One user commenting on Reddit (opens in new tab) said: “They claim it’s a bug but the current app I cannot select songs I have paid for or playlists made up of songs I have paid for. It will play on shuffle with ‘similar artists’ added and you are limited to 6 skips per hour.” While another said: “I tried it after seeing the “free upgrade” for prime members. And every song I clicked played a slightly different song (often from the same album or artist). Very confusing. Took a little while to figure out what was going on (i.e. I wasn’t paying the extra $9).”
Analysis: History repeating
We’ve already seen controversy when rival music streaming service Spotify restricted the way music fans experienced their favorite artists and playlists, and several artists (including Adele) railed against the streaming service’s use of default auto shuffle play button. The outcry asked that it be removed from albums to enable listeners to experience content in the track listing order that the artists and music producers originally intended. Thankfully, Spotify introduced dedicated play and shuffle buttons (opens in new tab). I have no objection to anyone skipping tracks they don’t like, but I’ve rarely used any service that enforces shuffle playback, and I hardly ever use shuffle even when listening to a playlist. You see, I’ve spent so much time putting together mixtapes (remember those?), with carefully curated content for my own personal playback to fit a certain mood or capture a particular time or event, that I really do appreciate the musical journey when tracks fit together in some artistic way. Otherwise, you’re waiting for the song you want to play, and that’s not really any better than listening to the radio.
