Currently I have Vivaldi 1.7.735.46 Stable and Chrome 56.0.2924.87. Spotify web player works (I have a payed-for account, premium or whatever it's called). The above Spotify not working issues are some of the most asked puzzles Spotify users run up against. Other problems like content mission, music fast forwards or skips when playing, Spotify plays stutters while streaming, etc may be out of your tolerance. If so, you are suggested to find a Spotify alternative to play music at your fingertips to.
- Spotify Mac Not Opening
- Is Spotify Not Working
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Nobody hates black despite being the darkest. It goes with everything. The only time one dreads of black when it comes to displaying something on a screen. That’s because it always means trouble. If you are getting a black screen on Spotify Web Player, this is the correct place to know how to fix it.
Web apps are great. They are independent of browsers and platforms for they work everywhere without the need to install anything extra. Spotify, besides having a desktop app, also has an amazing web player. But it doesn’t work sometimes.
For many users, the Spotify Web Player either stops working or shows a black screen as soon as they open it. In case you are also going through the same issue, use the following tips to fix it.
Let’s start the troubleshooting process.
1. Restart Browser
Since the issue is in the browser, you should start by closing it. Sometimes, a simple restart will fix the issue. In case restarting the browser fails to help you, restart your device too.
2. Sign In
If the black screen appears when you try playing a song or while adding a song to a playlist, you should verify whether you are signed into Spotify or not. In case you aren’t, login instantly.
3. Play Next Song
The solution may seem random but it has fixed the black screen issue for many Spotify users. What you need to do is play a song on Spotify mobile apps and then cast it to a web player. Here are the steps in detail:
Step 1: Open the Spotify Web Player in your browser. Then open the Spotify app on your mobile or PC.
Note: Make sure you are logged in with the same accounts.Step 2: Play any song on the Spotify app. Once the song starts playing, you will see the 'Devices Available' text below the song title. Tap on it.
Step 3: On the next screen, tap on the devices icon and select Web Player from the available options.
Step 4: The song will start playing on your PC. Refresh the Spotify page on your PC and that’s it. The black screen will disappear.
The issue happens because Spotify fails to load the last played song. By playing a song on other platforms, things get fixed.
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4. Clear Browser Cache and Cookie
Clearing browser cache and cookies is also a helpful way to fix the black screen issue on Spotify. We will tell you the steps for the Chrome browser here.
Step 1: Launch Chrome browser and click on the three-dot icon at the top. Go to Settings. Alternatively, you can type chrome://settings in the address bar to load the settings quickly.
Step 2: Scroll down in the settings and click on Advanced.
Step 3: Under Privacy and security, click on Clear browsing data.
Step 4: Check the boxes next to ‘Cached images and files’ and ‘Cookies and other site data’ options. Then click on the Clear data button at the bottom.
Step 5: Restart your PC.
If you use Spotify through a browser on your mobile too, we would suggest clearing cache and cookies on the mobile browser as well.
5. Disable Extensions
Sometimes, an extension could also be responsible for Spotify not working issue on the web player. To find that, you will have to disable the extensions on your browser one by one. Once disabled, restart your browser and play a song on Spotify's Web Player. Repeat it for every extension to find the culprit.
6. Check Ad Blockers
Spotify Mac Not Opening
If you use an ad blocker, try disabling it for a while. Relaunch the browser and try playing a song. If the issue is fixed, your ad blocker is hampering with Spotify. That doesn’t mean you will have to keep it disabled. What you can do is add the Spotify website in the ad blocker whitelist. Open the ad blocker settings, and you will find the whitelist option.
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Click here to see our music articles page7. Disable Hardware Acceleration
Follow these steps to disable hardware acceleration in Chrome:
Step 1: Open Chrome settings from the three-dot icon. Alternatively, you can type chrome://settings in the address bar.
Step 2: Click on Advanced to reveal more settings.
Step 3: Scroll down and turn off the toggle present next to Use hardware acceleration when available. It’s present under System.
Step 4: You will be asked to relaunch the browser. Click on relaunch. Hopefully, the issue should be fixed after that.
