"Ghosted" songs in your "liked" songs mean what? Premium, laptop, Windows 10

andusaman — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 05:43:40 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

individual "liked songs" remain on my list, but are "ghosted" in darkened type. Does this mean that they were available, but due to contract disputes or whatever with artists, that Spotify can no longer market them? They will not play, if you click on them. Example: "English Channel" by Vineeta Batra was on my "liked songs" list and got "ghosted," yet Google query yields a Spotify entry listing it as an available "single." I deleted the old "ghosted" entry on my "liked" list and clicked the heart on the single, but it did not get added to the list again. What is going on with that?

Re: "Ghosted" songs in your "liked" songs mean what? Premium, laptop, Windows 10

Ivan — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 06:33:06 GMT

Hey there @andusaman,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community about this.

As you suggested, the grayed out tracks are no longer available in the app due to agreements between Spotify and rights holders, such as artists or record labels.

We work hard to constantly add music to our content database, but availability can vary over time and between countries. This might be the reason why you can't add a certain track to your Liked Songs even after finding it on Google.

We add new content to Spotify every day, so if you can’t find something you’re looking for right now, it may appear (or reappear) soon. Alternatively, you can always contact the artist or record label with your query as well.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any more questions.

Re: "Ghosted" songs in your "liked" songs mean what? Premium, laptop, Windows 10

andusaman — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 14:53:50 GMT

Thanks for the prompt reply, making me think you're actually responding
from Stockholm (amidst the craziness of the Covid-19 resurgence there), but
when that "ghosting thing" happens, what is the best recipe or "pro's
advice," for reclaiming whatever song the artist laid out there on the
internet originally, and you at Spotify scooped up, before the artist
realized "Oh, that's popular enough I can actually make money off of it,
and market this a different way," or in more real-world terms: How do we as
"hooked fans," actually take the bait and get more."
Should we just wait for you to sign a fraction-of-pennies for every hit
deal with the performer that makes sense for everyone, or try to contact
the performer directly to get access to the songs we fall in love with,
that they then want to, probably rightfully, and in the face of the old
traditional "rape an artrist for every penny they're worth" modus operandi
of the recording industry that has operated in America at least, and
probably world-wide, has employed for years?
You have reinvented the "reel" as it were. I, and millions of others, are
grateful for what you have done to re-think, re-imagine, re-process, and
re-produce MUSIC for all of us in ways that matter to all of us. Especially
in these days of the Covid-19 "Lock-Down," we are all experiencing
world-wide, thus making it more valuable to all of us than you may have
ever conceived possible; but here we are, experiencing songs we add to our
favorites that suddenly, and without warning, disappear from our "liked"
playlists. The "ghosted songs" no longer play, leaving us all with that
"forlorn feeling," of "wait a minute, what happened to that new song I
really liked?"
Despite the fact we actually understand implicitly what that artist was
thinking, and wants to get a little more "gravy" from the composition,
interpretation, or performance, it sort of leaves us, the listener,
"consumer," paying for your service, in a lurch, where we are denied the
pleasure of listening to that track, we have fallen in love with. There's
no explanation, or "foot-note" to the absent song that won't play all of a
sudden. Could you not come up with some kind of standard, "We had the
rights to this song, but they got pulled by the artist," WARNING, or at
least "Indicator," to let your consumers know immediately, when such things
happen, know, clearly, and in print, we can read, versus simply
"deadlining" or "greying out" the song title on our "favorites" lists?

I understand the matter from your perspective. It kind of hurts when an
artist says, "Wait a minute Spotify, I actually own the copyright to that
popular hit." But when we all take the hit from that particular artist
saying, "I just put it out there, it's popular, and I now see dollar
signs," you as a service provider, we're all "leaning on" for our musical
escape, on a now daily basis, I am sure making your business explode like
you never even imagined, should really serve us, your clients, in some kind
of "explain, what the **bleep** happened here," way that makes sense for
everybody concerned. Not necessarily something in your interest on the face
of it, to indicate "oh, there's a problem here folks," but maybe it
actually is.

That can become the "Occam's Razor" to determine whose sales-pitch is worth
that "wait-a-minute"-effort for you to include or exclude from your music
library. I believe, that with the ever-increasingly-tight restrictions on
"content" from political administrations world-wide, like our own
embarrassing Trump administration, your efforts will be restricted from
that direction as well, so it becomes a rather tough equation to meet-out
between artists, governments and consumers, but regardless of whatever the
case is that makes any individual song "unavailable" to us, your consumers,
should be made immediately transparent as possible by you, Spotify, to
inform, enlighten and hopefully persuade your faithful to politic in one
way or another for an outcome that is favorable to their listening
pleasure.

Global politics, and ridding the planet of the greedy assholes that
currently appear to be in control of all of us, may have something to do
with this. If so, in unenviable "conspiracy theorist" terms, it may be the
best way to protect yourselves from the Putins and Trumps of this world who
steal such freedoms of speech, song and messages from all of us globally.
To make a difference in the here-and-now, against such "would-be"
manipulating and controlling forces, please try to make Spotify as
pristine, pure and openly transparent as possible as you can, through our
hopefully everlasting and fruitious future.

Sincerely,
John Fredericks
2576 Carpenter Rd., Apt. 11
Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA
*snip*
(734) 368-1780

Re: "Ghosted" songs in your "liked" songs mean what? Premium, laptop, Windows 10

cheryltzq — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 08:16:29 GMT

I've had songs in my library that were "ghosted" previously and they returned a few months later, after the restrictions behind having the song on Spotify were resolved.

So it's good to keep those tracks there, check back again down the road because they will likely be playable again.

Re: "Ghosted" songs in your "liked" songs mean what? Premium, laptop, Windows 10

andusaman — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 13:50:50 GMT

Thank you cheryltzq.

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"Ghosted" songs in your "liked" songs mean what? Premium, laptop, Windows 10

Re: "Ghosted" songs in your "liked" songs mean what? Premium, laptop, Windows 10

Re: "Ghosted" songs in your "liked" songs mean what? Premium, laptop, Windows 10

Re: "Ghosted" songs in your "liked" songs mean what? Premium, laptop, Windows 10

Re: "Ghosted" songs in your "liked" songs mean what? Premium, laptop, Windows 10