Android (Auto) only plays the popular tracks with voice commands

[rdoss]

I've been using Spotify with Android Auto since last March. Until recently, when I gave the voice command "Spotify play <band name>" it would play tracks from the requested band. I could skip around and listent to alot of tracks from the requested band.

But recently when I say "Spotify play <band name>" it only plays the 5 most popular track and then repeats then again. If I tell my Android phone "Spotify play <band name>" it only plays the 10 most popular track and then repeats then again.

I use voice commands with Spotify daily. Almost every time I get into my car. This new limitation is vey frustating. It was nice to be able to give one voice command and listen to alot of different tracks from an artists. I know, prior to this recent change, at somepoint the tracklist  would start back over but it was after alot of tracks had played. That's fine but limiting it to 5 tracks is frustating.

On a side note, I also noitced, more times than not now, the Play Queue doesn't update after the initial queue was created from the first voice command. If  I say "Spotify play <band name>"  it will build a Play Queue for the artist requested but if  I say "Spotify play <a different band name>" then the Play Queue still shows for the first band. If  I say "Spotify play <a 3rd band name>" then the Play Queue still shows the tracklist for the first band name. 

Has anyone else expereinced this issues?

[Abradix]

Yeah this is driving me insane and is making spotify for android auto near-useless unless I make some playlists with every possible song I'd want to listen to. I'd love to have this reverted.

[anthony_Rz]

I've been experiencing this same exact issue with Android Auto for the past couple of weeks now. It is very frustrating. The queue only remembers previous searches and does not even update when I say "Play <artist name>". And when I skip to the next song by that same artist, it will only play 5 songs and repeat the same ones. Spotify Premium is useless for me if this issue doesn't get rectified!

[rdoss]

I've noticed another bad change to voice commands in regards to Spotify's use with Android Auto. When I tell Android Auto "Spotify play Childish Gambino" It does not play Childish Gambino tracks but instead played Donald Glover tracks from the Creed soundtrack and from Glover's standup album. The same things goes for when I say "Spotify play Father John Misty" instead of playing Father John Misty it plays tracks by J. Tillman. I know Childish Gambino is Donald Glover and Father John Misty is Joshua (J.) Tilllman but why is the translation occuring? If I want to hear Donald Glover tracks I will say "Spotify play Donald Glover", same goes for J. Tillman. Oddly this does not happen when a verbal command is given to my Android phone.(excluding the Android Auto app. I know this change was recent as I was able to make requests for Childish Gambino more than 2 months ago. (I don't listen to him all the time so I'm not sure when in the last two months this change occurred.)

Spotify does this pseudonym to real name translation but can not return artists who's names aren't pronounced as spelled. Examples of such artists are Haim and Chvrches. Other streaming media services can retreive such artists via voice command.

Yesterday a coworker asked me what I thought about Spotify in regards being used with voice commands as he wanted to integrate Spotify with his home automation system. I could not recommend Spotify as a result of these recent changes.

I signed up for my Spotify account the day they went live in the U.S. and have championed it ever since. Due to these recent change I can no longer do that. If these voice command issues are not corrected soon I will have to swap to another streaming service.

[anthony_Rz]

To add: It seems like voice commands directly on my Android phone like "OK GOOGLE: Play The Killers" will queue the top 5 popular tracks as well. The difference is that once those 5 tracks are done, it'll keep playing the rest of the songs too.

Has anyone found a solution yet?

[stonew508]

Agreed, this sucks!

[saw_gameover]

This needs more attention.

[Interfade]

i have the same problem here! Hope that spotify will fix this as soon as possible. Spotify is useless in the car with only 5 songs.

[quietmint]

Assuming your car has a touchscreen, a "workaround" is to ask for an artist by voice, then tap the left navigation menu, tap recents, and tap on the artist you just asked for (it will be the topmost item). This still defeats the entire purpose of voice commands, though, and some Android Auto users don't have a screen.

(Please do not "accept as solution")

[Interfade]

Thank you for your help and idea. This work great and is helpful in first use. Hope spotify will fix this problem, everybody is talking about, soon.

[anthony_Rz]

This is a great workaround. Thanks for the tip!

[peniscrackers]

Could this be a Google problem rather than Spotify? Alexa works just fine when you ask it to play an artist by name.

I have this problem regardless of whether I'm using Android Auto to ask Spotify for an artist. However if i ask Alexa, it queues up a load of songs (seems to be based on popularity too, which is nice)

Anyone found anything on Google Product Forums?

[FormelLMS]

Is spotify reading here? This sucks really.

No chance to get more than 5 tracks from one artist. This is a problem only occuts with android auto because android auto needs a special programming from the app developers.

That sucks really....

(No Problems with other apps on android auto so it's a spotify special...)

[peniscrackers]

If I grab my phone and say "ok google, play coldplay from spotify", I get the exact same behaviour.  This tells me it is either an Android problem or a Spotify on Android problem, but not specific to Android Auto.

[mantis317]

Try playing an entire album by an artist.  For example, "Play the album Hot Fuss by the Killers on Spotify."  You can also ask "What albums do the Killers have?"  but it only lists one or two.

[Diablos]

Is there still no solution for this? Is there not an "Play X song next command" so it adds it to a queue rather than navigating to the popular tracks?