8. Enable Flash
Some users have reported that enabling Flash for Spotify fixes the black screen issue for them. Browsers provide different content settings where you can enable and disable things like Flash for individual sites.
To whitelist Flash for Spotify, open the website and click on the icon before the website URL. On some browsers, you will find it on the right side of the URL. Then, under Flash, either select Allow or Ask first.
9. Fix Spotify Web Player Not Working on Mobile
Is Spotify not working on your mobile browser too? To fix it, start by clearing browser cache and cookies.
Then, you should change it to the desktop view. Many browsers let you do that. The option is usually available under settings. On Chrome, tap on the three-dot icon and check the Desktop site. Reload the Spotify page to fix the issue.
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How to Turn Spotify Lyrics on for All Devices
Read MoreBrowser Throws Music Woes
At times, the issue is in the network. So try connecting the Spotify Web Player through a different network than the current one. In case everything fails to fix the issue, you should download the Spotify apps. They are available for both mobile and desktop.
Next up: After Spotify is up and running, check out these tips and tricks to use Spotify to the fullest.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Read Next21 Spotify Music Tips and Tricks You Must Check OutAlso See#spotify #troubleshooting
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Tencent Holdings is China’s largest company – with an imperious market cap valuation of more than $250bn.
It also happens to be the world’s third-biggest music subscription business – one which poses a serious threat to the global ambitions of Spotify and Apple Music.
Last year, Tencent spent big to acquire a majority stake in $2.7bn-valued China Music Corp, taking control of two key music platforms – Kuwo and KuGou.
Added together with its own QQ Music, which boasts 200m monthly active users, Tencent now services over 15m paying music subscribers – with an estimated digital music market-share in China of over 77%.
And get this: unlike Spotify, Deezer, TIDAL, Pandora and pretty much any other standalone music streaming service in existence, QQ Music is consistently profitable (just like its parent company).
Tencent is in an especially strong position, because bright people are expecting very big things from its home nation.
Spotify premium student hulu free. Hulu is only available in the U.S.Rules.Be kind.
Universal’s SVP Jonathan Dworkin predicted this week said that China could become the largest recorded music market in the world over the next decade – surpassing the USA, Japan, the UK and Germany.
Right now, with a population of 1.36bn (over 4x that of the USA), China is the globe’s 10th largest music market – yet it’s one with a worryingly small spend per head.
According to the IFPI, China generated $169.7m for recorded music rights-holders in 2015, up 63.8% on 2014, but per capita (person) spend on recorded music was just $0.10.
Tencent is certainly attempting to turn the Chinese market into a gold-mine for rights-holders.
The company’s Vice President, Andy Ng, tells MBW that when he joined the business in 2011, China’s digital music market was defined by sprawling, unchecked piracy.
“Inspired by what happened with the games and video industries, I told the Tencent board I believed there was massive room for growth in the China music market,” says Ng.
“We estimated that over 700m people were using apps to listen to music in China. Meanwhile, the conversion rate of free users to paid subscribers for services like Spotify was around 30%.
“If 30% of those 700m users in China were willing to pay for a subscription service, we knew it would bring a lot of money into the music industry.”
“When I joined tencent, i told the board there was massive room for growth in the china music market.”
andy ng, tencent
He’s not kidding.
Ng is describing the possibility of 210m new paying subscribers being drafted into music.
That’s around double the amount of people currently paying for Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer et. al around the globe.
Ng’s plan to fight back against free pirated content in China – once easily available on QQ Music rivals such as NetEase, Alibaba and Baidu – was three-pronged.
First, Tencent secured exclusive online distribution deals with Sony, Warner and a number of independent labels such as JVR and Linfair, as well as Believe Digital.
Then, while heavily investing in anti-piracy legal firepower, Tencent leveraged these deals to convince artists to publicly encourage their fans away from copyright-infringing sites.
The third and final piece of Ng’s masterplan was a notion that would make Daniel Ek bristle: the blatant windowing of high-profile albums, with key new releases only available to customers who agreed to paid a few extra yuan for a download.
