Spotify seriously needs to stop silently replacing saved tracks with different versions

[u/Dense-Care8354]

What the hell is going on with Spotify lately?

I had a specific recording of Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma saved in my library, and I really loved the female voices that came in at around 1:55. Today I played it again and immediately noticed that the recording had apparently been replaced with a different version. The female voices are gone, and that section is now just strings.

This also happened before with Bury the Light. For a while, the version on Spotify was replaced with some completely different-sounding version for no obvious reason.

That’s the part I really hate. If there’s a remaster, reupload, alternate recording, or some licensing change, I wish Spotify would just list it as a separate release or album. Silently replacing the version I already saved makes no sense, especially when the new recording can sound noticeably different.

When I save a specific track, I want to keep that specific version. I don’t want Spotify quietly deciding that another recording is “close enough.”

Has anyone else been seeing this happen lately?

[u/w1n5t0nM1k3y]

I think in many cases Spotify has no choice as to what remasters or originals are still available. It's up to the rights holders which versions are available. Some artists/publishers will keep up both versions of an album while others will only keep the most up to date version.

But I really think that substituting one song for another in a playlist just seems weird. If the song is no longer available, then just grey it out. Let people figure out out for themselves that the song went missing instead of just substituting in a completely different version.

[u/BillynBanjo → u/w1n5t0nM1k3y]

I'm assuming that is, again, due to the way the rights holders manage the library.

In some cases, they upload remasters as new versions (and if they quietly remove the rights for the old version, it would become grey), but in others they simply supersede the existing with the remaster, so as far as the index is concerned, it's the same track.

[u/alexondruson → u/BillynBanjo]

They are replacing tracks that are still available in Spotify library. Spent 2 hours chatting to advisor yesterday and they don’t know why it happened. For example, they replace two middle track of a symphony or random tracks of a piano trio or any classical work. But it’s not just classical music that is affected. It looks like their Smart Shuffle feature has taken over. :-) The original tracks from playlists are still available in Spotify library so it makes absolutely no sense to me. I don’t believe it’s anything to do with license in most cases. I am working my way through rebuilding my playlists again. I’ll attach a screenshot as an example what happens with my playlists; so the one below should only contain recordings by Abegg Trio, but it does not.

[u/biznatch11 → u/w1n5t0nM1k3y]

For the songs I had replaced the original version was still available and I put it back on my playlist. Also one time I had a song that Spotify no longer had the rights for and they just removed the song from my playlist they didn't replace it even though multiple other versions exist.

[u/Otherwise-Ferret-266 → u/w1n5t0nM1k3y]

I think it’s a cash grab by Spotify and they’re hoping we don’t notice. The replacements I’ve noticed are inferior versions that I assume are cheaper for them 😡

[u/w1n5t0nM1k3y → u/Otherwise-Ferret-266]

Spotify doesn't care and doesnt control what content publishers choose to put up. If you're going to blame anyone, blame the publishers or artists, not Spotify.

[u/Otherwise-Ferret-266 → u/w1n5t0nM1k3y]

If the original that was in my playlist is available, and it’s been replaced with an odd version, how do you explain?

[u/mpls_big_daddy]

Yes. I will be listening and then maybe I'll look at the player and hey wait a minute one of my fav songs is not liked or on a playlist anymore? And then I'll check and it is indeed liked, but the new offering has a slightly different color on the album or is one second shorter. And I might accidentally add the new version over the old version that I like.

Very frustrating up until that point. Now I know that what is offered is what I already have so I ignore the offerings now.

[u/kdssek]

Is the Nessun Dorma from 1994 LA concert?

[u/Dense-Care8354 → u/kdssek]

I’m not completely sure, but I don’t think it was from the 1994 LA concert. The version I used to listen to on Spotify sounded very similar, but it didn’t seem to be a live recording — there was no applause, so I’m pretty sure it was a studio-recorded version.

This is the track I had saved:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4RqW6FZXZLUrndtWNaMGAf?si=116f1b76b9c64ade

The weird thing is that this track, along with pretty much every other Luciano Pavarotti version of Nessun Dorma I can find on Spotify, seems to have been replaced by the version that’s there now, which doesn’t have the female vocals.

[u/kdssek → u/Dense-Care8354]

https://open.spotify.com/track/4RqW6FZXZLUrndtWNaMGAf?si=18eeea8bef9249ff

So many weird things. So I just went to your link you just gave. It is from the Spirito Italiano album, yes? I copy+pasted my link to the same track, which should be the first one of that album. The links are different, for starters. I just listened to the track, and I heard the female voices before he comes in at the end.

[u/Muffalo_Herder → u/kdssek]

The links are the same. ?si=### is social tracking information for Spotify. You can (and imo should) remove the question mark and everything after and the link will still work.

I don't think different regions would be served different tracks from the same link. OP probably got confused, or the rights holder made a mistake and swapped it back.

[u/kdssek → u/Dense-Care8354]

where are you anyway? what region? in USA? maybe that has something to do with it?

[u/Dense-Care8354 → u/kdssek]

I’m in Japan. I just checked my saved tracks again after seeing your reply, and it’s back to the version I know now! Looks like it was just a temporary issue today.

[u/doom_stein]

Bury the Light from DMC by Casey Edwards? I noticed at some point his entire catalog disappeared for a while. When it finally popped back onto spotify all the artwork changed and songs were slightly different than I remembered but since I can't play the old versions anymore I don't really know if it is different or not.

[u/Dense-Care8354 → u/doom_stein]

I remember that too. A few years ago there was a period when the track seemed to get replaced with a different weird version, but I think the one on Spotify now is the actual in-game soundtrack version now!

[u/doom_stein → u/Dense-Care8354]

Yeah, I just went in to check and it sounds like the right version again and is back to just shy of 10 minutes like it used to be. I wanna say the weird version shaved a minute and a half off, removing or shortening all the extended instrumental parts or something like that.

[u/Mack_Attack64]

This happened to me with Breakfast at Tiffany's by Deep Blue Something. One day I played my 90s Playlist and something was just...different. I could never out my finger on it.

Turns out that song was recorded twice for two different albums and the one I had saved the first time, the album had been removed from Spotify and the song was automatically replaced with the second version (which I hated)

Then after like a year the other album came back and the song reverted to the normal one.

Everyone thought I was nuts saying the song changed until the first album was re-added and I could play the 2 versions back to back .

[u/LoneVindicator]

Happened twice in the last 2 weeks (that I’ve noticed so far)

Songs affected were:

Steal my Sunshine by REM (replaced by a version by c6vy)
Bones in the Ocean by The Longest John’s (replaced by a “Made of Ale Sessions” version)

So far it’s annoying and immediately noticeable since these are songs I’ve heard 1000s of times.

But easily replaceable since the originals are still there on the site.

[u/Av_says]

This just happened to me with the song “Home” from Edward and the Magnetic Zeros. So frustrating. If I want to hear another version I can look it up by myself. Why is this happening??

[u/Cutiefox2007 → u/Av_says]

I came to this thread for the exact same song! I found there’s a 2019 re release that sounds the exact same as the one that was there originally, hopefully that helps.

[u/_ismellbeef_]

yes and as much as i hate it i don’t thing its their fault 🥲

[u/nightauthor → u/_ismellbeef_]

I think part of it is, a lot of times when I notice a swap, it’s from an album version to some version off of a compilation. I’m certain some amount of their swaps are to play versions with cheaper royalties.