Aousaf Rashid’s Post

Let’s talk about a frustrating user experience that I fixed with a few steps just like Spotify did it before! Imagine you're listening to your favorite playlist when suddenly, the music stutters or skips. This can be frustrating, especially if it happens frequently. The culprit? A bug in the code is responsible for buffering audio data. Sometimes, the smallest changes can have the biggest impact. Recently, I worked with a client on a platform with some frustrating bugs, similar to what Spotify might encounter. Inspired by Spotify's commitment to continuous improvement, I implemented a solution. The results were like striking gold! To tackle an issue my engineers implemented a clever programming fix inspired by Spotify. Here's a simplified breakdown: ➤ They pinpointed the exact part of the code causing the buffering problem. ➤ The code was optimized to handle audio data transfer more efficiently. This involved techniques like pre-fetching data chunks and reducing unnecessary processing steps. ➤ After the fix, rigorous testing was conducted to ensure smooth playback across different devices and network conditions. Spotify also implemented monitoring tools to track performance and catch any future issues early on. Following these, my client’s platform became “a user wonderland”, fostering engagement and leading to a dramatic increase in users!!! Let’s be honest in a tech life! Literally, minor improvements can have a major impact. #TechTips #TechFix #Tech4All #TechLeadership #CTOTalk #TechTalk

Let’s talk about a frustrating user experience that I fixed with a few steps just like Spotify did it before! Imagine you're listening to your favorite playlist when suddenly, the music stutters or skips. This can be frustrating, especially if it happens frequently. The culprit? A bug in the code is responsible for buffering audio data. Sometimes, the smallest changes can have the biggest impact. Recently, I worked with a client on a platform with some frustrating bugs, similar to what Spotify might encounter. Inspired by Spotify's commitment to continuous improvement, I implemented a solution. The results were like striking gold! To tackle an issue my engineers implemented a clever programming fix inspired by Spotify. Here's a simplified breakdown: ➤ They pinpointed the exact part of the code causing the buffering problem. ➤ The code was optimized to handle audio data transfer more efficiently. This involved techniques like pre-fetching data chunks and reducing unnecessary processing steps. ➤ After the fix, rigorous testing was conducted to ensure smooth playback across different devices and network conditions. Spotify also implemented monitoring tools to track performance and catch any future issues early on. Following these, my client’s platform became “a user wonderland”, fostering engagement and leading to a dramatic increase in users!!! Let’s be honest in a tech life! Literally, minor improvements can have a major impact. #TechTips #TechFix #Tech4All #TechLeadership #CTOTalk #TechTalk

Spotify Wrapped has always been a cultural moment, eagerly anticipated by fans ready to relive their year in music. But this year, the excitement seems to have fizzled. 💣 The stats are there. But the magic – the charm that made it personal, shareable and worthy of endless conversations – is missing. Gone are the quirky insights, the genre deep dives, the unique “listening auras,” and those fun surprises that made one exclaim, “Wow, that’s so accurate!” It feels like the soul of Wrapped has been reduced to numbers. And maybe this serves as a broader reminder: data alone doesn’t tell a story. It’s the creative layer – the human touch that transforms raw information into something relatable and meaningful – that truly engages us. Leaning too heavily on tech or AI without weaving in that storytelling magic risks leaving fans feeling underwhelmed, even disconnected. So, how did your #SpotifyWrapped feel this year?

🎸 Spotify Wrapped finally dropped. It's fun, it's personal, and it's a System Design wonder. This year, Spotify delivered Wrapped to an estimated 700 million users worldwide. Here's what Spotify engineers have set up behind the scenes: → Data pipelines to efficiently process petabytes of user-listening data  → Real-time scaling to handle traffic spikes as everyone checks their stats → Machine learning models generating the insights we're all sharing on Instagram Want to know how they pull it off? Check out this case study, where I explore how Spotify engineers make Wrapped work — and the System Design lessons every developer should know. 🔗 Here's a link: https://educat.tv/3OGhAIk 💬 While you're here – what song made your playlist's #1 spot this year? Share in the comments! #SpotifyWrapped #SystemDesign

