Spotify Adding & Removing Songs In Albums? (How To Fix It)

Spotify allows its users to explore countless albums from its enormous library of content and listen to them in full.

However, some users have complained that it seems that Spotify is messing with the playback of albums and adding and removing songs from them.

In this article, we dive into why that may be happening and how to fix it.

Here’s Why Spotify Adds and Removes Songs in Albums:

Spotify’s Autoplay feature enables suggested songs to continue playing long after an album has finished. This may give the sense that new songs have been added to an album. Fortunately, this default feature is optional for users. Spotify will only remove songs due to legal issues.

Why does Spotify Add Random Songs to Albums?

Spotify users who have the ‘Autoplay’ option toggled on will find that random songs will be played once an album comes to an end.

This option is intended to improve the user experience by ensuring that the music never stops and the user does not need to search for and play additional tracks once the album is completed.

Can Spotify Remove Songs from an Album?

An album can be considered a musical journey, with each track being placed in a specific order to create an overarching feeling or message.

For that journey to feel complete and for you to fully realize the artist’s intention, it is paramount that each track is present within the album.

However, you may have found that a song is missing from your favorite album on Spotify as if Spotify has removed it.

Sometimes, you’ll search for an album and discover that it is missing tracks, or it can be the case that you’ve already listened to that album on Spotify in full in the past, only to find that now a song has been removed from it.

Not being able to play an album in its entirety can be frustrating, but the reason for this problem is not a glitch or an arbitrary decision made by the platform.

Spotify may remove a track from an album because of a legal issue.

A track that is missing from the album may still appear in the place in which should play, but it will be skipped.

Tracks that are unavailable for playback will be grey. A track can be removed from an album and become unplayable (greyed out) because of the geographical region you are in.

It’s important to understand that Spotify is not removing songs from an album without cause. These songs are unplayable because Spotify does not have permission to have them on their platform.

This can be due to the artist or record label not giving the rights to Spotify for playback of a particular track, despite the rest of the album being included.

How to check which songs have become unplayable:

1. Go to ‘Settings’ in the Spotify app
2. Under ‘Display Options’, select ‘Show unavailable songs in playlist’

Now, you will see any possible greyed-out (unplayable/removed) songs in an album. Until Spotify has permission to play the track in question, there is, unfortunately, no way to get around this. 

On occasion, you might find that some playlists have a duplicate of a song. For more on this, check out our article about why Spotify has duplicate songs, albums, and artists.

How do I Stop Spotify from Adding Songs to an Album Playlist?

Spotify does not add songs to albums. However, it may seem like it does. This is because of an option called ‘Autoplay’.

Spotify explains that if Autoplay is active you’ll find that:

“When you reach the end of an album, playlist, or selection of songs, Spotify automatically plays similar songs so the music never stops.”

[Source: Support.spotify.com]

Basically, Spotify ensures that when using the ‘Autoplay’ feature, you’ll have a seamless transition from the album you were playing into a continuation of music that fits with the style and sound of the album.

This is a great feature that allows you to leave Spotify to do the hard work, meaning you don’t need to rush over to your device to find something to play after your album finishes – this is especially useful at parties.

However, this setting is not always appropriate. Sometimes, users want to know that the album is over, and when the album comes to an end, that silence at the point that it finishes allows the listener to contemplate what they’ve experienced.

To switch off the Autoplay option on your device, simply follow the instructions below:

Deactivating Autoplay on your Mobile Device:

1. Launch the Spotify app on your iOS or Android device.
2. Ensure you are on the ‘Home’ screen by tapping the house icon.
3. Now tap the gear icon to open ‘Settings’
4. Select ‘Playback’
5. Find the ‘Autoplay’ section and toggle off both ‘On this device’ and ‘On other devices’

Deactivating Autoplay on your Desktop Computer:

1. Open Spotify on your desktop computer.
2. Click the downward arrow in the top right of your screen.
3. Open ‘Settings’
4. Navigate to ‘Autoplay’ and toggle off both ‘On this device’ and ‘On other devices’

How do You Make Sure Spotify Plays an Album from Start to Finish?

The order in which songs are played is incredibly important to both the artist who made them and the listener who wishes to hear them as they were intended.

Spotify did not always make it simple for users to listen to albums from start to finish in order and there was an outcry from the community to implement changes so that users had more control over playback.

Spotify’s default playback mode was ‘Shuffle’.

‘Shuffle’ playback mixes the order of tracks on an album or playlist. It was possible to play albums in order, but the process was different between devices and created confusion.

Eventually, artists themselves argued that Spotify needed to make it easier for albums to be heard from start to finish, with the singer Adele explaining that:

“We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason.”

[Source:Rollingstone.com]

Spotify took this advice on board and, in 2022, implemented a brand new play and shuffle button at the top of albums to give users an easy way to choose how they wanted to listen.

Now it is as simple as either tapping or clicking the ‘Play’ button to listen to any album in order from start to finish. 

However, there is a catch – this option is only available for Spotify Premium members. Unfortunately, if you’re on a free account and using the mobile app, you’re stuck in ‘Shuffle’ mode.

Is there an Easy Way to Remove the Songs Spotify Added?

As previously explained, Spotify is never going to simply add songs to an album. However, if you are using a Spotify Free account and you’re using the mobile app, then the playback of your albums may come with a few surprises.

Take a look at the playback options on Spotify Free:

• Users who do not pay for a Spotify Premium membership cannot play tracks on demand.
• All albums played on Spotify Free will be shuffled.
• There is no way to deactivate this setting on the mobile app on a free account.
• If ‘Autoplay’ is activated, Spotify Free members will have their album interrupted by suggested tracks.
• These suggested tracks will be ‘shuffled in’ with the tracks that are in the album.

If you want to ensure that you only hear tracks that are listed in an album and you are on a Spotify Free account, you need to disable autoplay. Details on how to disable this setting can be found earlier in this article.

Please also read our article about why Spotify cuts off songs at the end.

Can You make Spotify Stop Playing Once an Album is Finished?

Once an album is over, Spotify will continue to play music unless the autoplay feature has been disabled. In the past, it was not possible to deactivate the autoplay feature on connected devices.

This meant that if you were playing an album to your smart speaker, it would continue to play suggested tracks long after the album stopped.

Naturally, the Spotify community was not satisfied with this lack of control over the autoplay option and rallied together to encourage Spotify to make changes to the functionality of the app. 

Spotify took the advice onboard and implemented a toggle option to disable autoplay ‘On other devices’. You can now toggle this on or off in your settings under ‘Playback’ and then ‘Autoplay’.

Now, no matter what device you use or what device you are connected to, Spotify ensures that an album will come to an end and stop playing.

Sources

Autoplay|Spotify

Adele Single-Handedly Made Spotify Change How Albums Are Played on the Streaming Service