Zappa and Gabriel albums come up in search but you can't play them

[platy2112]

It's been clear for a long time that neither Peter Gabriel nor Frank Zappa's estate have licenced their music for Spotify (PG's recent "Blood" albums excepted). Now, all of a sudden, I get the almost full discographies from both artists on Spotify, but the tracks are greyed out and, in Zappa's case, the albums are dated for 2012.

The only reason for this that I can think of is that these are actually local files on someone's computer but Spotify for some reason shows the album and track info to everyone. If this is the case, I don't really like it - feels like unnecessary teasing.

If, on the other hand, the FZ and PG catalogues have become available on Spotify in some countries, it would be nice to communicate this by placing an "available in X, Y and Z only" notice beside the album title, or something along those lines.

Thanks 🙂

[David]

Hello,

I could only locate a few results for Frank Zappa - Did you previously have the Frank Zappa catalogue as local files on your computer at all? You might be seeing these results on your computer.

If you want to hide results you can't play, head over to the Preferences menu and uncheck "Hide Unplayable Tracks".

[platy2112]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply! I was imprecise about the FZ catalogue - there's most (11) of the Zappa & Moothers albums, none of the solo stuff.

But no, I never had them in my computer, I only have them on cd, so they can't have come from my local files. Also, I searched for Led Zeppelin, another artist definitely not on Spotify - and it's the same thing:  I see the entire studio albums catalogue 1969-1982 neatly listed but unplayable. I never had those albums on my pc, either, so they must come from somewhere else... Strange!

I have had the "Hide Unplayable Tracks" option on all the time but I still got the album track listings and info. Stranger still!

I'm in Finland and my observations are from the Spotify iPhone app, I haven't actually checked if I'm getting the same stuff with my desktop spotify.

Thanks again!

[David]

Ah, that might be why we're seeing slightly different results - I'm currently looking on the desktop application... I'll look into this further. 

EDIT - Just taken a look on the 0.5.3 of the Spotify app on iOS - Sadly, I couldn't reproduce for Frank Zappa, Frank Zappa and the Mothers or Led Zeppelin. 

[platy2112]

Thanks for going through all the trouble - appreciate it!

Here's my iPhone screenshot of my Spotify search for Led Zeppelin. Some of these albums I don't have in any format, so it's impossible they're coming from my files. My Spotify app is also version 0.5.3. The mystery continues...

[mistrijah]

The Zappa albums are being re lealeased as from 31st July 2012 at a rate of 12 a month... and will also be avaialble on itunes, so hoping that they will at last be on spotify as well, all will be revealed in the next couple of days....

[mistrijah]

[mistrijah]

i get the exact same list come up when i search on my iphone with spotify, and i have never had led zeppelin on my phone and computer, i only listen to them on vinyl... i also get Zappa which i have posted a few mins ago for you guys to see...