Cannot play content when using Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen

[Christhulhu]

Plan

Premium

Country

DE / Germany

Device

Xiaomi Mi 10 

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen.

Operating System

Android 12

Amazon Echo OS (however this is called)

My Question or Issue

Hello, I have an interesting problem:

I create a transient playlist (start listening to one episode of a podcast and add another episode of another podcast into the playback queue). 

Scenario A: I listen to those two episode on my Smartphone-Device and everything works as expected.

Scenario B: I create the playback queue and choose my Echo Dot 4th Gen as output device. Suddenly the second episode gets deleted from the queue.

Alternative scenario B: I connect to my Echo Dot as output device before filling my queue. Now I'm not even able to add the episode to my queue.

Alternative scenario C: I have configured Spotify as my one and only provider for music and podcasts. Everything works fine. Except when I ask to play the aforementioned podcast. In this case the podcast is not played from Spotify but from Apple Podcast - where I don't even have an account.

The Podcast that creating this issue is The BBC Global News Podcast.

Since this is the only issue I experience so far, I might assume that this is not a technical problem but something with copyrights? 

Best regards
Christian

[jrham]

Hi @Christhulhu,

I'm not sure what the actual issue might be, but I have personally experienced a problem similar to this as well. There are two ways (that I have discovered) that my at home device connects with Spotify; (1) Through my WIFI, (2) Through my phone via Bluetooth. Note that I have a Google Home device and an Apple iPhone 11, so our setups are different.

I have noticed that I can have my Google Home play music through WIFI while controlling Spotify with my phone, OR I can play and control Spotify by connecting to Google home Via Bluetooth by saying "Hey Google, connect my phone with Bluetooth".

For some reason, this is different for me and perhaps might be a solution for you as you aren't "jumping through hoops" if you are trying to play Spotify through WIFI with your Echo device, rather you're directly controlling what your Echo plays through your phone. Maybe that's what "Scenario B" was for you but if you haven't tried yet, make sure you ask your Echo to "connect my phone with Bluetooth", followed by something like "Play music on Spotify", and then you should be able to control your podcast queue from your phone.

Let me know if this works or not!

Thanks for reaching out!

[Christhulhu]

Hi @jrham,

thank you for your reply. Frankly, I didn't think in the "oldschool way" so for me Scenario B (or any other connectivity) was assumed using either Spotify Connect (over wifi) or in my case directly linked between my Spotify-Account and my Alexa Skill.

I have not tried to use my Echo Dot as a Bluetooth-Speaker for this purpose but I will definitively try this as a kind of work-around. Although a "native" solution would be the best 😉

Best regards
Christian

[jrham]

@Christhulhu I agree that a native fix would be the best solution; I'll escalate this message to one of our pros to see if they better understand what's going on. Stay tuned!

[jrham]

Hi @Christhulhu,

I got word back from one of our moderators, this was their response:

"Hey @jrham,

Thanks for bringing this up.

As this happens only with a particular podcast the issue most probably resides in the type of the podcast. Podcasts containing background music cannot be streamed through an external speaker or the web player, but let's not go deeper into "Does this podcast contain music or not?". This is a common "issue" in the Community and I think this is also the case here.

The workaround you proposed is currently the only way to get the podcast to play on an external speaker, because directly streaming it on the smart speaker won't work.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!"

They are looking into it further, so I'll let you know if there they come up with anything. Wish I had a better answer for you!

[Christhulhu]

Hey @jrham,

thank you for your help and your response.

Sure, this Podcast features some music as intro jingle. But mostly it is a news podcast delivered by the BBC Global News Network.

Regards
Christian

[jrham · Accepted solution]

Hi @Christhulhu,

Through some digging, we have found that there is an OI (ongoing issue) where BBC podcasts currently can't be played through speakers.

You can find more information on the OI here.

There is also a closed idea on this matter that can be found here. Even though its closed, you are able to vote and add comments as it is still being monitored.

I wish I had better news for you, but at least we know what the issue is now.

[Christhulhu]

Hey @jrham,

thank you for the links. Although it is not a solution to my issue it helps me to understand the situation better.

Thanks again and best regards
Christian