[All Platforms][Other] ZZ Top "Deguello" is missing from artist's library.

[hippiejonny]

The album "Deguello" is missing from the ZZ Top library.  All of the songs except "Esther Be The One" are found on various ZZ Top greatest hits albums on Spotify.  Can you add the "Deguello" album to the ZZ Top library so when I sort by album, all of those songs stay together instead of being split into 3 separate albums?

Thanks!

[osornios]

Hey @hippiejonny 

The availability of music on Spotify is up to the artists and their music label.

If the music is unavailable, the artist or their music label may have decided to not make it available in Spotify.

Please check this Support article here for more info. 🙂

https://open.spotify.com/album/339EONXrRgL9iLpxOKrUJZ?si=3rCdWtw9Q_Wkn6slhn9gCw

[hansenkd]

As usual, the infinitely repeated form text above is as infuriating, unhelpful, and banal as it ever was, and does not even address the issue, which is the unavailability of an original album source when most of the tracks are available from other sources.  That's a valid question that is basically unrelated to the whole "artists decide the availability" shtick.  What is it with the rockstars and their responses?  Does Spotify instruct them to continually insult our intelligence with the endlessly repeated and endlessly inane, trite, and unhelpful repeated text, which everyone has seen umpteen bazillion times?  How about some actual answers.  We KNOW that Spotify knows EXACTLY why certain things are not available, but the rock stars are under strict instruction to never, ever, ever reveal specific reasons, probably has something to do with artist/label relations.  Just don't claim to be a helpful expert when your answer to various and sundry content questions is the same ridiculous text as it has been for years.  Most people on these forums are not idiots.  They know how things work.  Respect their intelligence.

[namliT]

Here's the link to a 2016 TIME magazine article which discusses the issue:

https://time.com/4274430/spotify-albums/

Several of the albums mentioned (Purple Rain, Harvest, 25) are back on Spotify, but it doesn't take long to find important albums missing from the platform, like the seminal Deguello.  I don't have an answer for who is to blame.  What I can tell you is that the way Spotify and the other streaming services pay artists for their music is a travesty.  Talk to any artist with recorded music on the market, they will all tell you that, in the age of Spotify, they take home next to nothing from allowing their music to stream.  Many (especially classic acts) do it only to keep their music familiar to the audience, so they can make some money on tour.  Live performance is practically the only way many artists can support themselves.  To make matters even worse, live performances are not happening for the foreseeable future, because of Covid-19.  (Research David Crosby, of CSN and sometimes Y, for an example of a major artist who recently toured against his doctor's orders, because not touring would have meant loosing his house.)

If you know any artists in the recording business, I urge you to speak with them to get the lowdown on this truly unfair situation.  Something must change but, as it stands now, not enough people are aware of the problem.

A lot of people, including Gibbons, Beard, and Hill themselves, consider Deguello to be the best ZZ Top album ever.  Maybe the album's absence on Spotify is a subtle protest on the part of ZZ Top?  The music industry has been very good to ZZ Top over the years, so it's understandable that they don't want to spearhead a movement against the current status quo.  But keeping their "best" album off of Spotify would certainly be one way to demonstrate their disdain for the current state of affairs.

[hansenkd]

The Top 40 hit from the album, "I Thank You," is still available via
compilations.