Songs being randomly replaced in playlists

[LuizRCSilva]

Plan

Premium

Country

Brazil

Device

All devices

Operating System

All systems

My Question or Issue

Songs in playlists are being replaced with random versions from artists I've never heard of. For example, "The Hard Way", by PNAU, plays some weird xylophone which is definitely not the real one (but the title and artists shown are the correct ones). This also happens with "Live Without Love" by Shouse, which became some weird song from a "Kristal Gandhi" on my Wrapped 2023.

[Joan]

Hi there @LuizRCSilva,

Thanks for reaching out. This is the same across all devices, correct? Is it also across all playlists? If so, could you send us the links/URIs of both the correct songs and the incorrect ones so we can take a closer look?

Keep us posted.

[LuizRCSilva]

Hey, Joan!

That's right, it happens with every playlist containing certain songs, the ones being replaced when they're played, but usually not on the list itself (that is, when I click to play, the audio changes, the "playing now" info changes, but on the list it still shows the song it should have been). For example, https://open.spotify.com/track/5Zn95uMcSkg22ScxTEVmRz?si=d10ed2f78c1b4a80 gets replaced by https://open.spotify.com/track/4GH23sNZuiGOH2kKA4f593?si=e0c8881b6bc14de0. I even had to go directly to the artist's page to be able to copy the correct link, as the album itself had the right cover, but wrong link, somehow.

[LuizRCSilva]

Aditionally, I've noticed one of these rogue songs, https://open.spotify.com/track/3G5d8eTsM2GY1UTaEYwpOj?si=8dfc4a68dc964d98, was deleted. However, that means the actual song, https://open.spotify.com/track/4V1SO4C2wG9bTq6Cp7yYyA?si=5f4d7eaa8b414378, will not be available on my Wrapped playlist:

[LucasSAlmeida]

Plan

Premium

Country

Brasil

Device

Every device

Operating System

Every Operating system

My Question or Issue

Hello! I am having the same problem as Luiz from this thread: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Your-Library/Songs-being-randomly-replaced-in-playlists/td-p/571318...

In my case the problematic track is another one: 

When I play the track the album cover and the audio is replaced by the fake one.

When I add the original one to another playlist it gets replaced by the fake one. 

In my Spotify Wrapped the fake track is present instead of the original one.

Original track link: https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/track/6LCrqs85q61pfZCXYvW63B?si=0246bd5576f64990

Fake track link: https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/track/4XTjYgnaZJT8HmWZqlS9FX?si=88ebac93aedc4d7d

Is it possible for you guys to remove the fake track from spotify and keep the original one in my wrapped 2023 playlist?

[Susan_GP]

Hi @LuizRCSilva,

Thanks for your reply and all the info you provided.

I wasn't able to reproduce the behavior from my side with the songs you provided. Could you send us a video/recording of it? You can attach it in your next reply in mp4 format, or you can also upload it to YouTube or Google Drive and make it public.

On another note, if you haven't we'd recommend clearing the cache from the Spotify app settings and checking if that makes a difference. You can also check if this happens with a different account. It could be a family member or friend's account.

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.
 

[r5ha]

Plan

Premium

Country

Netherlands

My Question or Issue

Hi! When I save songs to Liked songs (or any other playlist), they are not saved for ever and ever - two things that can happen: 1) a song can get removed, and then it will be greyed out (and the app will say something like "Spotify can't play this right now"), 2) a song can get replaced, silently, with a different version of the song, differently mixed/produced, and it is often worse - so it's not even a song with the same name and artist, Spotify displays it as literally the same song that I added, but it sounds worse.

I can understand 1. Sure, things change, contracts change, Spotify is not all-powerful, you can't make all copyright holders love you forever. But doing 2, silently, without adequately explaining it to user makes me feel cheated - I did not add this version of a song to my playlist, please don't tell me I did, it's not even the same song, strictly speaking.

One of the examples of this is Lo Air - Day and Night, it has been greyed out for several months I suppose, and now it came back in a completely different version which honestly sucks (although I understand it's just my opinion), and the old mix (the one I liked) can still be found on Youtube, so it's probably not even a legal problem.

Maybe it's just my luck, but I came across 3 examples of this, and all of them were in a last month, it did not happen before. I don't know why. So yes, can you please keep the things in our playlists greyed out without replacing them with subpar versions? I believe it would really increase the people's trust in the platform.

Thanks.

[VortFX]

I've seen people exploit Spotify hundreds of times at this point, but this takes the cake.

The song "Rushing Back" by Flume has become completely inaccessible, and instead replaced by another song.

Fake song: https://open.spotify.com/track/7GP2geX3A16B2IUFejZtSS?si=9a9ba5f351c3464b

Original: https://open.spotify.com/album/4d2YOjyPDopVhOkksaALJj?si=cLmOeAjoTXmmqi3pLtdb_g

They both play the same shitty replacement song. If I play Rushing Back through it's Album, the replacement song gets played anyway.

"Kcab Gnihsur", the name of the replacement song, is "Rushing Back" spellt in reverse. They also have the exact same listeners counts.

[Joan]

Hi there @VortFX,

Thanks for the reply. Please report this as shown here so we can look into this further. You can use those same steps to forward any other potential content issues you may find, provided that the behaviour isn't some technical issue instead.

Let us know if you need anything else. 

[janiboe]

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

IPhone 14 Pro

Operating System

 iOS 17.1.2

My Question or Issue

When I try to play the Song Rushing Back by Flume, Spotify plays a completely different song and also displays the wrong album art on the bottom. When I open the full album art, it displays the correct picture but the song is wrong. The song playing is always the same one, but is definitely not the song Rushing Back.

I already tried rebooting the phone, logging out and then in again, deleting and reinstalling the app and updating the App, though nothing worked. 

[snoopen]

When I try to play "The Hard Way" from my "Your Top Songs 2023" playlist it does not play the correct track.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1Fa1IIVtEpGUcU?si=96f9ba17555e4f78

It should play this:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5Zn95uMcSkg22ScxTEVmRz

But instead plays this:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7j57nadsCph2KI9eYuaum8

Which appears to actually be this unrelated track:

https://open.spotify.com/track/4GH23sNZuiGOH2kKA4f593

What's even weirder is that I've always had the proper track (first one listed) on my playlist which is what got it included in my "Your Top Songs 2023" playlist.

I've tried reporting the track as an error but I've had no response. I just want to play my playlist and not have random music thrown in!

[bobrtf]

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

Device

(iPhone 8, Samsung Galaxy 9, Macbook Pro late 2016)

Operating System

(iOS 10, Android Oreo, Windows 10,etc.)

My Question or Issue

So, this happens periodically/randomly and is annoying every time it occurs.

Listening to an existing playlist and hearing a familiar song, but not the correct version (that was saved to the playlist and has been played many times). Instead, it's a re-recording of the song by the artist.

In last night's case, it was "Five O'Clock World" by the Vogues. Yes the original is still available (on a few different albums), but so is the re-recording. 

I didn't make the switch - Spotify did.

How does one prevent that from occurring in the future?

[willt2]

Same thing here. I had Baz Luhrmann's Sunscreen song in a playlist and it's been replaced by someone else's inferior version. As suggested above, just grey out the song if it's no longer available, rather than substituting something else.