“[Offering windowed digital albums for a one-off fee] it’s very easy for us to reach over 5m sales, on average.”
andy ng, tencent
The first test of this strategy came with a digital album by Chinese star Jay Chou, and was a tentative success – with over 170,000 sales in its first month.
A few more trials followed – before a windowed album by Korean band Big Bang sold over 6m copies.
Says Ng: “A lot of well-known Chinese artists then asked us to co-operate for their releases, and now it’s very easy for us to reach over 5m sales with one single album, on average.
“At the same time, we are pushing users to join the monthly subscription service, and that’s how we got to 15m subscribers today.”
Tencent’s streaming services offer three paid-for tiers, priced at 8, 12 and 15 yuan ($1.16/$1.74/$2.18) a month.
Of its 15m subscriber base – 10m of which are on QQ Music – Ng says 70% of users pay the lowest tier, with 20-25% paying the highest price.
To push them into committing, premium subscribers are offered extras like concert tickets and games credits.
“On average, we are charging the Chinese users about 10 yuan a month, which equates to a total of 115m yuan ($16.7m), and that’s just the beginning.”
andy ng, tencent
Ng explains: “On average, we are charging the Chinese users about 10 yuan a month, which equates to a total of 115m yuan ($16.7m). And that’s just the beginning.
“As the market becomes much healthier we do believe that our subscription base will continue to increase.”
Tencent’s power in the Chinese market is currently untouchable.
As the exclusive digital distributor for Warner and Sony’s catalogues in the region, the firm actually sets the terms rival services must pay to license this content.
That’s the equivalent of Spotify licensing Sony’s catalogue to Apple, or vice-versa.
Ng argues that Tencent is happy to license this music to competitors of QQ Music at a fair rate – but only if these platforms operate a paid-for service and follow basic anti-piracy rules.
Universal continues to hold out from signing an exclusive deal with Tencent (although it does have a non-exclusive deal across QQ and various other services).
Outside of streaming, Tencent isn’t shy about splashing out to acquire copyrights.
It controls a 12% stake in Activision Blizzard – the biggest ‘premium’ video games company on earth and the maker of Call Of Duty.
And in 2011, Tencent paid approximately $400m to buy California studio Riot Games, creator of online title League Of Legends.
Tencent, which carries a $255bn valuation on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, also operates chat app WeChat, social networking site Qzone, online game portal QQ Game Platform, news websites QQ.com and Tencent News, and offers video content via Tencent Video.
In an exclusive Q&A ahead of a keynote address at Midem in June, we found out what Andy Ng makes of a wealth of music business issues.
Read on for his verdict on Apple Musiclaunching in China, how QQ Music turns a profit (and Spotify doesn’t), why he’d encourage Universal to sign on the dotted line – and whether Tencent has any plans to acquire music copyrights in the near future…
It’s interesting that QQ Music is profitable, while other bigger streaming services like Spotify aren’t. How are you able to operate a streaming service that makes a healthy net income?
The China market was somewhere nobody expected growth so when we were negotiating terms with the labels we were able to secure deals that left room for making a profit.
Also, from a management perspective, Tencent has tight control over the cost of human resources.
Just to give you an example, even if you’re a General Manager in Tencent, if you’re not flying long distances, you still have to sit in economy class. And the hotel that you stay in won’t be five stars!
What do you offer record labels in return for exclusive licenses?
We are giving them a very significant lump sum minimum guarantee with revenue share, and we help them fight piracy by creating a different business model.
We also have some non-exclusive agreements with other music labels.
The labels own equity in Spotify. they don’t own a stake in QQ Music?
Not at all.
We make marketing and promotion commitments to their artists, that could be helping them play concerts all over the world or in the Greater China region. Can you download spotify playlist to apple watch.
We offer marketing support as well as financial support.
Universal remains without an exclusive deal in china. would you encourage them to sign one with tencent? if so, why?
Universal Music has signed up with many different music portals on a non-exclusive basis, including Tencent, and others like Alibaba, NetEase and Baidu that are still offering free Universal content.
In order to make the industry healthier and grow revenue from streaming in the China market, I believe that Universal should consider giving us a chance.
As the sole distributor for Sony Music, Warner Music and a lot of different independent labels, we have successfully migrated all of their content to the paid model pool.
