topic Hijacked Music - IMPORTANT EXPLOIT in Your Library

Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

LuizRCSilva — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:44:13 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

Brazil

Device

All devices

Operating System

All systems

My Question or Issue

Songs in playlists are being replaced with random versions from artists I've never heard of. For example, "The Hard Way", by PNAU, plays some weird xylophone which is definitely not the real one (but the title and artists shown are the correct ones). This also happens with "Live Without Love" by Shouse, which became some weird song from a "Kristal Gandhi" on my Wrapped 2023.

Re: Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

Joan — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 13:55:59 GMT

Hi there @LuizRCSilva,

Thanks for reaching out. This is the same across all devices, correct? Is it also across all playlists? If so, could you send us the links/URIs of both the correct songs and the incorrect ones so we can take a closer look?

Keep us posted.

Re: Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

LuizRCSilva — Sat, 09 Dec 2023 14:20:20 GMT

Hey, Joan!

That's right, it happens with every playlist containing certain songs, the ones being replaced when they're played, but usually not on the list itself (that is, when I click to play, the audio changes, the "playing now" info changes, but on the list it still shows the song it should have been). For example, https://open.spotify.com/track/5Zn95uMcSkg22ScxTEVmRz?si=d10ed2f78c1b4a80 gets replaced by https://open.spotify.com/track/4GH23sNZuiGOH2kKA4f593?si=e0c8881b6bc14de0. I even had to go directly to the artist's page to be able to copy the correct link, as the album itself had the right cover, but wrong link, somehow.

Re: Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

LuizRCSilva — Sat, 09 Dec 2023 19:41:05 GMT

Aditionally, I've noticed one of these rogue songs, https://open.spotify.com/track/3G5d8eTsM2GY1UTaEYwpOj?si=8dfc4a68dc964d98, was deleted. However, that means the actual song, https://open.spotify.com/track/4V1SO4C2wG9bTq6Cp7yYyA?si=5f4d7eaa8b414378, will not be available on my Wrapped playlist:

Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

LucasSAlmeida — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 15:34:01 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

Brasil

Device

Every device

Operating System

Every Operating system

My Question or Issue

Hello! I am having the same problem as Luiz from this thread: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Your-Library/Songs-being-randomly-replaced-in-playlists/td-p/5713182

In my case the problematic track is another one:

When I play the track the album cover and the audio is replaced by the fake one.

When I add the original one to another playlist it gets replaced by the fake one.

In my Spotify Wrapped the fake track is present instead of the original one.

Original track link: https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/track/6LCrqs85q61pfZCXYvW63B?si=0246bd5576f64990

Fake track link: https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/track/4XTjYgnaZJT8HmWZqlS9FX?si=88ebac93aedc4d7d

Is it possible for you guys to remove the fake track from spotify and keep the original one in my wrapped 2023 playlist?

Re: Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

Susan_GP — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 20:13:48 GMT

Hi @LuizRCSilva,

Thanks for your reply and all the info you provided.

I wasn't able to reproduce the behavior from my side with the songs you provided. Could you send us a video/recording of it? You can attach it in your next reply in mp4 format, or you can also upload it to YouTube or Google Drive and make it public.

On another note, if you haven't we'd recommend clearing the cache from the Spotify app settings and checking if that makes a difference. You can also check if this happens with a different account. It could be a family member or friend's account.

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Saved songs being replaced with different mixes/arrangements/versions

r5ha — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 15:42:35 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

Netherlands

My Question or Issue

Hi! When I save songs to Liked songs (or any other playlist), they are not saved for ever and ever - two things that can happen: 1) a song can get removed, and then it will be greyed out (and the app will say something like "Spotify can't play this right now"), 2) a song can get replaced, silently, with a different version of the song, differently mixed/produced, and it is often worse - so it's not even a song with the same name and artist, Spotify displays it as literally the same song that I added, but it sounds worse.