This is what happens when you get too greedy and forget that a brand is a living thing, and it needs to be maintained. Spotify laid off 1.500 employees a year ago, including people behind data engineering and interpretation. I watched hundreds of people on Threads and TikTok fume over the delay of Spotify Wrapped when it wasn't yet out by the end of December, many of them more concerned with the lack of entertainment than the atrocities currently happening in the world. Rumors spread that Spotify had simply deprioritized its beloved annual event in its relentless pursuit of stock price growth and margin expansion. And when Wrapped finally arrived? The response was unanimous: utter disappointment. "This is what happens when you rely too much on AI," became the prevailing sentiment on social media. People miss Audio Aura, the quirky interactive elements, the silly trivia, and the opportunities to compare results with a friend. People were happy to tolerate imperfect stats, what mattered was the fun element. It made users stick to their payment plans throughout the year, despite increased pricing without a visible increase in performance. What happens if users expect all this and don't get it? When after the delay, the experience is completely lukewarm compared to what Wrapped used to be? They are already switching to other platforms that have been working hard all year to deliver a wrapped alternative that would surpass the high standard Spotify has set in the past. Little do they know that in the end, the main competitor won't even be competing. The moral of the story? Defunding creative people and resources because it's easy to jump onto the AI bandwagon may seem like a quick and attractive fix. Still, AI will never be able to cultivate that intangible secret sauce that truly makes a brand.

As a die-hard Spotify user, I finally decided to dig into why it's so popular despite the competition. Check out my latest blog (linked below) where I break down Spotify's recommendation system and unpack the machine learning magic that keeps us all hooked. If you're curious about the tech behind your favourite playlists, give it a read and let me know what you think!! 🎵🤓 #Spotify #MusicTech #MachineLearning Here's the link: https://lnkd.in/dB6EskuA

I stumbled upon this article and it hit a nerve. I am an avid user of Spotify but can recognise the issue outlined here. The reason this strikes a nerve with me is likely because I feel the same experience on other platforms. “In the past decade, he argues, a “user-centered” approach to design has been replaced by what he has taken to calling a “corporation-centered” approach. Rather than optimizing for the user’s experience, it optimizes for the extraction of profit.” Maybe it’s a misunderstood feature, an algorithm still scrambling with insufficient data to build good models - or maybe certain features are not build with the user experience in mind. I strongly believe that features need to provide value for users. Even if this is a small sample or the experience misinterpreted - optimising for profit can end up a shortsighted upside.

In our metamodern era, we've all had that Spotify moment: discovering an artist with millions of streams, wondering "How did I miss this?" It's not just about music – it's a perfect snapshot of our current reality where something can be simultaneously massive and niche, mainstream and underground. This pattern reveals a crucial shift in how we need to think about research and insight work. In a post-monoculture world, multiple valid truths coexist. One team's thorough market analysis, backed by robust data and vivid examples, might reveal a completely different reality than another team's equally rigorous research of the same space. I find this liberating: the goal isn't more data or "better" research. It's embracing informed naiveté – using research as a foundation for exploratory leaps rather than definitive conclusions. Instead of chasing singular truths, we can focus on crafting compelling narratives that inspire action. The most valuable insights often emerge not from proving we're "right," but from playfully navigating multiple coexisting realities. P.S.: Props to anyone who recognizes from which movie this still is and why I chose it in this context.

Algorithm Hacks: Understand the Spotify Algorithm - Delve deep into understanding the intricacies of the Spotify algorithm. Click for more https://bsapp.ai/sOO7ruPdd #HIDDENSPOTIFYFEATURES #MUSICPROMOTION #SPOTIFYFEATURES #UNDERGROUNDTIPS #SPOTIFYPLAYLIST #UNCONVENTIONALMETHODS #PLAYLISTCURATORS #SECRETPITCHINGSTRATEGIES #ALGORITHMHACKS #INDIEARTISTS

After a few years of struggling with what I have experienced as a user experience deterioration in Spotify, I've finally found the words to articulate why I think that may be happening. This relates to the psychology of confirmation bias, Spotify's A.I. recommendation system, and the nature of data. This is also my first Medium article! Take a read! Curious to hear peoples thoughts!