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Lots of missing songs on Apple Music (UK)

MoodyM

MoodyM

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 14, 2008
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I had my first quick browse through Apple Music for an hour or so last night, and I came across LOTS of greyed out songs on various different albums.

I'm in the UK, and I'm assuming this is some sort of licensing issue (strangely though, some of the greyed our songs are available on other albums). For some albums it was nearly every track, bar one or two. Spotify has a similar issue with certain songs.

However Apple Store UK's Music page states:

"Get access to the full Apple Music library"

Surely this isn't the case if lots are greyed out?

Please note this is NOT the same problem some have had with "Explicit" songs being greyed out, as a) I have no Restrictions turned on and b) the songs in question above are not marked with an E.
 
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I've just posted about this in another thread. This is the reason I'm sticking with Spotify for now.

8 out of 18 tracks on Aerosmith's "best of" are greyed out and unplayable. This is one of the worst examples I've come across, but there is more.

P.S. WATP
 
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It's the compilation albums are the worst. Just had a look at "The guestlist" 12 out of the 42 tracks are available.
 
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markhort said:
It's the compilation albums are the worst. Just had a look at "The guestlist" 12 out of the 42 tracks are available.
Click to expand...

Yep, it was the compilations that I found to be by far the worst. And more bizarrely, the same track could be available on one compilation and greyed out on another.

I wonder, if it was possible to calculate, what would be the total amount of greyed out tracks for a given country?
 
MoodyM said:
Yep, it was the compilations that I found to be by far the worst. And more bizarrely, the same track could be available on one compilation and greyed out on another.

I wonder, if it was possible to calculate, what would be the total amount of greyed out tracks for a given country?
Click to expand...

I was just going to post the same about tracks available on one album and not on another. Apple really need to get all the remaining independent record labels signed up. I was all ready to swap from Spotify, but that's impossible to do when there are this many gaps.
 
There are quite a few greyed out tracks on Spotify too
 
Guys, I think there is a major bug with the latest version of iTunes.

Try the following example - Grizzly Bear 'Shields' LP

On my iPhone, the track 'Yet Again' was greyed out, until I played the track before it, then it popped in and was available. Now, all the album is available.

On iTunes (Mac) that same track is greyed out, and no amount of messing around, makes it available - it is just skipped completely.

Now, either it is a licensing thing, where handheld devices differ to computer platforms (unlikely) or iTunes is majorly bodged.

Try it yourself with the above album. I'm in the UK.
 
geesus said:
Guys, I think there is a major bug with the latest version of iTunes.
Click to expand...

I'm seeing the same type of thing... I added a curated Apple Music playlist to my collection, but I only have access to all the songs on iTunes. On my iPhone, 80% of the songs on the list are grayed out. Very strange to have differences in the catalog between devices. This must be some sort of bug?
 
MoodyM said:
I had my first quick browse through Apple Music for an hour or so last night, and I came across LOTS of greyed out songs on various different albums.

I'm in the UK, and I'm assuming this is some sort of licensing issue (strangely though, some of the greyed our songs are available on other albums). For some albums it was nearly every track, bar one or two. Spotify has a similar issue with certain songs.

However Apple Store UK's Music page states:

"Get access to the full Apple Music library"

Surely this isn't the case if lots are greyed out?

Please note this is NOT the same problem some have had with "Explicit" songs being greyed out, as a) I have no Restrictions turned on and b) the songs in question above are not marked with an E.
Click to expand...

It think you may be confusing the Apple Music Library with the Itunes Library. They never said the full Itunes library would be available.
 
Also the same story with
justinf77 said:
I'm seeing the same type of thing... I added a curated Apple Music playlist to my collection, but I only have access to all the songs on iTunes. On my iPhone, 80% of the songs on the list are grayed out. Very strange to have differences in the catalog between devices. This must be some sort of bug?
Click to expand...

Yes it also happens with Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer - track 4 Black Swan (Unavailable on iTunes yet can be made available on iPhone by playing track 3)
 
Here is an example to better illustrate my point:

iTunes

Screen%20Shot%202015-07-03%20at%2019.59.40_zps4t1t2yym.png


iPhone

IMG_1531_zpsae8w8e7l.jpg


Check track 4. Unplayable on iTunes yet fine on iPhone.
 
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This reminded me when Netflix use to have those annoying disc only episodes that were grayed out and unplayable.
 
Never saw this thread and just started one with a similar issue, I also am in the UK for me the vast majority of what I want to listen to is greyed out. The recommended a compilation I might like I go in and the entire thing greyed out. Others have 3-4 playable songs. Rubbish this.
 
We need to report to apple's feedback page - just posting here won't force change
 
I feel sorry for those in the UK. This region thing sucks for everything. We all live on the same planet yet each country has to get different content some exclusive others nothing. Just like with streaming TV series like Netflix. The UK has a bunch of content the US version does not have yet the US has exclusive content the UK does not get.
 
I agree its annoying but I found it exactly the same on Spotify with compilation albums.
 
I've never had a problem on Spotify with compilations. I have experienced this with a few playlists, but not that often.
 
Same here. Started a thread myself about it too. Don't know if it was before or after this one. These greyed out tracks are annoying, and unfortunately for me aren't coming available if I play the preceding song. On of them is the first track on the album so playing the preceding one is a bit difficult anyway :)

I'm hoping it's a bug and not a regional licensing issue. I've had the odd issue with Spotify before but if I added the entire album to a playlist all the tracks would become playable. Not so here :(
 
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