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Spotify album artwork is distorted

  • 15 October 2022
  • 64 replies
  • 3167 views
A
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Diagnostic 1602233776

All of my Spotify artwork accessed from Sonos Playlists are distorted, or pixelated. When I browse and search for the same album that same album artwork looks fine, then that album artwork on my Sonos Playlists fixes itself. It’s almost like the Spotify Album artwork cached itself using much smaller images. Then when I access those albums manually it corrects itself. I have thousands of Spotify songs on Sonos Playlists so searching for every one is not reasonable. I have rebooted all my Sonos speakers, reauthorized my Spotify account and even removed the Spotify account then re-added it, but nothing has worked. Please help. Any ideas?

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Best answer by Corry P 25 October 2022, 12:23

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64 replies

Corry P
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi All,

We now consider this issue to have been resolved by Spotify.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
A
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

So all of my Spotify album artwork is now displaying perfect today. Not sure if they fixed it but it’s been working for me for a few hours. 

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

I’m not sure. Audio streams CAN contain artwork within the stream. Hence without the need for an additional server.

That is NOT how the Sonos apps get their artwork.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
N

Interesting, thank you. The 90-ies have called and want their SOAP back :-)

Smilja

 

I’m not sure. Audio streams CAN contain artwork within the stream. Hence without the need for an additional server.

 

Different APIs. Spotify and the other music services are making use of this API to integrate with Sonos.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)
N

I’m not sure. Audio streams CAN contain artwork within the stream. Hence without the need for an additional server.

Airgetlam

As I’ve said several times, the source server for Sonos, and hence the art,  is different than the source server for Spotify’s own app. 

Bruce
N

What is strange:

If I stream to Sonos from the Spotify app, the artwork is sharp.

Streamed from the Sonos app:

 

Streamed from the Spotify app:

 

M

Just reporting that I experience the same isse with Spotify on my SONOS.

Made a post on Sonos Community, please upvote Sonos Spotify users!

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-for-Developers/Spotify-coverart-is-low-quality-and-pixelated-on-Sonos/m-p/5448431#M6802

 

Also like my tweet:

https://twitter.com/CARUS_AR/status/1584084900969598976?t=zhWIfeGbwF88xo6SigOIHA&s=19

I

I’ve got the same issue. In addition, I’ve noticed last week during playing explicit songs the explicit words were muted during playback, now you cannot play explicit songs from, for example, Taylor Swifts newest album.

now I see today it’s been changed/recitified?
and you cannot change the parental control on this as SONOS only supports this action on Apple Music/YouTube Music and Amazon US music ??

SONOS said it was a Spotify issue 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️
 

 

Ken_Griffiths

Also it’s only an art display issue for one of the very many MSP’s that the Sonos system supports. That’s like one TV channel, out of dozens, having a VHS video quality display. 

This is a Spotify issue (clearly) and Sonos have asked them to fix it - IMV it’s a case of waiting patiently until Spotify direct their own resources to resolve the matter and that’s why any Spotify customers seeing this problem should be encouraged to report the matter to Spotify (and Sonos too, I guess) - Spotify will then (hopefully) begin to see their own customers would like the matter fixed. 

The more customer complaints about the album art, the more likely it will receive Spotifys attention sooner, rather than later. 

There is probably not much more Sonos can do about the matter, as the message has been passed and no one should want to shoot the messenger.

I’m not a Spotify customer, but if I was …and had already reported it to their Customer Support and maybe posted about it on their forum, I would just wait patiently. Undoubtedly it will get fixed, but the fact music can still be played on all Sonos devices, ‘might’ mean that the issue is unlikely going to be on anyones urgent priority-fix list.

The music still goes on after-all.

A
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Interesting viewpoint. When my cable goes out, I will start complaining to Vizio.

Since there is a mutual benefit, of course. 

Hahaha, sorry Airgetlam, I didn’t mean to sound sarcastic or confrontational. I agree with your point. I’m just saying that Sonos is better off when their music service providers are functioning, so hopefully they do actually reach out to them directly. 

