Spotify app makes my game stutter/freeze till I tab out

[aaliyxh]

Hello,

so I’ve got a new pc around 2-3weeks ago (high end specs). Everytime I listen to Spotify on the app it makes my game stutter really bad and I basically can’t do anything anymore so I have to tab out my game to fix the stutter and tab in again. This happens once in a while. I tried playing YouTube Netflix or even the Spotify web player and my game just run all perfect. I tried contacting the spotify support and didn’t get a working solution. As said spotify web player runs just fine so does any other streaming app. Spotify app runs fine if I don’t run any game.

I tried:

Clean installing the app multiple times from windows store and Spotify website

turn proxy off and hardware acceleration 

turn spotify priority to high and low to experiment any difference (no difference)

deactivating the firewall/putting Spotify as an excuse 

playing Spotify on a different test account which still caused the same issue 

update all my drivers and so on

[averded]

im having this exact issue aswell, did you find a fix?

[vickonings]

hey! i was able to solve the issue. i was currently using norton antivirus for my computer, and noticed i was having these issues right when i downloaded the antivirus. after uninstalling, my music both no longer stops for a couple seconds like its trying to load and no longer crashes my computer. your suggestion to it coinciding with other updates gave me the idea it was my antivirus.hey! i was able to solve the issue. i was currently using norton antivirus for my computer, and noticed i was having these issues right when i downloaded the antivirus. after uninstalling, my music both no longer stops for a couple seconds like its trying to load and no longer crashes my computer. your suggestion to it coinciding with other updates gave me the idea it was my antivirus.

[DaddyDraYyYy]

turning off Norton actually fixed it for me, thanks!

[tugyhkjnkl]

i have the same issue on a macmini m1

[NatS_ons]

Tried all the troubleshooting methods however none work..
anyhting else i could do to perchance fix it?

[Tiel]

Still having the same issue in 2025.. playing music on Spotify makes my pc stutter extremely bad randomly on the desktop, freezes Minecraft every 20 or so minutes and crashes Gta Online on some occasions. Started happening almost constantly within the last month or so. Its so annoying to be paying for a service that freezes my entire pc and blasts repeating glitchy audio, just finished almost canceling my subscription after Local Files was broken and unpatched for at least 5 months straight, now i'm dealing with this..

[Yordan]

Hey folks,

If you're using any game or performance optimization settings from an external app (like an antivirus program or Windows' Game Mode), try toggling it off to see if that helps.

Cheers 🤘