Songs are skipping on Spotify

[NyaomiDEV]

Describe the bug
Songs are skipping on Spotify. Advertisements play just fine. Sometimes a song seems to play fine but stops at the ninth second of playback.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install Widevine as per the FAQ
2. Go to 'open.spotify.com'
3. Log in
4. Try to play a song
5. "Hear" the bug

Expected behavior
The song should play just fine.

Environment (please complete the following information):

• OS/Platform and version: Windows 10 20H2
• ungoogled-chromium version: 86.0.4240.183

[mmshivesh]

Have the same issue on 87.0.4280.88

[jgarciadcruz]

+1 on this issue. Windows 10, running 87.0.4280.67 (installer version).

[ghost]

Same. Tested on 87.0.4280.88.
It will skip 3-4 songs and stop reproducing music.
Looks like, after 10 seconds, audio will even stop working.

[5P5]

can confirm on ungoogled-chromium_87.0.4280.141-1.1_windows-x64

also tried multiple WidevineCdm versions:
4.10.1582.2 (current dl.google.com/widevine-cdm) ❌
4.10.1679.0 (bundled in chromium-dev#90.0.4399.0-r846566) ❌

[5P5]

88.0 same issue.
any further insight?

[vairag22]

Using Chromium 89.0.4389.90 Widevine 4.10.2209.0 on Windows 10 x64
This issue is still not fixed. I wonder if this is a Windows only issue or it happens on Linux and Mac as well?

[NyaomiDEV]

Using Chromium 89.0.4389.90 Widevine 4.10.2209.0 on Windows 10 x64
This issue is still not fixed. I wonder if this is a Windows only issue or it happens on Linux and Mac as well?

Windows only, it seems. On my Linux machines, Widevine works fine.

[mmshivesh]

Using Chromium 89.0.4389.90 Widevine 4.10.2209.0 on Windows 10 x64
This issue is still not fixed. I wonder if this is a Windows only issue or it happens on Linux and Mac as well?

Windows only, it seems. On my Linux machines, Widevine works fine.

I can confirm it still happens on my Mac with Version 88.0.4324.192 . The Widevine module however seems to be working fine though, that's what makes this whole thing surprising (I tested it here).

However, this issue doesn't happen on Chromium Edge which points to it being something related to Ungoogled Chromium.

[vairag22]

@AryToNeX @mmshivesh Yep. I also did my testing and found the same thing.

Spotify web player works alright on my Debian machine but not on my Windows 10 laptop. I don't have a Mac so I am taking Shivesh's word on it that it does not work on MacOS either. Anyways this does not seem to be a Widevine or missing component issue coz all the tests given here returned positive. Maybe this bug is related to ungoogled-chromium because Spotify web player worked fine for me on Edge (based on Chromium 89) and Brave (didn't test, but I used Brave last summer and it worked fine), though few users have reported facing such issues. Thanks to @woolyss, with whom I've been discussing this issue, I got this screenshot:
and links to some pretty interesting discussions from Spotify forum (see the last comment) and Vivaldi forum.

Vivaldi used to have this kind of issue. They have resolved this issue but I haven't tested it out yet, it would very interesting to see what fixing Vivaldi folks have done.

Ran my tests on Chromium (ungoogled) 89.0.4389.90 64-bit + Widevine 4.10.2209.0 + Proprietary codecs, Windows and Linux builds provided by Marmaduke (@macchrome).

[Eloston]

Are the requests that are failing on ungoogled-chromium present in the other browsers? Are they succeeding on the other browsers? Can we compare the request payloads of such requests?

[vairag22]

Are the requests that are failing on ungoogled-chromium present in the other browsers? Are they succeeding on the other browsers?

POST requests are failing only on ungoogled-chromium. They succeed on other browsers.

Can we compare the request payloads of such requests?

maybe 😕

[mmshivesh]

Are the requests that are failing on ungoogled-chromium present in the other browsers? Are they succeeding on the other browsers? Can we compare the request payloads of such requests?

