April 16, 2025 – Spotify experienced a significant global outage today, disrupting music and podcast streaming for millions of users, particularly in the United States and Europe. The issues began around 8:45 AM ET, with users reporting problems accessing the platform across web players, desktop apps, and mobile devices.
Over 40,000 Reports at Peak
Downdetector, a service that monitors outages, recorded over 40,000 reports at the peak of the disruption. Both free and premium subscribers were affected, with many encountering:
- Blank screens on the app
- Unplayable tracks
- Error messages like "Server connection failed"
"Was in the middle of my morning podcast when Spotify died. Thought it was just me until I checked Twitter!"
— @PodcastFan2025 on X
Spotify's Response
After initial speculation about a potential cyberattack, Spotify confirmed the outage was not caused by a security breach. Services began recovering approximately one hour after the first reports, with most functionality restored by late morning.
The company stated: "We're aware of the disruption and are working to resolve it. Users still experiencing issues may need to restart their app or check our status page for updates."
Global Impact
With over 675 million users worldwide (including 263 million premium subscribers), even brief Spotify outages can have widespread effects. Today's incident highlights society's growing reliance on streaming platforms for daily entertainment and information.