What Is the Meaning of the "Audiences in JWT Are Not Allowed" Error on Spotify?

On June 12, 2025, Spotify users around the world experienced a sudden, chaotic realization: they couldn’t play any music. The app wouldn't load, playlists stalled out, and a strange message appeared on some screens — something about “audiences in JWT are not allowed.” The phrase itself made about as much sense as driving to work in total silence, which is exactly what some people were forced to do.

If you were one of the many who scrambled to Reddit threads like this one looking for answers, you weren’t alone. With gym routines wrecked, study sessions thrown off, and car rides eerily quiet, the panic was real.

So, what was the meaning behind the “audiences in JWT are not allowed” error message on Spotify? Keep reading as we look into it.

So, let’s break it down: what does “audiences in JWT are not allowed” even mean? According to Wikipedia, a JWT (JSON Web Token) is a way for apps to securely prove your identity, kind of like a digital hall pass. The “audiences” part refers to what services that the token is meant for. If something goes wrong in the process, like if Spotify’s servers can’t properly verify who you are or which service you’re trying to reach, you might get an error saying the “audience” isn’t allowed.

This particular message was a symptom of a much larger issue happening behind the scenes on June 12, 2025. While many users initially suspected a problem with Cloudflare, The Verge confirmed that the real culprit was Google Cloud. Specifically, their Identity and Access Management (IAM) service had gone down, which broke authentication for a bunch of online platforms — Spotify included.

According to Google Cloud’s status page (updated after the fact), the outage affected multiple services. Replit CEO Amjad Masad even posted on X about it hours earlier, noting that his own platform was taken offline due to the Google Cloud failure.

Cloudflare, for its part, clarified that its own brief outages were a result of its limited reliance on Google Cloud services. As The Verge reported, Alexander Modiano from Cloudflare explained that only a “limited number of services” were impacted by this dependency.

Since Spotify is a well-known customer of Google Cloud, the math checked out. The streaming app wasn’t broken on its own — it was dragged down by infrastructure way above its pay grade.

Unfortunately for Spotify users, this also meant it was a problem they couldn’t do anything to fix.

If there was one major takeaway from the Spotify chaos, it’s this: We are absolutely not OK when the music stops. The “audiences in JWT are not allowed” error might sound technical, but for most people, it translated to a very relatable problem — I can’t play anything, and my day is ruined.

Turns out, there was a silver lining, quietly discovered by those lucky enough to remember one small feature: Downloaded songs still worked. That’s right — users with local downloads were spared from total silence. It was the digital equivalent of having a flashlight during a power outage.

So, here’s your PSA for the future: download a handful of your favorite tracks. Think of them as your “emergency playlist.” Whether you're heading to the gym, boarding a flight, or just prepping for unexpected chaos, those offline tunes might just save your sanity.