Spotify Playlists on Alexa

[dstskp]

Hi,

I have an issue with my Alexa devices and Spotify, in that it cant find some playlists, or will not play a playlist, instead it just does one song. I've seen this on a few forums but no exact match to my issue, nor a resolution.

This may be a Spotify issue, however if i use Google Assistant (Android Auto) in my car, it can find them no problems

So we have a family spotify account, which give 5 users premium access - 1 for me, my wife, the "house" (which is the one Alexa is linked to) and 2 spare, for my kids when i can sort it

The idea was the house has its own, so i dont stop the music in my car when im on he road, or vise versa, etc

So, if i now ask Alexa "play the big little lies soundtrack" it will play the one track, from TV themes - which can be found easily on Spotify. If i search on Spotify manually on a phone, i can find it no problems. I've tried matching the exact wording of the playlist, asking it to shuffle, i've removed and re-added my Spotify account to Alexa!

This is just one example though. It also cannot find "Kids TV Theme Tunes" playlist, although again i can on a phone

Regions for Spotify and Alexa are both set to UK

Please could somebody help me out with a solution to this. If Alexa cant find public playlists on Spotify, then there isn't any point in it for me as that is the main reason we have it

Thanks in advance

[Eg11]

Let me start with I know nothing. I was interested in Alexa/Spotify issues to try and answers for an issue I have, and saw your post.

"play the big little lies soundtrack"

That sounds to me like an instruction to play the track for the big little lies theme, rather than telling Alexa it’s a Playlist title. Does it need a clearer instruction to play the whole series of tracks?

see line 1!

[dstskp]

nfortunately it makes no difference

I have tried saying "play big little lies playlist" i have tried saying the exact name of the playlist, with and without adding playlist to the end, i've tried shuffling it. None of it works

Other ones, such as teh Kids TV theme's, it just says it cant find it, even though if i look it up on my phone i can find it no problems.

I can log into this spotify account on my phone, look up the playlist, play it, then send it to a connecetd device (the echo) and it will play. If i then stop it and use the Alexa voice command to play it, it just plays the 1 song (as if it cant find the playlist) or says it cant find the playlist, as is the case with the kids TV themes

Annoying to say the least!

[doctorstuff]

I have the same issue, exept mine won't even play a song from certain playlists.  Most play fine, but several do not play at all.

For example, if I say, "Alexa play Classic Road Trip Songs" on spotify, Alexa will reply, "Playing Classic Road Trip songs on David's Spotify" and then turn off.  Some were playlists that I had previously played on Alexa.

Also, if I play them on the Spotify Web Player, I have no issues at all.

I'd appreciate any help on this matter too!

[Frank_Dauni]

I have the same issue. I have added a public playlist and I can't Alexa to start it. Only if I use the Spotify app and start it to play it on the Alexa. Is there a solution available now?

[DAUNIRAM]

I have the same issue. I have added a public playlist and I can't Alexa to start it. Only if I use the Spotify app and start it to play it on the Alexa. Is there a solution available now?

rgds Frank

[AlejaR]

Hey folks,

Thanks for posting here and welcome.

@DAUNIRAM, @Frank_Dauni, in this case, we'd like to gather some additional info. Just to confirm, is the playlist you kindly mentioned one created by you, or by someone else? It'd be awesome if you could clarify this for us.

On another note, would you mind sending us a full description of exactly what is happening on your side? Just to clarify, when using the Alexa voice commands the speaker is not playing the playlist you mentioned? Is Spotify your set as your default player to use voice commands with Alexa? Send us as many details as possible.

Meanwhile, we'd suggest you check if the firmware of your speakers is up-to-date. If there are some pending updates, try updating the speakers to see if you notice any changes to this behavior.

Keep us in the loop!

[Frank_Dauni]

Hello AlejaR,

Thanks for the reply. 

The speakers have the latest firmware. 

It is a playlist from the family account owner.  So public but in the end a playlist from myself 🙂 

But because of the  well known Spotify Family account issue. I'm using a separate account for the household linked to the Amazon Alexa Spotify skill.

The problem is that Alexa can't find the only one playlist I have currently linked to this new Spotify account for the Alexa household . Error can't find "playlist name" on Spotify.

I tried almost every command I can think of.

But if I use the command "Alexa play playlist" so without the playlist name, it starts the playlist and names it exactly with the name I tried before.

So it looks to me I can't start public playlist. This is not good.

Spotify has to fix the Spotify family account issue on Alexa ( Spotify idea open since 2018), so that all family members can use their own Spotify account (of course without the stupid workaround to change the Alexa account itself). So that I can use my own Spotify account instead if the Spotify household account. 

Best regards Frank

[DAUNIRAM]

Hello AlejaR, please see message from my other account on the topic. 

