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Google Assistant devices re-direct to random albums with similar names

Google Assistant devices re-direct to random albums with similar names

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Google Home Mini

Operating System

 

 

My Question or Issue
When searching for personalized playlists, Google Assistant devices re-direct to random albums with similar names.

I've got a routine within the Google Home app to “shuffle my daily mix 3 on Spotify” 

Until mid April it worked as expected, recently it’s starting playing Daily Drive. I’ve messed around with the wording & sometimes it plays songs recommend to me (Based on the album Daily Mix 3 by Luis Masters) but will no longer play the thing I’m after.. My daily mix 3. 

This has been an issue in the past with the album by Luis masters, I got around it by changing the wording but no luck this time.  

Can this be looked into please.

Reply
Top Answer
OscarDC
Moderator

Hey everyone,

 

Thank you for your messages and for making us aware of this behavior. 

To investigate this again on our side, @chrixar, @marcolopespt and @Tagro1 include the following info in your next response: 

- Your device info (make/model) and OS version

- Exact Spotify version


Also, and if possible; could any of you record a short video where we can take a better look? You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert Video option in the post editor. You can also upload it to YouTube or Google Drive and share the link with us (make sure the video has the permissions for anyone to see it).
 

We'll be on the lookout for your response.

143 Replies

Agree, this doesn't work any more - it just plays a track called "my discover weekly" by some group called "Catbreath?".

 

After a lot of trial and error, I now have to use this ridiculous Google home automation command:

"play my personalised playlist, called discover weekly, on spotify"

This has been a problem for me too, for about 4 weeks now.  Was hoping it would get fixed without having to come here and complain, but seriously it's absolutely ridiculous - I have a google assistant routine to "play Discover Weekly" in the mornings: it has worked for about 2 years now, no problems, and yet all of a sudden it now returns bad results.  This has to be a spotify API issue, not a google issue - google isn't going to be passing the query differently unless the API has been changed, so either Spotify have changed the API and Google haven't caught up, or the API is supposedly the same but the lookup/search model being used has become broken.  When the problem first arose I too was being played a random album called 'Discover Weekly', and I agree with the sentiments shared here, this behaviour needs to be banned by Spotify.  No one is legitimately naming their album, song or playlist with these 'Spotify' names, it's play-count farming and should be banned.  I tweaked the Google Assistant command to now say "play my Discover Weekly playlist" and now, instead of doing so, it plays the playlist I have called 'LGBT+ to discover'.  Based on this behaviour I tried "play my Weekly playlist" and it went and found someone else's playlist with a name that had weekly in it.

Having experimented with the other Spotify generated playlists, it appears that the API is blind to Spotify generated playlists.  As a software developer myself, my gut instinct here is that someone at Spotify has changed something in the backend that causes these smart Spotify-generated playlists to not be found - the errors all started around the same time that the DJ feature was really being pushed, and becoming more prevalent in the app.  I fear that all of the Spotify-generated playlists / daylists / DJ stuff has been given some other 'name' behind the scenes, that is preventing them being returned by a lookup using the API.

To further look into this, I have created a test app in the Spotify developer portal, and made a GET request (https://api.spotify.com/v1/users/{{ _.my_user_no }}/playlists) to retrieve all of my playlists.  There is no sign of any of the Spotify generated playlists (bar one, my "Your Top Songs 2020" playlist - this is the only playlist with 'Author: "Spotify"')

Weirdly, the API result claims that it has returned 16 results ("total": 16) but there are only 15 results in the array, and they are my 15 Public Playlists.  The Spotify App shows the same 15 public playlists in my profile.  Some of these playlists belong to other people, but I follow the playlist, so it shows in my library.

The Spotify App states that 'Discover Weekly' is a Public Playlist.  There are not the usual options to 'Make public' or 'Make private'.

Whilst listening to my Discover Weekly playlist I can do a GET request for my 'playback state' (https://api.spotify.com/v1/me/player) which tells me the ID of the playlist I'm listening to.  I can then lookup this specific playlist (which is my Discover Weekly playlist) and things we can see are:
"name": "Discover Weekly",

"owner": {
"display_name": "Spotify",
...

}
"type": "playlist",

"public": true,


Weirdly, as an aside, there are a large number of my playlists which claim to be Public, and for which I have the option to 'Make private' but which are not showing on my profile as public, and are not being returned by the API search.

