Spotify Plays the Wrong Song and No Solutions Work

[SamCW]

Plan

Free

Country

UK

Device

(iPhone 5)

My Question or Issue

Hi,

I installed Spotify on my iPhone this morning and it nearly always plays a different song to the one I’ve clicked on - I’ve looked through on here a lot and none of the solutions I can try (a lot of the solutions suggested aren’t possible on my iPhone) I’ve found suggested for others having the same problem work for me. I’ve tried reinstalling Spotify, logging in and out, restarting my phone, turning most of the playback options off and downloading a different version of Spotify.

Most of the solutions seem to be for people who use the premium version, have more than one account or who also use Spotify on their computers. I’m only given two versions of Spotify to download and no available updates, both versions I can download have this problem.

[Emilia_8]

Hello @SamCW, 

Thank you for reaching out here in the Community!

As a Free user, you won't be able to play music on demand.

Pick and play on mobile is available only for Premium users. However, it's available on selected playlists for Free users as well, there will be no shuffle symbol next to the title of the playlist. That means, you can choose a song you want to play and you have unlimited skips. 

You can still play on-demand using e.g. desktop, even without Premium Subscription.

If you wan't to see the comparison of different Premium plans offered by Spotify, make sure to check out this support article. 

More detail on how Spotify Free works on mobile can be found here. 

Hope this shed some light!

[SamCW]

Are you saying that you can’t choose what song you want to listen to unless you have the premium version?

If I click on a playlist you’ve made for me, I can click on a song and it plays the correct song, but if I click on a song I added to a playlist I made, it plays a different song and the only option I have for listening to a song I added to a playlist is to listen to the short preview you provide.

I’ve been having this issue when I search for a song; but when I click on it, it plays a different song, are you saying this is intentional?

Are you saying that this issue will always happen in the free version, unless I use it on a computer, instead of a phone?

If you can’t choose which song I want to listen to when I have my phone on me, you might as well just listen to songs elsewhere.

Thanks

[Emilia_8]

Hi @SamCW, 

Thanks fot the response!

Yes, this is an intended behavoiur of the Free Spotify app on mobile. 

There are some playlists that are always on demand, e.g. Daily Mix, Release Radar, Discover Weekly.

You can also find some other playlists made by Spotify, depending on your listening habits, that are pick and play playlists as well, as mentioned in this article.

Since it's how the Free app works on mobile, it's not really an issue. However, if you have any suggestions how to improve Spotify, you're always welcome to submit an idea. 

For more details on that, make sure to take a look at this article series on the Idea Exchange part of the Community. 

Hope you'll find it useful! 

[username444]

So, basically, what you're saying is that if you click on a song you want to listen to on Spotify on your mobile device, Spotify will select a different one. In other words, it's coercing users to buy a Premium account. Capitalism on steroids. Welcome to the billionaire mindset, folks.

[MusicLisener]

Switch to YouTube music, you can listen to music with your screen off and you can listen to the song of your choosing all for free.

[BFDI_LOLLIPOP]

That happens to me when I was going to play aftermath but after I clicked play it played some random music that I don’t know it.works on my iPad 

cmon Spotify you need to fix this

[BransbyN]

I was a loyal premium subscriber for years. This is just so petty it makes me want to find another platform for my music

[Kimmy118]

I'm actually a premium user and the exact same thing described above is happening to me. Not impressed.

[Catlovr]

I think that is the most **bleep**ed feature I’ve ever heard and I’ve been struggling with this issue. That we can’t actually play a specific song definitely does not inspire me to subscribe. I will continue with Apple Music as I am 100% happy with them.

[HlugaGee_RSA]

Since you made us not to be able to choose what song we can listen to intentionally then if we can't listen to music of our choice it's not an issue? 

I just want a response on this part 😔

[Marco059]

Thankyou for confirming this issue happens to users who pay also, I thought it was my phone causing the issue but obviously not. If you can't try the service the way it should work before paying whats the point, a reduced play time for the chosen track would make more sense but to play a completely different track showed me it is 'faulty'??? For this reason I didn't subscribe to Spotify, I use another music platform that makes more sense..

[Irizhechka]

I’ve figured that you have to make a playlist and just put one song in a playlist and when you want that song just play the playlist.

[Enrico__94]

That is pretty rubbish to be honest.  Do artists know that, if they put a link up on their website or social media page, someone clicking on it is going to hear a random song by another artist. 

Do up-and-coming new artists deserve better than this? I can almost understand why Spotify might want to annoy users (to get us to sign up for Premium) but struggling artists shouldn't have potential fans offloaded onto some landfill freebie track. 

[MagicalDancer37]

Wow. I discovered this when I tried to listen to a friend's song and it just played other songs instead. I had to tap next until it played the song I actually wanted to listen to. This is effing bonkers, I'm SO glad I switched to YouTube Music. 

[Idontwantausername6]

I help manage a local band based out of Kansas City and literally just learned this today. Not pleased about it because we use our spotify code frequently on certain merch items thinking it would be easy for thos who purchase to find our music. We may make a switch to a different platform to advertise after learning this. Full disclosure, this is the reason I never actually paid for Spotify - but I thought I just didn't know how to use it so I just continued using Apple Music. I'm glad it wasn't just user error.

[DeanEnnis]

I have the same issue. I was simply trying to listen to 'Run Boy Run' by Woodkid but instead it kept playing 'Iron' almost every time. I tried everything -- restarting my phone (like twice now), swapped accounts, logged out and back in, and I even uninstalled and reinstalled it.

Btw I'm using the free version and can't get Premium if that helps

[Utp]

This is such a bad experience. Just because customer uses your platform doesn't give you the right to just do whatever you want. Some day people will leave your platform because of this