When I share my songs on Spotify with other people the song appears greyed out for them

[ethan_morisette]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

iPhone 11 Pro Max

Operating System

iOS 15.0.1

My Question or Issue

Hey everyone!

I am trying to share a song I wrote with some friends and family members. When I share, I text them a link to the song. When they click the link, it takes them to my song, but the song is grayed out and won’t let them click it to play. When they click the play button for the album, it plays a totally different song. All of the users that have issues, have a Spotify account, but do not have Premium. Most of them try to access my song on their cell. 

Some are iPhone others are Android. See attachment for what they see. I created a test account to test out this behavior myself and I am able to recreate what they are having issues with. 

The weirdest part to me, is a few people that I have shared my song with HAVE been able to listen to my song on Spotify even though they are listening on mobile without Spotify Premium. This includes both users of Android and iOS. 

Is this expected behavior? What is going on here? If this is expected, how am I supposed to share my song with friends and family when it goes live?

Any help in understands why this is happening is appreciated! 🙂

[Kiril]

Hey @ethan_morisette,

Thanks for reaching out on the Community!

We understand that some of your friends are not able to play your song form the share link you've sent to them and the song appears grayed out to them, while others can. By checking the song from the screenshot you've attached, we were able to successfully play a song called 'Not Like You' by the artist/label Blue Haven Music. Could you send to us the exact URI of the failing-to-play song, so we can also check it out?

Please keep in mind that the availability of music on Spotify can vary over time and between countries, depending on agreements between Spotify and rights holders, such as artists or record labels. That is why sometimes certain content isn't available right away for everyone worldwide.

If you are the creator of this song and believe there's some sort of content-related issue with it, then you should connect with our team dedicated to helping artists on Spotify here.

Hope you find this useful. If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.
 

[ethan_morisette]

Hey @Kiril,

Thanks for the quick reply! Yep, that's a good summary of the issue. Here is the URI to the song: https://open.spotify.com/track/6tWLhezIVAgsIHnU9muoYt?si=94bebca3b28149d4. 

All people I have shared it with reside in the United States, so I don't think it would be a country availability thing. I also am an independent artist, so I don't go through a record label or anything. I should be the only one with rights to the song. If that sounds like a content issue, I can reach out to you guys via the link below. 

I had this issue with my other song, Through the Tunnel, and I want to get it ironed out for future releases. 

[Alex · Accepted solution]

Hey @ethan_morisette,

Thanks for the reply and the info.

Since this has happened with other songs, we'd recommend reaching out directly to our Artist Support here.

They'll be able to look backstage and give you more accurate information about why this might be happening and how to avoid such issues in future releases.

Hope this helps.