Pasting Spotify links has changed since Wednesday
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The height and width of my links to Spotify songs has changed when I post my links into Classic Editor.
Has something changed since last Wednesday that allow only a small rectangular version of the Spotify link rather than the 300 x 300 size?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there!
Is this happening only to new Spotify links you add to your posts? Are previously inserted Spotify embeds working as expected or have they changed as well?
Please let us know. If you’re seeing two different types of embeds, please share the link to the posts where we can see them to investigate further.
Regards
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Yes, it’s only happening with new Spotify links.
This was a post I made on Monday and you can see the Spotify links display as a rectangle. https://billcsmusic.blog/2021/09/27/billcstop30-623-september-27-2021/
This was a post I made the preceding Wednesday, and the Spotify links still display fine in their full size.
10/10 Edition #20 : @Kunzitemusic @weareNightro @Stefanicolvin @HelaineVismusic @Maravamusic @Glassiomusic @NadiaVaeh @Ianupnorth #Russo @Palmariamusic
Thanks for any help you can provide. I am working on a blog post tonight and the small rectangular link is still displaying.
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Hello there,
It looks like the embed links are slightly different there.
For instance, on https://billcsmusic.blog/2021/09/22/10-10-edition-20-kunzitemusic-wearenightro-stefanicolvin-helainevismusic-maravamusic-glassiomusic-nadiavaeh-ianupnorth-russo-palmariamusic/ the link is:
(notice the extra ?si=35643d93d7d84eff)
On https://billcsmusic.blog/2021/09/27/billcstop30-623-september-27-2021/ the link is:
Just to double check, are you grabbing the links from the same location in Spotify? This would be the first thing to check from what I can see.
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I’ve been copying links from Spotify for about 7 years into my blog, so I always copy it from Share > Copy Song Link. I can see that the links have changed, but what to do about that?
The link for the first track you posted is now https://open.spotify.com/track/6OoRViAs21S4caB68tHkPl?si=8c8d8c9f1fd8457a which now posts in a short rectangular form.
Many of the Spotify links in the second post I’ve used several times. One thing I did notice is that when I post the track you used into my browser, it does not ask me if I want to open Spotify, it just opens in the browser.
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Hello there,
I noticed that the embeds are in the classic block.
You could try pasting these in using the Spotify block: https://wordpress.com/support/audio/spotify/#embedding-via-the-word-press-block-editor
This is what the end result should be:
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I am using the “Classic Editor” – are you saying not to use that and to use the “Block Editor”, because I have a really difficult time with that feature. I don’t know what the Spotify block is.
Has something changed with the “Classic Editor” so that it no longer accommodates cutting and pasting the song link as I’ve been doing for years?
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Hi there,
From what I can see this is not an issue that is specific to the editor as I noticed that the player design has changed in both the block and classic editors. Instead I think this is due to a change in the way Spotify has designed their player embed. To explain, the player is not our design, but comes directly from Spotify. When you add the URL to your site, it “fetches the embed” from Spotify, and in this case we show whatever player interface they give us to display.
It now appears that the embed is “mobile responsive” and has a compact appearance on smaller screens like a phone and only shows the album art if the screen is large enough. You can see in this video I recorded here, as the size of the window changes, so does the appearance of the player: https://d.pr/v/NG81t8
In this case this is further exacerbated your theme, which uses a pretty narrow content column in the center of the design, with sidebars on either side. Because of this the Spotify embed can never get big enough to display the album art, so it displays the compact player. Even if you were to make your site infinitely wide the central column never gets bigger. Essentially the narrow column of your site tricks the player into thinking it’s on a phone, even though it’s just being displayed in a larger website.
I checked on Spotify’s blog and don’t see an announcement of this change, but it would make sense that the appearance of embeds would change based upon that date. Because of this there is no way to get the old player style back on your site. Even if you re-use an older URL, it will still embed using the new player style.
One solution you can consider is to switch to a more modern theme, one which has a wider overall design. As long as the content column of your theme is wide enough, the player with the album art should show.
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Thank you very much for all of those observations!! I had it in the back of my mind that my theme – which was discontinued probably 8 or 9 years ago, but I kept it because my readers really love its look for my blog – might be the culprit. I will look into creating a new theme in the week. Please keep this thread open until I determine if that resolves the issue.
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Hi there, I just wanted to mention that forum posts are automatically closed after a month of no activity. If it turns out that you aren’t able to post here before then, you can also open a new forum thread and link back to this one. Hope that helps.
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I spent a lot of time changing the theme of my blog to one of those that WordPress offers for free, however it did not make a difference, the Spotify links still post as a small rectangle rather than what used to be a 300 x 300 image.
Any further suggestions? Would someone at WordPress be able to talk with someone at Spotify about this? I can’t be the only one experiencing this issue.
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Hi there,
I’ve done some testing on this, and it’s not your theme. It looks like it’s indeed the classic block. See this post on a test site where I have both versions of the embed:
https://coresandbox.mystagingwebsite.com/spotify-2/
The top one that’s embedded “correctly” was added using the Spotify block. The one at the bottom using the Classic Block. I get the same result using the full classic editor.
What’s more, that test site uses the open source version of WordPress, so this issue is coming from WordPress Core and is not specific to WordPress.com, which means the fix will also need to come from there.
I’ve opened a bug report on that end, but I can’t make any promises when, or even if, this is something they’ll fix. So for now the only way to prevent this is to use the Spotify embed block instead:
https://wordpress.com/support/audio/spotify/#embedding-via-the-word-press-block-editor
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Just regarding the
?si=35643d93d7d84effappended to the URL, it looks like that’s just a tracking code – I copied the link for the same song multiple times, and that code changed each time. That code isn’t making any change to how the song embeds. -
Thank you! Once I type my blog post, I can save and use the Spotify block editor for the Spotify link.
Please note that you cannot tell if it switches to a bigger Spotify link until you use Preview.
This is an extra step and it’s a pain but it is better workaround than me having to learn to use the Block Editor, which is very complicated.
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Please note that you cannot tell if it switches to a bigger Spotify link until you use Preview.
Could you get screenshots of that? Maybe use a test post with a spotify block and a classic block, like @kokkieh did? In my editor, the spotify block shows up taller than the embedded spotify in a classic block.
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I’ve put the screen shot – which is while it’s in draft and before using preview – in this downloadable link:
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Hmm, I might not have understood what you’re asking. I received a picture of one Spotify embed.
Here’s a screenshot of what I mean, with both side by side:
The block doesn’t show the cover image, but it’s easy to see the classic and block are embedding differently and that the block version will be taller. Is that what you see?
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The block doesn’t show the cover image when you’re editing but it does in preview and once posted.
So the issue is that it should show the same when editing as in preview or when posted.
Thank you!
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I don’t think that’s always possible with embeds, but we can pass that request along. Cheers!
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Thank you. The problem is that the free version of WordPress is starting to become more and more like the “block editor” version which I can’t stand and find very awkward to use. If the classic editor is ever eliminated, I can see myself looking for another platform unless the “block editor” version is made more user-friendly. I really shouldn’t have to save my posts in classic editor and then switch to the regular editor to post Spotify links, it’s an unnecessary extra step for someone like me with over 2,700 blog posts on WordPress.
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The free WordPress project is managed by a much larger community than the forums staff and volunteers here. The people driving its direction are those who contribute to it most, and they decided to move toward blocks several years ago.
That said, while I can’t do a lot with feedback about blocks being awkward or unlikable, if you’ll let us know what specific issue you’re running into, we can pass that feedback along so that it can be taken into account.
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