My Playlist Keeps Getting Flagged, And Spotify Is No Longer Responding…

[johnpeterfurst]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Samsung Galaxy S10+, HP Laptop, Dell Laptop

Operating System

Android Red Velvet Cake (Android 11), Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Hello there.  I apologize for the long post in advance, but I just want to explain everything that's been happening to me...

So my issue is this: I have a Spotify Playlist I created that was flagged several months back.  The message I received said that there was inappropriate content or an inappropriate image listed.  However, this is a Playlist that only has songs from the 50s and 60s on it.  There are no swear words, there is no adult content, there is nothing listed or sung about that's violent or racist.  It's literally a Playlist of golden oldies.  In fact, that was the title of it: "The 50s & 60s - Golden Oldies".  The description is also very tame.  Here is what I wrote:

"The Golden Oldies from the 50s and 60s were songs I grew up on; ones that inspired me and would set the standard for what I deem to be good music! These are tunes that define a nation, a culture, and an age.  P.S. I'm giving Motown its own list.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Let's go, cat!"

As for the image, I got an image of a jukebox from the internet, placed my watermark in the corner, and put the title in it.  There is nothing inappropriate about it, and I'm attaching it for review.  I even recently changed the name of the Playlist to "the 50s & 60s - Oldies But Goodies" with a new picture, but I'm still getting flagged.  Here are the pics:

 

So the thing is this: I don't know if someone got jealous because I have over 37,000 subscribers and wanted to attract their own following (there are a couple of users who have literally copied and pasted my Playlist down to the very same track listing, which I don't mind at all honestly).  All I know is that it was flagged, and I replied to the email, saying I contested the flag.  I received an email from the Spotify Team, saying that after reviewing the content, they confirmed that nothing was wrong with it and said I could use the same content no problem.

So I replaced the content.  But then the flag happened again.  I replaced the content removed, and it happened again.  And again.  And again.  Over and over and over.

I have emailed Spotify several times about this issue.  At first, I received responses, saying that they would look into the issue, and that I must be patient for a resolution.  And that was fine with me.  But when several months went by, and nothing was fixed, I started reaching out about updates, and suddenly Spotify stopped responding to my emails.

I find this very upsetting and very disappointing.  I have been a loyal Premium member for over 8 years.  I have several other playlists, and I have never had any issues.  And if it's some person who is deciding to constantly flag me, I would think that Spotify could somehow bar that person from being able to flag me over and over again.  And if it's a glitch in the system, I would think they could fix that too (surely I'm not the first person who has had this issue).

So here I am now, reaching out to the Community, hoping that I might be able to catch the eye and receive help from an Administrator or something.  I would call, but Spotify has no number.  And the Chat Team say they can't help me either.  So then, is there anyone out there who has a resolution to this issue?  I would be very grateful for any assistance.  Thank you in advance!

[Eni]

Hey there @johnpeterfurst, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

This kind of cases are being handled by a team different than the Community moderators or chat, so you did the right thing by keeping in touch through email. We apologize as sometimes response time can be longer than expected, as the team can be quite busy, but rest assured, they'll get back to you via email as soon as possible and every follow up you need to do about this matter will be handled that way.

Hope this info is useful. If you need anything else, the Community is here for you.

Cheers.

[johnpeterfurst]

Hi there, Eni-

Thanks for your response.  However, they still have not gotten back to me.  And I still reply to their emails about the notice of removal, saying I contest the decision, and they still are not replying to my emails.  There's just a removal with no explanation.

I understand that they are busy, but to at least just get a reply every once in a while does wonders for my sense of faith.  I used to get those, but no more.

I get that there are 7 billion people on the planet, over a quarter of which probably use Spotify or have used it.  But still, would it really take 6 months to a year to get a resolution?  For it's been about that long.

And also, why is there no customer service department with a phone number?  If the goal is to avoid an inundation of calls or to speak with irate customers, then okay, I see the reasoning.  But I can even reach out to Google via phone or chat, if I need to.  Why can't I do that with this Support Team for Spotify?

Is there any referral you can make for me on who or how I can talk talk to someone directly?  Or, since you're on the inside, can you have someone from that department reach out to me directly?

[Jeremy]

Hi there @johnpeterfurst,

Thank you for your reply and feedback.

Can you try to write a new email to the customer service staff to see if the issue persists.

We're not offering telephone support at the moment and we're also not authorized to contact people and have them call our users up by phone directly at the moment. 

We understand that things can feel frustrating when things don't work as you'd like them to. Rest assured that we're always trying to improve.

We hope for your understanding and that you continue using Spotify and find it gets better in the future.

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

Take care!

[johnpeterfurst]

Jeremy-

Thank you for your response, I certainly appreciate it.

Write a new email how? Whenever I get an email, saying the content has been removed, I reply to those. Is that not the way to go? Are you saying I should write a completely new email and submit the problem that way?

[Jeremy]

Hi again @johnpeterfurst,

Thank you for your reply.

I would say it's worth giving it a try since our support should give you a respond. However as mentioned above - the team can be quite busy, but they should get back to you via email as soon as possible.

Let us know if we can help you with anything else in the meantime.

Have a continued great week 🙂

Take care!

[Avaletta]

I'm having a similar issue, which I think stems from my original image being copyrighted, but it's hard to say since spotify's email to me didn't tell me why it was removed. Spotify customer service stonewalled me about it. Is there any way that spotify is helping customers like us or are we just going to be ignored? I have repeatedly replaced the original copyrighted image that I assume was the source of the flagging and removal of my playlist info with images that I created myself, only to have those repeatedly flagged and removed as well. I finally went out to the garden, took a picture of a flower, edited it to raise the saturation, added it to spotify and it was immediatley flagged and removed. So either some customer is repeatedly flagging my only popular playlist because they are jealous, or spotify has a really bored moderator who just automatically clicks to remove my image no matter what it is or who created it.