“I believe that Universal should consider giving us a chance.”
I’ve always told the music labels who formed an exclusive partnership with us that one day, when we have made the China market over 90-95% legitimate, [they can] decide whether they still want to continue the exclusive sole distribution partnership.
Once the market is mature enough and there’s not so much piracy going on, the labels might want to negotiate with all the music portals for non-exclusive agreements and I’m okay with that. As long as the market has changed, everybody can make a profit, and the labels might one day decide to end our strategic partnership.
Why has Universal been the last to hold out?
Maybe Universal is concerned that if they give a company a sole distribution deal it might harm their brand if it doesn’t work out well. They may lose control.
According to Universal, they have never really done this kind of a strategic partnership before so they might have concerns.
Warner and Sony Music have given us the exclusive rights for two years – giving us a chance to fix the market and see how it goes. Recently we have renewed our exclusive deals with them because they were very pleased with what we have done for the past few years.
Apple Music has launched in china. spotify is yet to arrive. Are either of them a threat to you?
Any legitimate service makes the industry healthier. However, if you’re asking whether these two competitors will become a threat to Tencent in the China market, I would probably say no, not that much.
We have a lot of local content, which I believe Apple Music and Spotify do not have at the moment. In China, there are a lot of songs that aren’t signed with any labels – tonnes of them.
That local content is very important; it’s difficult if you don’t have a connection to get those artists or musicians to allow you to distribute that music.
“local content is very important in china; it’s difficult if you don’t have a connection to get those artists or musicians to allow you to distribute that music.”
In addition, I believe the user preference when it comes to the interface and experience of the app is very different with Chinese people versus English people.
If Spotify and Apple Music are following the global user interface and experience of their apps, I believe they will find it very difficult to increase their user-base in the China market.
Before I joined Tencent, I was working for Nokia’s global music brand called Comes with Music in China. The app was developed in Finland and the Chinese users didn’t find the music service easy to use so we were not successful in the China market.
can tencent launch successful digital music companies anywhere outside of asia?
Two years ago we tailor-made Joox and expanded to Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and we are now expanding to the India market.
I think it’s doing well but we are not making good money because the market is too mature in a lot of the places it launched.
In Hong Kong, for example, the population is 6m.
“We’re focusing on the Asia market over the next few years.”
Within that there are about 100k citizens who are using music services, and there are 6 – 7 other competitors already there. The market is too small and the industry is too mature for a big breakthrough.
Plus, if every music portal charges 40 Hong Kong dollars a month and a price war breaks out, if you want to charge a higher price users aren’t going to subscribe.
We’re focusing on the Asia market over the next few years. Then we will decide whether other countries have better potential for a music service like Joox.
You distribute music copyright but directly own games content. Is Tencent interested in acquisition of music copyright?
We’ve debated this internally many times over the last few years. It’s case-by-case, but in general, we have decided that Tencent is not interested in acquiring music labels outright. Some investors and senior management think it would make sense but I’ve been kicking back because I think it would bring a very big conflict between us and music labels.
Labels compete with each other and if one day Tencent bought one of the majors, the others would think we are a competitor. So if we are a competitor, would they shut down the licensing partnership, or would they continue to license their artist’s content to our portal?
“We don’t have the expertise needed to run a music label business… However,we wouldn’t mind exploring an investment, like owning a small portion of a music label’s shares – 10/20/30%.”
To me, it’s just too big of a risk. We also don’t have the expertise needed to run a music label business. We don’t have knowledge about A&R, management and physical CDs. I feel pretty strongly about avoiding owning a majority stake in a music label.
However,we wouldn’t mind exploring an investment, like owning a small portion of a music label’s shares – 10/20/30%.
We’d consider investing in a really important music label that could create different strategic partnerships with, not only for our music service, but also using the IP of artists in the games or filming business.
Do you expect the likes of Google, Amazon and Alibaba to buy copyrights in the future?
I think they have a different thought process [to Tencent].
Alibaba has been doing it already, not only for music, but also with films and video services.
Is Spotify Not Working
I do believe [those companies] will explore that business.
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