Music’s surround sound is unparalleled, and Spotify’s continuous Hi-Fi delays have become incredibly frustrating.
While you can adjust sound settings on Spotify for a better experience, it still isn’t anywhere near the same level as Apple Music. Most of the recent price hikes have been for features I couldn’t care less about, and I would have preferred Spotify to put more effort into improving the sound quality.
3 Improved Interface Customization
Many music services are somewhat rigid in their interface customization. Yes, you can alter your playlist order and customize the text and images. However, you can’t move different elements around the page, and personally, I find this a bit annoying.
I’ve spoken multiple times about how I want my music streaming service interfaces to be simple. I do not want to see multiple distracting elements that feel like they were designed to steal my attention; I simply wish to listen to music. Being able to drag and drop within different areas would be well worth paying more for, and it would make the browsing/listening experience more enjoyable.
4 Better Discography Filtering
I don’t know if this is just me, but I have found it more difficult to find what I’m looking for on Spotify in recent years. While I can see albums and singles/EPs on an artist’s page, it’s sometimes not easy to see which albums they’ve otherwise featured on. This becomes annoying fast, and I also feel like I’m missing out on discovering some of that artist’s hidden gems.
Having the option to see an artist’s full discography more easily, without needing to go on their “This Is” playlist, would be a significant and simple improvement. Spotify isn’t alone with this, though; I also noticed that finding what I need on Apple Music can sometimes be challenging. Fixing this would make it much easier to discover new music in Apple Music.
5 Tagging
Many apps and tools I use, such as WordPress and my gym-tracking app, let me organize everything better using tags. While many music streaming services let you create new playlists, it would be much easier to organize things if you could create custom tags. For example, I’d love to categorize tracks based on their genre and search for them more easily.
Tagging would also simplify filtering your saved songs, as things can quickly become complex. This would be another simple change that, in my opinion, dramatically improves the user experience.
6 A “Don’t Recommend” Feature
While you can ask music streaming services not to recommend you music, I wish Spotify would do the same with podcasts. In the past 12 months or so (at the time of writing in October 2024), one of my previous favorite podcasts has gone far too deep into the clickbait game. I don’t want to see their content on my feed and have ignored every new upload for a while. And yet, I continue receiving the recommendation.
I would rather not have to report something just to get it off my feed; having a “Don’t Recommend” feature like you see on YouTube would be a game-changer.
Many new music streaming service features have been quite pointless to me, and I’d prefer new things that improve my quality of life. If those happened, I’d happily pay more for my music streaming service subscriptions.
