Spotify abandons AirPlay 2 support [u]

AppleInsider

AirPlay 2 support for Spotify has been put on hold for the foreseeable future due to technical issues.

Spotify gives up on implementing AirPlay 2

Spotify users have clamored for AirPlay 2 support, which improves playback and control capabilities when using compatible hardware. Apple implemented the ability for third-parties to take advantage of AirPlay 2 in 2018.

In a forum post first seen by MacRumors a Spotify representative said that work had been paused "for now" due to compatibility issues with the audio driver. The company sees it as a "bigger project that we won't be able to complete in the foreseeable future."

The employee did not disclose any further information about the issues or a possible timeline. They asked that users continue to comment and vote in the forum, and Spotify will provide an update when new information is available.

Previously, Spotify has refused help from Apple to get the service on AirPlay 2 and Siri. The company would only respond to Apple's queries with "working on it."

Spotify is a direct competitor with Apple Music and is often among the last to implement features specific to Apple users. There is certainly a market for adding AirPlay 2 support with a large iPhone user base and AirPlay 2 available in everything from televisions to soundbars.

Update: On August 7, Spotify backtracked in the forum, posting that the feature is still on the way.

Read on AppleInsider

caladanian

Not good. I’m disappointed. 

magman1979

And yet, even shit companies like Samsung and LG that make privacy-invasive "smart" TV's have been able to add AirPlay 2 support without much fuss, and it actually works really well...

Spotify, go fuck yourselves! So happy I'm on Apple Music!

igorsky

This is an awesome FU to its iPhone userbase. Yet Apple is expected to go out of it's way to accommodate them.  What a crap company Spotify is.

ddf200

I've been on the edge about switching from Spotify to Apple Music.  This is making the decision easier.

Rayz2016

Well since they lose money on every customer, this may be a winning strategy. 

sflocal

Maybe Spotify just doesn't have the technical chops it once had?  Is it outsourcing its software engineering department to some faraway code-mill?

urahara

If they still support Airplay 1st version, I am fine with it.

ArchStanton

igorsky said:

This is an awesome FU to its iPhone userbase. Yet Apple is expected to go out of it's way to accommodate them.  What a crap company Spotify is.

It's odd if you ask me. Tim Cook says there are over 1 billion active iPhone users. I can't be the only one who knows iPhone users who opt for Spotify. 
And making Airplay work can't be some big engineering feat.
Yet there's a small slice of iPhone users who may want this. The only rationale I can think of is Spotify sees the numbers and thinks there just aren't enough customers to be had within the small slice of iPhone users (small but probably well in the single if not tens of millions). 

lordjohnwhorfin

Not sure why anybody would choose to use Spotify at this point. Apple Music is cheaper and better all around. Spotify who?

elijahg

magman1979 said:

And yet, even shit companies like Samsung and LG that make privacy-invasive "smart" TV's have been able to add AirPlay 2 support without much fuss, and it actually works really well...

Spotify, go fuck yourselves! So happy I'm on Apple Music!

Well except those are Airplay 2 receivers, not senders like apps on iOS, and they likely use something like this https://github.com/openairplay/airplay2-receiver.

Airplay 2 isn't that great on my devices from iTunes the Music app, sometimes things show playing when they're not, show the wrong playhead position or wrong song. It's not bad, but could be better.

mknelson

lordjohnwhorfin said:

Not sure why anybody would choose to use Spotify at this point. Apple Music is cheaper and better all around. Spotify who?

And generally pays artists (Ok, labels) more.


Also, I hope Apple updates the iOS Airplay interface. Pre iOS 13 you had a list of "bubbles" for all your Airplay devices, each one showing all your Airplay speakers (perhaps it was too long for some people). It was super easy to simply tap one spot to take control of, for example, the living room AppleTV and have it play to the bedroom speakers.

Now you have to select Airplay, tap Control Other Speakers & TVs, tap the AppleTV you want to control. Then again go through that process to select the additional Airplay speaker you want it to play to.

caladanian

urahara said:

If they still support Airplay 1st version, I am fine with it.

What’s the difference between v1 and 2 in detail btw.?

StrangeDays

Major music/tech company, not able to implement basic streaming functionality for one of the major platforms. Sounds legit. 

StrangeDays

caladanian said:

urahara said:

If they still support Airplay 1st version, I am fine with it.

What’s the difference between v1 and 2 in detail btw.?

