Apple Music playback interrupted saying 'Unable to play - the song is not encoded correctly'

This is a Sonos problem in my view. I play Apple Music in several places, including the car, Bluetooth speakers and HomePods - not a single one of those has ever given me any issues.

This only happens on a (newer) Sonos product, so whether it’s Apple related or not, it is up to Sonos to get this sorted ASAP as it is a feature they’ve advertised heavily and it doesn’t work properly. It worked fine for quite a while, this is a recent issue that’s started for me so an update must have caused it. It’s not good enough for such an expensive product that claims to support Airplay 2, Apple devices and Spatial Audio, but clearly in its current state it doesn’t. 

Just reported this to Sonos. They have agreed that it is a problem.

It looks like Apple new releases since early September 2023 may have this issue. But only if you play from the Sonos App. Airplay and playing through older devices such as the Play1 will work.

If you group an older Sonos device such as the Play1 together with the failing Sonos playback device it will work.

Just to be clear the error is ‘it is encoded using an unsupported digital rights management system’

Yeah same error here. I can airplay straight from Apple Music to the Beam, that works fine. Using the Sonos app to benefit from Dolby Atmos is where the problem appears. I’ll report it also. Thanks.

Same here, but not all tracks. For example whole album Forty licks from Rolling Stones skips every song with that DRM message, but lot of other songs/albums works. 
This is a problem Sonos, its really time to fix it.

For anyone with this issue, I just had an update on the Sonos App (iOS) and the songs that were not playing, are now playing correctly. Give it a try!

I just had an update to both iOS & Android apps, but certain Apple tracks are still not playing (e.g Tension by Kylie Minogue) with the same "unsupported digital rights system" message being displayed.  Older products, e.g. my Play 1 are not affected.

Hmm, interesting. I played several songs I was having trouble with, all Dolby Atmos and all were fine but I tried the song you mentioned and it doesn’t work lol 😂 

no idea what’s going on.

I’m on iOS 17

Obviously not a fan of Kylie!  I've contacted Sonos support via chat & submitted a diagnostic report.  As others have stated Sonos are aware of the issue, but seem to be implying it's an Apple Music issue.  As I have no problem with Spotify & YouTube Music I would tend to disagree.

Sorry but this does not work.  Along with the ARC, Bass, and Move, I have 4 Play ones as well as a Playbar. all the Music is encoded as either mp3 or mp4. It will not play on any of the speakers.  It would be great for Sonos to fix this as I have over 10,000 songs in my itunes library.

Many thanks

Pete

I dont have uploaded music, only direct stream. For example new Rolling Stones song Angry, plays for couple of seconds than stops with that DRM encoding message.

Song is great thou so I suffer!

I don’t have any of my own tracks either, all direct streams and from my testing, it is really random when it does or doesn’t work. I was able to play several songs fine, but when I searched for one someone mentioned above it didn’t work, so the work around from Sonos isn’t great for me. 

I have a mixture of songs uploaded & streamed directly.  The tracks marked "uploaded" in iTunes always play so the reply from Sonos is not the case in my experience.  It is those marked "matched" or streamed directly from Apple Music that can cause the error. 

Grouping in an old Play 1 isn't ideal as Dolby Atmos is then not available.

The issue appears to suddenly fixed itself for me.  What I did do which I don't know affected anything was sign out & in again of the Apple Music app on the device I was using the Sonos app on. 

I tried a selection of tracks from 40 Licks by Rolling Stones that @Sonosfan41 was having problems with & also the 2 tracks I was having issues with.  I'm using Android Sonos app v15.7.1 Android v13 & Apple Music app v 4.2.0. Hopefully this isn't just a fluke & the issue's been fixed for everyone!

Thnx for info, tried it as you said, but the problem is present as before. Using it on iPhone with latest iOS.

Until this is fixed I’m not going to buy anymore Sonos products, and will now just use Airplay as this fixes two glaring issues; the skipping of tracks, plus giving control back to your phone to adjust volume etc.

