Spotify's Global Outage: Millions Left in Silence - What Happened?

Spotify experienced a significant global outage affecting tens of thousands of users who couldn’t stream music via the app. The company announced that the platform is now “back up and functioning normally,” but it did not provide details about the cause of the disruption. Initial concerns about a potential security hack were dismissed as ”completely inaccurate” by Spotify.

Downdetector reported approximately 20,000 complaints around 13:30 GMT on Wednesday, highlighting the scale of the issue. During the outage, users faced difficulties such as being unable to search for artists or explore the app’s features, although they could still listen to music downloaded on their devices. Users reported an error message stating ”something went wrong” when attempting to search.

Spotify acknowledged the problems through social media, assuring users that they were investigating the matter. Frustrated users took to various platforms, expressing their discontent and urgency for a fix, especially during activities like working out and studying. Some even expressed their intent to switch to competing services like YouTube or Apple Music due to the outage’s impact on their music experience. This incident highlights the reliability challenges faced by major streaming services and the immediate influence such outages can have on user satisfaction.