Music won't play smoothly at some hours.

[blaszergling]

Hi, so that's my problem. Music is not loading properly, seems like a connection problem, songs pause every few seconds making it impossible to listen to music. It doesn't happen all the time, in the mornings it usually works fine, but in the afternoons and especially evenings can be impossible to play music and very frustrating. It has been happening since the beginning of the summer, before that it was perfect.

I thought it could be a problem with my internet but everything else works fine: downloads, Youtube, other streaming services, P2P client, games… I tried some tests and nothing seems to have changed with my connection.
I tried the troubleshooting guides, disabled the firewall, disabled hardware acceleration and opened ports (I think, not sure if successfully) and nothing worked.

Web Spotify works fine though, the problem is with the desktop and Android clients.

I’m running Windows 8 64 bit, my PC is powerful enough, Spotify Premium version 0.9.4.169.gc0399df6 and my Internet provider is Movistar (Spain) who also happens to have Spotify Premium as an offer.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling both in Android and Windows. I think that’s all.

Help will be very much appreciated, if I can´t solve this I will have to cancel my Premium subscription, it makes no sense to pay for something that doesn’t work 😞

EDIT: ah, my account name is blasbrains, don't know why this changed it.

[meahtenoha]

Hi blaszergling - How are your offline playlists when you go into Offline Mode. Is your desktop one of your 3 office devices?

How does the web player work for you at those times?

[blaszergling]

Thanks for answering so fast.

I just tried and when I go offline I can play the offline playlists without problems.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by "3 office devices", I use Spotify on a desktop, a laptop and my Android mobile if that helps.

When I have problems with the desktop client, if I switch to the web player it usually works fine.

[Joe]

From what you say, it seems that Movistar might be throttling P2P traffic which is pretty bizarre considering their tie-in with Spotify. I'd be inclined to speak to their support to see if they can offer any explanation.

[blaszergling]

Yes, I thought that too but I called Movistar support and they denied it, I checked the Movistar support forums too and more people has this same problem. Movistar is referring us to the Spotify support saying the problem is Spotify and not the Movistar service.

Also I regularly use P2P clients and they work fine.

[quimrod]

Hi, same problem here. I've been noticing this some days ago and today it's totally impossible to listen to music, it gets paused every 40 seconds or so and it gets 10 seconds or more between you click play on a song and it begins to play.

I'm on Mac OS X 10.8.5, Spotify Premium 0.9.4.169.gc0399df6. And it's the same on my iPad. Everything else seems to be ok. I'm using high quality streaming.

If I put a playlist in offline mode then everything is ok, but I've noticed that it gets a lot of time to download the songs. 

Oh! And my internet provider is also Movistar.

[Joe]

Hmmm.......there's also this thread about movistar slowness.

[Joe]

And another.............I'm starting to see a pattern.

[quimrod · Accepted solution]

I've just called to Movistar support and they have told me that they have a "general issue" (whatever that means...) with spotify since yesterday and are working to fix it. They have told me that I'll be called when it's resolved...

So, as Joe have pointed out, it seems to be a problem on the Movistar side...

I'll post here with any update...

[Joe]

Awesome, thank you for getting this information and posting. Hopefully things will be working properly soon for all of you 🙂