[New Issue]: Playback stopped with blacklisted domain.

[OfficialMuffin]

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I have the PiHole list installed on my PiHole instance. I have found that this domain audio-ak.spotifycdn.com blocks Spotify playback on my android device. When I whitelisted this domain, Spotify began to play music again.

However, ads are sneaking through using this domain it seems.

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[Isaaker]

Hi again @OfficialMuffin ,

Can you try to keep audio-ak.spotifycdn.com blacklisted while whitelisting this ones:

audio-ak-spotify-com.akamaized.net
audio-ake.spotify.com.edgesuite.net

Please, try it and if it fixes the issue I would include the domains above as whitelist.

Regards.

[n0w33d]

Hi again @OfficialMuffin ,

Can you try to keep audio-ak.spotifycdn.com blacklisted while whitelisting this ones:

audio-ak-spotify-com.akamaized.net
audio-ake.spotify.com.edgesuite.net

Please, try it and if it fixes the issue I would include the domains above as whitelist.

Regards.

I tried to keep audio-ak.spotifycdn.com blocked and added the two domains you mentioned to my whitelist and this did not correct the issue.

[OfficialMuffin]

Hi @n0w33d, I hae tried that, audio plays but ads still slip though. Am I missing something?

[n0w33d]

Hi @n0w33d, I hae tried that, audio plays but ads still slip though. Am I missing something?

I was having trouble playing audio with the current domains being blocked, and Isaaker's request to test adding two domains to the whitelist did not immediately reflect any change and audio playback remains to be blocked (also most album art images are being blocked as well. BUT! also SOME video ads and image ads are blocked which is nice)

You probably are not actually implementing the domain blocks if ads are still coming through, OR the ads were cached and you need to purge it

[Isaaker]

Sorry for the delay in my answer.

I'm very busy right now and it's difficult for me to resolve this, but I think I know how to fix the problem. I'll send an update here soon.

[Isaaker]

Also, please send me any useful info you can collect like: logs, blocked domains, behaviour while blocking or not...

You can send it here or by email

That would be very useful for me!

[Isaaker]

These are the domain records for reference.

audio-ak.spotifycdn.com

Query Domain	TTL (Seconds)	Class	Record Type	Response Value
audio-ak.spotifycdn.com	300	IN	CNAME	audio-ak.spotifycdn.com.edgesuite.net.
audio-ak.spotifycdn.com.edgesuite.net	21600	IN	CNAME	a297.dscc.akamai.net.
a297.dscc.akamai.net	20	IN	A	2.17.112.224
a297.dscc.akamai.net	20	IN	A	2.17.112.130

audio-ak-spotify-com.akamaized.net

Query Domain	TTL (Seconds)	Class	Record Type	Response Value
audio-ak-spotify-com.akamaized.net	300	IN	CNAME	a297.dscc.akamai.net.
a297.dscc.akamai.net	20	IN	A	2.17.112.130
a297.dscc.akamai.net	20	IN	A	2.17.112.224

audio-ake.spotify.com.edgesuite.net

Query Domain	TTL (Seconds)	Class	Record Type	Response Value
audio-ake.spotify.com.edgesuite.net.	21600	IN	CNAME	a297.c.akamai.net.
a297.c.akamai.net	20	IN	A	2.17.112.224
a297.c.akamai.net	20	IN	A	2.17.112.130

audio-fa-tls13.spotifycdn.com

Query Domain	TTL (Seconds)	Class	Record Type	Response Value
audio-fa-tls13.spotifycdn.com	290	IN	CNAME	region-eng-spotifycdn.cdn-gslb.spotify.com.
region-eng-spotifycdn.cdn-gslb.spotify.com.	290	IN	CNAME	tls13.spotifycdn.map.fastly.net.
tls13.spotifycdn.map.fastly.net	50	IN	A	199.232.210.250
tls13.spotifycdn.map.fastly.net	50	IN	A	199.232.214.250

[OfficialMuffin]

Thankyou for your time @Isaaker,. I will experiment with the domains you have provided and report back soon.

[Isaaker]

Hi everyone,

Just a small follow up to see if someone haves any new information or suggestions about this.

I scheduled to check this myself this afternoon, however, any additional information is more than welcome.

Regards

[n0w33d]

Hi everyone,

Just a small follow up to see if someone haves any new information or suggestions about this.

I scheduled to check this myself this afternoon, however, any additional information is more than welcome.

Regards

So i just whitelisted the four domains you mentioned and now the Android app is completely unable to connect to the Spotify net, stating that I am "offline", when I am truly not and literally using the same device to send this comment.

I am using "BLACKLIST-mixed.txt", and manually added the following to a dynamic whitelist:

audio-ak.spotifycdn.com audio-ak-spotify-com.akamaized.net audio-ake.spotify.com.edgesuite.net audio-fa-tls13.spotifycdn.com

It completely blocks Spotify, so no ads, but also now no music as well.

[Isaaker]

Yes, that comment was just for reference. I sent it because it showed the domains that had been reported as problematic and the records (CNAME redirects and IPs linked to the domains) for testing purposes.

The domains I sent should not be included in the whitelist.

Anyway, I have been doing some testing and I have no playback issues with the latest stable version of the list.

The idea would be to try different configurations, locking and unlocking the domains I sent until you find the point where the audio can be heard correctly.

[n0w33d]

I am going to use "default_ad_blocklist.txt" next and see if that improves anything. I will edit this comment after completion of my tests.

Edit: playback has returned using the other list.

[Isaaker]

Okay, thanks for your help @n0w33d

[Isaaker]

I am going to use "default_ad_blocklist.txt" next and see if that improves anything. I will edit this comment after completion of my tests.

Edit: playback has returned using the other list.

Yes, It might be the mixed blocklist, the domain http://audio-ak-spotify-com.akamaized.net it's in the default ads list that I use to generate the mixed one.

I would make a special file called domain_exclusion.txt, this file would prevent the unlocked (but not whitelisted domains) to be included in the mixed list.

However, I would like @OfficialMuffin to take a look at this before applying the changes, and confirm which version of the blocklist he is using.

Thanks again for your help @n0w33d , I would add you as contributor to the project in the next version 🙂.

[OfficialMuffin]

Thanks all, I'll take a look at this sometime within the next week or so @Isaaker. I'll report back here with my findings.

[n0w33d]

~~So far, all audio ads are blocked. Only video ads come through now, and I can tolerate using Spotify now a little better.~~ Appreciate your work on this repo @Isaaker

Edit: disregard, some ads are still getting through, but playback continues to work fine.