Cannot See Apple Music's Favourite Songs

I’m not sure where you mean in the Apple/Sonos Apps - are you referring to the Favourite Mix section as per screenshots attached, or is this your own user-created playlist?

It’s the songs that you can now star as a favourite in Apple Music, they just don’t show up in the SONOS app. 
 

if I click on favourite songs the last automatically picked up playlist from Apple Music it’s blank
 

Maybe it’s a work in progress - I actually do not see that playlist in my Sonos or Apple Music App on my iPad, here in the UK, but did (just) read online it was introduced as a new feature by Apple in iOS 17.1 - So my thoughts are Apple are perhaps still to add (or perhaps are in the process of adding) the feature to their Sonos music service, but that’s just a guess on my part. 

Apple have yet to add the “Favorite”-ing feature to their Sonos integration as well.

As the new Favorites item has an icon that’s a good sign, but putting it at the end, and having it empty, looks like a work-in-progress to me.

I’m having the same issue. I always use the Sonos app to listen to Apple Music playlists when I’m home. I spoke with a senior Apple advisor about the issue and she mentioned this community thread. I really prefer the Sonos app because to my ears at least the sound quality is better than what I hear if I use AirPlay. Plus, not all of my Sonos speakers are AirPlay 2 compatible. I love the new Apple “Favorite Songs” playlist because I’d rather curate my own playlists and Apple’s new “Favorite Songs” playlist option makes it lots more convenient to do that. Hopefully Sonos will remedy the issue soon with an app update,

It’s actually Apple that needs to update what they are presenting in the Sonos controller. Sonos doesn’t have that ability to change Apple’s service/servers.

When I first encountered the problem, my inclination was to agree with what you’re saying, but when I called Sonos (my first call), they claimed that the problem was an Apple issue. I then contacted Apple support. As I mentioned in my earlier reply, the Apple escalation engineer said it was a SONOS issue requiring an app update. So now we’re in a “finger-pointing” exercise where Apple is saying something has to change on the Sonos side And Sonos is saying something has to change on the Apple side. It would be wonderful if the two companies could (1) communicate with each other, arrive at a root cause, then (2) play nice, cooperate, and subsequently actually FIX the problem. 

Apple support lied.  It's an Apple thing.

Apple lied? Please provide a detailed rationale for your claim. Feel free to be technical; I’m an IT guy (network engineering and development).

Start here:

https://docs.sonos.com/docs/content-service-get-started

Read the Sonos partners page, and the links on it. It’s pretty clear that Sonos provides the API, but it’s the streaming source that implements it. 

Thanks, Bruce. I’ll definitely give everything a read.

Rick

Also, @controlav, who posted above, is the resident SME on the Sonos Music API, having worked with it for years.  Trust them when they say who's responsible for what vis Sonos development.

After reading the pertinent sections in the link you provided (Thanks again! Wonderful, detailed info.) I asked the Google Bard AI chatbot the following question: “How do apple music content programmers make specific apple music service playlists available to sonos?” Here’s Bard’s (very detailed) reply:

“Apple Music content programmers don't directly make specific playlists available to Sonos. Playlists in the Sonos app are primarily driven by Sonos's own indexing mechanism and integration with Apple Music's API. Here's how it works:

Sonos Indexing:

1. Initial Setup: When you link your Apple Music account with Sonos, the Sonos app scans your Apple Music library, including playlists, and builds a local index of it. This allows Sonos to access and manage your Apple Music content within the Sonos app.
2. Automatic Updates: Sonos periodically updates your local index to reflect any changes made to your Apple Music library, including adding new playlists.
3. Playlist Visibility: Based on the indexing, Sonos displays curated Apple Music playlists in various sections of the app, such as "Recommendations," "Genres & Moods," or "For You." These playlists are chosen algorithmically by Sonos based on factors like your listening history and trends in Apple Music.

