Unplayable protected songs (recently purchased on iTunes, half albums...)

Hi Jo.  It may well be coincidence..... .  What makes you say the issue is a protection issue?  I don't think paying Apple for Match could help here.  Have you tried reindexing (updating) your Sonos music library (assuming that is where the songs are stored)?

To add to John's message, try updating the music library. You can also schedule automatic update of the library. If they're still greyed out, reply with a screenshot and quote any error messages that may appear. Last but not least, sending a diagnostic report can help us identify what's going on if you can reply here with the confirmation number.

While I think this might not be a copyright issue something to note: If you have actually purchased the music then it shouldn't be copy protected, on the other hand if you have saved it to your device from Apple Music (Pressing "Make Available Offline") it will be completely protected and only playable through iTunes or the Music App on your iDevice. SONOS will not play content saved from Apple Music, it should be fine for a direct buy from iTunes though.

Even though this could just be a library issue I'll just make some brief clarifications on Apple Music.

Okay, so if you have actually purchased the music from iTunes then it shouldn't be copy protected and SONOS should play it as normal, hopefully with guidance from Mohammed and others you can get this solved. On the other hand if you have saved music to your device from Apple Music (Pressing "Make Available Offline") it will be completely protected and only playable through iTunes or the Music App on your iDevice. SONOS will not play content saved from Apple Music, it should be fine for a direct buy from iTunes though.

Also to note, if you have any local content (music in your iTunes library) and you turned on Apple Music's Library Sharing function that uses iCloud, whether the music in your library was originally purchased from iTunes or not, Apple Music will automatically upload it all to iCloud. Anything that goes to iCloud becomes copy protected from then on, even if you just stream it or re-download it to that device or a different one. SONOS will no longer be able to play those tracks if they've come back down from iCloud. - If you play the local copies they should be fine but the iCloud copies aren't.

In short:

iTunes purchased content: Not copy protected.
Apple Music content: Copy protected.
Anything that goes onto iCloud through Apple Music whether it's played from there or downloaded back to the device: Copy protected.

SONOS will not play anything with copy protection.

Best regards!

Did you find that the above posts clarified the matter Jo? Let me know if something's still not clear or if you've any more questions.

All Apologies for the delay getting back to you on this - I appreciate the replies. Firstly, I have tried re-indexing the music library, in that I pressed the button, but I'm not sure if it actually did anything because there was no 'complete' prompt. That hasn't changed anything. I definitely bought the tracks in the usual traditional way: paying for the album / track and this was a couple of months ago, so before the inception of Apple Music. I have since ended the free trial, so nothing should be in the cloud. Regardless, if the iCloud was the issue as KJMY suggests, would this have happened to more than just a few albums?

Hi again Jo.  I have taken the post below from another user.  It was for a different issue and I'm not sure it will help, but easy to try:

"if you go into the settings on your iPhone/iPod/iPad then scroll down to music and then you will see the option of turning off iCloud music library. Then on iTunes you go to preferences or Windows equivalent and untick the iCloud music library box in general"

You could also try removing the existing file share from your Sonos Music Library and re-adding it to ensure a complete re-index.  However, there is no "complete" message when you do a re-index.  You should see a message "indexing" next to "Music Library" in the list of music sources.  This will appear only briefly if there have been no changes.

I too have had this issue and it seems silly to me that Sonos won't allow any music added via Apple's new music service to be played given that we clearly are paying Apple for the service and right to enjoy the music. Why would Sonos prevent these from being played? DRM protection is no longer relevant really in this context. Will this be changed in the future? If not, I may be forced to find another solution over Sonos.

Have a read of http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/07/10/apple-ios-8-4-upgrade-risk/

I too have had this issue and it seems silly to me that Sonos won't allow any music added via Apple's new music service to be played given that we clearly are paying Apple for the service and right to enjoy the music. Why would Sonos prevent these from being played? DRM protection is no longer relevant really in this context. Will this be changed in the future? If not, I may be forced to find another solution over Sonos.
Marco - it has nothing to do with Sonos not "allowing" anything and everything to do with Apple protectionism.  Please redirect your annoyance to the appropriate place.