From Spotify:

Due to various technical challenges, the Playlists feature has been removed from the Roku Spotify app.

It's just too hard, I guess.

Interestingly, their Spotify Gear page lists 135 devices that Spotify would love their customers to use to stream Spotify. Roku is not one of them.

Neither is Roku is listed as one of their "Partners". However, Roku currently has a job listing on their web site for "Sr. Manager, Partner Engagement (Special Markets/International)", whose duties include "Manage strategic partner relationships - Be the primary liaison with key content providers in our “Special Markets” such as one of the following ... Music (Pandora, Spotify, etc)". I have no idea what that's all about.

Yeah - have started to experiment with Spotify on Chromecast due to this and the myriad of other problems with that app (in other threads here).  I want to stay with Roku but we have so much invested in Spotify with playlists, etc.

Now the channel is finally rendered inert. This is a sad end to a pathetically long process of corporate evasion.  Where the corporate responsibility lies is the nagging question. Does anyone believe that this is the result of "technical challenges?"  I wonder if we will ever know what was really, really going on between Spotify and Roku.

It's probably nothing so interesting. Roku takes some specialized knowledge to make channels compared to other platforms. Spotify probably saw that there aren't enough people using the channel to justify having a team of people working on it. It sucks, but it's the way things often go here. 

I've never understood why Spotify doesn't work more on its Roku channel. I don't know why they don't make it so that you can interact with it via a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) as you can with YouTube on Roku or Spotify on Amazon Fire TV.  That would satisfy me.  I guess there just aren't enough users to justify the investment.

Here is an email I received on March 27th about this issue from Spotify support.

Edit: I checked their blog today and there is nothing yet about Roku.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for getting back in touch.

As of the moment, our developers are still working with Roku to have the playlists issue resolved as soon as possible.

We apologize that this is still in the works, but don't worry, we will provide announcements regarding this issue on our community and the Spotify blog page so you can once again seamlessly
enjoy music streaming on all your devices.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused, and as always, feel free to contact us back if you have other questions.

All the best,

Jhomar

JMM1 wrote:

Here is an email I received on March 27th about this issue from Spotify support.

Edit: I checked their blog today and there is nothing yet about Roku.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for getting back in touch.

As of the moment, our developers are still working with Roku to have the playlists issue resolved as soon as possible.

We apologize that this is still in the works, but don't worry, we will provide announcements regarding this issue on our community and the Spotify blog page so you can once again seamlessly
enjoy music streaming on all your devices.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused, and as always, feel free to contact us back if you have other questions.

All the best,

Jhomar

I hope this can be translated to: "We are overhauling our Roku channel to give it fully updated functionality" instead of "we are trying to patch the Playlists feature so it can be kind of usable on the same old tired Roku channel that has been barely usable for years, even with a functioning Playlists feature."

Well I hope they fix the Roku app so it has all the functionality of their other apps.  I do enjoy using Spotify with my living room system, where the Roku is the source.  But for now, if I really want to spend some time with Spotify in the living room (it does have the most comfortable seating), I will plug in the Chromecast and control it from my smartphone using Spotify connect.  Wouldn't it be great if they just made the Roku a Spotify connect device?

ps I am a Spotify premium member

kh6idf wrote:

Wouldn't it be great if they just made the Roku a Spotify connect device?

Maybe they will. Roku has mentioned they have a new product/feature coming out: "Roku Connect". However, it's a secret (apart from a recommendation in the Channel Certification Checklist that "For all authenticated apps (i.e. requiring a user login), the app is integrated with Roku Connect"). When developers have asked how to comply with this recommendation, Roku's response: Roku Connect is a new feature that has only been discussed with a handful of chosen "early adopter" partners. If we start a rumor that Roku Connect will allow Spotify Connect to connect to Roku, then maybe it'll happen.

belltown wrote:

kh6idf wrote:

Wouldn't it be great if they just made the Roku a Spotify connect device?

Maybe they will. Roku has mentioned they have a new product/feature coming out: "Roku Connect". However, it's a secret (apart from a recommendation in the Channel Certification Checklist that "For all authenticated apps (i.e. requiring a user login), the app is integrated with Roku Connect"). When developers have asked how to comply with this recommendation, Roku's response: Roku Connect is a new feature that has only been discussed with a handful of chosen "early adopter" partners. If we start a rumor that Roku Connect will allow Spotify Connect to connect to Roku, then maybe it'll happen.

I hope you are correct.
Like many we have a lot of time invested in Spotify playlists and Amazon doesn't support playlists on the Roku. I hope Roku and Spotify fix the problem or they both may lose customers.

kh6idf wrote:

Well I hope they fix the Roku app so it has all the functionality of their other apps.  I do enjoy using Spotify with my living room system, where the Roku is the source.  But for now, if I really want to spend some time with Spotify in the living room (it does have the most comfortable seating), I will plug in the Chromecast and control it from my smartphone using Spotify connect.  Wouldn't it be great if they just made the Roku a Spotify connect device?

ps I am a Spotify premium member

As do I.  Spotify has neglected their Roku product for a long time.  They really need to make it as fully functioning as possible.

It is strange that Spotify has removed the playlist functionality from the Roku channel and some other platforms as well; yet the app on my TiVo still maintains the playlist function and works just fine. Will wonders never cease.

Ok. Let's look at this logically. I'm sure it has something to do with money. Most people that I know have a Roku box and it's connected to their home theater system. We enjoy playing our playlist thru our systems. I am very sad and dissatisfied about this situation.

Anyone have more information about that?

I'm starting to think about trying another competitor that support Spotify. I'm really sad. I bought my roku first for the music and playlist functionality!!!

Here's my uneducated guess. At some point early on they had a programmer that threw together a Roku app that worked with a rather open API Spotify used to have.They used the default layout and navigation that all early Roku apps used.That app was never updated and only had things removed as they stopped working. More than likely that programmer no longer works for Spotify or never spent any real time working with the Roku sdk as management obviously doesn't see it as a priority platform. Plex started out that way as well. Someone threw together a basic roku app that was marginally functional and all updates kept the Roku app look but really limited how it could interface with plex.

This will only change if Spotify dedicates someone to the platform otherwise it's dead.