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Did Spotify recently remove your track, or a track that you love? Here's why Spotify removes songs, plus how to get a tune back in the future if it's not on Spotify anymore.
Licensing Issues
Spotify maintains licensing agreements with artists and record labels. When these expire, or change terms, Spotify may remove the songs from their platform resulting in unplayable songs.
An Artist Or Label Requested Takedown
Sometimes artists may want to re-release a track after changing it, move to other streaming services, or find a different music publisher. If that's the case, you might not see your favorite songs on Spotify.
Usually the best option here is to find out where your favorite artist has moved to, whether it's Apple music, Audiomack, Soundcloud, or other streaming platforms.
Quality Control
With tens of thousands of songs and many artists to manage, Spotify has to ensure quality on its streaming platform. This could include content which violates the site's terms of service, or songs that just aren't performing well.
With so many songs out there, and so many marketing dollars to spend, Spotify artists may not want to promote songs with low streaming numbers, and may therefore remove any under-performing tracks in lieu of higher quality numbers for a better listening experience.
Region Restrictions
If you noticed that you had certain songs in your Spotify user library while accessing the app in one country but not another, it may be due to region restrictions. If a song isn't licensed for streaming in your country by its rights holders, it won't appear on Spotify for you.
Because of this, certain Spotify users may have access to slightly different selections of music regardless of whether or not they hold a Spotify subscription.
Frequently Asked Questions
I know the song should be on Spotify, but it's not. How do I get it back?
If you know that there are no region restrictions in place, and the song is appearing in other libraries, try clearing Spotify cache or uninstalling and reinstalling the app.
Will adding a song to a playlist save it?
Even if you add a song to one of your Spotify playlists, it won't prevent it from disappearing if it's taken down.
My own song was removed from Spotify - how do I get it back?
If you're a Spotify artist, you'll need to contact your distributor directly to determine why your track was removed. Your distributor should act as an intermediary when it comes to your presence as a creator on the platform.
Will a song be removed if it doesn't get enough streams?
It's possible for a track or album to be taken down if it doesn't have enough streams, but this is usually a decision made by the copyright holder and can be one of several reasons.
