I’m afraid you misunderstand.  The poster wasn’t speaking about the Spotify API.  They were speaking about Spotify’s implementation of the Sonos Music API (SMAPI).  Each music service is responsible for their implementation into the Sonos app.  Everything; look, feel, what and how something is sorted, displayed, liked, searched, etc. is in the hands of the music service, not Sonos.  Sonos only supplies the API.  

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

My expectation is that the ‘fix’ didn’t get promoted to all branches properly, and they promoted a new  branch without the fix in it. But yes, relatively ‘easy’ to re-promote, test, QA, and release, since the work was done once, and committed somewhere. 

I have the same problem with a little twist. I can search for artists with my Spotify account, we can’t search for artists with my wifes account.  This just started earlier this week.

that is just the point : it is a concern of the both … if they work together it goes faster and with less problems

and I am a client of Sonos AND Spotify 

I recently lost my spotify service when I use the Sonos app to search.  I get Amazon music but not Spotify.  I can use spotify on the browse main page but it disappears when I search.  I have uninstalled and reinstalled the Sonos app and removed and re-added the spotify service ....still the problem persists.  I am using the Sonos app on my Samsung S21.  

Any suggestions to resolve?

I do not work for me eather. Can’t search on Artist, it will allways find nothing.

Can confirm that, at least for me on v1, enclosing the search term in double quotes fixes Spotify search. It works for both single name artists like "sting" and multiple like "tony Allen". It also doesn't seem to impact any of the other services search.

perfect hack : searching artist in double quote 

thanks a lot 

I have the same issue as reported by others and since about a few weeks (S1 controller). Very annoying as I mainly search music by artist. Any developments in terms of solutions?

Just to add another unhappy customer here. It worked for about three weeks before it broke again. Can't be hard for developers to check what changed to fix it initially and what's changed again to break it. I can't see Spotify releasing lots of updates to their third party interface but that's where I'd look first.

I'm stuck using the Spotify app now to select music then go to Sonos to adjust volume etc. 

Add another one to the list - it was working nicely for a few weeks and is now broken again.  As mentioned above though, I can get it to work (on Windows desktop) if I spell out the name exactly and wrap it in double quotes:

Under the search bar is a grey bar “try new search” if you click on this you can then search for artists and Spotify options come up

this works for me on iPhone - hope it works for you too 

Thanks @beernutmark for you tip! For the time being at least this will do as a work around!

It is still not fixed. Worked a few weeks but broken again. Very strange that this can't get fixed with so many complaints. Please settle any discussion with spotify to get this fixed!

+1 for same issue with Spotify not returning search results.

I am running S1 Controller on both iOS and macOS, and the issue happens on both. I am able to get Spotify search results with the “�search_term]” trick on both mobile and desktop. This started last week, had never seen this until then, but glad I stumbled on this thread.

Same issue cannot search in S2 on iPhone or Mac desktop. Spotify in artist search is not available. It find’s playlist I have created in Spotify. 
I tried the Quote marks work round and has sporadically worked. 
 

any updates on this problem?

Not again!!  This is really frustrating1

Having the same issue - seems to have worsened over time; started with Spotify results being up to 10-15 seconds behind the rest, now getting no artist results at all. 
 

As others have mentioned, “new search” works, but  “recent” searches do not - which means you need to type in the search term again. 
 

We’re experiencing this on different iOS devices, and Mac desktop. 
 

I primarily search by artist, and primarily on Spotify so hoping this is fixed soon. 

Same issues here using S2 on various iOS devises and Mac desktop.

Took advice about using ‘New Search’ and seems to work fine. If ‘Classic Search’ no longer works Sonos, just ditch it and remove the option of a search method in S2. 

The beauty of Sonos was its simplicity. Please sort it Sonos!!

Just reading another thread, and adding “” around an artist search (ie”Coldplay”) seems to work. A workaround for sure but hope this gets fixed soon!

Just to add another unhappy customer here. It worked for about three weeks before it broke again.

Again, doggone it! I search almost exclusively by artist. This is extremely frustrating. 

I am also having this issue with S1 app and desktop controller. Have reauthorized, removed and re-added Spotify. Artist search still does not work. Super annoying.

Figured out this morning a nuance on the quote-searching: because the search term is in quotes, you have to be exact when you search, and you don’t get the partial-phrase results as you type (again, just for Artists; starting with a quote and partially typing will return results in other areas).

So if you’re looking for The Police under Artists you have to type “The Police”; typing “Police” returns non-Sting related results.

I tried the quotes in the search and it works.  This is good news, but surely there must be a reason for this and a fix coming.  We have the same behavior on 2 different Samsung Phones and an iMac and iPad....so seems it doesn't matter if ios or android.