Why do Spotify remove songs from the service?

[rjnicko]

Okay so having been a Spotify premium user for several months and enjoying the service, I come today to discover that one of my favorite collections "The Dark Side of Classical Music" has been replaced by utter garbage tracks in the totally wrong key and sound nothing like the ones I enjoyed listening to. I'm not very happy that they can just remove tracks off the service like that and I would really like an explination, its not just this collection either, during the summer some of my other tracks disapeared off the service as well.

I don't see why I should be dictated to what I can and cant listen to on my Mac and iDevices when I'm paying good money for a service and to be honest if things continue my money could be spent better elsewhere. Not very impressed at all. 

I would be very appricateive of an explination as to why this seems to be an on going thing.

thanks Ryan 

[jdc78]

Where do spotify publish who removed their songs and for what reason?

So i know if i should buy or steal the music i miss.

[Joe]

They don't publish this information and that would be one huge list as there are so many changes to the database every day but it is always down to the publishers, not Spotify.

[9lsen]

I really don't get it. Maybe Spotify doesn't have anything to do with it, but there is really no reason for holders or labels to remove them either. The reason I use Spotify is because it provides a much better service than pirating. It's really worth the price with all the services provided, unlike having to go to some store to buy an album that more often that not isn't even available.

iTunes is a hassle to deal with compared to Spotify and if I get a song that goes off of Spotify on iTunes, my library is split into two places which something I really wanted to avoid in the first place and probably the best thing about Spotify. It's also a lot harder to find places where I can legitimately buy the song instead of pirating it.

There is just no reason for me to do it and I don't see any other reason to have them removed than to make you buy the songs. I remember that there was some album that had one really popular song and one day that song was removed from Spotify. All the other songs were there. I'm sorry but that is just too obvious.

Maybe the list of reasons is too long to publish but it would be nice to get en explanation on the most common reasons why music gets removed other than just: "Right holder decided so".

[sgg]

It is very unpleasant that songs previously available are being removed. It seems that there is no end to this. Entire albums disappear.

I am one of the first Spotify premium service subscribers. If this trend continues I will have to look for alternatives.

[RooneyRonaldo]

Very frustrating. Finally able to connect again to my web player (after yesterday's problems), and so many songs and albums are suddenly unavailable, that it almost seems like getting rid of them was the reason for the connection issues in the first place. The worst is when a particular song from an album has been removed, like it's being held hostage. Smh.

[Joe]

It could be that not all the server issues have been fixed yet. May be a day or two before all is back to normal.

[ccbreezer31]

regarding the songs and artists that have to be removed from spotify accessibility, it would be great if you could still list the song in my playlist, but just have it appear "greyed out" so I can still have the artist and track name to reference. One of my favorite songs is now gone and I have no idea what the artist name or song was because it was a foreign language and stupidly I didn't write it down or remember it. So bummed!! 

[Peter__]

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@ccbreezer31 wrote:

regarding the songs and artists that have to be removed from spotify accessibility, it would be great if you could still list the song in my playlist, but just have it appear "greyed out" so I can still have the artist and track name to reference. One of my favorite songs is now gone and I have no idea what the artist name or song was because it was a foreign language and stupidly I didn't write it down or remember it. So bummed!! 

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In the desktop client go to Edit/Spotify > Preferences > Playback > Untick Hide Unplayable Tracks and you should be able to view them. 😉

[maru98]

The same exact thing has happened to me, for over a year now. I really hate it, there's nothing to do about it. Every time I noticed an album or just a single track gone, I want to cancel my premium subscription, but I still haven't done it. Hopefully they will bring those albums and songs back at some point.
Cheers ya'll

[RyanJW]

I haven't noticed this happen with any of my music yet, but one thing I would say is that if music is removed I'd like it to remain as a 'ghost' in my playlists/albums so that at least I know what's been removed and can look into acquiring it some other way at some point. If it were to disappear I could end up forgetting it ever existed! As we get older, it is nice to re-discover music we forgot about — it isn't helpful if it just completely vanishes.

A big issue with building up a music collection on something like Spotify is that it's completely virtual. Unlike with even MP3s, if Spotify one day goes bankrupt and disappears you're left with nothing and potentially years of music to re-acquire. While I love Spotify's financial model as it's allowed me to discover countless new artists, I continue to purchase CDs when I particularly like some music.

[Joe]

Uncheck the option to hide unplayable tracks in the desktop client options. Removed tracks will still be listed but will be greyed out.

[user-removed]

Whatever the reason, it's a pathetic display of cowardice under the oppressive thumb of the music industry.

I AM paying to have MY music collection together; and no matter the medium, I want to keep it that way! Whether CD or electronic online collection - doesn't matter. It's unfathomable that the music industry can at a whim decide to stop an already released song from being available! Imagine Vangelis sending some goon to your door to break into your CD collection, to grab the Blade Runner OST and to scratch out the track "Blade Runner Blues" just because it's Tuesday! ... like was done with that very album on Spotify some years ago. And just look at it now: Pretty much the entire album has gone south. What the proverbial expletive ...