I’d been looking into this again today and there just doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason for the skipping. I’ve just had it happen on an album with 3 consecutive tracks yet it managed to play the 4th track. I’ve looked at the info for all of the affected tracks in the Music app on my Mac and all of them (including the one that does play) are identical;

Kind - AAC Audio File 

Cloud Status - Uploaded 

Location - Cloud 

Date Added - 2009 

Date Modified - 2017

So if they’re all the same, why the skipping???

In my case I’m very doubtful this is a ‘network issue’ as I spent a month using Tidal instead because of this problem and never had a single issue, but I really don't want to have to maintain (and pay for) 2 separate music services just so I can use my home speakers.

As I say, I’ll use Airplay for now and either see if this gets fixed or will swap to an alternative speaker company. A shame as using the speakers for movies is fantastic (as was music until the updates earlier this year), but if they can’t fix something after around 6 months I’m doubtful that they ever will to be honest. I’m just glad that Airplay is an available option to fall back on. 

Agree with this.

I’m feeling the same, if this isn’t fixed soon, I’ll look at replacing the Beam. One of the deciding factors in buying it was the Dolby Atmos support with Apple Music, it’s barely worked since they added it and only random tracks play that have it whilst the others just fail and error. 
 

Not good enough. 

Yep, I have around 14 Sonos speakers. Movie set up including the Arc, Sub and two ERA300’s for surround; I’ve spent a small fortune over the years, but at the end of the day, if it doesn't work, it doesn’t work. I guess at least I have plenty of items to sell to fund whatever I replace it with...

I will not go so far as to replace Sonos. This is an issue, but in the end its couple of songs, and there is a workaround through airplay.

Replacing so many speakers and going to another ecosystem that almost certainly isnt better just because of couple of songs on one service…

It will eventually be fixed, until than we can put pressure on Sonos.

I am very happy with Sonos and occasional glitches wont turn me away but I will complain about them.

I get what you’re saying but this isn’t a 2 day old issue, it’s been happening for several weeks and has happened to me in the past. Sonos have tried blaming Apple and are giving out advice to work around that doesn’t actually work. AirPlay does work but you lose a key feature in Dolby. I’m not going to keep a product just because it mostly works, I’ll give them some more time but they’ve already had quite a while. Apple have gone through 4-5 beta’s in that time and it’s not fixed. I am not as invested as some, I only use the Beam 2 for sound whilst watching TV so replacing it with a couple HomePods would be simple. 

I posted a few moths ago that a level 3 engineer responded to my email to the Sonos CEO. He said it’s an Apple issue and that Apple is aware of it.  Odd that since 15.2 it’s been a problem.  Sonos should come right out and say it and out pressure on Apple if it’s real an apple issue. 
 

I have not upgraded to iOS 17 yet (traveling abroad and returning to the United States tomorrow - I don’t want to risk an issue before I get home). Hoping that iOS 17 brings a fix.

I suspect Apple engineers have been busy with getting iOS 17 out the door and that this reported Sonos issue is ‘perhaps’ on their back burner. Not sure how Sonos could add any leverage to their earlier request to Apple to kindly fix the issue. However, assuming it is an Apple issue, as stated, it ideally needs Apple customers to perhaps complain to them direct instead, as they will more likely prioritise things, if their own customers keep raising the issue on their side.

I’m home from my trip, updated iOS and Sonos.  Sadly, no change in the issue. 

I can report that with iOS 17.0.1 on iPhone 14 it now works. At least songs from Rolling Stones that were problematic. But there is one strange thing, there is a lot harder to find in search. When I search by band name looks like somebody deleted problematic albums from search. When I search directly by album name I find it and it plays normally in Dolby ATMOS.

If anybody has some problematic song, post it here and I can try it out.

I see now that there was an update to Sonos app on 19.9.2023, maybe that is the reason.

I have iOS 17 and upgraded to the 15 Pro Max - no better.  It’s on the Apple Music side, not your phone., unless you downloaded the playlists to your phone - otherwise, Sonos streams it from Apple Music’s servers, so it’s how Apple encodes the music (and how the Sonos update 15.2 changed how Sonos dealt with the prior encoding).