I can understand 1. Sure, things change, contracts change, Spotify is not all-powerful, you can't make all copyright holders love you forever. But doing 2, silently, without adequately explaining it to user makes me feel cheated - I did not add this version of a song to my playlist, please don't tell me I did, it's not even the same song, strictly speaking.

One of the examples of this is Lo Air - Day and Night, it has been greyed out for several months I suppose, and now it came back in a completely different version which honestly sucks (although I understand it's just my opinion), and the old mix (the one I liked) can still be found on Youtube, so it's probably not even a legal problem.

Maybe it's just my luck, but I came across 3 examples of this, and all of them were in a last month, it did not happen before. I don't know why. So yes, can you please keep the things in our playlists greyed out without replacing them with subpar versions? I believe it would really increase the people's trust in the platform.

Thanks.

Hijacked Music - IMPORTANT EXPLOIT

VortFX — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 17:02:08 GMT

I've seen people exploit Spotify hundreds of times at this point, but this takes the cake.

The song "Rushing Back" by Flume has become completely inaccessible, and instead replaced by another song.

Fake song: https://open.spotify.com/track/7GP2geX3A16B2IUFejZtSS?si=9a9ba5f351c3464b

Original: https://open.spotify.com/album/4d2YOjyPDopVhOkksaALJj?si=cLmOeAjoTXmmqi3pLtdb_g

They both play the same shitty replacement song. If I play Rushing Back through it's Album, the replacement song gets played anyway.

"Kcab Gnihsur", the name of the replacement song, is "Rushing Back" spellt in reverse. They also have the exact same listeners counts.

Re: Hijacked Music - IMPORTANT EXPLOIT

Joan — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 08:40:08 GMT

Hi there @VortFX,

Thanks for the reply. Please report this as shown here so we can look into this further. You can use those steps to forward any other potential content issues you may find under Send us a message, provided that the behaviour isn't some technical issue instead.

Let us know if you need anything else.

Spotify plays the wrong song for one specific song only

janiboe — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 10:21:52 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

IPhone 14 Pro

Operating System

iOS 17.1.2

My Question or Issue

When I try to play the Song Rushing Back by Flume, Spotify plays a completely different song and also displays the wrong album art on the bottom. When I open the full album art, it displays the correct picture but the song is wrong. The song playing is always the same one, but is definitely not the song Rushing Back.

I already tried rebooting the phone, logging out and then in again, deleting and reinstalling the app and updating the App, though nothing worked.

Re: Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

snoopen — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 04:08:41 GMT

When I try to play "The Hard Way" from my "Your Top Songs 2023" playlist it does not play the correct track.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1Fa1IIVtEpGUcU?si=96f9ba17555e4f78

It should play this:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5Zn95uMcSkg22ScxTEVmRz

But instead plays this:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7j57nadsCph2KI9eYuaum8

Which appears to actually be this unrelated track:

https://open.spotify.com/track/4GH23sNZuiGOH2kKA4f593

What's even weirder is that I've always had the proper track (first one listed) on my playlist which is what got it included in my "Your Top Songs 2023" playlist.

I've tried reporting the track as an error but I've had no response. I just want to play my playlist and not have random music thrown in!

Replacing songs in existing playlists with re-recordings

bobrtf — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 20:12:06 GMT

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

Device

(iPhone 8, Samsung Galaxy 9, Macbook Pro late 2016)

Operating System

(iOS 10, Android Oreo, Windows 10,etc.)

My Question or Issue

So, this happens periodically/randomly and is annoying every time it occurs.

Listening to an existing playlist and hearing a familiar song, but not the correct version (that was saved to the playlist and has been played many times). Instead, it's a re-recording of the song by the artist.

In last night's case, it was "Five O'Clock World" by the Vogues. Yes the original is still available (on a few different albums), but so is the re-recording.

I didn't make the switch - Spotify did.

How does one prevent that from occurring in the future?

Re: Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

willt2 — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 15:34:14 GMT

Same thing here. I had Baz Luhrmann's Sunscreen song in a playlist and it's been replaced by someone else's inferior version. As suggested above, just grey out the song if it's no longer available, rather than substituting something else.

