Siri Plays Playlists by the Same Name Instead of My Own

[ElizabethM99]

Plan: Premium
Country: USA

Device: iPhone 12 Mini

Operating System: iOS 15.5

My Question or Issue:

Oftentimes (not ALWAYS) when I ask Siri to play a playlist of mine that has the same or similar name to a more popular/Spotify curated playlist, Siri plays the one that is not mine.

An example where it almost never works is my “- tropical house -” playlist. There’s a Spotify playlist called “Tropical House” and it plays that instead. I do not have that playlist liked/saved and I do not listen to it.

It shouldn’t be the dashes causing the issue because Siri has no problem playing my other playlists with more unique names and they all have those dashes as well.

I do not have this issue when I use my Google Home/Nest. I’m guessing it has something to do with not recognizing “my” in the command.

[ElizabethM99]

Hi there @ElizabethM99,

Thank you for the reply and the screenshots.

We've passed on your feedback about this feature to the right teams at Spotify.

This issue is related to how the Siri app makes requests to the Spotify library, which is not entirely up to Spotify, nevertheless our tech folks are constantly trying to improve the experience so that the voice assistants can find exactly what you're looking for.

Some members of the Community have suggested that renaming your playlists with more specific and not so common names helps in some cases, as the voice assistant won't mix them up with other more popular public playlists or albums.

Cheers. 

[Vasil]

Hey @ElizabethM99,

Thanks for posting in the Community!

To me it looks like your speaker isn't recognizing the 'my' in the command.
Maybe you could put more emphasis on the word or try changing the playlist name a bit so it doesn't get mixed up with the one from Spotify?
The dashes shouldn't be an issue 🙂

[ElizabethM99]

Even when I spell out my exact playlist title it’ll choose a similar Spotify created playlist. Please change the priority of what Siri plays so that a User’s playlists are first choice.

[Alex]

Hi there @ElizabethM99,

Thank you for the reply and the screenshots.

We've passed on your feedback about this feature to the right teams at Spotify.

This issue is related to how the Siri app makes requests to the Spotify library, which is not entirely up to Spotify, nevertheless our tech folks are constantly trying to improve the experience so that the voice assistants can find exactly what you're looking for.

Some members of the Community have suggested that renaming your playlists with more specific and not so common names helps in some cases, as the voice assistant won't mix them up with other more popular public playlists or albums.

Cheers. 

[JoeZeppy412]

I have the same issue. Asking for my playlist “collection 1” plays public playlist “this is collective soul” no matter how slowly and clearly I enunciate. I already renamed it from “playlist 1” because it stopped playing it on Siri request 

[edoardosgalambro]

Plan

Free

Country

italy

Device

iPhone 8

Operating System

iOS 16

My Question or Issue

When i ask siri to play/shuffle my "exact name" playlist, siri starts playing other playlists with similar name which i never ask/hear. It seems as siri cannot search for playlist in "my library" but only between playlists created by spotify and it starts playing a playlist with a similar name of the one I asked. I have already try to toggle off/on all in siri & search and also restart the device, but anything changed. Any suggestion?

[wind197]

I've had the same issue asking my Google home to play my "Discover Weekly" playlist. Sometimes it plays the actual Discover Weekly, sometimes it plays another playlist by the same name that I never previously listened to. Now it's forever in my history and I have no way to to remove it or block it.

Because it's a built-in playlist it can't be renamed.

[edoardosgalambro]

UPDATE: Apparently it seems that renaming the playlist *my … playlist” could help Siri recognizes the playlist. 

I have made some attempts in these days and here is what I’ve found:

- Rename the playlist *my … playlist*
- enabling write to Siri and write instead of speak to Siri helps

- type/speak exactly: Play/shuffle *my …. Playlist* on Spotify

- the text above not always will work, you have to set the … in a unique way that Spotify cannot exchange for other playlists or the chances that it’ll work will be lower 

- typing is better than speaking on my phone

- if you want to create a shortcut to play/shuffle a specified playlist you have to TYPE (because typing is better than speaking in general) and write to Siri Play/shuffle *my …. Playlist* on Spotify. Wait for the command to see in the playlist is the one you really want to play and if it’s right go to shortcut and search for Spotify. (Repeat 3/4 times if the command is not appearing in shortcut app). After some attempts you will see a Siri suggested shortcut under the Spotify app with exactly what you have typed to Siri before and you can create a shortcut with that command. It will automatically reproduce the playlist. YOU HAVE TO TOGGLE ON THE “LEARN FROM THIS APP IN SIRI SEARCHING FOR SPOTIFY APP

- Avoid naming your playlist as some playlist already present on Spotify (built-in).

it’s all I have found for now, hopes it helps someone!

[KenShackley]

I have this issue also. I have renamed several of my playlists several times, with no improvement. Siri continues to choose public playlists with totally different music. As a result, I can not use Siri to control Spotify when I am driving.

[KenShackley]

Update: I followed the advice above and edited my Spotify playlist names by prepending “My…” to the playlist names. That worked. Spotify can find them. 

This is not an ideal workaround; unless I rename all of my playlists they aren’t in alphabetical order. But at least now I have three playlists that I can use while driving.

[hemicyon]

Plan

Premium

US

Device

iPhone 12 Pro

Operating System

iOS 17.5.1

My Question or Issue

Following this support article, Siri either fails to find specific playlists saying "I couldn't find [requested playlist] in your Spotify library." even though it is definitely there, or Siri simply plays something entirely random, nothing at all to do with the requested playlist or my listening history.

I did some testing, and my guess is that the issue is playlists with a + symbol in the name (chiefly, blends). I have a bunch of blend playlists, and I'd really rather not have to rename them all since the descriptive names are helpful to remember which blend is which, but also because Spotify seems fragile and I don't want to upset its delicate balance of functionality. It'd be grand if Spotify could either fix the Siri integration issue with the + character, or—preferably, in fact—maybe just add full Shortcut support instead.

Cheers

[Oxyg]

I had the same problem.  
solution that works for me - add the following at the end of your request “in Apple Music library”

so for the playlist called Tropical House instead of saying “play Tropival house” say “play Tropical House in Apple Music library”

works for me