Album grayed out and unavailable for playback

[konchan]

Why does the album, after being fully available for playback/downloads, suddenly goes gray and disabled?

[itu_]

Hey there @konchan!

Are you sure you haven't reached your songs limit? (3,333 songs)

Cheers!

[konchan]

Had no idea that "unlimited" = 3,333. Feels deceptive, to say the least.

That aside, I'm able to play any other tracks with no issues. The album in question had been available for over a month. Then one day went "gray". (See screenshot)

Is this symptomatic of an artist/licensing type of issue? This is not the first time I notice this type of thing.

To be fair, it is also available for purchase only on Amazon music and is not available for streaming anywhere else.

[konchan]

Please take a look at my reply and comment, thanks.

[itu_ · Accepted solution]

Sorry for not replying before lad!

I have been checking myself and I could not find the album mentioned. It seems it has been taken down because of licensing, indeed.

Usually when a song is greyed out it is because it is not downloaded. But there is also an option in Spotify that allows you to see (or not) unavailable songs (using the phrase "unavailable songs" as songs removed from Spotify).

The best thing to do now is to wait for the artist/label to settle a new agreement with the streaming platforms to bring the album back!

Speaking about the songs limit, I am literally looking at the Spotify page to acquire Premium and I can't find a single place where it says "unlimited offline songs". What you do get is ad free, unlimited skips, listen offline, play any track and high quality audio!

The amount of offline songs allowed is said here in the support page 🙂

If you do not like this, then I encourage you to stop by here and give it a kudo so we can get Spotify to push the limit a bit further 😄

If you need anything else, let me know! Cheers!

[konchan]

Thanks, Julian. It must be a licensing hiccup, but I have not seen any music come back once it had been pulled before. I'll likely just purchase the album anyway. Kinda wish I had the purchasing option available on Spotify, btw, to keep my files together. 

As for 3,333. It seems to refer to the "offline listening" (aka #downloads limit). I do not see any mention of a cap for streaming. In any case, I will never hit neither one of these, but, as any good citizen does, added my voice to the community vote to help others.

Appreciate the help. Good chat.

[itu_]

You are welcome mate! By the way, Taylor Swift is a clear example of an artist leaving Spotify and later coming back! I mean, sure, it took quite a few years... But still! She's back on Spotify 🙂

If you need anything else, please let me know!