Why Does Spotify Stop Playing After 10 Seconds?‍

You probably don’t consider the 10-second skip limit when listening to music on Spotify. But it can end up being a dealbreaker for some listeners—especially if they have a small car or live in an apartment that doesn’t have great acoustics. If you listen to music exclusively through Spotify and never venture outside of the app, then this skip limit probably doesn’t affect you. But if you also use Pandora and other streaming apps, it can be frustrating when those playlists suddenly end after 10 seconds. The reason behind the 10-second limit is actually pretty interesting. In fact, there are a lot of interesting details about how this limit came into existence and how it affects different users in different ways. Let’s take a look…

What is the limit on Spotify?

The 10-second skip limit is based on a timer. Every time you press play on Spotify, the app automatically starts playing a track for 10 seconds before the first track stops. After the 10 seconds are up, the next track starts, and the process repeats. Sound confusing? Allow us to break it down into simple terms. Every device’s default seek time is the timer you hear when you press play on Spotify. This is how long a track takes to start from the point where you stop it on your device. So if you’re using an iPhone and press play at the start of “Happy Birthday” by Bob Marley, the iPhone will start playing “Turn the lights off, turn the radio off, turn the TV off,” then stop, then start again and then stop again. Your device knows it’s “happy birthday,” and you just want to hear the song, but your device is too impatient to wait for the actual audio. That’s the seek time. It’s what all audio players use, including Spotify, to automatically start and stop audio.

The 10-second skip limit is based on a timer.

Now here’s where it gets weird. After 10 seconds of play, the next track won’t start until the seek time finishes playing. So your track will pause while the seek time finishes, then resume playing once the seek time has returned to the correct point. This strange ping-pong effect is what gives you that 10-second skip limit. After 10 seconds of play, the next track will play for only 10 seconds before pausing again while the seek time finishes playing the song. Then once the seek time has finished, the next track starts, and the whole pinging process repeats.

There are exceptions to the rule.

Out of the hundreds of millions of Spotify users, there are only a few exceptions to the “10 seconds is all you get” rule. If you press play quickly and the seek time is too short, then a few seconds of the audio will play before the seek time kicks in, and the rest of the track stops. So if you’re pressing play very quickly, you’ll get a few seconds of audio instead of the entire track playing. Spotify’s algorithm is designed to prevent skipping tracks quickly, but the algorithm isn’t perfect. If the algorithm is somehow accidentally designed to skip tracks quickly, then it’s possible to get a few seconds of audio with the rest of the track stopped. But it’s not a common issue.

Why does everyone else have this limit too?

If you live in an apartment or your car isn’t great at playing music, then the 10-second skip limit can be frustrating. Some users stream music exclusively through YouTube Red and have no other streaming options. The skip limit on Pandora is based on the same timer as Spotify. However, Pandora has different skip rules for the different types of music you can listen to. For example, if you’re listening to a rock station and you skip a few seconds, the skip limit won’t be an issue. But if you’re on a country station and you skip a few seconds, your skip limit will suddenly be an issue—the next track won’t begin until the skip limit has finished playing the track.

Spotify’s reasoning for the limit

When we first launched Spotify in 2008, we noticed that some users would skip a few seconds and then pause the track. They’d then press play again right away and start playing the song. We found that this happened whenever a user pressed play on a device with a short seek time. The algorithm on those devices was too impatient to wait 10 seconds, so it just played for a few seconds and then skipped over to the next track. We also noticed that some users would press play and then immediately pause the track while they were in a hurry. They’d then continue to press play, then pause, then play, pressing play again and again. We added this skip limit to solve these problems. If a user accidentally skips a few seconds, then there’s no problem because the user can press play again and wait 10 seconds for the whole track to play. If the user is skipping because they’re in a hurry, then they can’t skip anymore because they’ll be impatiently waiting 10 seconds.

Other streaming services have their own skip limits.

Pandora—10 seconds, 10 minutes, or infinite iTunes Radio—10 seconds, 20 seconds, or infinite Spotify Android app—10 seconds, 10 minutes, or infinite YouTube Red—5 seconds or infinite These other streaming services have their skip limits, so it’s possible that you have a skip limit on some of them but not others. If you have a skip limit on one of these services, then it’s possible to have a 10-second skip limit on Spotify. We still think that the skip limit on Spotify is a good rule and are fine with it as is. We just want to ensure that those who have a skip limit on one of the other streaming services know that it’s not Spotify’s fault.

Conclusion

Skips are annoying, and it can get especially frustrating when you’re in a car or in a situation where the music isn’t great—like in an apartment or a small room. This is why most streaming services with a skip limit have the same limit on Spotify. We love the 10-second skip limit because it forces users to be patient and wait 10 seconds before skipping. It’s a good rule that helps prevent skipping accidentally and keeps users from being anxious and impatient.

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Also Read: When does Spotify update streams?