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Spotify and bandwidth usage

juliasdream
Grafter
Posts: 260
Registered: ‎09-06-2007

Spotify and bandwidth usage

I started using Spotify a lot. It's a great site for listening to music without actually downloading it or buying it
You can listen to whole albums and create playlists for any length of time
The problem I'm having is that even though I am not actually downloading tracks its a bit like Iplayer in as much as it uses p2p technology and I notice that it uses a huge amount of my bandwidth allowance.
I have searched through their forums and find that others suffer from the same problem but I didn't find any useful solutions
One of their staff wrote that we should limit the cache but didn't offer any practical advice on how to do that
I wrote in asking for instructions but that was a week ago and no one replied
Are there any Spotify users who have figured this out who could help?
I found a folder that looked like a cache folder and was full of hundreds of other folders. I'm tempted to just deleting them but I'm afraid to do so in caqse it impacts the actual program
10 REPLIES 10
pjmarsh
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 4,030
Thanks: 1,575
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Spotify and bandwidth usage

Hi
I've only found this out by having a quick look, but it looks like what you are after/  In Spotify go to Edit > Preferences...  On the the top item is cache and you are able to select the location of the folder and how much space it takes up.  Mine (which I presume is the default since I haven't looked at it before) is set to "Automatic - use no more than 10% of free disk space", but there is also another option "Use at most", with a slider to select what the maximum is.  Presumably if you select that one and pull the slider down to a smaller amount, then you wont store as much data, so the uploads will be less.  I guess if you went too small you might have problems with the audio stuttering and it wouldn't have space to buffer what you are listening to.
This is all only guess work though, but I think is worth a try.
Phil

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198kHz
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 5,730
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Registered: ‎30-07-2008

Re: Spotify and bandwidth usage

Quote from: juliasdream
...its a bit like Iplayer in as much as it uses p2p technology...

Sorry, can't help with your problem, but just for the record (no pun intended), iPlayer in its current incarnation doesn't use P2P.
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Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Spotify and bandwidth usage

There is a way out of it if you only listen to tracks once.
That is to either severely limit the storage available (as was suggested earlier) or to delete the stored tracks on your computer when you have listened to them.
ReedRichards
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 4,927
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Registered: ‎14-07-2009

Re: Spotify and bandwidth usage

Quote from: juliasdream

The problem I'm having is that even though I am not actually downloading tracks ....  I notice that it uses a huge amount of my bandwidth allowance.

Whether you download a track to keep or just listen to it, the amount of your broadband capacity used will be the same (or pretty much the same).  So if you use Plusnet Value with a 10 GByte per month capacity limit, then listening to lots of music on Spotify will eat into that allowance. 
juliasdream
Grafter
Posts: 260
Registered: ‎09-06-2007

Re: Spotify and bandwidth usage

Quote from: pjmarsh
Hi
I've only found this out by having a quick look, but it looks like what you are after/  In Spotify go to Edit > Preferences...  On the the top item is cache and you are able to select the location of the folder and how much space it takes up.  Mine (which I presume is the default since I haven't looked at it before) is set to "Automatic - use no more than 10% of free disk space", but there is also another option "Use at most", with a slider to select what the maximum is.  Presumably if you select that one and pull the slider down to a smaller amount, then you wont store as much data, so the uploads will be less.  I guess if you went too small you might have problems with the audio stuttering and it wouldn't have space to buffer what you are listening to.

Thanks for advice. Well I took a chance and it worked
I have 1Terrabyte HD so 10% is quite a lot. I had to delete over 7Gb
Obviously I had so much info on my hard drive that the p2p aspect was using up my bandwidth in a huge way
In case this is useful to anyone else the path is
(C:\) Users\username\AppData\Local\Spotify\Storage
Then I emptied everything in "Storage" folder
I since listened to a song and see from my modem lights that there is far less activity than before
Before I only had to have Spotify open and my modem fas flickering away non stop. Now when I stop listening the activity stops
Now I am going to put a shortcut to Storage folder on my desktop so that I can get to it with one click and listen to music to my hearts content
I highly recommend Spotify. I'm finding a fantastic choice of albums in all genres
scootie
Grafter
Posts: 4,799
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎03-11-2007

Re: Spotify and bandwidth usage

am to late you've found what i do to me sisters pc an laptop to stop her spotify nicking all  the upload why  i am on the xbox.
even if you delete the index file in the cahe folder every thin still works fine.
Santiago
Grafter
Posts: 3,291
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Registered: ‎10-08-2007

Re: Spotify and bandwidth usage

Quote from: juliasdream
In case this is useful to anyone else the path is
(C:\) Users\username\AppData\Local\Spotify\Storage

For me it was this
Documents& Settings\Username\LocalSettings\ApplicationData\Spotify\Storage
scootie
Grafter
Posts: 4,799
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎03-11-2007

Re: Spotify and bandwidth usage

it tells you on spotify's prefence menu which folder there cached in any way's
juliasdream
Grafter
Posts: 260
Registered: ‎09-06-2007

Re: Spotify and bandwidth usage

Quote from: ASBO
am to late you've found what i do to me sisters pc an laptop to stop her spotify nicking all  the upload why  i am on the xbox.
even if you delete the index file in the cahe folder every thin still works fine.

Spotify is really bandwidth hungry even when you have deleted all the cache files.
Just by having the program open without even listening to anything new cache files start loading
My advice to anyone using it is to close it down when not in use
Its not enough to just close it you must also right click on the icon near the clock and choose exit
scootie
Grafter
Posts: 4,799
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎03-11-2007

Re: Spotify and bandwidth usage

i make my sister do the same not because of usage as am on unlimited but because spotify max's the upload out so easy and causes lag.
i wish they would put an uplaod limit in to the options. say 50% - 100% i wouldnt want them to allow u stop uploading as then every one suffers from that. so as low as 50% would do me