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</script></head><body class="flex min-h-screen flex-col bg-bg font-sans text-text antialiased selection:bg-primary selection:text-white"><header class="sticky top-0 z-40 border-b border-border/80 bg-bg/85 backdrop-blur"><div class="flex flex-col justify-center gap-4 px-4 py-3 sm:px-6"><div class="flex flex-row justify-between items-end"><a href="/" class="flex hover:underline shrink-0 items-center gap-2.5" aria-label="gabeefranco"><img src="/logo.png" class="h-4"><span class="font-mono text-[15px] font-semibold tracking-tight text-text">gabeefranco</span></a><div class="ml-10 flex sm:hidden justify-end gap-3"><a href="/pt/posts/spotify-complaining/" hreflang="pt" title="Switch language" aria-label="Switch language: Português" class="text-accent max-w-fit font-mono text-xs sm:text-sm underline hover:cursor-pointer hover:text-accent-deep">Switch language: Português</a><button type="button" class="theme-toggle text-accent sm:ml-2 font-mono text-xs sm:text-sm underline hover:cursor-pointer hover:text-accent-deep" aria-label="Toggle color theme" title="Toggle color theme">Toggle color theme</button><script type="module">function e(){document.querySelectorAll(`.theme-toggle`).forEach(e=>{e.addEventListener(`click`,function(){let e=document.documentElement.classList.toggle(`dark`);localStorage.setItem(`theme`,e?`dark`:`light`)})})}e(),document.addEventListener(`astro:after-swap`,e);</script></div><div class="hidden sm:flex items-center gap-2"><nav class="flex items-center gap-1 justify-right" aria-label="Menu"><a href="/" class="px-2 py-1 text-sm font-medium font-mono underline text-text-muted hover:text-text">Home</a><a href="/posts" aria-current="page" class="px-2 py-1 text-sm font-medium font-mono underline text-primary hover:text-primary-hover">Posts</a><a href="/about" class="px-2 py-1 text-sm font-medium font-mono underline text-text-muted hover:text-text">About</a></nav><a href="/pt/posts/spotify-complaining/" hreflang="pt" title="Switch language" aria-label="Switch language: Português" class="text-accent max-w-fit py-1 font-mono text-xs sm:text-sm underline hover:cursor-pointer hover:text-accent-deep ">Switch language: Português</a><button type="button" class="theme-toggle text-accent sm:ml-2 font-mono text-xs sm:text-sm underline hover:cursor-pointer hover:text-accent-deep" aria-label="Toggle color theme" title="Toggle color theme">Toggle color theme</button></div></div><div class="flex justify-end sm:hidden items-center gap-2"><nav class="flex items-center gap-1 justify-right" aria-label="Menu"><a href="/" class="px-2 py-1 text-sm font-medium font-mono underline text-text-muted hover:text-text">Home</a><a href="/posts" aria-current="page" class="px-2 py-1 text-sm font-medium font-mono underline text-primary hover:text-primary-hover">Posts</a><a href="/about" class="px-2 py-1 text-sm font-medium font-mono underline text-text-muted hover:text-text">About</a></nav></div></div></header><main class="flex-1"><article class="mx-10 my-10 font-mono"><a href="/posts" class="underline inline-flex items-center gap-1.5 text-sm font-medium text-text-muted hover:text-primary"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="size-4"><path d="M15 18l-6-6 6-6"></path></svg>Back to posts</a><header class="mt-6 border-b border-border pb-6"><div class="flex flex-wrap items-center gap-x-3 gap-y-1 text-sm text-text-muted"><time datetime="2026-09-02T03:00:00.000Z">September 2, 2026</time><span aria-hidden="true">·</span><span>3 min read</span></div><h1 class="mt-3 text-3xl font-bold tracking-tight text-text sm:text-4xl">Spotify's Time Capsule Change and the Enshittification of Software</h1><p class="mt-3 text-lg text-text-muted">Spotify just removed one of its best features. Beyond a bit of complaining, I want to open a debate about what software is turning into.</p><div class="mt-4 flex flex-wrap gap-2"><a href="/tags/software" class=" text-xs font-medium text-text-muted underline hover:text-accent">#software</a><a href="/tags/life" class=" text-xs font-medium text-text-muted underline hover:text-accent">#life</a></div></header><div class="prose prose-neutral mt-8 max-w-none prose-headings:font-semibold prose-headings:tracking-tight prose-a:text-primary prose-a:no-underline hover:prose-a:underline prose-code:before:content-none prose-code:after:content-none prose-img:rounded-xl dark:prose-invert"><p>There I was, the other day, listening to music on <strong>Spotify</strong>. I usually listen to other things, but at that moment my queue was full of American pop, <strong>one of my momentary hyperfixations</strong>. So I decided to open the time capsule in the app to find out exactly how many hours I’d spent listening to <em>Justin Bieber</em> and <em>Taylor Swift</em>. That’s when I saw something had changed after the app’s latest update: the <strong>“Time Capsule”</strong> section had been replaced by a new feature called <strong>“Music Stats.”</strong></p>
