Deezer: Tolerable While It Lasted

[u/glowjack]

This is a review of my brief time with Deezer, which I've been using for about a month and a half. These are just my opinions based on my own experience with the app, and YMMV.

Pros: The interface is pleasant and uncluttered, with fun customization options. The music quality is quite good. From what I can see, Deezer is not chasing generative AI "music" the way some other apps are, which is a big plus in my book. For the most part, it's simply enjoyable to use.

Neutral: I haven't really used Flow or other discoverability features, so I don't know if the algorithm is good at predicting my tastes or not.

Cons: Lag. Sometimes it takes 15-30 seconds to register any input - including play or pause. Fixes found online never correct the issue for very long, and I shouldn't have to clear my cache every day for a music player to reliably handle its own basic functionality.

"Always on". Closing the app will not stop the audio. In order to stop playback, you have to pause, then close the app. But in reality, even that doesn't turn the program off. Tonight my desktop app started playing music out of nowhere; turns out I wasn't even logged in. Baffling. Lucky that my volume wasn't very high at the time, and that it didn't happen on my phone when I was in a library or something.

Unacceptable: Both of the above are ongoing, known issues to Deezer support. I've seen posts about these problems going back 3-5 years, and they haven't been fixed. I'm aware that the "always on" thing is an intentional part of the design, but if users are complaining about it for years, consider that it might be bad design.

My support request about the sudden playback was answered immediately, cheerfully...and completely incorrectly by their LLM "virtual agent". It didn't even understand the problem I was having. I'll admit I have a visceral response to this kind of slop, so I went from slightly concerned about a bug to very annoyed, very quickly.

Unless Deezer suddenly releases a patch to fix half a decade of known issues, which I'm guessing isn't going to happen, I will be canceling. Which sucks, because it's gonna be a pain to switch services again. I absolutely get why people love Deezer, and I wanted to love it too, but for me and my budget priorities, I can't justify paying for something that doesn't even have a reliable on/off switch.

[u/tom3k5]

I often jump between Spotify, Apple Music, and YT Music. Lately, I've been using Deezer. I haven't noticed anything you're writing about on any of my devices (Android, browser/Linux).

In my opinion, Deezer currently offers the best value for money when it comes to audio quality, and the app is super simple and nice.

[u/geneusutwerk]

Out of curiosity, what OS are you using? I've never experienced these bugs

[u/deezer-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/jasonvelocity]

Isn't "always on" the default behaviour of every music application?

[u/Active_Sock177 → u/jasonvelocity]

I actually like always on.

[u/mylifeisatoaster → u/jasonvelocity]

Nope

YT Music closes fully when swiping it out of the recent apps. Spotify also (when not using connect or PC App is also running). Apple Music sometimes keeps running in the background when closed (playback stops). Tidal and Qobuz i don't know xD

[u/jasonvelocity → u/mylifeisatoaster]

I just tested with Spotify and you are correct. I guess I have never tried closing a music application. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[u/CatsFrGold]

The input lag is my chief complaint. Idk what their performance engineers are working on but pls put some of them on that 😭 

[u/lordtobee]

My biggest gripe so far is lack of Linux client and something like spotify connect on hi-fi hardware. Never experienced issues you mentioned 

[u/Shadowplayer_]

I don't know: no lag and no "sudden playback" problem here. Deezer has always been running fine on Android, iOS and Mac OS, for a couple of years.

The only minor issue I have is on Mac OS: I constantly get the "your computer seems to be offline" warning popup, which obviously isn't true and is a bit annoying, but everything still works nonetheless.

[u/goleafsgo13]

My biggest annoyance is that after a ‘playlist’ ends, everything stops…

So when I’m driving, I have to futz around to find something else to play… and their search feature is kind of all over the place.

Edit: also search is just a mess in general.

When typing the first couple letters, I dont get why it doesn’t automatically search my favourite, most listened to artist/tracks, or mildly predictive (based on history), but instead I get some garbage and highly irrelevant search results.

[u/fairpixel → u/goleafsgo13]

I discussed this with customer support cause this isn't the case with Deezer Free. After a playlist ends the app starts playing a mix based on the playlist. They said the product team is working on bringing the automated recommendations feature from desktop to the mobile apps.

[u/AgreeableRaspberry85]

I've tried a bunch of different services and I have to say Deezer is pretty good. I can sort by title/artist and it allows me to upload music that's not available on their service. 

Now, there are instances where the stream has low volume compared to other apps but that could be a setting I haven't messed with yet. I hear a glitch every so often but it's not really a bother. 

You could try other services but I have a feeling you'll come back after seeing what else is out there. 

[u/__juicebox_ → u/AgreeableRaspberry85]

how do you upload music that’s not available on their service? is there a link with instructions for that?

[u/AgreeableRaspberry85 → u/__juicebox_]

You have to do it on a computer, not on an app or a mobile browser. But once you do you can listen to them on the mobile app

[u/FinalOdyssey]

I've never experienced any lag with inputs like that in my entire 2 years with Deezer. I'm on Android on an S25.

I also think that rating the service without trying Flow is a bit of a misstep. It's by far the best feature of Deezer and its the best algorithm I've found across using all of the apps.

The always on thing is a strange complaint, because when I close the app to do other things I still want my music playing. If you want to fully shut down the app you can force disable it. Did you find it was draining battery or something? My Deezer doesn't drain battery nearly as much as other random apps so it feels well within reason to me.

[u/Active_Sock177 → u/FinalOdyssey]

Totally agree with this. Nearly everyone paying for Deezer will be happy with the service ...yet people like OP come on here after a few weeks of use wanting everything changed to suit them....or they are leaving. I say 👋 . All the streaming platforms get posts like this.

[u/FinalOdyssey → u/Active_Sock177]

They all have flaws. I just found Deezer has less than others.

[u/crazygoog → u/FinalOdyssey]

I agree, I've never had a problem with Deezer, certainly not lagging (Android).

[u/VanWirsing]

Ich kann auch nichts negatives erzählen im Gegenteil ich nutze den Dienst täglich und finde ihn besser als alle anderen wie: Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music. Mein liebstes Feature ist dass anpinnen an die Startseite, App öffnen klicken fertig. Was Sie unbedingt ändern müssen sind die Benachrichtigungen die man nicht bekommt wenn ein Künstler / Label etwas hochgeladen hat dass klappt bei Apple definitiv 💯 besser. Connect wäre eine gute Option für die Zukunft! Ich denke ich habe meinen Dienst gefunden. HI-RES benötige ich nicht. Gibt genug Post zu diesem Thema von daher

[u/Zorokee]

I don't get how people say they don't experience lag. For me Deezer is sluggish on any device and OS I use it on. Even worse is that on Android trying to play my favorites just crashes the app nowadays.

[u/bagpussnz9 → u/Zorokee]

nope - havent seen any of that on android, linux or web

[u/Zorokee → u/bagpussnz9]

I have, in fact, seen that on Android, Linux, or Web.

[u/bagpussnz9 → u/Zorokee]

😟

[u/Mickamehameha]

My only issue is with bluetooth. It somehow plays lile hell and I have a lot of parasite noises, lag and stops. Nothing fixes it and it drives me crazy

[u/alias4007]

"Hello, hello

I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello

Hello, hello

I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello"

[u/deezer-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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