I'd be happy to provide any help if needed

[Eloston]

@mmshivesh Based on what @vairag22 found, we probably want to investigate the payloads of those POST requests to see what's different. I don't have a Spotify account, but if someone has a way I can test as an anonymous user, I could take a look.

[ghost]

You could try to make an "anonymous" account with a temporally E-mail. No?

[woolyss]

You could try to make an "anonymous" account with a temporally E-mail. No?

No temporary email allowed on Spotify.

Note an important thing about Spotify :
Chromium needs the support of the H.264 codec + Widevine CDM plugin to play songs on the Spotify Website.

Hibbiki, a developer, explains me that ever since Widevine L3 been publicly broken, Google has tighten out security around it and pretty much all resources using Widevine now require VMP (Verified Media Path) on Windows and Mac to be enabled.

Official explanation at https://www.widevine.com/news
(Search "Browser CDM - Verified Media Path")

The process for VMP certification is to simply generate signature (for Chromium that would be both chrome.exe and chrome.dll) signed with appropriate Widevine-accepted certificate (note this is different from signing binary on Windows and if both are done, VMP must be performed after).

I know few open-source browsers like Brave and Vivaldi work nicely with the Spotify website. I tested them.

For info, their official app works nicely.
https://www.spotify.com/us/download/other/

[ghost]

Damn. That sucks. Well, thank you for explaining things here.

[Eloston]

@woolyss Out of curiosity, do you know if the VMP check is done asynchronously? It would explain why Spotify suddenly stops working after a few seconds.

I also wonder what it takes to get VMP-certified since Brave and Vivaldi did it. Perhaps they have the resources to do it since they're companies (if I'm not mistaken)?

Also based on a quick search, there seems to be alternative FOSS clients and libraries like spotify-qt, spotifyd, and librespot. Might be worth a shot if the proprietary Widevine CDM plugin isn't to your liking.

[NyaomiDEV]

Also based on a quick search, there seems to be alternative FOSS clients and libraries like spotify-qt, spotifyd, and librespot. Might be worth a shot if the proprietary Widevine CDM plugin isn't to your liking.

Those libraries only work with Spotify Premium subscriptions, though

[kaimyel]

Any developments on this, lad?

[wchen342]

Yep, you need to be a company to get your key signed. See brave/browser-laptop#10449. Also Google is explicitly hostile to open source projects on this, see https://blog.samuelmaddock.com/widevine/gmail-thread.html and electron/electron#12427.

[wchen342]

Firefox is a big enough project and Mozilla is behind it. Brave is not as big but they are a company and have more leverage to afford the back and forth with Google. But for smaller projects and individuals it won't be the case.

I guess as long as you pawn your users with open-source software or write de-platforming articles instead of code, Google will send you VMP certificates with chocolates and roses.

That is most likely not true. I think they are strict on this because big corps see Linux users and devs as a risk when it comes to DRM (which is not necessarily true but that's the myth).

[mohitmujawdiya]

This issue still exists. Will it be resolved? @Eloston

[tylerrobb]

Still experiencing this issue on the Spotify web player after installing Widevine (win_x64 - 4.10.2391.0)

[KHR3b]

Same, also doesn't work on Firefox ESR

[amrbadreldin]

still facing the issue of Spotify skipping songs in ungoogled chromium (using Marmaduke (@macchrome) UC Builds because it patches a lot of things yet that Spotify issue still remains, Spotify works great on Brave or any browser though.)

[Request-timed-out]

Still facing this problem on the Spotify web player after installing Widevine (win_x64 - 4.10.2449.0)

[Request-timed-out]

Still facing this problem on the Spotify web player after installing Widevine (win_x64 - 4.10.2449.0) and upgrading to UC 102.0.5005.115

[networkException]

I don't know what to tell you, it has already been answered that we are unlikely to support this (basically ever): #1258 (comment)

[mohitmujawdiya]

If you think piracy is fine

An alternative I am using for more than a year is cracked Spotify with ads blocked. You can download it via torrents and it's smooth as heck. No problems whatsoever, you can also make the "updates" folder read-only so that it can't auto-update.

[GunGunGun]

Thank to Google the web has become such a bs place.