Apple Music API:

1. Limited Access: Sonos developers have access to Apple Music's API, which allows them to retrieve additional information about music and playlists, like song metadata and artwork. However, the API doesn't offer direct control over making specific playlists available in the Sonos app.
2. Indirect Influence: Apple Music programmers might indirectly influence which playlists appear in the Sonos app by curating them within Apple Music itself. Certain Apple Music-created playlists might be prioritized in the indexing process due to their popularity or alignment with Sonos's algorithms.

Important Things to Remember:

• Sonos controls playlist visibility: Ultimately, Sonos decides which Apple Music playlists are displayed in the Sonos app based on their internal algorithms and indexing process.
• No direct control: Apple Music programmers can't directly push specific playlists to Sonos.
• Indirect influence: They can influence playlist appearance through how they curate playlists within Apple Music itself.

If you're looking for a specific Apple Music playlist on Sonos, the best option is to search for it manually within the Sonos app. While Apple Music programmers may not directly control which playlists appear, their work on curating playlists within Apple Music still plays a role in shaping the overall listening experience you get on Sonos.

Soooo… Is the problem an issue with Sonos’s update of my local Apple Music index? The “Favorite Songs” playlist should appear to the Sonos app’s indexer to be like any of my other Apple Music playlists, but it’s obviously not behaving that way for some reason.

I guess I have to agree with @controlav (“Apple have yet to add the “Favorite”-ing feature to their Sonos integration as well. As the new Favorites item has an icon that’s a good sign, but putting it at the end, and having it empty, looks like a work-in-progress to me.” )

But the “Favorite-ing” feature in Apple Music exists to create just another Apple Music playlist. The crux of the matter: why can’t the Sonos app integrate/update the Favorites Song playlist like any other Apple Music playlist, either Apple curated or Apple Music subscriber created?

It’s probably due to it being in the same vein as one of their smart playlists as mentioned in this link…

It would not surprise me if this gets removed from the Sonos Apple Music Service, but it’s probably up-to Apple - At the moment it’s not clear if it’s there because it’s a work in progress or they should never have put it through to the Sonos API in the first place… we’re waiting to see what happens, but clearly it’s a special type of playlist and not like a usual user-created playlist.

Did you actually read the links above?  Because if you did, you would clearly see that SONOS DOESN'T USE THE APPLE MUSIC API!  As stated, Apple uses the Sonos Music API, and as such, they are responsible for the look and feel of anything displayed in the Sonos app, including any favorites.

In other words, that AI bot has no clue what it is talking about.  There is no, none, zip, nada direct link from Sonos development to the Apple Music API.  Everything is done by the music service themselves via the Sonos SMAPI.

Yeah, I read the links, but I obviously overlooked the AI’s referencing the Apple Music API rather than the Sonos Music API. Sorry to add confusion. So what about Sonos’s “addToContainer” function in the Sonos API? (“ Sonos uses addToContainer to add content to a playlist. See Add playlists for details.”)

I read through the “Add playlists” section and I didn’t see anything that immediately stuck out as the possible culprit.

Rick

Yeah that AI bot was half wrong, specifically the section “Important Things To Remember” is 100% false. Its as if it was written by someone in Apple support designed to justify why its not their problem.

Take a look at https://docs.sonos.com/docs/configure-ratings which describes how the rating system works in SMAPI. If you look at Apple’s SMAPI xml manifest it contains none of the sections required for rating support.

A music service provider can make the ratings buttons look as they like (via bitmaps) and act as they like (by configuring them in the manifest) and then implementing whatever they want in their setRatings function. Apple today do none of this.

I suppose that the “Favorite Songs” playlist would qualify as an “editable playlist” per the doc, and if so, perhaps the “Allow playlist editing & renaming“ section might offer insight on the problem? Again, I’m sorry to have blown up this thread. I’ll shut up now and wait for a fix.

Rick

You may be waiting a long time, if ever for this to work.  I have a number of Smart Playlists that I created in Apple Music / iTunes that for the past 5 years I’ve never been able to pull up in the Sonos App.  I see them, but when I open them I don’t see any songs.