Improved responsiveness (less lag), and synchronized multi-room audio. 

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/apple-airplay-2-explained/

iadlib

So they pay artists less per stream and make excuses plus refuse help in order to justify treating iOS devices (a market leader) like second class citizens. Welp, sounds like it’s time to look at Apple Music. 

red oak

Hundred of millions of users… And still can’t turn a profit 

Incompetency is part of its DNA.  Airplay 2 spec has been in the market for 3 years 

ShapeshiftingFish

New music discovery is very important to me and in that sense I am stuck with Spotify. It's just too good. I gave Apple Music a try three times, for at least couple of months each time, I did my best to train it in my taste and preferences, yet it never managed to come even close to Spotify in terms of recommendations. I might give it another shot, but I am not keeping my hopes high. I use AirPLay all the time and I'm dreading the prospect of Spotify malfunctioning in that regard.

Eric_WVGG

I was all set to jump on the “holy shit Spotify is completely inept” bandwagon (I personally ignored Spotify in favor of Beats Music because of the latter’s superior Mac software back in the day), but these tweets by Marco Arment — creator of the Overcast podcast app, Instapaper, and some social network called Tumbling or something — made me think twice. 

“An app can support AirPlay 2 […] with a four-step process outlined on Apple's developer website.”
Those “four steps” from developer.apple.com/documentation/… are:

1. Set one flag. One line of code.

2. Add the AirPlay picker to your UI. Probably already there.

3. Respond to play/pause. Probably already do.

4. Rewrite your ENTIRE AUDIO PLAYER to use a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT API

…and that new API:

- is barely documented

- has no public sample code

- is full of major gotchas

- can’t change speeds seamlessly

- doesn’t provide precise timing

- requires much more complex logic

- is less efficient, which can cause background CPU-overage terminations

i spent about a month of last winter trying to make a music player in the vein of Poolside.fm. It turned out to be a total bust; iOS has (at least) three different audio APIs, with non-overlapping levels of functionality, and uniformly poor documentation. it fucking sucks.

granted, Spotify has enough cash to buy all the talent it wants, but I’m not at all surprised to hear that Airplay 2 support could require a complete rewrite of the core functionality of a very mature app. Audio APIs represent Apple technology at their worst.

Japhey

Eric_WVGG said:

I was all set to jump on the “holy shit Spotify is completely inept” bandwagon (I personally ignored Spotify in favor of Beats Music because of the latter’s superior Mac software back in the day), but these tweets by Marco Arment — creator of the Overcast podcast app, Instapaper, and some social network called Tumbling or something — made me think twice. 

“An app can support AirPlay 2 […] with a four-step process outlined on Apple's developer website.”
Those “four steps” from developer.apple.com/documentation/… are:

1. Set one flag. One line of code.

2. Add the AirPlay picker to your UI. Probably already there.

3. Respond to play/pause. Probably already do.

4. Rewrite your ENTIRE AUDIO PLAYER to use a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT API

…and that new API:

- is barely documented

- has no public sample code

- is full of major gotchas

- can’t change speeds seamlessly

- doesn’t provide precise timing

- requires much more complex logic

- is less efficient, which can cause background CPU-overage terminations

i spent about a month of last winter trying to make a music player in the vein of Poolside.fm. It turned out to be a total bust; iOS has (at least) three different audio APIs, with non-overlapping levels of functionality, and uniformly poor documentation. it fucking sucks.

granted, Spotify has enough cash to buy all the talent it wants, but I’m not at all surprised to hear that Airplay 2 support could require a complete rewrite of the core functionality of a very mature app. Audio APIs represent Apple technology at their worst.

Thank you for this post. As usual, I learned more from the forum than from the actual article itself. I know this will probably open Pandora’s box here, but do you think Apple makes it so confusing and difficult intentionally? 

9secondkox2

LOL at Spotify’s inability to make a functioning product. 

There are no “technical issues.” 

For those defending “how hard it is” to code for AirPlay, it seems to be a cakewalk for EVERYONE ELSE.

Even Tidal has had it for years now. 

TIDAL. 

It’s a choice. 

Apple has offered to help and they refuse? That’s a slap in the face to Spotify customers on Apple products. And I’d venture to say that’s a ginormous portion. 

But hey so be it. People like me will stick with Apple Music. And the rest of Spotify users using Apple devices will wide up to Spotify’s subpar experience.