Send podcast to other device doesn't work for some podcasts

[snarum]

Plan

Premium

Country

Norway

Device

Windows 10, Pixel 2xl, Ipod

Operating System

newest

My Question or Issue

Some podcasts refuse to be played on my home spotify compatible devices. I have tested both Bluesound, Sonos and chromecast. The list of devices show up with greyed out devices stating "Can't play this right now". Using AirPlay from spotify works.

Here's a podcast that I have this problem with:

https://open.spotify.com/show/61cSCIuBEWnBdJ4h4nia4q

While this works fine:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5d25K5mZMztdqeTu7kTN6G

I have tries both Android phone, Windows 10 pc and IPod, all with the same result.

Any suggestions?

[Jemi]

Hey @snarum, 

Are you able to connect to another speaker device which is not listed, e.g. a new device you haven't tried with before? 

Keep in mind that some podcasts are not available to be played on all devices, and this might explain why you don't see any speakers to connect to. We're aware of this and are working on it. 

In the meantime, always make sure you have your app up-to-date.

Hope that explains things! 🙂

[snarum]

I'm not quite sure how to define a "new device". In my home network I have 3 bluesound zones, a sonos speaker, a chromecast audio and a denon receiver with spotify connect, and all appear as "can't play this right now" in spotify on the affected podcasts. I have a colleague that experience the same thing on his network.

How about you? have you tried to reproduce?

[snarum]

As a curiosity, when I download the episodes on the troublesome podcasts and play them offline, the devices appear as available. But when I try to use them spotify displays "connecting..." forever.

[snarum]

No updates on this? I was hoping the big recent update to Spotify would fix things, but no. I still cannot hear some of my podcasts on my wireless speakers.

[snarum]

I have also noticed, that none of NRK.no's podcasts works on Spotify on Nvidia Shield. Maybe the same problem?

[siljemda]

I have the same problem. Up until now, this has only been an intermittent problem, eg. I could sometimes solve it by changing to some music track, connect, then change back to the podcast. Lately, no podcasts from NRK can be cast to my devices at all.

[Harri123]

I also have this problem and it has persisted for months regardless of the device I’m controlling Spotify on (iOS, Android, desktop app). It’s really, really annoying - is Spotify going to sort this out because a quick google suggests this has been a problem for years..?

[dbster]

I have been having a similar problem with some podcasts, for me there has been a trend that it refuses to play podcasts from the BBC, when I’m already connected to the speaker the play button just doesn’t respond, and when you try to connect when it is playing on the device, it says that the speakers are not available right now. I thought it could have been my old android device which had some other problems with Spotify, but I have since moved to a new iOS device which is experiencing the same problem.

[44thAirborne]

I have the same issue with older Spotify connect devices, Samsung WAM7501. It was thought to be a Spotify issue. 

But I recently got an Amazon Echo Dot, which was able to play podcast using Spotify. So, it turned out to be a device compatibility issue.

This is pretty outrageous in my opinion.

[Mechabjornis]

Hello,

i have excactly the same problem as @snarum describes.

when you say «Keep in mind that some podcasts are not available to be played on all devices» - what kind of podcasts are you refering to? Is there a list available? Are those a set type or is it due to lacking agreements with the providers?

in Norway, NRK is the national radio provider, and not being able to play their podcasts is just not acceptable ! Had I known this, I might not have invested in an expensive device for Spotify Connect..

(I also have no luck plying the NRK podcasts offline on my Garmin watch. There is no explaination, just a sync that goes on for a long while, then nothing is transfered)

kind regards

Bjorn S.

PS I am using iPad OS and Android with a Bluesound Node 2

[Jeremy]

Hey there folks,

Thank you for your posts and feedback.

We're always testing things by adding or removing features to make Spotify better overall. We’re sorry that this means you’re not able to play podcasts like you wish to do at the moment.
 

There's currently an idea "[All Platforms][Connect] re-categories podcasts as AUDIO so they play on Connect devices " that you can find here. You can leave a +VOTE and Subscribe to the thread for any updates.

If you have any questions we're always one reply away 🙂

Cheers!

[Mechabjornis]

Thanks.
I have voted on the «idea», it has 139 votes as of now. Fixing this should be a priority - in my opinion.
(I actually unsubscribed to Spotify and changed to Youtube with Music. Unfortunately that service doesn’t fit my use, so here I am, back with Spotify.)

[Jeremy]

Hey again @Mechabjornis,

Thank you for your reply 🙂

You can read more about how feedback reach Spotify here if you'd like to.

Cheers 🙂

[44thAirborne]

I don’t get it, why does this idea need to be up-voted? 

What kind of media is podcast if not audio? 

Why is it contentious? Just do it already.

This current non-sense is undermining our investment into the Spotify eco-system. And frankly, I feel cheated. 

[mjs21]

Have same issue which seems to be common for Sonos users. Copying below info from Sonos community which suggests this is Spotify issue

Look at

https://sonos-pmap.ws.sonos.com/spotify_pmap.24.xml

This is the Spotify metadata file, even if you can’t read XML, go look at the SearchCategories section, and you will see no Podcast entry. This is either a bug in Spotify, or a deliberate decision by them.

However, if you look at the end of the file, at the QuickSkips section, you will see that there is podcast support for jumping forward/backward 15 seconds. Curious. I am going to guess that someone accidentally deleted the podcasts entry in the SearchCategories section.

Suggest someone who wants this feature sends this post to Spotify and tell them to fix it. This is as clear a bug report as could be presented to them.

Can Spotify look at this or someone confirm if this is the potential problem ? Thanks

[Novy]

Hey @mjs21,

Thanks for reaching out about this. 

Some speakers don't have the option to play podcasts that are considered mixed media and it sounds like this is what you're experiencing. 

There's an idea where you can leave your +VOTE and your feedback regarding this. You can also subscribe to it by clicking the three-dot menu next to the title and we’ll keep you updated with any relevant updates there.

If anything else comes up, we're always a message away. 

Cheers!

[user-removed]

You have a cross section of users all reporting that they can't access the media they are paying for and are unhappy with the service response, and you want to put the resolution to a vote? If you truly feel this is the issue that is causing podcasts not to cast on other devices, then resolution lies in making that change, not lazily asking the room "Eh, should we? Less than 500 people pressed like in this obscure help thread, nah." If it takes classifying audio media as audio, and visual as visual, then I genuinely don't understand why that process wasn't started the minute that was the issue to begin with

[Jeremy]

Hi there @user-removed,

Thank you for your reply and feedback.

We're always testing things by adding or removing features to make Spotify better overall and we’re constantly aiming to improve our features. We’re sorry that this means you’re not able to use Spotify like you wish to do at the moment.

You can read more about how your feedback reaches Spotify here.

Once again - thanks for the feedback, we appreciate it. Let us know if we can help you with anything else. 

Take care!

[rororo666]

This is a truly low level of feedback from Spotify. Example.

• I can list to BBC Radio 5 podcast football daily through the spotify application in Windows
• When I try to connect to external speaker (Bose speaker) via connect device it does not allow this. With a podcast from the Guardian I can do this. 
• When I connect my Windows PC to the speaker via bluetooth, everything is possible.
• So I get it is some sort of weird "rights" limitation in the coding of the podcast delivery in the app.
• Why Spotify staffers cant work this out is beyond illogical.

Sort it out.