Spotify Crash, Apparently Caused by Facebook, Enrages Juice WRLD Fans

Jem Aswad
·3 min read

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In the wee hours of Friday, Twitter lit up with people enraged that they couldn’t listen to the just-released posthumous Juice WRLD album and other new releases on Spotify. While the streaming giant sent out its customary “Something’s out of tune. We’re currently investigating, and we’ll keep you posted here!” tweets, which it most recently did early in May.

“Juice WRLD’s album really broke Spotify bro” one user Tweeted.

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“Ah bleh c’est Juice World qui a shut down Spotify ???” Tweeted an imaginative French speaker.

Good PR, but apparently not the case. According to the Verge, Pinterest, Tinder and other apps also crashed on iOS devices, particularly iPhones and iPads, “with early analysis suggesting Facebook is to blame”: According to early reports, the culprit is Facebook’s software development kit, or SDK, which many apps use to manage user logins. Even if users aren’t using Facebook to log into the affected apps, it will affect their software. There are no reports of the same apps crashing on Android, the Verge says.

“Earlier today, a code change triggered crashes for some iOS apps using the Facebook SDK,” a Facebook rep said in a statement.” We identified the issue quickly and resolved it. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

The SDK caused similar problems in the past — most recently on May 6, the last time Spotify sent out the message that it sent Friday morning — and affected many apps that time as well. However, that took place on a Wednesday, not a Friday, when most new releases are posted on streaming services. Facebook incentivizes app developers to use its log-in services in exchange for data and advertising insights — which means that when something goes wrong with Facebook’s SDK, it affects all of the apps using it as well.

By 9 a.m. ET, the issue appeared to be resolved, at least for Juice WRLD fans. “Good news! Everything is good to go and looking happy. Still having issues? Give @SpotifyCares a tweet,” the service Tweeted.

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