Spotify throttling??? [ Edited ]

[PGGLancs]

Hi

I have had a Spotify Premium account for about six weeks which was purchased direct from Spotify and NOT through any VM free trial.

I am having more & more problems streaming music from my Spotify account. The music plays fine for a few tracks and then starts to increasingly pause/buffer before becoming totally unplayable.

I have tried contacting Spotify and they have advised me all there systems are running fine. They did however suggest that I contact VM to check if my connection was being throttled.

As I have a 50Mb connection, I would not have thought this to be the case. If I understand the new traffic management policy correctly this should not happen until I have exceeded the 10000/5000MB limits?? I don't believe I can be anywhere near these limits.

However, can a VM representative please take a look at my account to see if they can help?

Many thanks

Downstream Channels Lock Status Modulation Channel ID Max Raw Bit Rate Frequency Power SNR Docsis/EuroDocsis locked Locked QAM256 46 55616000 Kbits/sec 274750000 Hz 5.5 dBmV 42.2 dB Hybrid Locked QAM256 45 55616000 Kbits/sec 266750000 Hz 5.6 dBmV 42.5 dB Hybrid Locked QAM256 47 55616000 Kbits/sec 282750000 Hz 5.7 dBmV 42.5 dB Hybrid Locked QAM256 48 55616000 Kbits/sec 290750000 Hz 5.1 dBmV 42.1 dB Hybrid Locked QAM256 49 55616000 Kbits/sec 298750000 Hz 6.4 dBmV 41.8 dB Hybrid Locked QAM256 50 55616000 Kbits/sec 306750000 Hz 6.4 dBmV 42.4 dB Hybrid Locked QAM256 51 55616000 Kbits/sec 314750000 Hz 5.6 dBmV 41.7 dB Hybrid Locked QAM256 52 55616000 Kbits/sec 322750000 Hz 5.3 dBmV 41.4 dB Hybrid

Upstream Channels Lock Status Modulation Channel ID Max Raw Bit Rate Frequency Power Locked ATDMA 1 20480 Kbits/sec 45800000 Hz 50.5 dBmV Unlocked Unknown 0 0 Ksym/sec 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV Unlocked Unknown 0 0 Ksym/sec 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV Unlocked Unknown 0 0 Ksym/sec 0 Hz 0.0 dBmV

[ian0374]

I too am having exactly the same issues along with around many others on the spotify community.

The problem is on the iphone it keeps buffering after I play a couple of tracks, the searches then become so slow it takes about 5 mins to search for a song.

I have contacted Virgin previously who claim not to "throttle" spotify and also Spotify advise myself to "contact Virgin".

Spotify have admitted the use p2p which virgin apparantley throttle.

Please can someone at Virgin actually get their heads together with someone at Spotify to sort this out once and for all ! as I am getting nowhere.

A prompt response will be appreciated.

[pippincp]

VM do not throttle Spotify, it is a whitelisted P2P application. Your porblem is more likely to be overutilisation on your local segment.

[ian0374]

Yeah I understand that but Spotify say it isn't.

There was also a case last year where another major ISP had same issues with spotify it turns oiut the ISP had not actually "whitelisted" spotify despite saying so.

But where else do we go from here when spotify just tell you to contact your ISP and your ISP tell you to contact Spotify !.

[pippincp]

Spotify wouldn't know about overutilisation on your local segment. They have now way to check it. That's down to VM.

[ian0374]

Its not overutilisation as all other streaming services and webpages work fine without any issues.

[PGGLancs]

Thanks for your background guys.

However, can a VM representative please take a look at my account to see if they can help?

Cheers

[user191841]

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PGGLancs wrote:

Thanks for your background guys.

However, can a VM representative please take a look at my account to see if they can help?

Cheers

---

yes can you **bleep** sort this? it's doing it on 100 too and it's your network because use another connection and oh look it's all fine!

[zannyuk]

Myself and others having same issue http://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/Spotify-songs-buffering-very-slow/td-p/60849

virginmedia please reply to this thread.

[theunderscore]

I have this too, I am so angry!!!!!

guess what - I have PROVED that virgin are throttling spotify, by doing this: I try running spotify with a VPN (ivacy.com), and GUESS WHAT, THE STREAMING IS NORMAL AGAIN!

I go back to raw virgin streaming, AND IT'S BACK TO CHOPPY-AT-BEST, STOP-START, CAN'T-EVEN-START-TRACKS-MOST-OF-THE-TIME, STREAMING AGAIN!!!!!

Go back to the VPN, AND GOOD STREAMING AGAIN!

i do it a third time, just to make sure.

does this mean that for reliable streaming i have to pay for an EXTRA VPN on top of my virgin media account? just to unthrottle a premium paid for music streaming service?

Boy I hate virgin media. They ARE throttling spotify. LIARS.

I encourage others to test whether a VPN (to obfuscate the spotify traffic) makes their streaming normal again. For a free VPN to try out, maybe try this one's trial or another person could recommend something better (trial-less): http://www.hideipvpn.com/

it seems REALLY bad at evening peak hours.

sorry virgin but this is just HOPELESS.