Spotify app on Apply TV only playing out of center and left channel

Exact same issue for me. Left and center only audio. Right has nothing. All other apps are normal. Also running through a AVR.

Well, as a result of having waded into this thread, I accepted a Spotify email offer of 2 months of Premium free trial. Now I can report that the Spotify app on the ATV4K, currently v1.44.1, is playing regular stereo music as expected. My ATV4K is plugged into a Sony HT-Z9F Soundbar's HDMI1 port, and the soundbar's also connected to my LG TV's eARC HDMI port.

Again, the Spotify app's sending an LPCM 2.0 ch 48kHz stream to the soundbar. It sounded like I was getting music through all 3 of the '3.1 soundbar's front speakers in AUTO SOUND mode ("Display" reported the LPCM 2.0 ch 48kHz with spiffy surround processing). In the soundbar's MUSIC mode, there was no processing, and I was clearly getting left and right speakers-active stereo with a passive center speaker.

Dcjimmy wrote:

Did they reach out directly addressing the issue???

Nah. I just finally accepted one of their spam offers in pursuit of subscribers. I had done a trial previously, maybe paid for a month or two, and decided I preferred Pandora stations tuned to my personal tastes. Also, their software for iOS and Apple TV was getting a lot of complaints on their support forums regarding their lacking and obfuscated-in-favor-of-their-**** support of AirPlay 2.

Anyway, I simply can't replicate your problem. The current spotify app on the Apple TV 4K plays music correctly on my system. You might try deleting and reinstalling the app. Then I would take a closer look at your AVR settings/firmware etc. I'm guessing it's something in Apple's decode/reassembly of the Spotify audio bits that's confused by Spotify's packaging. I'd still be curious about what your Sony thinks it's playing while putting the spoty right channel in the center.

Happening with me as well.

I have changed audio format in Apple TV settings to DD5.1, and now Spotify is playing Left and Center channels, instead of Left and Right.

Apple TV 4K is connected to Sony 55x900F, and Sony TV is connected to Yamaha RX-V359 via SPDIF.

Receiver is getting 5.1 feed.

bump

I also have this problem. Apple TV to TV via HDMI, optical output to receiver. With Spotify specifically it has the audio as left + centre rather than left + right

Dcjimmy wrote:

I’ve been playing music through the Spotify app and have noticed this is the only app with this error. YouTube, MAX, ESPN all output the sound correctly.

When adjusting the “balance” in the Accessibility menu the center channel acts as if it is the right channel if I move the selector to the far right, left channel functions normally.

It sounds like you're confused about what the Settings --> Accessibility --> Balance adjustment does. My impression is that control is like the balance knob on an old stereo - when 'centered', the two (left and right) channels are at equal volume. It has nothing to do with a "center channel" in a multichannel surround sound setup.

Please elaborate on your AV hardware and what you're hearing with the Spotify app. I'm guessing most of the audio from Spotify is going to be stereo, but there may be some hi-res tracks in ATMOS format that may be throwing you a curve?

The ATV4K is probably unique in the way it decodes all the incoming audio, then repackages it. HDMI receivers get uncompressed multichannel LPCM. I believe Apple's motivation is all about how they're able to branch audio off to AirPods and HomePods with 'immersive audio' flair. Sadly, their legit-but-less-common means of delivering Dolby ATMOS multichannel content as uncompressed LPCM can cause some AVRs, soundbars and TV [e]ARC functions to choke! It would be cool if Apple added a digital audio passthrough function, but I digress.

Because the ATV4K generally handles audio differently, I would assume the Spotify apps on your TV and other devices work normally with your Sony AVR. Right? Well, because it's a Sony, try pressing the "Display" button on your Sony AVR's remote to see what it says about the ATV4K's weird Spotify stream. I would expect "LPCM 2.0 ch 48kHz" like I see with Pandora and with stereo cuts on Apple Music.

On the ATV4K, check out Settings > Video and Audio and select Audio Format - It should say something about ATMOS being available. You could troubleshoot by tweaking the formats under there, try forcing Dolby 5.1 output to see what happens... but it sounds like a Spotify app issue if you're doing well with ATMOS (and other audio formats) on your other apps.

[wow... so much typing but not much said :-)]

I’m having the same problem. ATV4K into my Sony OLED. All apps sounding just fine except Spotify playing only thru Left & Center. As Apple’s main music competitor, I don’t think Apple is very motivated to fix Spotify!