Spotify radio stations not playing today on Sonos

  • 24 January 2021
  • 64 replies
  • 2603 views

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I cannot get Spotify artist radio stations to play on my Sonos today. I can play other Spotify content, like a specific album. But the S2 app complains it cannot get songs for radio station. I’ve never had this problem before. I have reset everything with no benefit so far. Any ideas?  Those artist radio stations play fine in the Spotify app. Just not through Sonos 


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64 replies

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Hi @bjurasz.

Welcome, thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community, We appreciate your time and effort in posting your concern here in our community.

Spotify had an outage recently, So in the meantime, I’d be tempted to do a network refresh, by unplugging all Sonos devices, then rebooting the router. When the router comes back up, plug back in the Sonos devices wait for 1-2 minutes, and test it again.

I suggest also uninstalling/install the music service if the first troubleshooting steps doesn't work.

Let us know if it works. If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

I did both troubleshooting steps you mentioned. I unplugged all Sonos Devices and rebooted my router as directed. That did not work so I uninstalled Spotify and reinstalled it and Sonos is still telling me “unable to get tracks for radio station” when I chose an artist and their radio. I can however go to the main menu and chose a recommended radio station and it will play, but when I search and get an artist and then chose their radio it will not work. 

Userlevel 1

I have the identical problem. Spotify is working but not this feature through Sonos.Have tried unplugging and then restarting my connect with no success. This problem started approximately 24 hours ago. Message says tracks are unavailable

I’m still having the error message from Sonos saying “unable to get tracks” when trying to play a Spotify radio station of a certain artist - after none of the troubleshooting suggestions from Sonos worked I would appreciate a response from Sonos about the issue and what can be done

If you want real information, rather than just generic guesses, which may apply to some people, but not to you,you should submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this problem, and call Sonos Support to discuss it, or post the diagnostic number here for a Community Moderator to pick up.

Userlevel 1

Here is the diagnostic number 1744611990. Still not working through Sonos but works on Spotify. Frustrating as this is how I consume a lot of my music from Sonos so hopefully a solution is found soon

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No more luck here either.  Reset everything.  Artist radio stations don’t play.  “Unable to get tracks for radio station.”  Most other content will.  Hoping Sonos can find a fix for this.

Userlevel 2
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Diagnostics sent as well, 749015578

Userlevel 1

Have exactly the same issue. Can play albums but not radio within Spotify. Unable to get tracks to play error. S2 app. 

Userlevel 1

Diagnostics sent 745909538

Userlevel 2

i spent an hour on chat with them this weekend. and an hour on the phone. pretty frustrating. i just wanted to report a clear bug that recently happened. i almost exclusively listen to spotify artist radio. i can play spotify playlists and albums no problem. i’m on S2 and it fails both for the iphone and for my windows desktop. everything is completely up to date

 

workaround is pushing the artist radio station from the spotify app to sonos, but not exactly convenient

 

they claim that it works for them and told me to try this below... i haven’t and i’m skeptical that it will make any difference: 

 

We did investigating about Spotify on Sonos searching Artist and playing music. We tried to replicate the issue and it is working. We Recommend to change the DNS server(8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4) and try again. If you have any queries or need further assistance with your Sonos, please contact us back with the case id number for future reference.

 

this is my case number if u want to refer to it: 02552471 

 

i’m tempted to wait till they fix it at this point, i’ve already wasted too much time and it is effecting other people

 

Keith

Userlevel 1

I have just talked to sonos on the phone and they were unaware of this problem. They suggested that it was Spotify removing this feature from the sonos app,I told them that this did not seem very likely but that I would confirm with Spotify.Spotify of course said it was not them but I could not continue to explore the problem with Spotify because of my work.

I am also hoping as this problem multiplies it will soon be properly addressed by someone

Note that pretty much all Sonos does is write the API, which Spotify then has to integrate in their servers. Your speakers merely point to a location defined by Spotify to grab the data that they play. Sonos doesn’t really ‘touch’ the data in any way, other than to play what they’re handed by Spotify. 

To my knowledge, there has not been any change in the Sonos API that all music services use in quite a while. 

Userlevel 1

Interestingly it’s not ALL my Spotify radio stations that won’t play it’s only some.  Example (don’t judge my selection). If I try and play Sam smith radio I get the error unable to start radio station. If I try and play Kylie Minogue radio it plays with no error. So does Lana del Rey. But Angus and Julia Stone and Emeli Sande get the error. Birds of Tokyo plays no error. They all have Spotify Station next to their name in my favourites.  If I search for these artists and select the radio option under the Spotify artist I get the same results as above....

Userlevel 2

changing the dns to 8.8.8.8 didn’t fix it, as i suspected

 

Keith

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Adding to this, I too am experiencing the same problem related to specific artist radio via Spotify. Communicated with support, who suggested various local issues related to LAN and hardwired Sonos devices. A few devices I've disabled wireless as Ethernet alternative, although that is not relevant to the issue. At any rate I opted not to make the suggested changes since my Sonos system is operating normally outside of this recent issue. 

Haven't identified commonalties between artists which fail and those which are successful. Artists which fail are able to stream normal (direct) audio versus "radio" feature. I view this more as a Spotify integration issue. 

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Add me to the list for “unable to get tracks for radio station” when attempting to listen to SOME Spotify artists’ radio stations. Wes Montgomerie works, but John Coltrane and Chet Baker do not. Albums and songs are fine. Makes no difference if it’s a “Favourite” or not. I’ve also done all of the steps referenced with no improvement.

I recently updated to the newer app (iOS 14.3) and controller (MacOS 10.11.16). I hope that’s the culprit and an update is pending!

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Right now, two artist radio stations that did not play for the past several days are playing.  Fingers crossed this is solved.

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Right now, two artist radio stations that did not play for the past several days are playing.  Fingers crossed this is solved.

Same here! Can’t explain what happened; I’m just glad it’s working! Let’s hope this ends today!

Userlevel 1

Yes, mine is also working now.I am curious if this was a Spotify problem or a Sonos problem

Since Sonos doesn’t touch the stream until it reaches your speaker, it’s hard to come up with a reason how it could be a Sonos issue. Spotify owns the server that your controller makes a request to, and the Sonos just plays the stream that it gets back from that server. At no point does the Spotify data ever live on a Sonos server. 

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Since Sonos doesn’t touch the stream until it reaches your speaker, it’s hard to come up with a reason how it could be a Sonos issue. Spotify owns the server that your controller makes a request to, and the Sonos just plays the stream that it gets back from that server. At no point does the Spotify data ever live on a Sonos server. 

Except the radio streams I referenced earlier worked within the Spofity app, yet did not work through the Sonos app. So the source may not have been the issue… Either way, I don’t care what happened, I’m just pleased it works. Period.  : ) 

I share your happiness. Another worthwhile point of data to store away is many services use different servers for different source points, for ease of tracking. So the server address they give to Sonos to present to the controller may not be the same server that they use for a web feed, or their own client. 

It also has the additional benefit of them needing to maintain the Sonos API in a single location/ server, rather than across all their other servers. 

Userlevel 1

I am a self admitted luddite so I cant make any case. Unfortunately the assistance I received from Sonos was severely lacking while the assistance from Spotify was, until I had to go back to work, great. Of course I realize they are different business models with one being a subscription.

I am  of course pleased  that is is solved and in a relatively quick time regardless of who is responsible

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I am a self admitted luddite so I cant make any case.

 

You can own Sonos equipment or be a luddite. Not both. LOL!