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Can’t select content or songs on Amazon music

  • 7 November 2022
  • 31 replies
  • 4567 views

As the title says, I search for an artist, I get a list and click on one but it plays something else entirely!

What’s going on?

I have a paid up subscription yes.

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Best answer by Mr. T 7 November 2022, 00:37

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31 replies

Userlevel 2

Just been in touch with Amazon customer service. Not good news I'm afraid.…

Extract from chat below…

Just recently I'm having an issue searching for music tracks on Amazon music when using the Sonos s2 app…. From the Sonos s2 app I used to be able to search for an artist, select ‘top songs’ for that artist and then see a list of tracks that were available for that artist (albeit a restricted list due to the fact I'm not an unlimited member, just prime...). what I'd like to know is, is this a temporary bug or is this a ploy by Amazon to force me down the unlimited subscription route? The main reason I pay for the Amazon prime subscription is for the limited music search feature, if this is no longer available then I may as well stop subscribing to prime, which in turn will probably save me a fortune as a won't be buying as much cr@p that I don't actually need off Amazon…

Amazon Customer Services:

There is actually an update with Prime music and this is part of the update.

We’re bringing a full catalog to customers and delivering playback through shuffle playback, which intermixes the requested content with other similar content.

This is the new listening experience for Prime members, and is now available to them globally where Amazon Music is available.

| Customer Service

10:29

so just to clarify; it's a perminant change to the way Amazon links to Sonos which will not be reverted?

10:32

 | Customer Service

That is correct. This is permanent and we don't have information on when it will be changed 

A

10:34

The main reason I subscribe to prime is because of the limited link to Amazon music from Sonos. If this is not available I may as well cancel my prime subscription... Just to make you aware there are many other prime users saying the same thing on the Sonos community forum. So this Amazon money grab may backfire.....

10:35

| Customer Service

I agree with you

A

10:38

O.k thank you Alyana, I will update the Sonos user group.

10:40

Alyana | Customer Service

I will forward your feedback to our higher department to get this considered. Thank you for your bringing this to our attention.

A

 

Userlevel 2

Yes that's exactly what I'm seeing. I've cancelled my Amazon prime subscription as the best thing about it was the link to Sonos music; without it it's not worth the money. If enough people do the same you never know they might reintroduce the feature… here's hoping!:-)

Sonos has made zero changes on their side of the equation. Therefore, it lies with Amazon to ‘fix’ this in whatever way they see fit. Unfortunately, Sonos doesn’t own Amazon, nor do they have an ability to dictate they way Amazon has implemented the Sonos API on the Amazon servers. 

I’m still having this problem as well. In Sonos app when I select an artist in Amazon music the first tile is Top Tracks but now when I tap that it just starts playing a song. It used to bring up a list to choose from. 

I thought I was doing it wrong: I just got a little Sonos system set up this week and wanted to play my Amazon “Purchased” music though my Sonos system.  I couldn’t find a way to play albums in order (you know, the ones like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or operas where the tracks connect right to one another, that sort of thing) or without other things getting mixed in.  So I went on to this board and found this appears to be being done on purpose by Amazon.  (I am a Prime member but not a Music member.)

Even when I go to the Amazon Music app on my iPhone, I now see a message that says Amazon is playing the album but shuffling in related content.  So I’m thinking one of two things: either (1) people are paying Amazon to get their content exposed to more people through this shuffling thing or (2) Amazon is deliberately doing something people don’t like in an effort to get them to be a Music member.

So it looks like either:

(1) “I know you ordered peas with your steak but we are going to mix in some carrots with your peas because the carrot growers would like you to know that carrots are awesome too.  If you would like just peas, that’ll be an extra dollar.  Oh, and your dessert will come between your salad and entrée unless you’d like to pay an extra dollar to have it come last.”
or

(2) “I know you ordered peas with your steak but we are going to mix in some carrots with your peas.  If you would like just peas, that’ll be an extra dollar.  Oh, and your dessert will come between your salad and entrée unless you’d like to pay an extra dollar to have it come last.”

I know that Amazon is not a charity but this just feels wrong.  I guess I would prefer them to say “We can no longer afford to do X at the current rates, so we are going to change the price.”  What appears to be shenanigans to trick me to change my behaviour makes me less likely to change than simple honesty.

$0.02
 

Userlevel 2
Badge +2

Are we sure this isn't a bug?

