Spotify was down — what happened during the major outage

Straggler reports

Some straggler reports are still coming on Down Detector, so it seems not everyone is able to access the music streaming service. The number is right around 1,000, which is small compared to the peak but still worth monitoring.

Spotify comments

A Spotify spokesperson emailed Tom's Guide with a comment about the now-over outage. Here's what they said:

"Spotify experienced an outage today beginning around 6:20am EDT. As of 11:45am EDT, Spotify is back up and functioning normally. You can check @SpotifyStatus X channel for any additional updates," said the Spotify spokesperson.

On our end, our own Ashley Thieme confirmed that the music streaming service is working for her when it was down earlier in the day. I was lucky enough to have Spotify work all day, but for those who weren't, everything should be up and running.

Spotify is back

Spotify jumped on its Spotify Status X account to give the all clear. "All clear – thanks for your patience," the company said on X.

Reports getting low

Over on Down Detector, we're seeing around 2,600 reports. That's a massive drop that indicates that we might be coming to the end of this Spotify outage. Of course, nothing is over until Spotify itself posts an official update saying the fix has been unleashed, but it appears we're moving in the right direction.

Working for many

The comments section on Spotify's status page is filled with users saying the music streaming service is working for them again.

On Down Detector, it's a little harder to tell how users feel, as it's mostly just people trolling about rock music or something. I didn't want to dig too deep into it. From a pure reports perspective, it's down to about 6,000, which is a huge drop from the 48,000 it peaked at.

Try quitting the app

Spotify is currently working for me and it seems other users are having similar luck. On the Spotify Support page, some users in the comments have suggested that force-quitting Spotify and re-launching it cause their music streaming service of choice to start working again.

Your milage may vary on this one, but it certainly won't make things worse. If you're desperate to listen to music right away, quitting might be your best option. If doesn't work, though, you'll just have to be patient or scroll down for some of the best Spotify alternatives.

Status page update

Now that the status page is working, Spotify posted a helpful update regarding the outage. There isn't anything in it that we didn't know, though.

The post acknowledged that users are reporting that the "app isn't loading properly or that they're experiencing playback issues." It also mentioned that "This seems to happen both on mobile and desktop devices."

Under 20,000

While I don't think we're out of the woods for Spotify being down yet, we have dropped below 20k reports for the first time since this massive outage started.

I'm listening now

I launched Spotify on my phone and tried playing some Dance Gavin Dance to great success. Return to Battle Mountain is blasting from my speakers without a problem (I am streaming it, as I don't have this album downloaded).

Am I just one of the lucky few or is Spotify starting to come back? We'll keep you updated as we learn more.

Website working

The Spotify Status website is finally loading for me. Could that be a sign of things to come? Who knows, because it's not updated with anything useful, but at least the website is working for now

Not a hack

Spotify finally posted an update on its account. And while the post doesn't do much to fill us in when the service is slated to return, it does let us know what didn't cause the problem.

"We are aware of the outage and working to resolve it as soon as possible. The reports of this being a security hack are false," reads the SpotifyStatus X post.

So we know it's not a security hack. However, that's all we know for the time being. As always, keep it locked here because we'll bring you the latest updates on the massive Spotify outage as the happen.

Spotify alternatives

While you're probably not able to listen to Spotify right now unless you're one of the lucky people for whom it's still working, there are other ways to listen to music.

In fact, we have an entire page dedicated to the best music streaming services that will guide you along the path. Some quick other ones to consider are:

• Tidal
• Apple Music
• YouTube Music
• Qobuz
• Amazon Music Unlimited
• Deezer

Several of the services above offer free trials, so you can actually avoid paying if you only want to listen while Spotify is still down.

All quiet on X

Spotify last posted on X shortly after the outage started and it hasn't provided any additional updates since. Presumably, the team is working hard on the fix, but it would be nice to get some kind of news about how far along it is and when we can expect our beloved music streaming service to come back.

The first downswing?

Spotify is still hovering around 50,000 outage reports on Down Detector. However, we've seen our first small downswing from 48,000 reports to 43,000 reports. That could just be that users have gotten sick of reporting the extended outage, or it could be that some people are finally getting Spotify to work on their devices.

Either way, this is the first positive sign we've seen since Spotify went down this morning.

Spotify's recommendation

Spotify responded to our request for comment, pointing us to keep an eye on its X account for more updates: "We are aware of some issues, please reference @SpotifyStatus for updates."

You don't need to worry about following the X account, though, as we'll keep you updated as anything happens with the popular music streaming service's outage on the live blog.

All over the place

The outage is all over the U.S., though big cities have a little more density in reports. Of course, that's because more users are there doing reports, and it is not necessarily indicative of the problem being centered on big cities.

In the case of this outage, it seems like it's out everywhere.

Spotify Cares weighs in

Spotify's main support account also posted about the outage on X, saying that the company is aware of the issue and working on a fix. The support account claims that the right team is working on the problem, so hopefully this outage won't last long.

User comments

Spotify being down brings out the entertaining comments on Down Detector. Have you heard of a radio?

We've reached out to Spotify

We've emailed Spotify to see if the company has a comment regarding the outage. We'll add an update to this live blog, but we've heard from out sister site TechRadar that the company is rolling out a fix for search. "The issue with Search has been addressed and an update has begun rolling out to all users," said Spotify to the publication.

Spotify's is aware of the issue

Spotify posted an update on its X account stating that it's aware of issues and is working on them.

Can't access Spotify status page

Unfortunately, whatever server issues Spotify is dealing with are affecting its website, as the status page is coming up with a 502 server error. While it would be nice to be able to see what's happening and it when it's coming back, we'll dig into social media to find out any information we can and bring it to you as we find it.

Reports are rolling in

The reports are coming in fast and furious from users on Down Detector, with Spotify currently sitting at around 45,000 reports. That's one of the higher outage reports from the beloved streaming service, so the outage is most certainly widespread.