[Google Home / Assistant] "don't play this" on artist not respected

[xdanik]

Plan

Premium

Country

Czech Republic

Device

Android phone, Windows, Chrome

Google Assistant devices - Google Home Mini, Nest Hub...

My Question or Issue

After blocking artist ("don't play this" from artist menu) I am not able to play any songs from that artist - that's great.

Except it does not work when playback is started using Google Assistant on Google Home device.

Steps to reproduce

1. Block an artist using phone
2. Try to play artist on phone - should not work
3. Try to play artist on PC - should not work
4. Ask Google Home to play this artist - music will play normally

Expected behavior

Google Assistant should respond with explanation why music cannot be played - similarly to message "Music stops because your Spotify account is used on another device"...

[Peter · Accepted solution]

Hi @xdanik,

Thanks for reaching out here and welcome to the Community!

Currently the option to block an artist from being played can only be enabled on phone or tablet. However, as you mentioned, any track from a blocked artist should also no longer be playable on any device you log into your account.

In case the setting isn't being carried over to your Google Home device, do you mind trying the following:

• logging out and back in to your Spotify account on your mobile device
• unlinking your Spotify and Google accounts from the Google Home app and then re-linking them?

Let us know how you get on. And if you need help with anything else, we're always happy to lend a hand 🙂

[xdanik]

I have re-linked Spotify account to Google and its better...

The assistant responds with "something went wrong, please try again later", but the blocked artist does not start playing and the previous music keeps playing.

It would be nice if the assistant could respond with little more meaningful response then "something went wrong"...

I have recorded a short clip to better explain how Google Assistant is behaving.

Sorry for .zip file - .mp4 files seem sot not be allowed. (reported as another issue, as .mp4 is listed under supported formats)

[Peter]

Hey @xdanik,

Thanks for getting back to us and for sending in that screen recording.

We're glad to hear that things are working better now that you've re-linked your accounts!

We just wanted to confirm that what is shown in the screen recording is currently the expected behaviour of the app.

The best way to provide your feedback on this is to submit an idea in the Idea Exchange and to include your suggestion for improving this functionality.

That way, other users can show their support for it by adding their vote to it. For more info on how the Idea Exchange works, head here.

Hope that helps! Let us know if there's anything else we can help with 🙂

[ihatememes]

Today I asked Spotify via Google voice commands (hey google play... on Spotify) to play a song while driving, and it opted to play a song with the same name by an artist I have the don't play option checked off for. I even double checked and the artist is still on do not play on this device. I can't think of a worse time for this to fail than while driving.

Is there a way to actually block the artist? For reference I was looking to play dress by Charlotte Sands and it opted to play taylor swift. I haven't tested to see if it's just the one artist not properly being blocked.