Spotify Web Player No Longer Compatible With Apple's Safari Browser

Friday September 8, 2017 7:15 AM PDT by Mitchel Broussard
Spotify users on the service's Web Player have noticed that they can no longer listen to music in Apple's Safari browser, taking to Spotify's Community web page to discuss the incompatibility between Safari and Spotify's Web Player (via Mac Generation).

In a post published about the topic yesterday by user riegelstamm, it was pointed out that Spotify's system requirements page listed Safari 6 or higher as a supported browser for the Web Player. As of today, that same page has been updated and any mention of Safari has been removed, now only including Chrome 45+, Firefox 47+, Edge 14+, and Opera 32+.

When users visit the Spotify Web Player on Safari, they receive the message, "This browser doesn't support Spotify Web Player. Switch browsers or download Spotify for your desktop."


The same poster contacted Spotify customer support, which responded with a confirmation of Safari's removal from the Web Player's supported browser list.
"After taking a look backstage, we can confirm that after recent updates Safari is no longer a supported browser for Web Player. We're always testing things by adding or removing features to make Spotify better overall. We’re sorry that this means you’re not able to use the Web Player like you could before. We can't say if or when any specific features will be back. But as soon as we’ve got anything to announce, we’ll let everyone know via the Spotify Community. Sorry again for any inconvenience caused, and please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you.

Best wishes,
Rollie
Spotify Customer Support"
Riegelstamm further dug into the details of the Web Player, discovering that the discontinuing of Safari support might have something to do with Google's Widevine media optimizer plugin, which Spotify requires for music streaming on the web and Apple opposes due to potential security issues.

Instead, Spotify encourages users to download the compatible Mac app, or switch over to a supported browser. Although the lack of Safari support in the Web Player might be temporary, Spotify customer support told users that it "can't say if or when any specific features will be back."

Tag: Spotify
93 comments


Top Rated Comments

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whitesaint
12 months ago
Wow, Spotify is stupid; I'm sure there's a lot of people (like me) that would rather just switch to another music service rather than give up the power efficiency of Safari.
Rating: 25 Votes
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LewisChapman
12 months ago

Why?

Its more like Apple's loss because of people want to use Spotify they'll just use chrome.


..or people will look at an alternative streaming service.

For a lot of music fans the only difference between these services is their accessibility.
Rating: 19 Votes
Avatar
Mascots
12 months ago

You have to ask yourselves, what technologies does chrome support that safari doesn't and why does safari not have those technologies?


It literally says it in the article:

Riegelstamm further dug into the details of the Web Player, discovering that the discontinuing of Safari support might have something to do with Google's Widevine media optimizer plugin ('https://support.spotify.com/us/using_spotify/system_settings/enable-the-spotify-web-player/'), which Spotify requires for music streaming on the web and Apple opposes due to potential security issues


To be fair, Spotify does have a slick app.
Rating: 18 Votes
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djeeyore25
12 months ago
Spotify still supports more web browsers than Apple Music.
Rating: 17 Votes
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maflynn
12 months ago

Their loss.

Why?

Its more like Apple's loss because of people want to use Spotify they'll just use chrome.
Rating: 17 Votes
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joewhite
12 months ago
But if you change the user agent to iOS, it works fine
Rating: 17 Votes
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RCS31
12 months ago
You have to ask yourselves, what technologies does chrome support that safari doesn't and why does safari not have those technologies?
Rating: 13 Votes
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LewisChapman
12 months ago
Their loss.
Rating: 12 Votes
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maflynn
12 months ago

..or people will look at an alternative streaming service.

That's silly, dropping a streaming service because it doesn't run on Safari? Most people will be willing to drop a browser then a streaming service.

For a lot of music fans the only difference between these services is their accessibility.

This is more true for web browsers, i.e., Chrome offers more compatibility and features then Safari, so people will be more willing to drop Safari
Rating: 9 Votes
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Chupa Chupa
12 months ago
Freaking Tower of Tech Babel. All these pissing matches and the consumers are the ones that end up all wet.
Rating: 7 Votes
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