 

I understand Amazon have made some changes to the way music is ordered if it's on Amazon Prime. But this has impacted the music I actually OWN through amazon. The albums I have bought are listed in 'My Music' in the Sonos app but I can no longer access track listings or play them in the correct running order.

That doesn't make any sense. I get that the changes effect music you don't own but are streaming through Amazon Music but preventing you from streaming the albums you actually bought is weird. Surely this is a bug?

That’s an entirely different situation. I’ve got no issues with Sonos indexing local files on my NAS, have you perhaps contacted Sonos after submitting a diagnostic, so that they can help figure out why you’re having this issue? I’d be curious as to what’s different about your situation versus mine. I run an update every night at 2AM (automagically set in the controller) and so far, it’s not burped for years. 

Or, is your hard drive connected to your router not set up as an NAS? There are certainly some routers that have NAS like software built in, and others that just treat connected drives as an external hard drive, and not at all an NAS. 

Either way, I’d hope that Sonos support folks could help you figure out what’s going on. 

There certainly was no sarcasm, or snippiness implied in my previous reply, merely a statement of fact. I’m sorry it came across that way. 

Userlevel 2

I'm having the same issue…. From the Sonos s2 app I used to be able to search for an artist, select ‘top songs’ for that artist and then see a list of tracks that were available for that artist (albeit a restricted list due to the fact I'm not an unlimited member, just prime...). 
 

what I'd like to know is, is this a temporary bug or is this a ploy by Amazon to force me down the unlimited subscription route?

 

The main reason I pay for the Amazon prime subscription is for the limited music search feature, if this is no longer available then I may as well stop subscribing to prime, which in turn will probably save me a fortune as a won't be buying as much cr@p that I don't actually need off Amazon…

 

Userlevel 2

Btw; I've tried removing the Amazon service from Sonos and re adding it, that didn't make any difference. Neither did reinstalling Amazon music app on my iPad and relieving the Sonos account so it definitely looks like something Amazon have introduced to mess things up to me....

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

what i find strange is when you use amazon music app. u can hold the play list and click on  View playlist you can see all the song and play what one you like in the amazon music app.

but in the sonos app u cant do this nor can you view the playlsit/album and it only play random tacks when u lick on it.

Userlevel 7

This is bizarre. Basically albums that you own on Amazon become some kind of strange “channel” consisting of some of your purchased content plus other stuff in random order.

If you happened to save tracks in a Sonos playlist, the playlist still appears to work, but there is no way to add new tracks after this change (as far as I can tell).

It isn’t clear that paying Amazon for some extra subscription is even going to fix this problem.


With an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription you can play any album as you wish. You can also edit (add/remove etc) Sonos Playlists

@rafeman,  

Shouldn’t you be posting this over on Amazon?  Posting it here is like writing to Samsung’s TV division when you don’t like the latest Netflix release.  

@jgatie 

You are absolutely correct and I will do so.  Sorry about that.

Yes that's exactly what I'm seeing. I've cancelled my Amazon prime subscription as the best thing about it was the link to Sonos music; without it it's not worth the money. If enough people do the same you never know they might reintroduce the feature… here's hoping!:-)

Hoping… They should warn people before implementing something like this. I’ve been struggling with this for weeks, thought I’d done something wrong. Thanks for this thread. For the time being have switched to Deezer which seems to work the way Amazon did before.

Userlevel 7

There has been recent changes to Amazon Music Prime.

https://www.amazonforum.com/s/feed/0D56Q0000AIXzAoSQL

Prime members can shuffle play any artist, album, or playlist from our expanded music catalog and discover new music based on your likes.

Are we sure this isn't a bug?

 

I understand Amazon have made some changes to the way music is ordered if it's on Amazon Prime. But this has impacted the music I actually OWN through amazon. The albums I have bought are listed in 'My Music' in the Sonos app but I can no longer access track listings or play them in the correct running order.

 

Can you play your purchased tracks/albums in the new Amazon Music app in the correct order?

Anyway, I’d recommend setting up a Sonos music library. You’d need to download your purchased music to a computer or a NAS first.