In conclusion, your API (and back-end in general) is doing some weird stuff.  I think it recognises 'Discover Weekly' as being another user's playlist (i.e. user:spotify) but also doesn't recognise it as being in my library - it states it has 0 followers, it doesn't list it as being one of my playlists despite showing other playlists I have for which I am not the owner (including 1 Spotify generated playlist, as previously mentioned) and cannot find it (as others have complained).

 

Given that your API only allows GET requests for playlists to be performed by ID, and the only way to get a list of those IDs is to perform a GET request on the current user's library of playlists, I imagine Google (and others) have to make that first get request, and then perform their own lookup logic to find a playlist with a name that would match.  Given that 'Discover Weekly' (along with all of the other Spotify playlists like Daily Mix, or Daylist) are not being returned by that GET request, no lookup for the name will work, and instead it's finding the nearest match it can...

Glad you found a workaround! It doesn't work for me though: "i looked for my personal playlist called discover weekly on spotify, but it either isn't available or can't be played right now." 😁

This is the same problem described here: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Other-Podcasts-Partners-etc/Spotify-stopped-playing-the-correct-pla...

 

There is a problem with the Spotify API not returning the correct playlist when asked for a Spotify-generated playlist (such as Discover Weekly) - and yes, various playcount-farming playlists and albums with misleading names are muddying the situation...

Okay, also worth noting that GET: https://api.spotify.com/v1/users/{{ _.my_user_no }}/playlists returns only the playlists that a user has 'Added to profile', but further testing shows that Google assistant is not restricted to only these playlists (it is able to play plenty of other playlists that aren't on there) but also that adding Discover Weekly to my profile did not fix the problem

^ nice find. 

I bet bugs with smart systems aren’t going away soon. Especially with Google, Apple, or Amazon products. Yikes. 

Hey folks, 

 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

 

We'd like to take a closer look at this. That being said, could you provide us with the following info (if you haven't already)?

 

  • Exact Spotify version you're running 
  • Exact make/model of your device on which you're experiencing this 
  • When did you notice this issue for the first time? Did it start happening after a specific event such as an update?
  • Is this only happening with the Discover weekly playlist or with other ones as well?
  • Troubleshooting you've already tried. 

Additionally, we suggest that you try unlinking and then re-linking your speaker and making sure there aren't any pending software updates for it. 


We'll be on the lookout for your replies.

EniModerator
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Like.
 
“Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens.”– Maria von Trapp

Heya  🙂

 

Okay, so, the issue is arising from Google Home (the App) in which I have set up an automation.  I often play the audio on my Google Home Mini (System Firmware Version 384934; Cast firmware: 2.58.384934) but the issue is from Google Home Automation, not the Home Mini (I'm not using a voice command, it's a typed out command in the Google Home Automation that I have set up - this is actually really helpful here, because we can ignore the possibility of transcription errors).

I have Spotify set as the default app for Google Home.  In the automation, as an Action (Play music) I have tried triggering various Spotify generated playlists, as follows:

 

"Discover Weekly" - it played https://open.spotify.com/album/6LxBbtZzMG7sfcBql8cKq4?si=YvpmEIpWRK2EfmAJ43Dnrg  (this should be removed, it's clearly farming playcounts knowing it will be played by mistake)

 

"Discover Weekly playlist" - it played my playlist called "LGBT to discover"

 

"angst scratch evening" (the bizarre name for my daylist right now) - it failed to start playing anything

 

"angst scratch evening playlist" - it correctly played the Spotify-generated daylist (obviously this isn't going to be massively helpful, given that the name changes every few hours, but at least it works!)

