help – Tech in the Trenches

I emailed Spotify this morning. That was an endeavor in frustration in itself. But after coming across no way to hide/dislike a song or artist in Spotify on either the desktop application or Android phone app, I had to ask for help.

I found two help articles, but neither reflected what I was seeing in the application. And I keep them updated like it’s my job. So I emailed support and we’ll see what they say. But maybe you, dear reader, know how to tell Spotify I do not care for this song or artist, please stop showing it to me.

I want to:

Tell Spotify I don’t care about an artist so they will stop showing up in Release Radar/New Release lists.
Remove a song/artist from Spotify-generated playlists.

I use Spotify on:

Android
Linux (Ubuntu)
Mac OS

I found these help articles: Improve playlists made for you – Spotify – There is no button to dislike/hide on Android/Linux. Didn’t check Mac. Maybe it’s there but nowhere else?

Then I found: Undo disliked songs – Spotify. Since I figured if I could undo disliking a song, there must be a way to dislike the song… but I can’t dislike a song… so I can’t undo it. I tried searching for “dislike song” but it returns no results.

I’m lost. How is it not possible to tell Spotify “I do not care for this song/artist.”

I’m tired of artists showing up in release radar and playlists without a way to give input to about them.

Friday night’s adventure started with stopping for gas at 7-11. I was nearly out when I rolled in.

I played the which side of my car is the door on game I’ve played with my new car despite it being months old. I fueled up uneventfully. As I was starting to leave, I heard the older woman next to me ask someone for help with her car. She had locked her keys in her car. And shut the door just enough the lock engaged and she couldn’t get it back open.

The keys were sitting on the seat. It was a brand new car. The means to unlock the car were inches away. But we had no means to reach them.

First, I tried breaking a branch off a nearby tree. It was long enough, but too brittle and snapped as I tried to maneuver it into position to press the unlock button on her door.

As we struggled, two Hispanic guys came over with part of a fishing rod and a screwdriver and we tried to fish for the unlock button. But didn’t get any bites. It was at the wrong angle from the door.

We ended up denting her door frame slightly but were no closer to freeing the keys.

At that point, they left and I had nothing else to help. I told the woman I lived just down the road and would check to see if I had anything at home to help her.

I rode home, said hello to my wife, and searched the house.

I found a long, skinny metal rod in the basement. I have no idea what it was part of but it was about three feet long and no bigger around than a pencil, it looked perfect to my eye.

I grabbed it and returned to the car and drove back to 7-11. As I went, I hoped she would be gone before I made the 5 minute drive back. But she hadn’t moved. Her car, still stranded where I left her.

I parked and walked over, rod in hand and said, I think this will work.

I fished it passed the door’s padding.
I angled it towards the unlock button. It was long enough, but not at the right angle to apply any pressure to the button. I needed a few more inches. Inches I didn’t have.

So we went to Plan B. Her keys were thankfully sitting on the driver’s seat of the car. The fob was visible with the panic button staring back at us.

I took the metal rod and nudged the keys up the back of the seat enough to flip the fob over. I had just enough length to press the unlock button.

With a satisfying click, the doors unlocked and she was able to open the driver’s side door.

With a huge smile, I got a hug and heartfelt thank you. I wished her well and we went our separate ways.

I returned home to dinner filled with warm feelings.

Carl T. Holscher fights for the customers.

Tag: help

Disliking Songs in Spotify?

7-11 Chivalry