Google Assistant Play Soundtrack in Wrong Language

[oneflewintotwo]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Pixel 3

Operating System

Android

My Question or Issue

I use Google Assistant frequently to play music on Spotify. There are a bunch of very popular soundtracks that try to listen to but it ends up playing a version from another country. It's consistent in the version it chooses but seems to pick different countries. For example when I ask it to play the Frozen 2 soundtrack, it always plays the Netherlands version. When I ask it to play the Coco soundtrack, it always plays the Portuguese version. 

I think this is a Google Assistant problem, not a Spotify one but am not sure. Any ideas?

[Alex]

Hey @caspervanheck,

Thanks for the info.

Can you let us know what commands you use exactly when you request the songs? 

Apart from that, send us the URIs/Link of the song/playlist or album that starts playing.

This will help us look into this further.

Cheers.

[caspervanheck]

I did: 

• Play Moana
• Play the soundtrack of Moana
• Play the movie album of Moana

And got this: spotify:album:0nA3yR0mNPvh8ckbehR4YP

My daughter didn't want to cooperate, and said:

• Play Anna and Elsa

And we go this: spotify:track:6lIkRyifoJURY8t8HGJpkc

I also tried this:

• Play the English soundtrack of Frozen

Which gave me the "let it go" version from this: spotify:track:0a5uh9YtQmUr9voDf0P4FO

I'm quite impressed with the accuracy with which Google understands our intent, even though the language is wrong.

[Alex]

Hey there @caspervanheck,

Thanks for the info.

Can you let us know if you're using a VPN by any chance?

Also we'd suggest trying to connect your devices to another network. You can make a mobile hotspot from a phone and connect one of the Google Home devices to that network and see if you get the same results when you request a song.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

[caspervanheck]

It's not connected through a VPN, and using a 4G Hotspot (after resetting and reconnecting the Google mini home) has the same result.

Could it be that Google or Spotify somehow ranks the songs incorrectly? 

[Alex]

Hi @caspervanheck,

Thanks for your reply and going through this troubleshooting process with us.

We've passed this info for investigation. But so far we weren't able to reproduce this on our end so far, so we had to rule out any network issues.

It could be related to the metadata of the tracks/albums themselves and it could also be because these come up as more popular search results.

In the meantime you can try to set Google Music as a default music app and check whether you get the same results.

Cheers.

[caspervanheck]

Offline for a bit, apologies. 

The issue only appears when using Spotify and Google assistant through the Google Mini Home. Google Music (Youtube Music, right?) has no issue, and a short test using Alexa (at a friend) gives proper songs.

Also, I'm not the only one with this issue; I've seen it demonstrated by someone else.

[Jeremy]

Hey there @caspervanheck,

Thank you for your reply.

If you'd like you can also try setting up routines to make sure that the correct artist and playlist is played when you say their name.

To do that:

1. Open the Google Home app and tap Routines (purple moon/sun icon) then tap Manage routines at the bottom.
2. Tap the + icon in the lower right corner.
3. Under When I say... tap Add starter > Voice command and enter the trigger phrase you want to use
4. Under +Add action > Play and control media  > Music where you can write the name of the artist 
5. Tap Save 

Keep us posted on how it goes and feel free to come back to us if you have any other questions.

Take care!

[caspervanheck]

@jeremy

Do you mean to set up a routine for every album we might want to hear? That seems a bit excessive. Also, a short test suggests that the priority of routines is higher than 'normal' voice commands; when a toddler asks for something new (or misspeaks something because she's four), the routine will be triggered.

Question: has this issue been brought up with Google, as it only appears with the Google Mini?

[Katerina]

Hey there folks, 

Thank you for sharing your reports with us here in the Community!

We've let our tech teams know about this so that they can look into things.

If you're asking Google Assistant to play a soundtrack and you're seeing a result in a different language, make sure to first try the following:

• Rebooting your Google Home device and restarting your phone
• Un-linking and then re-linking your Spotify account to your Google Assistant
• Update all affected devices to the latest firmware versions available
• The country/region in your Google Assistant is set to the right place
• Retry in a different internet connection and without a VPN

If the issue persists after that, add your +VOTE here and share the following details in a comment:

• The device you're using Google Assistant from and its OS/firmware version
• A couple of examples of commands you try and the URI of the result you get
• Are you abroad when this happens?
• Does it persist with non-soundtrack commands?
• Troubleshooting you've tried

We'll be keeping you in the loop here so make sure to keep an eye out for updates by subscribing to this thread.

[gomez4219]

This happens to me regularly.  My daughter asks for various Disney soundtracks and it will play a non english one.  The languages are all different: Moana will be Italian, Tangled in Spanish, and Frozen in French.  Im sorry Spotify - lets not pass the buck on the Google Home here