Spotify crashes globally with “something went wrong” error, affecting mobile and desktop users.

 Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming platform, suffered a major global outage on Wednesday, leaving millions of users unable to access music, podcasts, or playlists on both desktop and mobile devices.

The disruption, which began just after 2pm UK time (9am Eastern), sparked immediate online chaos as frustrated listeners took to social media to complain that their playlists had suddenly gone silent.

A generic error message—“Something went wrong. Try again.”—greeted users attempting to access the app, with no further explanation provided in-app. Spotify later acknowledged the issue on X (formerly Twitter), posting, “We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out!”

But for many, the brief statement did little to ease the irritation, particularly as the glitch struck during the middle of the working day—a peak time for music streaming at desks and home offices around the world.

Spotify’s own support website, which typically provides live updates on service interruptions, was also knocked offline in the chaos, offering no reprieve or reassurance for paying subscribers left in the dark.

The issue appeared to affect all platforms, with users across iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS reporting identical problems—songs refusing to play, endless loading screens, and entire libraries suddenly inaccessible.

According to third-party service tracker DownDetector, reports of issues surged just after the hour and spanned Europe, North America, and beyond.

The outage comes at an especially embarrassing time for Spotify, arriving exactly one week after a shorter—but similar—disruption briefly cut off access for a smaller group of users.

Though the company has yet to confirm a cause, the timing and recurrence of outages have raised questions about the platform’s infrastructure and ability to handle peak traffic.

Spotify boasts an enormous global footprint, with over 675 million users and 263 million paying subscribers in more than 180 markets. That scale makes even minor hiccups deeply felt—and in this case, it’s proving difficult for Spotify to manage user expectations when two incidents occur just days apart.

“I was halfway through my gym playlist when it just stopped,” said one user on Reddit. “Then I tried to reload the app and it wouldn’t open. Now it’s just a black screen and I’m lifting weights in silence like it’s 1995.”

Others joked that they had been “forced to talk to co-workers” or “left with nothing but the sound of their own thoughts”—unwanted silence in the middle of their daily grind.

There is, as of yet, no official estimate on when full service will resume. Spotify’s brief public update offered no timeframe for resolution, and the support site remained down at the time of reporting.

Tech analysts note that outages of this scale, while rare, are not entirely unheard of among massive platforms. Spotify, like other major online services, is reliant on a complex web of servers, content delivery networks, and APIs—all of which must work in perfect harmony to deliver music instantly to users across the globe.

Still, two outages in a week for a multi-billion-dollar tech company isn’t a good look.

Until Spotify’s engineers patch things up, many users are turning to offline playlists, rival services like Apple Music and YouTube Music, or simply rediscovering the art of silence.

For now, one thing’s certain—when the music stops, people notice.