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<h1 id="what-it-used-to-be">What it used to be</h1>
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<p><strong>The Time Capsule was amazing.</strong> You could see the songs you’d listened to most that month, the artists who’d been with you the most, and a few fun facts, like <em>“you listened to The Fate of Ophelia 5 times on such-and-such day.”</em> It was really good, and one of the best parts was posting a card Spotify gave you to Instagram at the end of every month, showing off that info.</p>
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<p>It was perfect. Not too bloated, not too minimal either. You could even <strong>look back through a history</strong> of every previous month.</p>
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<h1 id="what-it-became">What it became</h1>
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<p>Instead of being broken down by month, the section is now broken down by week. Sounds like a small detail, but it just <strong>ruins the whole experience</strong>. Not only can I no longer see previous months, it also makes for a terrible Instagram recap. But there’s something worse: they also threw in a <strong>USELESS</strong> feature to invite friends into a group so everyone can see what everyone else is listening to. <strong>Nothing but bloat.</strong></p>
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<h1 id="why-are-they-doing-this">Why are they doing this?</h1>
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<p>Honestly, this kind of update <strong>seems to be a trend</strong> across platforms and SaaS products in general. They cram in a feature <strong>absolutely nobody asked for</strong>, and users just end up adapting. It seems to come from some need to make everything feel cooler, more practical, more intuitive. But it ends up having the opposite effect. Some things should just embrace minimalism. <strong>It’s better for everyone, you know?</strong></p>
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<h1 id="alternatives">Alternatives?</h1>
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<p>For a while now I’ve been following a kind of <strong>“de-modernization”</strong> movement, a <strong>return to the roots</strong>. There seem to be people out there willing to drop all these trends and go back to a time <strong>when everything felt better</strong>. What about actually owning your music instead of renting it, using platforms like <em>Tidal</em> or <em>Qobuz</em>, for example? Going back to organizing MP3s into folders, scraping album covers yourself… it does sound interesting, I won’t lie. It’s something I’m considering doing.</p>
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<p><strong>Piracy is also an option.</strong> For a long time, people downloaded their music from shady sites. I won’t get too much into it, but anyone who lived through that era must remember <strong>how much better things were</strong>. Unfortunately, I’m too young to have had experiences like that.</p>
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<h1 id="anyway">Anyway…</h1>
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<p>They could have just left it as it was, or added this new update as a separate section. That way we’d at least have had the option to say no. But what can you do, right? I think it’s fair to be disappointed with the direction we’re heading in, and to look for a different stance to take.</p>
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<div class="not-prose my-6 flex gap-3 rounded-xl border border-amber-300/50 bg-amber-50 p-4 dark:border-amber-400/25 dark:bg-amber-400/10"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="mt-0.5 size-5 shrink-0 text-amber-600 dark:text-amber-400" aria-hidden="true"><path d="M2 12s3.5-7 10-7 10 7 10 7-3.5 7-10 7-10-7-10-7Z"></path><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="3"></circle></svg><div class="min-w-0"><p class="mb-1 text-xs font-semibold uppercase tracking-wide text-amber-800 dark:text-amber-300">Do whatever you want!</p><div class="text-sm leading-relaxed text-stone-700 [&_a]:text-primary [&_a]:underline [&_p+p]:mt-2 dark:text-stone-200"><p>I’m just giving my opinion, you’re under no obligation to agree.</p></div></div></div></div></article></main><footer class="border-t border-border/80 font-mono"><div class="mx-auto flex max-w-3xl flex-col gap-2 px-4 py-8 text-sm text-text-muted sm:flex-row sm:items-center sm:justify-between sm:px-6"><p>© 2026 <span class="font-mono text-text">gabeefranco</span> · All rights reserved.</p><div class="flex items-center gap-4"><span class="hidden sm:inline">Written by hand in Porto Alegre.</span><a href="https://github.com/gabeefranco" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer me" class="transition-colors hover:text-primary">GitHub</a><a href="https://github.com/gabeefranco/gabeefran.co-blog" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="transition-colors hover:text-primary">Source</a></div></div></footer></body></html> |