Artist greyed out?

[craigpulliam]

This only seems to occur with one artist -- Drake, but any song that he is the only artist on will not play. This occurs in the web player and on the iOS app. The artist is not blocked. I am not behind a VPN. A playlist that was a combination of two of the artists albums was also emptied out somehow.

[Lyubka]

Hey @craigpulliam,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community about this. 

First off, we'd recommend that you check if you've blocked this artist in the past. Go to the artist's name and click on the three dot menu. If you've blocked it - you'll see the option "Allow to play this artist", tap on it and test again if you can play the songs. Please make sure to use mobile device while doing this. 

Another option is that the song you're trying to play is marked as Explicit and you have that type of content filtered off. You can read more about that here.

Lastly, it's possible that this artist's song were marked as "Don't play this'' at some point - and if that's the case you can follow the steps here to unmark it.

If none of the above is the case, could you please share a screenshot of the artist page on the mobile app with us? 

Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes 🙂 

[craigpulliam]

Don't think its any of these. I will post the screenshots when I can.

[craigpulliam]

 

 

[craigpulliam]

 Also noticed the block button doesn’t actually do anything on Drake’s page. Even when I click it and it says ok we won’t play this artist anymore nothing actually happens. Unlike when I block Taylor Swift it’s reflected on the artists page. Can someone help with this? I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled the app but I’m sure the app doesn’t make a difference as all platforms have this weird behavior. 

[Joan]

Hi @craigpulliam,

Thanks for the info. Could you please provide us the following:

• When did this start happening?
• Does it happen if you log in with a different account on the same devices?
• Does it happen across different networks?

With this information, we’d be happy to investigate.

Keep us posted.

[craigpulliam]

• When did this start happening? Hard to say exactly but at least a month. 
• Does it happen if you log in with a different account on the same devices? No. 
• Does it happen across different networks? Yes. 

[Maria]

Thanks for the additional info @craigpulliam!

Just to check, does clearing stored cache make any difference? Once it's done, try signing out from the app and then back in again. As odd as this may sound, this should resync your account info.

Also, if possible, could you log into your account on a different mobile device to see if you experience the same thing there? Does the option Don't play this artist still appear on the artist profile?

Let us know how you get on.

[craigpulliam]

Clearing the cache doesn’t have an effect. The behavior is the same on multiple devices and the web player. 
No matter how many times I press “Don’t play this artist” the status does not change. This only happens for a single artist from what I can tell. Every other artist I click the button on behaves as expected. 

[Susan_GP]

Hi @craigpulliam,

Thanks for your reply and for trying out our recommendations. 

You can try going to the Artist's page and unfollowing them. Then log out, restart the app, and hit Follow again from their profile. Check if that makes a difference.

If it doesn't, ask a relative or friend to log in with their account on one of your devices. Let us know if they can play the artist.

Keep us posted!

[craigpulliam]

You can try going to the Artist's page and unfollowing them. Then log out, restart the app, and hit Follow again from their profile. Check if that makes a difference. -- No change. 

If it doesn't, ask a relative or friend to log in with their account on one of your devices. Let us know if they can play the artist.  -- Other accounts on my devices are unaffected. 

[Eni]

Hey @craigpulliam, 

Thanks for your reply. 

You mentioned that you already tried on different devices, but would you mind trying again from a different phone and a computer ideally changing the OS between one and the other?

It would also be helpful if you can try playing some of that content from a smart speaker like Google Home or Alexa.

Let us know how it goes.

[craigpulliam]

Its the same behavior regardless of operating system or web player or whether or not I'm playing from a smart speaker.

[craigpulliam]

Seems very similar to this issue but with one artist. 

Downtime April 19th: Content is unplayable. Artist... - The Spotify Community

At what point can I get support from someone who's empowered to actually look at my account? Is there an exhaustive list of troubleshooting steps I can get out of the way? Having an issue like this open for weeks doesn't seem like an acceptable level of support. 

[Eni]

Hi there @craigpulliam, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

Since this issue seems to be account-related, we suggest that you try creating a new account to see if it works well with that artist. 

If so, you can reach out to our Support team through any of these channels so they can take a look at your accounts and help you transferring your content, if needed. We also recommend sharing this thread's link with them so they can be aware of what we have already tried. 

Hope this helps. If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.