Spotify has therefore removed the ability for one or more of your playlists to be available publicly

[adminutzurio]

Hello everybody,

I have tried customer service three times. The first time I was assured that the problem will be resolved soon (and is being escalated), but sadly nothing happened.

The second and third times I was told they don't know and to try support email. I tried a few times but I always got back the same email in broken English and they never reply to any follow-up so I don't really know what else to do.

Last time writing to customer support I was told to try to reply to the no-reply Spotify email which to no surprise didn't work. So I am (helpfully understandably) frustrated and I don't really know where to turn now.

My issue:

I have now gotten three emails saying "It has come to Spotify’s attention that your account has engaged in unauthorized use of the Spotify service in violation of the Terms. Spotify has therefore removed the ability for one or more of your playlists to be available publicly."

Me and my friends have been doing these playlists for over three years and I am certain there is nothing "unauthorized" about them at all. Two of these were really small with only a few listeners, only the last one was somewhat bigger with maybe 100 listeners per month.

Is there anyone else I could write to who can actually help me?

Thank you in advance! 

[Yordan]

Hi @adminutzurio,

Thanks for reaching out!

We're unable to help out with this here on the Community, but if you've been assured that your request has been escalated, then it's probably still being reviewed and it may take some time to receive a reply.

There's also this idea about changing how the report system works which you may find interesting, so we encourage you to check it out and share your feedback. If it gets sufficient votes within the next couple of months, Spotify Staff will look into it for a potential implementation.

The Community is always here if there's anything else you need assistance with.
 

Stay safe!

[adminutzurio]

Sadly, it has been "escalated" a few months ago and from what I could gather from all the other support people, she was probably lying. 

It is really frustrating that there is no way to contact anybody from Spotify support. I have now depleted all the options (even tried the Spotify Cares twitter to no avail).

So my playlist that I have been building for years just gets (probably automatically) blocked and I have no recourse. 

[adminutzurio]

I also checked the link you posted and I am not sure if that would help since the support is of no help at all so I have doubts it will do anything to reported people.

[gccengineering]

I am about cancel my subscription with these people.  I have gotten this 2 times, I mean they the people uploading the content we use in the playlists we custom create, not us.  I don't what they are talking about having a playlist being in violation of terms of service.   I just don't get it.   There they are adding and removing content just like how Netflix removes their TV shows and movies each month, and our playlists are being totally controlled, censored and content that Spotify uploads we have had on our playlists gets removed.  I mean this is total control just like the FCC trying to control our playlists like they control a licensed broadcast station now, except we are not transmitting, we are using a playlist.  Total censor ship and control against us! 

[gccengineering]

The only thing unauthorized they are doing is removing good music, programs and stuff we enjoyed listening to over the years.  I am tired of this, someone else needs to take a stand for this.  We know it's the far left gaining control of how the playlists are being made, and this is why they want to control the way the playlist is being made now a days.  Sooner or later our playlist creations will end up being moderated and controlled by them. 

[gccengineering]

I feel like our playlists are being moderated and controlled by you just like how you add and remove music, podcasts and stuff we enjoyed listening to.  I feel like the playlist has a message for the listener, you and your team want to "censor" and "control" that message.  I had a far future prediction this was going to happen.  I guess we must move ourselves off the platform until you and your team grow up and listen to us. Everything being censored and controlled even the stuff you upload to your data base and then sooner or later it gets removed due to copyright, artist , and political agreements.  I mean you're being the next You Tube, Netflix, anything that government deems to be controllable towards the average joe listener.    This is why you do these things towards us.  So what's next?  You people have to approve a and deny creation of a new playlist now?  It has to be trendy? Popular, viral for everybody even the aliens outside this planet?  

[ShadowsDeep]

This has happened to me too. This is the mail I keep sending them, it gets ignored and they only refer back to their original mail that really says nothing. Very frustrating.

Spotify have removed my playlist ”Synthwave Shadows” from being public without a real explanation. This is on our user profile where we create playlists etc to promote our self, these playlists are also promoted on our artist page
The Mail i received does not really say what the problem is.
We have grown this playlist and it’s followers 100% organically for over a year, so this is very frustrating.
This is what Spotify advice us artists to do, so we don´i understand why it was removed.

I would very much like a detailed explanation and also a solution to get the playlist available again.

