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Sonos stops playing Spotify commercials


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I’ve had my system set up for over a year now. This past weekend, when a Spotify commercial comes on, the system goes silent. Both Spotify and Sonos look like the ad is playing but there is no sound and it doesn’t actually play down and start playing again (the ad or music). I have to pause Sonos then hit play again. Any idea what is causing this? It's annoying to have to stop and start whenever a commercial comes on. 

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Best answer by Kevin107 13 October 2023, 12:11

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Still a problem. You would think the past several months would have revealed a solution.

Can you answer a question for me? Is Spotify sending a designation to your Sonos speakers that the stream has changed from music to ads? To my knowledge, Sonos just sends the auth token and your requested music to the Spotify server, from that point forward, it is just playing whatever is sent to it. By Spotify.  I don’t comprehend how Sonos could be aware of an ‘ad’, unless Spotify was telling them, and why would they do that?

Just curious, want to increase my knowledge. 

I have had this same issue now for 4months.  does not matter if you are playing music from spotify through the Sonos App or connect to the SONOS device through the SPOTIFY app.   

 

It just stops  when the commercials come on..   you to hit pause and then hit play ..   so annoying.

Hi, It’s seems there is still no resolution to this topic/thread despite repeated reports of problems. Is this issue still being worked by Sonos?

I am having the same issue. I am using iPhone 12, SONOS connected to Spotify App, iOS 16.7. It almost ALWAYS stops at an advertisement. I have to pause then unpause then the add plays and then music starts again. I was thinking about subscription to Spotify but not if this is what I have to deal with all the time.  If not fixed soon, I may go back to SXM.

Without adds there are no such failures. I have a subscription and have not been experiencing this glitch.

Same problem for me. 

I also own a Bose soundbar and I have no issues when I play Spotify (free account with ads) on that.

Therefore the problem must be on Sonos side. 

How does Sonos know that there is a commercial being played in a data stream? Is there some sort of notification being sent that Sonos is mishandling?

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Still can’t play Spotify on Sonos. Commercial causes Spotify to stop playing on Sonos and freezes on advert with no sound.
Not good. Problem been present for too long.

 

Also sonos alarms no longer work with free Spotify.

Basically the sonos is becoming useless. Used to be able to use it for everything. 

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When is this going to be fixed Sonos and Spotify!?

 

 

@Jsjsjsjajakak88 I have the same problem. What can we do….. It takes so long and doesn't get resolved.

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@Sonos Any news? My sinks is now switched off until it’s fixed. I still cannot play Spotify (due to commercials freezing) or Spotify alarms on Sonos. Ongoing issue for months and months

Acknowledged by Sonos on another thread

 

Sotiris C.Sonos Staff:

We’ve identified this issue and currently working on a fix. Unfortunately I don’t have an ETA for this.

As you mentioned, pause and play is the available workaround.

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So finally we are not all going mad and recognised by Sonos. We haven’t been using the speaker much as it’s a pita for my partner with her Spotify account not working with ads etc. Real shame as we liked it to begin with. Hopefully the devs can get their respective acts together although it won’t be easy with everyone just doing their own thing. The internet of things is a pipe dream. 
 

Ona plus note Sonos still works with our IMac running old not supported software according to Apple. Kudos to Sonos for not bricking the speakers. 

It's beyond ridiculous it's still a issue after months now, we pay big bucks and this is the s*** we get in return, get your act together #Sonos... Damnnn 👎🏼

same issue here, still happening!

@EPiC-APOC and no answer from Sonos.

😡

How does Sonos ‘know’ that Spotify is playing an advertisement, rather than the normal stream of data? Is Spotify sending some additional piece of data in the stream to identify ads? 

You can remove the commercial by getting the Spotify music locally. Just need some third-party tools like AudBite Spotify Music Converter to reach it.

I find this problem very odd. I listened to Spotify Free regularly for over a year, didn’t get any adverts. Then the Pausing Problem started when adverts appeared about 4 months ago. It didn’t go away and I’ve now found many threads on the problem going back to around May 2022.

  1. Some users have been having this problem for a lot longer then me. Why?
  2. Sometimes the adverts play “normally” but usually only once. So the problem isn’t consistent.
  3. Why are adverts treated differently to tracks? How does Sonos know the difference? And why pause?
  4. I can play Spotify through my TV then through the surround sound and then extend to all speakers in my home. Adverts play fine. So I conclude it is a Sonos software issue not a physical (or firmware issue).

I’ve made lots of notes on conditions of the problem and various ways I’ve played my Spotify playlists. I’m an ex technical support person so I can’t help myself! I might right it up for Sonos.

It would be useful if they gave an update on what they know and how they are resolving.

GC

If you could explain how Sonos ‘knows’ there is an ad, that would be amazing to me. As far as I’m aware, when you send the command to Sonos, it is ‘go to this server location, and play whatever stream there is’. I’m not sure why Sonos would know, or care, that it is an advertisement playing, it is all data to the Sonos speaker. 
 

But perhaps your ‘right up’ (sic) could be forwarded to Spotify, and they could compare your written explanation to what is happening on their server. Certainly it might be helpful to submit diagnostics, too. Sonos could probably strip out any PIDs and submit that with your write up. 

Sonos it takes too long to resolve.….it seems like it will never be solved.

Here the same problem.😖

I am facing the same problem. 

This is a Spotify issue. SONOS provides an API that music services use to interact with a SONOS system. This is why SONOS can support many dozens of services. It would be impractical for SONOS to write custom code for each service. A service simply demonstrates to SONOS that the service works correctly with the API, then SONOS will enable access to the service.

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