Won’t let me play songs I want

[Willowww]

Plan

Free

Country

Device

iPhone 11

Operating System

My Question or Issue
I am new to the app, and in the first week or so of using it, it would let me play any song I wanted from my liked songs playlist, however now it only lets me play on shuffle. Also, if I searched a song, it would let me play the song and then play songs similar. Now it only plays songs similar.

[Ivan]

Hey there @Willowww, 

Help’s here!
 

Keep in mind that the default playback mode when using a free Spotify account is the random shuffle play. 

If you upgrade your account to Premium you can listen to what you want, when you want. Select any track from a playlist or album, or play the opening track and Spotify will automatically play the remaining tracks in the order they’re listed. You can also turn the shuffle play on and off. 

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any more questions.  

[Willowww]

Thank you for your help. This did cross my mind. However then why would I let me at first? I didn’t use a free trial or anything.

[Elena]

Hey @Willowww,

Thank you for your reply.

In most markets when you first you create your account you automatically get the our 7 days on-demand trial. This allows you to test out some of the Premium features, but you still get ads. It sound like that's caused some confusion here.

Note: As a free user you're able to pick a song of your choice on the desktop app and our web player, but not on the mobile app.

Keep us posted. We're always one reply away if you need us 🙂

Cheers!

[Enmmanuelsm]

Hello

 Hi, as you can see, I have my premium account and I can't listen to some songs by different artists.  What I can do? Thanks

[Eni]

Hi there @Enmmanuelsm, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community.

When a song is greyed out, it means it isn't available at the moment.

We want all the world’s music and podcasts on Spotify, but availability can vary over time and between countries, depending on the permissions from rights holders and licensing agreements.

We add new content to Spotify every day, so if you can’t find something you’re looking for right now, it may appear (or reappear) soon.

Hope this clears things up. If you have any questions or need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.

Cheers!

[Easytiger333]

I'm on the free version and I am trying to shuffle play through a playlist I have created but it's telling me I have selected a premium option and wont let me play anything. Please help.

[CarlosE]

Hey @Easytiger333,

Thanks for your reply in this thread.

Keep in mind that in order to prevent abuse, playlists need to have a minimum amount of tracks and a diversity of artists. Otherwise a small playlist can be created to circumvent the shuffle restrictions on free.

If your playlist is relative small or doesn't have many artists in it, try adding more and eventually the shuffle play should become available.

Cheers!

[Hizo]

Why? It works on iPad just fine

[Dian]

Hey @Hizo,

Thanks for the reply.

The mobile app behaves differently on a tablet and on a phone. Some of the restrictions a free account has aren't there on a tablet.

Hope this clears things a bit,

Cheers!

[92evsgfoyxw78qlfzoyv]

I have premium but it does not let me play the songs that I want on my playlist but whenever I try to re add it, it already says that it’s added to the playlist 

[Joan]

Hi there @92evsgfoyxw78qlfzoyv,

Thanks for reaching out. What's the exact behaviour? Are the songs greyed out and unplayable or do you get some kind of error? Is it only for specific songs? If you could send us some screenshots or a video of the behaviour, that would be awesome.

Keep us posted.