 

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/257?language=en_US

This thread contains a number of different issues and a fair number of incorrect statements.  So here are some facts (and a question):

  1. Amazon Prime now offers more than it used to for free.  If you want complete freedom to play from 70 million tracks you need a paid subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited.  The suggestion made on this thread that this is Amazon trying to ‘force’ people to subscribe is ridiculous, unless you think Amazon is a charity dedicated to bringing music freedom to the masses
  2. It is true that hard drives linked to routers by USB no longer work for Sonos Music Library.   This was a bug introduced by Sonos a few months back.  As is always the case with Sonos, no definite date for a resolution has been given.  NAS drives connected by Ethernet are unaffected.
  3. I am not quite sure what the situation is with the purchased music on Amazon, for those who do not have an Unlimited subscription.  Clearly, they ought to be free to do what they want with what they own, but it seems to have got caught up in the Amazon change.  Posts on this thread seem to suggest this freedom exists on the Amazon app but not through Sonos.  Can anyone confirm that that is definitely the case please?  If so, then it looks like a ‘bug’ now exists in the Amazon integration into Sonos.  If that is the situation, then the current workaround would be to play purchased music on Sonos using the Amazon Music app.
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

This thread contains a number of different issues and a fair number of incorrect statements.  So here are some facts (and a question):

  1. Amazon Prime now offers more than it used to for free.  If you want complete freedom to play from 70 million tracks you need a paid subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited.  The suggestion made on this thread that this is Amazon trying to ‘force’ people to subscribe is ridiculous, unless you think Amazon is a charity dedicated to bringing music freedom to the masses

If you’re referring to my comment earlier on: ‘This change is only designed to give Prime members an annoying reason to actually pay 7.99 for Amazon Music.’ - then that’s my opinion. I think this change has been designed to increase the likelihood of someone upgrading to pay for £7.99 a month. You may have a different opinion of the rationale behind the change but that’s still no more valid an opinion than mine.

  1. It is true that hard drives linked to routers by USB no longer work for Sonos Music Library.   This was a bug introduced by Sonos a few months back.  As is always the case with Sonos, no definite date for a resolution has been given.  NAS drives connected by Ethernet are unaffected.

Yes I know that it’s true. I can point you to the thread I contributed to about it a couple of weeks ago.

  1. I am not quite sure what the situation is with the purchased music on Amazon, for those who do not have an Unlimited subscription.  Clearly, they ought to be free to do what they want with what they own, but it seems to have got caught up in the Amazon change.  Posts on this thread seem to suggest this freedom exists on the Amazon app but not through Sonos.  Can anyone confirm that that is definitely the case please?  If so, then it looks like a ‘bug’ now exists in the Amazon integration into Sonos.  If that is the situation, then the current workaround would be to play purchased music on Sonos using the Amazon Music app.

Earlier on I stated: 

‘Yes I just started the android Amazon Music app and played music that I bought using Amazon's service and I played them in the correct order.’ 



 

 

@nashie . I am not sure why the aggressive attitude?  This thread is a mess because of off-topic posts and incorrect statements.  I was trying to summarise and clarify the situation, and not particularly accuse anybody of anything.  

 the way the apps are all sluggish and slow to display an update to the current track being played etc I am starting to build a picture in my head that Sonos isn't the company it was.

I don’t experience this at all and I assume this is local network latency.  The apps are just remote controls and are incapable of being sluggish in themselves.

(I missed this in my previous post)

Amazon changed their service in the last month or so. The issue has nothing whatsoever to do with Sonos, they continue to play what they are handed by Amazon. 

Userlevel 2

*re linking the Sonos account I meant to say..

This is bizarre. Basically albums that you own on Amazon become some kind of strange “channel” consisting of some of your purchased content plus other stuff in random order.

 

If you happened to save tracks in a Sonos playlist, the playlist still appears to work, but there is no way to add new tracks after this change (as far as I can tell).

 

It isn’t clear that paying Amazon for some extra subscription is even going to fix this problem.

I knew it, Amazon wants to dictate what you hear. Bah humbug. Then again, you get what you pay for. And these days, it’s not much. 🤨

 

For what it’s worth, I’m accessing on Sonos

Userlevel 2
Badge +2

I knew it, Amazon wants to dictate what you hear. Bah humbug. Then again, you get what you pay for. And these days, it’s not much. 🤨

 

For what it’s worth, I’m accessing on Sonos

 

 

If you have a paid subscription to Amazon Music this shouldn't happen. This change is only designed to give Prime members an annoying reason to actually pay 7.99 for Amazon Music.

This is either a problem with Amazon or Sonos have to implement the changes correctly.