Unavailable songs on available album

[Malaguy]

I've looked everywhere and can't find the answer to my question:

I'm trying to play an album (the Inception Movie Soundtrack) that I've played dozens of times before, but there are now three tracks that are randomly greyed out. Why?

It's not a licensing issue, as the entire rest of the album is available. It's one artist all the way through, so it's not a compilation/various artists type of album either. This is incredibly frustrating, not to mention a waste of time to have to deal with this over complex help section, when I know that this is a common enough issue that it should be addressed in the FAQ section.

All I'm looking for is a simple answer, thanks.

[atom1989]

Hey @Malaguy

Sometimes music labels decide to remove tracks, full albums or some tracks from album. You can contact directly to that label and ask about why tracks removed.

[LucyLuLuu]

I'm not sure that really satisfied the question, I see a lot asking this , it's the reason i did a search.
I get the licensing thing, sort of, not sure why they'd Just one song from an album, (in my case a really old song,lol) and let the rest be, but I've got few in my playlists too
Some are because of syncing, some settings, some removed.
Is the a way to maybe look it up, make a list of newly removed, etc so when people find a greyed song, they can see if it's been axed, or if it could be sync error, etc, saving time for everyone really. Once such a list , let's say of the last couple months of removals is done , can't be amount, would be nothing to keep up

[BeatKitano]

You're probably not looking for an answer any more. But I was wondering why that was on another music service too...  But I was logged on this site so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Turns out Sir Zimmer got into trouble for using samples/going too close to some other compositors... and Warner had to pull those songs out of distribution.

[monbers]

A friend shared me a song. I followed the link and couldn’t find neither the song nor the full album on my phone. When tried friom the computer I found the album with most songs greyed out, couldnt played them. 

[LeTronique]

Okay, here's the real reason why. Non, Je Regrette Rien by Edith Piaf is sampled in the greyed tracks. That song requires a whole different licence to listen to it. So, it was cheaper for Spotify and Warner to just remove it.

[Samjna]

Hi everybody,

I've got more or less the same question.

- Sometimes you can listen to a song and few months later it is not available anymore to play it ;

- Sometimes, it appears again in white and we can listen again to it.

It is really frustrating because I erased some songs to save storage when I saw it was impossible to listen to and finally I discovered few weeks later it is available AGAIN!

It was the case with the french group "La Femme". Only ONE SONG was unavailable for few weeks (my favorite, of course) named "Tchernobyl with love". I contacted them to ask "Why is it not available on Spotify?" and when they answered to me they say it was available. Uh ? They were right. Yet I had watched three days before and it was still in grey.

Sooooo, it seems that spotify randomly makes some songs unlistenable, which also hurts the artists.

What's more ? My favourite albums are usually not available... whereas all the other albums from the artist could be listened. Ex : De La Soul - Buhloone Mindstate ; Troublemakers - Doubts & Conviction ; ... and many more. I know this previous fact is about licences, but I have been paying for your service for 3 years now and I am quite unsatisfied because I am regularly frustrated (I love the best albums, and of course, best albums are not on Spotify...).

Unfortunately, I am thinking to get back to other habits : illegal downloading. At least, all the songs I used to play 15 years ago are still on my storage. With Spotify I am paying for a half service with the danger to lost all my playlists (knowledge and songs) the day this company closes its doors.

Do something...

[Engine17]

Somehow a lot of Songs from the backdraft (from Hans Zimmer) soundtrack are also gone. It's a shame because its the best soundtrack ever made.

[Jeremy]

Hi there folks,

Thank you for your posts and feedback. We'd like to shed some light on why this can occur.

Availability of music can vary over time and between countries, depending on agreements between Spotify and rights holders, such as artists or record labels; therefore, content sometimes isn't available. However you can always be on the look out as it might appear or reappear in the future.

Let us know if we can help you with anything else.

Have a great continued weekend 🙂