Best regards Frank

[Susan_GP]

Hi there @DAUNIRAM,

Thanks for your reply!

We kindly request that you only reply from one of your accounts. Now, could you let us know if you've tried any troubleshooting steps? If not, we recommend you try the following:

• Delete the Alexa app and install it again.
• Unplug the Echo Dot device for 30 seconds and plug it in again.
• Verify that the Spotify app is up to date.
• Remove the Spotify skill in the Alexa app and re-add it.

On another note, has this always happened or was Alexa able to find the playlist/playlists before?

We'll keep an eye out for your reply!

[DAUNIRAM]

Hello Susan_GP, 

it worked if I attache my my own Spotify account (the account which created the playlist) to Alex/Amazon. But because of the Spotify family account issue, I can't link my own Spotify Account to Alexa/Amazon. This is why I created a new account just for our household. 

best regards

Frank

[AlejaR]

Hey @DAUNIRAM,

Thanks for your reply and for the info shared.

In this case, it'd be really helpful if you sent us the link to the playlist in which you noticed the mentioned behavior. You can do it by following these steps.

On another note, it'd also help us a lot if you sent us a video recording in which we can visualize what's exactly happening. You can attach the video in your next reply in mp4 format, or you can also upload it to YouTube or Google Drive and make it public, so we can visualize it.

Make sure to show us in the video what happens when you ask Alexa to play the playlist with both the Spotify account which is linked to Alexa and the account that follows said playlist. Also, send us the make/model of the speaker you're using.

Meanwhile, we'd suggest you change the name of the playlist for one that is unique, to check if this behavior persists.

Keep us in the loop!

[DAUNIRAM]

Hello Aleja,

sorry the late reply. 
I tested as instructed to link the owner of the playlist in question to the Alexa account again, to record the different Alexa answers. But I realized that the issue is the same as with the "household account".
Meaning also the owner of the playlist can't start the playlist. 

The playlist with the issue is: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3yO1Uztm4pxQGo0e2nZ6mw?si=3658df9f29944ab9
Command: Alexa 
Error mesage from Alex: I can't find the playlist "FrankDrama" on Spotify.

But I also tested this playlist with the owner Account.  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/21K6gamFD5qcT3ODJ6IWNb?si=8a7c7b0c86444446. This one I can play if the owner account (my account) is linked to Alexa. Answer from Alexa ""All time best" from Spotify. But with the household account I am getting the answer: "Can't find playlist All time best on Spotify"

Attached also the error message from Alexa as mp4 file for the AlltimeBest Playslist 

[OscarDC]

Hey @DAUNIRAM,

Thank you for keeping in contact.

We appreciate all the details you've included in your previous post. In order to continue with the investigation, as this could be related to a generic name, would you mind confirming if changing the playlist name makes any difference?

We'll be on the lookout.

[DAUNIRAM]

Hello OscarDC, no I changed the playlist already 3 times and it doesn't make a difference. 

Thanks for your support.
best regards

Frank

[OscarDC]

Hey @DAUNIRAM,

Thank you for keeping in contact.

We appreciate all the info you shared, it's very helpful to keep investigating this issue. Taking this into account, would you mind including in your next response the model of the affected device? 

We'll be around.

[DAUNIRAM]

Hello Oscar,

sorry I was very busy the last weeks. 
I have the issue on all my Alexa devices. 5x Alexa Echo.dot 4th Gen, 2x Alexa Echo 4th Gen, 1x Alexa Echo.dot 5th Gen.
I hope you have now enough information. To start fixing the issue. 
It is still not working.

Thanks for your support. 
best regards
Frank

[DAUNIRAM]

Hello Oscar, are you still working on the issue? rgds Frank 

[Elena]

Hi @DAUNIRAM, 

Thanks for the info you provided earlier and sorry for the delayed response here. 

As we haven't received any other recent reports about this behavior it's taking us a bit longer to get to the bottom of this.

Listening to your recoding we think it might be an issue with the different languages. Could you try renaming the playlist and give it a German title instead? Then ask Alexa to play using the updated title. We also recommend signing out from the app and back in again before trying, this is to resync the account info.

If possible, you can also try changing the language of Alexa to English and ask it to play a playlist using a title in English.

Let us know how you get on.

[DAUNIRAM]

Hello Elena,

Sorry, but this suggestion is not logical to me. Let me tell you why.
This morning I was able to use the household account to start the playlist with the "English" title: "AllTimeBest" with the command: Alexa play Spotify playlist AllTimeBest. (Maybe the first time I was able to start this playslist with the houshold account)
But I am not able to play start the playlist "FrankDrama" with the command. "Alexa play Spotify playlist FrankDrama". So if am able to start an English named playlist 'AllTimeBest". Why should I change the name of an already quite German name to more German?
best regards
Frank