Spotify users around the world hit pause—literally—on Wednesday afternoon as a widespread outage left many unable to stream music.

According to real-time tracking service Downdetector, more than 20,000 users began reporting issues with the app around 1:30 PM GMT. The problems weren’t limited to one region, with thousands more chiming in from the U.S. and parts of Europe.

Users quickly realized that while they could still play downloaded music, the app’s search function and artist pages were unresponsive. Any attempt to search resulted in a frustrating message:

“Something went wrong.”
A refresh button appeared, but for most, it didn’t help.

Spotify took to social media to acknowledge the issue:

“We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out.”

Later, the company told the BBC that the search-related issue had been addressed and an update was being rolled out to users. However, Spotify didn’t say how long it would take for things to return to normal across the board.

Spotify boasts more than 675 million users worldwide, and many took to social media to vent their frustration. Some said the outage ruined their gym session, others were in the middle of studying and relied on their playlists to focus.

One user tweeted:

“I can’t work out without my playlist. Fix it, Spotify!”

Others went a step further, threatening to switch to rivals like Apple Music or YouTube Music if the service wasn’t restored soon.

While outages like these are typically resolved quickly, they serve as a reminder of how dependent many of us have become on streaming services for everything from motivation at the gym to background noise while working or studying.

Spotify has yet to confirm the exact cause of the issue or provide a full resolution timeline—but for now, if you’ve got music downloaded, you’re in luck.

Source: BBC – Thousands report Spotify problems around the world

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