[Playlist_Subs]

Hi. I just experienced the same exact problem 😞 Did you managed to resolve this issue? Last couple of hours I contacted a lot of curators and artists and almost everyone has this issue. It just seems soooo unfair as it seems that all it takes to ban a playlist is a user report that in 99% cases is fabricated just to hurt a curator 😞

Spotify needs to do something about that ASAP!

[Playlist_Subs]

I received an email that states this:

Hi,

By creating and using your Spotify account, you have entered into a binding agreement with Spotify and acknowledged that you have read, understood, accepted and agreed to be bound by the Spotify Terms and Conditions of Use (the “Terms”).

It has come to Spotify’s attention that your account has engaged in unauthorized use of the Spotify service in violation of the Terms. Spotify has therefore removed the ability for one or more of your playlists to be available publicly.

Spotify reserves all rights under the Terms, the Agreements and applicable law.

Kind regards,

Spotify

When I contacted support 2 times, the answer was always this:

We have no further information on why your playlist got banned. We can only refer you back to the forwarded email as to why it had happened.

When I wrote twice, that I would like the case to be forwarded to the escalations team, they stopped responding.

This is very frustrating. When I contacted other curators and artists I know, most of them are experiencing or have experienced similar issue and no-one got any help from Spotify. I did not violate any rules:

- I am the only one who uses the account.

- Profile photo is free to use.

- The description is not violating anything.

- I don't do payola in any way.

- I don't pay for artificial streams or followers.

- I don't "fake" followers or streams in any way.

- I can proof everything.

It seems that some people just reporting playlists when they feel "threatened" by it, if their playlists got outperformed by another. So they just report that playlist because it seems that all it takes to get a playlist banned by Spotify is to report it for no reason at all, with no evidence, no proof, nothing.

And Spotify doesn't communicate with the side that was damaged? I have to say that this is outrageous. I am a professional playlist curator and influencer and it seems all it takes to ruin my entire work is to make a fake report...

We have to solve this!

[DJSovRin]

Same here, I've reached out to support about 10 times without any reply. Chat isn't helpful either. Neither is @spotifycares on twitter. If this a broad takedown of suspicious or bot behaviour its killing off smaller curators as well as we rely on friends and family for engagement. I've even heard of curators with just 3 listeners per month being taken down. For once a reply would be cool.

[drewy88]

Yeah I've had the same thing happen. Chat said refer to the email for information. I said to the chat it gives no details whatsoever, can they advise what was done wrong otherwise how would I know to not do it again in the future? They said refer to the email for all information. I wouldn't mind quite as much if they actually gave some information on what the issue was rather than a paragraph that's beyond vague.

[adminutzurio]

No. Nobody ever got back to me. I don't think the external support can do anything about it and there is no internal support. It's probably all just automatic to save money. 

[richikitsch]

Same problem here,**bleep** don't care if my list can be public or not, I am just a "private" user, but I really want to know what "unauthorized use" I have been involved in...

/Richi

[MAZIv]

I've had same email I contacted support whom told me to refer to email which doesn't go into detail.

After each time I raised issue other than today I explain what happened the agent reads message then closes the conversation 🤔 

The last agent said email no reply which is of no assistance

If we have violated the terms the least they can do is explain how so we are aware of not doing so again inadvertently 

[drewy88]

So I made a new version of the playlist that originally got blocked and it’s just been blocked again saying I’ve engaged in unauthorised use of my Spotify account. If anyone has any thoughts on why a playlist would get consistently blocked when there is nothing controversial about the title or the photo for the playlist then I’d love to hear any thoughts.

[Alex1158]

I've experienced the same issue, too.

[bev-kb]

I have this issue twice now. I have checked over my playlists and there is NOTHING in there that is not of terms. Unless me listening to the playlist day and night is against terms? I am not a bot nor use a bot. I just really like the playlists that I have made so I will listen to it at home and then turn it off from my PC and go straight to my phone as I drive. I don't get why the email won't state what we have done that's "against the terms of Spotify". Or why no agent will help!

[Benny_Wallin]

I have had the same problem. But it does not explain what I have violated or what has been reported. How can I change my mistakes then, when I don't know what I'm doing wrong, or even worse, someone just "gets upset" about something I do.

It would be fairly simple to include information on which playlist was reported and the reason. When you send out your punishment.

I think this is downright bad

[MarshmallowTheCorgi]

I have to agree. This randomly happened to me and I tried to communicate with two representatives of Spotify- neither were very helpful. I literally have no idea what my playlist violates, at all.