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Spotify back up-and-running after worldwide outage, responds to rumours it was hacked

Spotify users have flooded social media websites like X to complain about slower performance and outages with the popular music streaming service
PA
Aaron Brown

By Aaron Brown


Published: 16/04/2025

- 15:56

Updated: 17/04/2025

- 10:44

Spotify has restored all functionality for desktop web browsers and mobile apps

Update | April 17, 2025

Spotify is back up and running, the music streaming giant has announced after it was hit with a service outage which left thousands of users unable to stream music on Wednesday afternoon.

The platform gave the “all clear” around three hours after it first announced that it was aware people were experiencing “issues”.
Spotify denied its service outage was the result of a “security hack”.

Our original coverage of the outage, which contains out-of-date information since the service was restored, follows below...

Thousands of Spotify subscribers have been left unable to listen to music on the service due to an ongoing outage.

Spotify is the most popular music streaming service on the planet. Subscriptions start from £11.99 a month, which grants unlimited access to over 100 million music tracks and playlists. Spotify also boasts 6 million podcasts and thousands of audiobooks.

However, most of that content remains inaccessible to thousands of Spotify subscribers today.

An unknown glitch, which seems to have hit the service around 3pm BST, has Spotify fans unable to stream to tracks via an internet connection. While some Spotify are unable to play anything via the web browser, or mobile apps — others claim that songs will begin o play as normal, but pause after 10 seconds.

Songs and albums downloaded to your device for offline viewing continue to work, but music that isn't stored locally will not play.

Spotify has acknowledged the ongoing troubles... but failed to provide a timeline for a fix, or an explanation of the cause.

"We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out!," a spokesperson for the music streaming service shared on X, formerly Twitter. In a separate post, Spotify responded to rumours that its ongoing issues were caused by a hack.

It added: "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."

Spotify also shared an update on its website with a few more details. It reads: "We're seeing reports from users that the app isn't loading properly or that they're experiencing playback issues.

"Others report that they're having issues accessing the Support site. This seems to happen both on mobile and desktop devices."

If you're one of the lucky ones still able to access the Spotify Support website — despite the outage, then it's possible to subscribe to updates to the error. Spotify will send a notification when the error has been found and fixed.

chart showing the latest Spotify down reports from Down Detector

In the UK alone, tens of thousands of Spotify subscribers have flagged issues with the music streaming service

DOWN DETECTOR UK

According to service status website Down Detector, problems with the music streaming service kickstarted on Wednesday afternoon, and more than 50,000 in the United States of America have flagged issues. In the UK, Down Detector data shows over 20,000 Spotify subscribers have reported problems with the service.

As well as the outage blocking Spotify users from playing music within Android, iPhone, iPad and other tablet apps — the website and integrations with smart assistants like Amazon's Alexa smart home gadgets also appear unresponsive.

Despite the slew of Spotify subscribers who are unable to stream their music, disappointed users posting on X are taking the outage with a sense of humour.

Other users report the platform is slow or unresponsive.

In February, the Sweden-based firm announced its user numbers had hit a record high of 675 million globally, a rise of 12% over the last year.

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