Spotify album artwork is distorted

That certainly suggests the image being served by the Spotify Server to the Sonos system has been changed by Spotify in some way. They do use different servers to feed Sonos than they do to serve their own app. 

Yes, which seems to then infer it’s a Spotify service issue, I guess… time will tell, hopefully.

You get the sense that the Sonos App should have a refresh button…..maybe automated in their algorithms? This may refresh the album artwork?

The attached .gif is poor quality as the upload size to the forum here is limited to 5mb, but I find on each of the tab/displays in the Sonos App on iOS, the artwork often refreshes as I either open/scroll the tab/screens - in fact I find it a nuisance in some instances, but at least it’s fairly quick to load. (I mostly use Amazon Music).

Thanks Ken.

What happens when you are playing music on Sonos App and press Shuffle?This is when I have an issue.

Probably different for you as you use Amazon….

I assume you mean on the ‘now playing’ screen .. the art thumbnails refresh as I shuffle the queue - again the uploaded .gif quality (attached) is poor, but hopefully you can see it refreshing and here’s a sample single screenshot from the iPad App (I’ve had to reduce its size to get it uploaded here)  …

Yup same issue here, made ticket and reported to sonos. 

I noticed now that all Spotify images in my playlists are pixelated. When I browse/search in Spotify it fixes the pixelated album I am viewing for that moment, but everything goes back to pixelated once I close and reopen the Sonos app. All my other music services are unaffected. I really feel this is a Spotify issue. There has to be some cache somewhere that is saving these images so they load faster but I’ve cleared everything I can find and I’ve deleted and reinstalled Sonos and Spotify.

Just adding my “same here” to the list of people getting affected by this. ..

Same here. Noticed it on Saturday.

This is Spotify’s screwup. They changed their SMAPI presentation map, and removed the ArtworkSizeMap which is how apps find higher resolution versions, so the default low-res art is used.

For the curious the process is described here: https://developer.sonos.com/build/content-service-add-features/add-images/add-album-art/

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.🤞

I’m a firm believer in a company responds more quickly to a complaint from a paying customer, than they would from a company like Sonos, who has no financial relationship with them.

That’s tempered, of course, by the fact that Sonos represents a whole swath of customers, so it’s a crap shoot. But were it me, I’d be reporting to both companies, just as a normal thing. 

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.

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.

Just here to say “same here.”

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. 

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.

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

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

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. 

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. 

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.