Are Yandex Music and BandLink experiencing problems

In October, musicians and listeners began reporting delayed statistics, problems with release pages and unfamiliar recommendations. Comments from BandLink users on the DownReport monitoring page describe cases where the latest visible data was still dated 6 October. These reports describe individual experiences: the availability of each release and feature needs to be checked separately.

We love Yandex Music and support the team working to restore its services. Musicians also need clear answers about which features are available, whether plays are being recorded and how to plan a new release. The following account draws on platform statements and public observations checked on the evening of 15 October 2026.

For an artist’s team, delayed figures mean more than a static chart. Metrics help assess advertising, track reactions to a song and plan further promotion. When data stops updating, it becomes harder to tell whether audience response has changed or the results simply have not reached the report.

What happened to the infrastructure. In a 9 October statement, Yandex said its Sasovo data centre stopped operating after a drone attack overnight on 7–8 October, while infrastructure in Kaluga was damaged on the morning of 9 October. On 11 October, Yandex Cloud reported the shutdown of its Vladimir site and emergency operation of the cloud platform.

Warnings for artists appeared alongside those updates. On 8 October, BandLink reported problems with analytics and photo uploads. On 11 October, it warned of restrictions affecting features and support. In a joint statement on 13 October, Yandex Music and BandLink linked instability to infrastructure damage.

Why music can play while statistics remain unchanged. Playing a track and displaying data to an artist are different functions. Public discussions contain both access and loading complaints and accounts of continued listening. One playable track does not establish that the artist dashboard works, and one frozen chart does not establish that all music is unavailable.

Under normal conditions, artist analytics updates daily after 20:00 Moscow time with the previous day’s data, according to Yandex’s documentation. Even without an outage, the date of a play and the time its figure appears are different. A last visible row dated 6 October therefore does not by itself establish when the outage began or recording stopped.

Listeners, plays and likes also measure different things. One person can play a track repeatedly. BandLink’s separate page analytics records visits and link clicks: clicking a streaming-service button does not establish that the visitor played the music. These metrics should not be treated as interchangeable when assessing advertising.

The current FAQ reports delayed release availability, unavailable pitching and no fresh Scanner data. Updates to likes and the Chart have resumed.

Pitching means submitting a release for editorial consideration. In the normal process, the material is delivered to the platform first, and the submission is recommended roughly two weeks before release. A temporary interruption is especially consequential for an approaching premiere. The status of an earlier submission needs a separate check.

User comments also report problems with presaves, which let listeners save upcoming music in advance. This is a reason to open the exact page linked from an advertisement and check it. The reports do not establish that every presave has stopped working.

The same FAQ says editorial playlists continue, while social promotion of new music is paused. Existing Impulse campaigns continue; new ones are unavailable.

Are plays being preserved? Yandex says plays are being recorded for settlements. Restored history and financial reports for the specific release will help verify the completeness of accounting.

The consequences for a launch can extend beyond accounting for plays that already happened. If someone follows an advertisement, encounters an error and leaves, a later statistics update does not recover that listening opportunity. Advertising costs, rescheduled promotion and the reporting of plays are separate issues.

Discussions have also suggested that changes to the user agreement mean payments will be refused. Yandex’s general agreement, dated 10 October, includes a force-majeure section covering consequences of drone use. However, it does not disclose the terms of an individual music rights-holder contract and is not an announcement cancelling all music payments.

What is happening to My Wave? In one Reddit discussion, a participant linked unfamiliar recommendations to a possible algorithm rollback. Other users in the same thread said music worked normally for them. The Yandex Music team says its models are protected and recommendations continue operating.

A user can notice a change in a playlist, but one session cannot establish the state of a model or the cause of that change. The publications reviewed provide no technical evidence that My Wave has been destroyed. Equally, preservation of a model does not mean every request to the service is free of delays or errors.

Where did the 2028 forecast come from? On 12 October, JustMedia used that date in a headline citing Izvestia, although the same article referred to weeks or months depending on the damage. In an 11 October Fontanka interview, analyst Eldar Murtazin suggested 2–2.5 years if supercomputers had been destroyed.

That is an estimate for potentially replacing complex equipment, not a date for statistics to return to a musician’s dashboard. In the same interview, TelecomDaily head Denis Kuskov discussed infrastructure problems lasting weeks. Murtazin later told RTVI that basic consumer functions could be partially restored in roughly a week without further attacks. These forecasts concern different recovery tasks.

No exact date for full analytics recovery has been announced. Neither ‘in a week’ nor ‘in 2028’ can be treated as an established BandLink timetable.

On compensation. Yandex Cloud announced free use of cloud services for existing customers in Russian zones for 8–31 October. This is a specific measure for cloud customers. It does not establish compensation for all musicians, refunds of promotion spending or an extension of Plus subscriptions.

What to do before a release. Start by following the listener’s route: open the advertised link, navigate to the intended track and check playback. Ask the distributor about the specific release identifier: has the material been sent, accepted by the platform and made available to the audience?

If the launch depends on presaves and pitching, establish whether those steps can still be completed in time. If music is already accessible through working links, delayed analytics alone does not explain why the entire campaign should stop. Any rescheduling decision should account for the specific restrictions and placements already agreed.

While restrictions continue, retain screenshots of the latest figures, update dates, advertising spending and correspondence about placements. Do not delete or re-upload a release solely because a counter is static without first establishing the status of the existing delivery. On 11 October, BandLink provided a temporary support bot.

Once analytics returns, check not only for new figures but also whether the missing days have been filled in. Then compare listening history with campaign reports and financial statements. Those records will help musicians understand the outcome of a period that is currently only partially visible.