Spotify Web Player No Longer Available In Apple's Safari Browser

For Spotify subscribers on Apple products, they’ll now have one fewer place to use the streaming service.

On Spotify’s community forums via MacRumors, users posted about Spotify’s web player no longer supporting Apple’s Safari browser. While Safari users previously had no problems with using Spotify’s web client, they’re now seeing an error message saying that Apple’s browser “doesn’t support Spotify Web Player” and were encouraged to either switch browsers or use Spotify’s desktop app.

According to user riegelstamm, Spotify’s customer service reached out and confirmed that Safari is no longer compatible with Spotify’s web client. Spotify’s own support documents have also removed mentions of Safari, as its web player troubleshooting page only lists setup instructions from Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft’s Edge.

Here’s the full response from Spotify via riegelstamm:

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

While Spotify hasn’t yet confirmed the cause for the change, some users have speculated about some technical changes being a possible culprit. Spotify uses the Widevine Content Decryption Module, a digital rights management plugin that’s commonly used by streaming services like Netflix, but Safari’s recent updates may have affected the program. User riegelstamm posted a screenshot showing that Safari flagged Widevine’s plugin, though Apple usually takes a strict approach to security warnings for most third-party software.

The update will mostly be a nuisance for Mac users, as downloading the Spotify desktop program is an easy alternative, although employees who aren’t allowed download apps at work might be out of luck. But the update reflects the uncomfortable position for users who have to deal with companies who don’t share the same security standards — when services no longer work together, they’re often left in the dark.

Spotify’s Safari issues are also the latest incident in an often less than great relationship between Apple and the streaming company. With its Apple Music service, the hardware giant has been a direct competitor to Spotify and both companies have publicly fought in the past. Spotify previously accused Apple of delaying approving updates to its iOS app and indirectly referred to mobile companies that acted like monopolies in a letter to European regulators earlier this year.