Spotify was in turmoil on Sunday morning, with thousands of users reporting technical issues accessing the streaming service.
According to uptime monitoring service Downdetector, Spotify user error reports began to spike around 10:45 a.m. ET on September 29th. The number of complaints rose to more than 9,000 by 11 a.m. and more than 15,000 as of 11:35 a.m., according to Downdetector. Spotify’s desktop app caused some users to receive a “something went wrong” error message and failed when trying to play a song or album. The streamer’s smartphone app was also unresponsive for many users.
User reports about Downdetector spread to the United States, and Spotify listeners in Canada and other countries also reported issues.
On Sunday, X’s Spotify Status and Spotify Cares customer service accounts gave no immediate indication of broader issues with the service. In response to some users on X who said the service wasn’t working, the Spotify Cares account suggested they reinstall the app and see if the problem was resolved. The support team also advised users to log out, restart their devices, and try logging in again.
Spotify, like other large internet distribution services, has experienced intermittent outages in the past. For example, in March 2022, users of the service encountered problems logging in and Spotify announced that their username and password were incorrect. These issues were resolved after about an hour and a half.
As of the end of June, Spotify reported 626 million total monthly active users, an increase of 11 million from the previous quarter, including 246 million premium subscribers. (An increase of 7 million people in the second quarter). The company reported record quarterly net income of 274 million euros and sales of 3.81 billion euros, up 20% year-on-year.
