Different music in different rooms- Sonos

[Mhayli]

I have a Spotify premium account (Individual). I generally use the Sonos app to play music from Spotify on my Sonos speakers.

Since I have had this set up, I have been able to play different music in different rooms. However, when I now try this, it will only play Spotify content on one speaker, and stop playing any other speaker with Spotify content. The message ‘Playback in (room) was stopped. Spotify is being used somewhere else’.

Anyone else having this problem? Only saw it for the first time last night. Have Spotify changed their terms and conditions?

Thanks. 

[balle3201]

Yes, I just got my Roam earlier today, and discovered the same thing here... If this is the case (that terms and conditions has changed) it renders my whole system useless... I hope someone at Spotify can comment on this?

[cornixx]

Same problem here since yesterday.

[Mihail]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community.

We recommend that you first try unlinking your Spotify account from the Sonos app and then running a clean reinstall on both apps. You can find instructions for steps in this Support Article and this Spotify Answer. Afterwards, upon linking the accounts, their connection will be built anew and any damaged files from previous installations will have been removed.

If that doesn't do the trick, could you let us whether it makes a difference if you're using voice commands, the Sonos app or the Spotify app to control the speakers? Make sure to also include the make, model, OS version and Spotify version you're running as well as the speaker models, grouped in the rooms.

Keep us posted. We'd love to investigate this further.

[Aznerek]

I’ve been having the same problem since yesterday (been using for years without this problem til now). Have just tried what you suggested Mihail but it hasn’t fixed it ☹️ I am using the app - my Sonos speakers are not voice command enabled. Any other suggestions? 

[CarlosE]

Hi there @Aznerek,

Thanks for posting on this thread.

Just to clarify, it's not possible to use a single Spotify account to stream different content in multiple devices at the same time. If someone else in the house is trying to play Spotify on another speaker, they have to use their own Spotify account and link it to their own Sonos account on the desired device.

Hope this clears things up. We'll be right here in case you have any questions.

Cheers!

[Aznerek]

Hi Carlos,

thanks for the speedy reply. It always has been possible to do this before as the others have said - have Spotify changed the terms and conditions this week? It will be really disappointing if so - as balle says it will defeat the whole point of having a multi room system. Thanks 

[Aznerek]

P.S. I was trying to play a sleepy time playlist in my son’s room, while listening to my own music in my room. He doesn’t have his own Spotify account cos he is 2 years old! And there are loads of other examples where this will be the case.

[Mhayli]

Hi CarlosE,

I have been playing different Spotify content in multiple rooms at the one time, controlled via the Sonos app and using only one Premium Spotify account for several years. So it has certainly been possible in the past.

Certainly, if I am playing Spotify content on the speakers and then use the Spotify app on my iPad, the speakers will stop playing.

Perhaps Spotify used to recognise a Sonos ‘system’ as one device, regardless of the number of speakers on that system, but now recognises each individual speaker as one device.

Something has definitely changed over the last few weeks as to how Spotify/Sonos operate together, and as others have identified the same issue, it appears not just a configuration issue with my system.

At the moment, the only solution appears to be to upgrade to a family premium account (at an extra $7/month here in Australia) to continue doing what I was able to do a couple of weeks ago. Considering competitor music streaming platforms offer what I was doing a couple of weeks ago at the price I am currently paying for Spotify, I am questioning the relevance of Spotify to my ongoing music streaming requirements.

[CarlosE]

Hey folks,

Thanks for keeping in touch.

Could you let us know when this started happening and if it was after a specific event, such as a Spotify or Sonos app update, or maybe a device firmware update?

Could you also let us know the model of the devices you're using?

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

[ullefutz]

Hello all,

It's been the same for us for a few days.

We have several Sonos speakers in our apartment. In the evening, our kids listen to a story on their own Sonos Play 1 to fall asleep, which hasn't been a problem so far. All of a sudden, it's no longer possible to put on a bedtime story for both of them, as it immediately stops playing in the other room, saying that Spotify is already in use on another device.

I followed the instructions and upgraded from Premium to a Family subscription and created an additional separate account for the Sonos. But that doesn't help either. I start a story in one room with MY account, switch to the OTHER account in the Spotify app and start the story in the other room and the same error as described above appears.

If this is not solved, I will have to look for another music service, because Spotify can not be used for me.

Greetings from Germany.

[Jeremy]

Hi there @ullefutz,

Thank you for your post in this thread. 

Can you confirm if your kids use a Spotify kids account or a "normal" account?

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Take care!

[Aznerek]

For me, it started happening two days ago. No obvious reason why but when it started I checked for updates and found one for both Sonos and Spotify so updated both to see if that fixed it but it didn’t.

I have various Sonos 1 Speakers, all of which are the old non-voice activated models.

[ullefutz]

Hi Jeremy,

Our kids use a Spotify Kids account on our old iPhones to listen to music independently, but not in conjunction with the Sonos.

On the Sonos, we use two normal family accounts - mine and the one created specifically for the Sonos.

[ullefutz]

Hi CarlosE,

for the first time we noticed it two days ago, on 04/22. Three days ago, on 04/21, both the Sonos and Spotify apps got an update. We are using iOS devices with iOS version 14.4.2

From Sonos we have two older Play:1 in the children's rooms in use, two Sonos SL and a Beam in the living room and a Sonos SL in the bathroom.

It doesn't matter from which of our iOS devices we operate the Sonos app and on which speakers we want to play something. It's only ever possible on one device.

[Mhayli]

Hi CarlosE,

I first noticed this problem about a week ago.

One of our kids likes to listen to music as she goes to sleep (Sonos play 1). Sometimes, we still have music on in the family room on the play 5. This has always worked in the past, until last week. Selected play in the kids room, family room stopped.

I have uninstalled Spotify and Sonos on all devices used to control the system, then reinstalled both apps on one iPad and tested. Still did not work.

iOS 14.4.2 on the iPads used to control the system.

[balle3201]

Hi.

I’ve created a similar thread in the Sonos Community explaining the issue here: Playing different Spotify content in different rooms no longer working 

It appears that there are several users which experience the same issue unfortunately 😞

Hope that the Sonos/Spotify-team can resolve this issue soon, cause this is becoming really annoying. Especially for those of us who have been using this for «ages» now...

[Alex]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

It's intended that you can stream to only one Connect device with a single Spotify account. You'd need different Spotify accounts to have simultaneous streams to separate devices.

If streaming different songs to separate devices was possible for you in the past, most likely something has changed on the side of Sonos. 

Hope this info is helpful.

[ullefutz]

Hi Alex,

as I said before, even with MULTIPLE Spotify accounts the playback on different devices does not work either.

I start playback in one room via the Sonos app, switch to the music icon in the app, select another Spotify account there and start playback in another room. Immediately, the playback in the first room is stopped.

Sonos also explores the issue on its side. However, parallel playback on multiple Sonos devices with Apple Music, Amazon Music, etc. continues to be no problem. So I still see the problem with Spotify.

Regards!

[nicoshaps]

Hi Alex

Same issue here with my Sonos infra

I were used to stream different music in different rooms without problem

Saturday it started to fail. Only 1 music can be streamed at the same time

No change on Sonos Infra

Already tried to reset all Spotify account without succes

It's clear that something has changed somewhere

Thank you for your help on this

Best regards

Nicolas