Spotify withdrawal woes
November 15, 2013 8:45 AM Subscribe
Is it possible to see the "ticker" of what friends are listening to in the Spotify web player?
I love listening to Spotify at work. IT, however, doesn't agree. They've recently cracked down and blocked employees from running Spotify on their work machines because of bandwidth-usage concerns.
OK, fair enough. Listening to music in general is still allowed, so I am just going to have to listen to my own music via Mp3 player instead of streaming new music.
But I'm still bummed. One of the things I liked best about Spotify was being able to follow friends and see the real-time ticker of what songs they were listening to. I can still access the Spotify web player and see all my playlists, etc. (though I don't want to listen to music through the web player, since IT won't like that either). Is there a way in the web player to see the ticker that shows what the people I follow just listened to?
I see the Discovery tab and I know you can see people's profiles, but I want the real-time ticker. Also, I know people's Spotify activities sometimes show up in their Facebook feeds, but most of the people I follow have that functionality turned off, so going to Facebook to see their activity isn't a great solution.
Bonus question: Is there some solution I'm not thinking of that will let me listen to Spotify without running afoul of IT? Spotify offline?
I love listening to Spotify at work. IT, however, doesn't agree. They've recently cracked down and blocked employees from running Spotify on their work machines because of bandwidth-usage concerns.
OK, fair enough. Listening to music in general is still allowed, so I am just going to have to listen to my own music via Mp3 player instead of streaming new music.
But I'm still bummed. One of the things I liked best about Spotify was being able to follow friends and see the real-time ticker of what songs they were listening to. I can still access the Spotify web player and see all my playlists, etc. (though I don't want to listen to music through the web player, since IT won't like that either). Is there a way in the web player to see the ticker that shows what the people I follow just listened to?
I see the Discovery tab and I know you can see people's profiles, but I want the real-time ticker. Also, I know people's Spotify activities sometimes show up in their Facebook feeds, but most of the people I follow have that functionality turned off, so going to Facebook to see their activity isn't a great solution.
Bonus question: Is there some solution I'm not thinking of that will let me listen to Spotify without running afoul of IT? Spotify offline?
A premium Spotify subscription lets you download music at home and then listen to it offline. It doesn't work for radio, obviously, but you can make playlists and such and that should be fine.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 8:49 AM on November 15, 2013
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 8:49 AM on November 15, 2013
Response by poster: Sorry, quick clarification: I don't have a smartphone, and I'm most interested in seeing what friends are listening to, even if I can't listen.
posted by aka burlap at 8:55 AM on November 15, 2013
posted by aka burlap at 8:55 AM on November 15, 2013
Best answer: Do any of your friends also have accounts on Last.fm? Last.fm has a "scrobble" feature that allows you to see what friends are listening to in real time as well as their past listens. The scrobble feature is compatible with many other music players, including Spotify and iTunes, so if someone listens through another player and has the right settings on, it will show up on your last.fm feed. It's free to sign up.
Also, don't know if you have a facebook account or not but I'm always seeing "so and so listened to this and such on spotify" in my fb news feed, so there's that!
posted by lettuce dance at 11:24 AM on November 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
Also, don't know if you have a facebook account or not but I'm always seeing "so and so listened to this and such on spotify" in my fb news feed, so there's that!
posted by lettuce dance at 11:24 AM on November 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
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posted by troika at 8:49 AM on November 15, 2013