Spotify’s (News - Alert) new, darker desktop site is somehow less convenient than previous iterations of the spectacularly failing streaming music site. This move is in line with the music streaming company’s ongoing tradition of making its website more appealing to record labels and more difficult for consumers to navigate.

The original Spotify, which came to America in the summer of 2011, was something of a revelation for music fans. Aside from the usual holdouts (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, …Bob Seger?), all of your favorite artists were on the site, easily navigable. Every Tuesday, new albums were featured on the homepage and great album recommendations were made based on your taste.

In time, musicians began complaining about the Spotify model. There were Pitchfork op-ed pieces written, claiming that bands were being paid pennies to have their songs streamed tens of thousands of times. High-profile artists such as Thom Yorke of Radiohead publically decried the company. An indie/mainstream act such as Vampire Weekend withheld its latest album from the site for two weeks after its release.

Spotify responded to this push by assuring artists that they really did want to create a model that was sustainable for artists and listeners alike. To show that Spotify was really on the side of the artists, they began creating measures to make the site more difficult for listeners to navigate. They began releasing new albums on Wednesday, instead of Tuesday. They began featuring significantly fewer new albums on their home page. And finally, Spotify turned their homepage into a Pandora (News - Alert) knockout, suggesting songs that listeners might enjoy based on their past listening history, featuring no new albums at all.

The new aesthetic features an increased darkness on the site. The site feels more like a ‘social network’ for music. We wish Spotify good luck with that.