 

"Your Top Songs 2023" it correctly played the Spotify-generated static playlist 'Your Top Songs 2023'

 

"Release Radar" - it played this https://open.spotify.com/episode/2RLUMAy34hhbSi7IrhJyKP?si=f9e63f46ad344fbd podcast (again, this should be removed for farming playcounts knowing it will be played by mistake)

 

"Release Radar playlist" - it played this https://open.spotify.com/album/6hEjdpQS5yefSPQtpBnVMx?si=yXxcw-brSpqOnz1K1E3-lQ album (again, remove it, it's playcount farming - I can't believe you guys haven't put anything in place to prevent people naming their albums and podcasts the same thing as your own generated content)

 

"Nim + Arcadius" - it correctly played the Spotify blend playlist that me and my friend have

 

"on repeat" - it fails to start playing anything

 

"on repeat playlist" - it fails to start playing anything

 

"spotify playlist called on repeat" - it played this https://open.spotify.com/track/0THqJkMx9cLr9ZM6qUJacU?si=79021e72c8644014 track (I don't rate it tbh)

 

"repeat rewind" - it fails to start playing anything

 

"repeat rewind playlist" - it correctly played the Spotify playlist Repeat Rewind

 

(Interestingly on Spotify Desktop the Daily Mixes do not appear in the list of 'Playlists: By Spotify' in my Library)

 

"Daily Mix" - it plays this https://open.spotify.com/album/7hNH5c5OkAWkTWg8HXk6OK?si=himiFQt4TEuR1-ESep-I6g (the often complained about Luis Masters that everyone has been blocking to try to avoid his album being played when they ask Google to play their Daily Mix - given that the albums are numbered, just like Spotify's, I think this is more playcount farming and the albums should be removed)

 

"Daily Mix 1" - it fails to start playing anything

 

"Daily Mix 2" - it plays this https://open.spotify.com/album/3bBgZZyH4EqAly5c2ehJST?si=QStFON16QU29A6hv-WbQEw (again, Luis Masters)

 

"Daily Mix 1 playlist" - it fails to start playing anything

 

"Daily Mix 2 playlist" - it incorrectly played my Spotify-created 'Daily Drive' playlist

 

"Spotify's Daily Mix 1" - it played this https://open.spotify.com/track/7wPpz5SKTsqZ9yf78Xe5Q3?si=625c88209ef74d2a (I'm not sure it's intentionally playcount farming, but of the 10 tracks on the album it has nearly 32,000 plays, one other track has 1600 or so plays, and the others have none - so they've ended up with a lot of people who were likely trying to play their Daily Mix playlists)

 

The pattern here is actually quite simple, now that I've gone through it all - it can't play any of the "Made for ${username}" playlists, namely: Daily Mix 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, DJ, Discover Weekly and Release Radar.  It struggles with some others, thanks to unhelpful third-party Album and Podcast names, but the command can normally be tweaked to get there eventually.

 

Now, in the Developer Dashboard, I can look through the endpoint for: https://api.spotify.com/v1/me/playlists to see all of my playlists that the API can serve up.  The Daily Mix playlists do not feature in the results UNLESS I 'add to library' - then, those added, do.  Now, this can't be the crux of the problem, because I already have Discover Weekly and Release Radar in my library, and the API call returned them as results, but anyway I tried adding the 'Daily Mix 2' playlist to my library, and retried the Google Home tests:

"Daily Mix 2" - played the Luis Masters album

 

"Daily Mix 2 playlist" - played my Daily Drive playlist

 

No change, except that Daily Mix 2 does now show up on Spotify Desktop as a 'Playlist: By Spotify' in my library

 

So - problem 1 is that the API endpoint for retrieving all of a user's playlists (presumably how Google, and anyone else, is expected to look up a playlist by name) does not automatically include the 'Made For ${username}' playlists - related to the need to 'add' these playlists to our library, which can perhaps be put down to being 'unexpected behaviour for the end-user' rather than an actual bug.  Problem 2 is that these specific playlists by spotify (under the heading 'Made For ${username}') cannot be played by Google Assistant / Google Home Automations when asked for by name - this is odd because if they're in the JSON results from the API call, along with all the others that do work, you'd expect them to be found in just the same way...  I did a side-by-side comparison of the objects returned from the API for Discover Weekly versus Your Top Songs 2023 and could see no difference - all generic details were the same, and the relevant different parts matched in all expected ways.  I'd love to come work for you, if only to solve this one particular bug!  :')

 

"Play My Spotify Weekly Discovery Playlist created 5/27/2024" well, i already said that using a more complex command like "Play the PLAYLIST xxxxxxxxx" (does not work if i say "Play xxx PLAYLIST"!!!) sometimes WORKS!