Re: Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

Jax0927 — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 17:08:30 GMT

Also having this happen to me, Credits song for my death by vivivivivi and Results by paperkitty have been replaced by what sound like covers of the original song. When viewed in my playlist they appear normally but once played their album covers change and the song is not the correct one. Both incorrect songs are by an artist called Minaku.

I am located in the USA, I have premium, and this occurs on all devices. My account is not shared with anyone and is not a family account.

Re: Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

thatsmarts — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 20:30:12 GMT

I just ran into this issue with Baz Luhrmann’s Everybody’s free (to wear sunscreen). It looks like another user found this in mid-2024 (screenshot of their message attached, since I couldn’t link it)

Here is the song that replaced it - URI
(spotify:track:1TQ6a2NEA8LmKfgf0yeBvT) and URL (https://open.spotify.com/track/1TQ6a2NEA8LmKfgf0yeBvT?si=8HGLh_jGSHWx6Qw03Ye1KQ).

I don’t have the original/correct songs URI or URL, because it was completely replaced and I can’t find it anywhere.

Re: Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

RadioMixers — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 12:22:10 GMT

2 tracks belonging to Soudiere , have changed, and the artist has changed to Patty Baddy who I have never heard of. The tracks are completely different:

https://open.spotify.com/track/0YT2YUaN507Bz1KtAoimGD?si=94672e778eaa41e6

https://open.spotify.com/track/5r6FtB6Vgai4h8rfFxfFbb?si=48f792974cf84ec2

It seems to be malicious as I have had this happen before to some of my tracks, though I do not remember which.

Soudiere: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0yUHYhLLs5zHmxwQ3sHnQ9?si=JR-SD4VnRV27VfcgZPGZdQ
Patty Baddy: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4B7VCFIKcdpAwA7uSpXprp?si=e733b71d641a4613

EDIT: The song https://open.spotify.com/track/7m8Sr0KBZZMp3euS1glMkm?si=e589c2b121db4ef0 has also been replaced with a weird song.

Re: Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

Almie — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 16:32:40 GMT

Same problem for me, very disappointing. Agree they should rather be greyed out.

Re: Hijacked Music - IMPORTANT EXPLOIT

Malic90 — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 10:24:02 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

One Plus 12 + PC

Operating System

Android 16 ( Oxygen 16.0.5)

My Question or Issue

Since we have some Geo-Blocks on some Songs overall in the World, it also did hit my Library multiple times, so i know that song are getting blocked due Copyright, some Album Versions are blocked while the Video and Single Version is available and so on.

In this Case, i liked the Chris Brown - Keri Hilson Song,

the Video works, song works on PC & Phone, song is the single Song EP and also within Artist´s Discography on the Artist Page.

Next Day comes, around 10am the Liked Song disappears, and another Song spawns in, same Title but no Artist ( Artist Page is Empty).

If you click Song Info / Song Details, the Writers are the Same, if you click " show Album" it also shows the same Views / Plays as the Original. but not the Artist, not the Label.

Looks like someone flags the Song as their own? Which they clearly arent.

And how can they dislike my liked song, like a total different Song without me doing anything, and that for the last 3 days.

I dont use any VPN which can disrupt anything.

So im kinda confused, as the Original song and Video clearly works, but each day at around 10am the song disappear and a fake appears.

Song URL - ( Fake Song - Original )

Update 15.April.2026

Linked Song disappeared, new spawned in my liked. New Song ( HERE)

Again, same Song title - but its his Cover of the Song.

He did Change the Copyright Sign of his Feature to himself, with Date from 2007 -> 2023. Can be seen in the Pics as well.

Yet it shows up with the same Plays as the Original.

If you Check writers, James Fauntleroy isnt even linked, like in the Original Song which i also wrote down.

So that looks like someone is faking the Original Song.

His "Cover" has nothing to do with Original Artists, Writers, and def. not the Plays, and it shouldnt be automatically switch liked songs.