Airgetlam

Interesting viewpoint. When my cable goes out, I will start complaining to Vizio.

Since there is a mutual benefit, of course. 

Bruce
A
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Hopefully, you’ve contacted Spotify and expressed your displeasure. Sonos is the TV set in this case, and has no control over the signal being sent to it. 

Yes Sonos is the TV set in this case, but the majority of Sonos success is dependent on the user experience of third party music providers. Nobody would buy TV sets if everything you watched on them was terrible. There’s a mutual financial benefit for both of them to deliver quality products. When one fails, the other is affected. 

Airgetlam

Hopefully, you’ve contacted Spotify and expressed your displeasure. Sonos is the TV set in this case, and has no control over the signal being sent to it. 

Bruce
A

Same issue here affecting my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, two iPads and my wife's iPhone, all playing Spotify tracks via the Sonos S1 app. All queued album artwork has appeared pixelated since reinstalling the Sonos app following home Internet connectivity issues and needing to reinstall all three home Sonos speakers. Hope Sonos and Spotify can resolve this and quickly - it's very annoying for a subscription service. 

Airgetlam

Makes sense, Sonos doesn’t control Spotify’s programmers, or know when they could apply a fix to the Spotify servers. Sonos can only report the issue. 

Bruce
W

Diagnostic 1602233776

All of my Spotify artwork accessed from Sonos Playlists are distorted, or pixelated. When I browse and search for the same album that same album artwork looks fine, then that album artwork on my Sonos Playlists fixes itself. It’s almost like the Spotify Album artwork cached itself using much smaller images. Then when I access those albums manually it corrects itself. I have thousands of Spotify songs on Sonos Playlists so searching for every one is not reasonable. I have rebooted all my Sonos speakers, reauthorized my Spotify account and even removed the Spotify account then re-added it, but nothing has worked. Please help. Any ideas?

Diagnostic 1602233776

All of my Spotify artwork accessed from Sonos Playlists are distorted, or pixelated. When I browse and search for the same album that same album artwork looks fine, then that album artwork on my Sonos Playlists fixes itself. It’s almost like the Spotify Album artwork cached itself using much smaller images. Then when I access those albums manually it corrects itself. I have thousands of Spotify songs on Sonos Playlists so searching for every one is not reasonable. I have rebooted all my Sonos speakers, reauthorized my Spotify account and even removed the Spotify account then re-added it, but nothing has worked. Please help. Any ideas?

I used their chat and an agent confirmed they’re aware and are working on a fix. No ETA.

Airgetlam

Probably because Spotify still uses a separate server to supply the information to Sonos. 

Bruce
C

I have just had this issue start today. I checked and on the Spotify app there is no issue with the album artwork. Only the Sonos app.

A
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

I just got a call from Sonos Support and they said they have received many reports of this issue so they are currently working directly with Spotify to resolve it. 

C

Just here to say “same here.”

Ken_Griffiths

Well I ended up reporting to Spotify as well as Sonos. Neither of my communications with either company felt like they cared much though. Spotify literally said “maybe the next update will fix it but we don’t know.”

👍 … You have done all you can. Lets hope it gets sorted for you (and others) soon.

A
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Is it even worth reporting to Spotify and then going back and forth with them? I assume they know and will fix it. 

From your earlier post…

"I opened a ticket with Sonos. They said if the problem is not on their end they will forward the issue to Spotify”. 

Hopefully the message will get passed along.🤞

Well I ended up reporting to Spotify as well as Sonos. Neither of my communications with either company felt like they cared much though. Spotify literally said “maybe the next update will fix it but we don’t know.”

controlav
Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Correction to my earlier analysis based on historic analysis of their pmap files: Spotify has NEVER used ArtworkSizeMap - they have always sent high-res art by default for album artwork. They seem to have changed the default to low-res (which is what everyone else does), but neglected to add an ArtworkSizeMap to allow apps to get the high-res version.

Still Spotify’s screwup mind you. Just a different screw-up.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
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