 

Now... This kind of "complex" nonsense commands WERE NOT NEEDED! Priority was given to PLAYLISTS over LPs (and LPs over SONGS, i presume)

 

Also, i state this A LOT!! REINSTALLING SPOTIFY solves NOTHING because this is NOT RELATED TO THE SPOTIFY APP!!!

 

So, please, don't waste the users time giving advice like "clean your cache", REINSTALL Spotify. This is related to the Spotify / Google APIs (because the problem is present when the audio plays on STANDLONE devices, like the Google Nest)

It's ALL ANSWERED HERE in the TOPIC!! You should read the answers!

This is a SPOTIFY API PROBLEM!

  • Exact Spotify version you're running - COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT!!! NOT APP RELATED!!!
  • Exact make/model of your device on which you're experiencing this - GOOGLE NEST MINI
  • When did you notice this issue for the first time? Did it start happening after a specific event such as an update? SEE THE DATE OF THE FIST POST!
  • Is this only happening with the Discover weekly playlist or with other ones as well? HAPPENS WITH ALL PLAYLISTS THAT HAVE SIMILAR OR SAME NAME AS LPS OR SONGS on the SPOTIFY CATALOG!!!
  • Troubleshooting you've already tried. USING DIFFERENT APPROCHES to the VOICE COMMANDS, like RIDICULOUS "Play the PLAYLIST called Discover Weekly" (that SOMETIMES works!!! - SOMETIMES!). Before the possible changes to your API, PRIORITY WAS GIVEN to PLAYLISTS over LPS and SONGS!

Just a NOTE!

You said "I have Spotify set as the default app for Google Home.  In the automation, as an Action (Play music) I have tried triggering various Spotify generated playlists, as follows"

 

Having Spotify as the DEFAULT music provider on the Google Home APP NEVER worked for me... asking to play something was always erroneous. As usual, Google Support said nothing, did nothing, solved nothing, so, the FIX (for me) was to NOT SELECT a default music providerhttps://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Google-Nest-Mini-play-wrong-songs-and-p...

 

And, just to be clear, as soon the problem described in this topic started, i TRIED ALL the configurations (selected Spotify as the default music provider, unselected YouTube music as the default music provider, and finally reverting to the option that has been working form me for 6 months - NO MUSIC PROVIDER SELECTED!) - nothing works.

 

As pointed out by me and a few users already, this is surely a Spotify API issue.

I tried that, and this morning the assistant said "got it, playing the
album daily mix 2 on Spotify" when running the routine.

("Play my personal playlist called daily mix 2 on Spotify")

So today, my Google routine tried to play the playlist "Daily Mix 4", and Google replied "Okay, playing the album Daily Mix 4" (which is odd because Google usually doesn't say anything in a routine, it just does it.) BUT, then it plays this (see attached). The Google home reads Album Daily Mix 4, but my phone shows it playing an album entitled "Only Way to See" (same artwork and everything). 

PXL_20240530_141947329.jpg

Just wanted to add to the voices here experiencing this issue. My examples are calling for common Spotify-curated albums like "80s greatest pop hits" or "best of [artist]" and instead of playlists that played before it would start an obscure album. Using voice commands has been frustrating and I often end up using my phone and then casting to the speakers, which has its own issues at times.

This is the album that I’ve been served dozens of times in the last couple of months when I ask google mini to “play my discover weekly playlist on Spotify”: https://spotify.link/rW4MPtGU1Jb

Yep, same. 

This doesn't seem to work for me, sometimes it says it can't find it and other times it plays this: 

https://open.spotify.com/track/37UUnzLcR4msXQAyzq2Oe1?si=EvOtDdRoTum_4KW_UKhRNQ

 

Hoping they can just fix it!

When I say "Play Discover Weekly" to my Google Assistant it plays some other playlist by the same name. How do I block that other playlist from playing! Discover Weekly is a playlist auto curated by Spotify based on my frequent listening tastes.

 

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Pixel 7, Google Nest Mini 

Operating System

Android 14

 

My Question or Issue

I like to listen to a playlist curated by Spotify called Viva Latino. Recently when I tell my Google Nest Mini to play the Viva Latino playlist on Spotify it has been playing a different playlist also called Viva Latino it seems like some kind of auto-generated compilation also from Spotify. It's annoying and I want to block this playlist from coming up since it is interfering with my enjoyment of the app. How can I accomplish this? 

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