Amazon Music is a popular service for listening to millions of songs free with a Prime membership. Sometimes though, specific tracks just won’t play for some reason.
A few reasons why Amazon Music won’t play songs include weak or interrupted internet connection issues. If the WiFi signal isn’t strong where you’re at, it might have problems loading songs.
But these issues are normally temporary and can be resolved with some troubleshooting of your connection or device or reloading the problem track.
Read on to learn more about why Amazon Music won’t play songs and the steps you can take to troubleshoot.
Reasons why Amazon Music won’t play songs
Below are several explanations as to why the app is not playing music:
1. VPN or proxy connections
If a VPN or proxy service is active, it causes issues by masking your real location. Amazon Music may think you’re somewhere songs aren’t licensed to stream.
Solutions:
- Check for any VPN or proxy apps running in the background of your device.
- Try disabling the VPN/proxy and see if the songs are playing now.
- As an alternative, you can try playing songs that you confirm have global streaming rights rather than region-locked content.
2. Internet problems
As you know, Amazon Music service requires an active internet connection to stream songs. If your WiFi signal is weak where you’re trying to listen, you may encounter buffering or songs failing to load.
Mobile data connections can also sometimes be unstable, which could disrupt playback.
Solutions:
- Try moving closer to your WiFi router to improve signal strength.
- Take a look at what else you’ve got open. Streaming music needs small bandwidth, so close any tabs or apps you aren’t actively using.
- Do a speed test with Google Fiber, fast.com, or speedtest.net.
- If your test shows slower speeds than what your internet plan promises, reach out to your provider for troubleshooting.
3. Metadata errors
Record labels occasionally make mistakes in the metadata tags for songs, like incorrect titles, artists, or album art.
When Amazon Music encounters corrupted or missing metadata, it may not know how to identify and play the song. This tends to affect only certain songs.
Solutions:
- Delete and re-download the problem song from your Amazon Music library.
- Wait for the record label to fix the issue and try playing again later.
- Search for the song by artist and title rather than album if metadata is corrupted.
4. App and device updates
If Amazon Music or your device’s operating system does not use the latest software versions, bugs or compatibility issues could disrupt playback. Out-of-date apps can also sometimes lack important optimizations and fixes.
Solutions:
- Check if an Amazon Music update is available through your device’s app store and download any updates.
- Go to Settings > System and check for pending operating system updates on your device as well.
- As a last resort, uninstall and reinstall Amazon Music after ensuring both it and your device are fully up to date.
5. Subscription status
If you have a subscription, Amazon Music Unlimited offers additional premium features and a much larger library that requires an active paid subscription. However, when your trial has expired or payment fails to process, you won’t be able to access some content.
Solutions:
- Check if your Unlimited trial period has ended or if your subscription was cancelled for any reason.
- Try playing songs only included with the free tier to confirm the issue.
- Renew your subscription if it is expired.
6. Cache and data issues
Another reason why Amazon Music won’t play songs is because of cache and data issues. Over time, temporary files, cookies, and other cached data stored by the app can become corrupted.
Clearing this out can help the app run more smoothly. Problems may also arise from incompatible browser extensions or other site data.
Solutions:
- Delete the Amazon Music app’s cache and site data on your device.
- Consider temporarily disabling any browser extensions before using the app.
- As a last step, log out and back into your Amazon account in the app.