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It Gets Worse: Spotify Now Requiring New Users to Have Facebook Accounts...

Monday, September 26, 2011
by  paul

This is starting to look more like a marriage than a partnership, with all the ties that bind. On Monday morning, users noticed something really strange: all new users must have a Facebook account to join Spotify, and that's that.  Even if you don't want to link the accounts, and even if you hate Facebook. 

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Updated: Spotify responded this evening to the issue (see below).

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Here's what the registration prompt now says:

You need a Facebook account to register for Spotify. If you have an account, just log in below to register. If you don’t have a Facebook account, get one by clicking the ‘create an account’ link below.”

This is bad news for anyone that doesn't 'have a Facebook,' or purposely ditched an account.  And increasingly, it seems like we all have that friend that jumped ship, either to reclaim some privacy or go the Mary Blige, 'no more drama' route.  "Just cancelled my Spotify premium account," user Victor posted on getsatisfaction.com.  "I do not agree with Facebook's policies. I haven't for years, I cancelled my FB account in 2009 due to their nefarious activities and their constant data disclosure flubs."

Boards are blowing up on this issue, but it looks like there's no going back. "Unfortunately you will need a Facebook account to access Spotify from now on, unless you already have an account set up," Spotify employee 'Darren' told an angry mob, some of whom were actively cancelling their accounts.  "This does not stop you from creating a Facebook account, adding nothing to it and making it totally private as the Facebook account does not have to be actively used."

Meanwhile, plenty of users are trying to figure out how to stop posting every single song on Facebook.  Apparently those controls are available... somewhere. 

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Updated: Spotify responded this evening to the issue with the following statement. 

"To us, this is all about creating an amazing new world of music discovery. As most of our users are already social and have already connected to Facebook, it seemed logical to integrate Spotify and Facebook logins. We already use Facebook as part of our backend to power our social features and by adopting Facebook’s login, we've created a simple and seamless social experience.

From today, all new Spotify users will need to have a Facebook account to join Spotify.  Think of it as like a virtual 'passport', designed to make the experience smoother and easier, with one less username and password to remember. You don't need to connect to Facebook and if you do decide to, you can always control what you share and don't share by changing your Spotify settings at any time.

We're constantly trying new things, always looking for feedback and we're always going to listen to our users, making changes based on this feedback wherever we can."

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