IT'S BLOODY RELEASED, LEAVE IT ALONE!! If you don't want it being available, don't release it in the first place!

And Spotify, you're in this just as deep. I've been paying my Premium sub for years now, just for the record, but you've allowed this bull to happen again and again. If you can't get your darn lawyers together to prevent those content mafiosi from playing you like a rotten whistle VERY SOON, I'm going to someone who can! With your client becoming ever more bloated with every update, wasting screen space on small resolutions with useless, non-removable features, and no intention to change that even after many complaints in forums and mails directly to Support, how can you even afford to let things like this happen?! Oh wait, right. How does the proverb go? "You live freely if you haven't a reputation to lose." With the lack of any serious competition to speak of, you're getting your money anyhow.

It's time that you, Spotify, did something to be worth your money again. Like not tugging your tail between your legs when the labels come playing the Song Removal lottery again.

So sick of it.

[jdc78]

Holy sh*t. Amen!

[EthanWalker8917]

Two entire Smashing Pumpkins Albums/Collections were removed.

[MrCritterfur]

The sheer amount of self entitled whining in this thread is astounding.

Does it suck? Yes.

Is it spotify's fault? No. 

But to claim you're just going to pirate the music when Spotify is trying to get music labels to adopt their idea is exactly the OPPOSITE action needed to fix the problem. 

I mean, if you're willing to throw a tantrum and pirate the music that easily, why are you even paying for the service in the first place?

Seriously, all you people are doing is helping Record Lables load the gun. 

[samofnine]

So I was very happy to have this great service, but now albums disappeared from my playlist that took me hours to put together! So the whole idea of this service is outdated for me. Now I have to do it all oldschool again with a little help from amazon, where I can get automated digital mp3-rips from bought music which I can stream from the cloud! All other music I will continue to buy and rip from CD so I can hear it on my mp3 playing software. This is so disappointing. There is no point to write to all the hundreds of record companies because I don't know from which company the lost albums were. I simply don't have the time for that. Spotify should only put music online and let it online if there is a lifetime contract with the record company! All other solutions are just there to canvass customers. Spotify should keep the customers satisfied and not drive them away again with stunts like that! I could cry!

[Insaneplutogami]

Can you please, please, please add "Break it Down - Logic" song was made in 2013, and its a really great song where I think it will be perfect on Spotify, for me to listen to.

[Red_Frostraven]

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@MrCritterfur wrote:

The sheer amount of self entitled whining in this thread is astounding.

Does it suck? Yes.

Is it spotify's fault? No. 

But to claim you're just going to pirate the music when Spotify is trying to get music labels to adopt their idea is exactly the OPPOSITE action needed to fix the problem. 

I mean, if you're willing to throw a tantrum and pirate the music that easily, why are you even paying for the service in the first place?

Seriously, all you people are doing is helping Record Lables load the gun. 

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Problem:
Songs I love are not on spotify.

Solution:
I rip all my music from my Spotify playlists and play all my music as MP3s through Spotify.

Spotify gets paid.
Artists still on Spotify get paid.

I can play my music anywhere, anytime.

I doubt any rightholders would get anywhere if they try to sue a person for ripping music from a paid service that they're still paying for...

...

I came here because No Good by Fedde le Grand & Ned Shepard -- which I originally got as an MP3 for free through a campaign facebook promotion -- was pulled.

I literally own a copy.
A free copy.
That they gave away for free. To anyone with a facebook account and a mouse, or other input device or macro device, capable of pressing "Like" on their page.

...

and now...
it's removed from Spotify.
The irony is kind of overwhelming.
The record label stopped getting paid from me listening to the same song they gave me for a facebook like...

...

Edit: A week or so after writing this post, my girlfriend wanted to practice covering a song while we were skyping, and... it's gone.
She asked me, or just the world and spotify in general, "OH. It's removed. But... BUT WHY IS IT REMOVED?!"

AND THAT is also a serious issue I've got with the removal of songs:
1: If a song is removed, those that like that song should be notified properly... I don't like hearing a song on the radio, and remember listening to that song through my playlists, checking my playlists, and discovering that the song indeed have been removed for an unknown amount of time.

2: If a song is removed, the song should be in the database, but greyed out -- WITH AN EXPLAINATION for WHO removed it and WHY.
"Removed by Company for these reasons"...

Just like search results getting censored on google, I want to know WHO to blame -- because I'm getting mad at Spotify when I don't know WHY songs are removed, something my girlfriend just reminded me about.
We don't necessarily want all songs to be on spotify forever once they've been on Spotify for a while, but... we want to know WHY they were removed and by WHOM.

Perhaps they'd be more reluctant on pulling down songs if users knew who was to blame.

[YoureADucj]

Chose, not "choosed"

[Mariapaula1]

Some of my favorite songs like wolves, if i could fly by one direction and she bad by cameron dallas where deleted from my playlist, i searched for them in the app bjt they aren't abaliable any more