my honest review of deezer (music streaming service) after using it for like six months now. this is in comparison to spotify as an alternative since spotify is an evil evil corporation
it has most of the functions i actually need of spotify. there were very few sacrifices i had to make in terms of what songs are available, and i listen to some pretty niche stuff, so that's saying something.
i got used to how the queue functions eventually and have adapted to using it (though it's still a little annoying but w/e). it functions differently from spotify's queue but it still functions.
you can pin certain things to appear at the top of your home screen which is really useful.
adding songs to playlists works fine (unlike tidal, the last service i tried, which doesn't let you search playlists to add to. reordering tracks in very long playlists is unfortunately still a pain but less so than tidal)
you can change the theme to be pretty. most of the pretty themes hurt my eyes bc im a dark mode purist but you have the option!
the desktop app sucks ass and keeps logging me out so i basically don't use it anymore. but i wasn't using it much anyway and it may be a my laptop issue tbh. my laptop is old and i don't update it
the app frequently forgets my queue/current playing track (which only happens when i stop and resume, not while i'm actively listening), which has been partially responsible for my shift away from shuffling playlists. i basically only listen to albums now. if your listening primarily consists of shuffling large playlists and you want to pick up exactly where you left off the next day, this will be a pretty big problem for you. otherwise, you can work around it and it'll be annoying but not impossible.
i was gonna complain how there were a couple explicit albums only available as clean versions, but i just checked and found both of them. though interestingly, you can't find either of them on the artists' page, you have to search the album itself and find it in search results. kind of annoying but way better than them not existing at all.
there is no way for you to stop random shuffle play from happening after you search for and play a single track. you can turn off the setting that allows this and it will work for playlists, albums, and eps, but not single tracks.
in fact there are very minimal preference settings available at all.
the name is still stupid af.
overall, from a notoriously stubborn autistic bitch that hates when things change, deezer is not that much of a downgrade in terms of functionality to spotify. there are things that will piss you off if you hate when things are different, but once you adapt to them, it won't be the end of the world. if you're less insane about adapting to new things, it probably won't be a difficult transition at all. deezer doesn't make you pay to transfer your shit over from spotify either, so you can do it by just clicking a button. not hard.
i'm not shilling for this company out of the goodness of my heart. idgaf about deezer. i'm doing it purely to encourage more people to ditch spotify. deezer is more or less a suitable replacement and spotify is pure evil in multiple respects, and the common substitutes, like apple or youtube music, are not exactly any more ethical. but deezer seems alright! and as much as i complain, it functions better than the last one i tried, tidal, and it's cheaper too.
all of this is based on how i use music streaming and interact with the interface, which probably differs a lot from how you would use it. so i can't guarantee there isn't an aspect that won't piss you off too. ok that's it bye
