topic Spotify Developer TOS question in Spotify for Developers

Spotify Developer TOS question

stitoo — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 17:45:50 GMT

Hello. So, I'm a developer and I was looking to build a Wi-Fi enabled smart speaker that would be able to playback music using Spotify. Something similar to what Sonos, Google, Amazon or Apple are doing with their smart speakers. After reading the developer ToS, I've found out that there are these two articles:

Do not create a voice-enabled SDA that enables a user to control Spotify with their voice, or any kind of voice assistant that provides voice-control functionality.

Commercial use restrictions. Except for the limited commercial uses for Non-Streaming SDAs (set out below) commercial uses are not permitted for SDAs. Some examples of commercial uses that are not allowed include:
the sale, whether integrated or as a standalone product, of a Streaming SDA, the Spotify Platform, Spotify Content or Spotify Service, or sale of access to any of the foregoing;

For the speaker I will be using the Spotify API to playback music. For the next year or so, it's going to be just a school project that we're doing, but after that, having it as an actual product and selling it would be nice, however we still don't really have any plans for that. What I want to ask is if breaking the "voice command" TOS for private purposes that literally don't affect anyone is an issue for the school project, and if it would be possible to get maybe Spotify's written approval in a year or so, or when we would be thinking of selling the actual product, for the commercial restrictions, possibly even the voice command rule, so that it could be a commercial product?

I also wonder how the companies I've mentioned have done it. Have they partnered up with Spotify and they allowed them to use it in that way?

I don't really need answers like "You can't do that, it's against the TOS". I obviously know that and these answers are completely useless to me. An answer from an actual Spotify employee would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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Re: Spotify Developer TOS question

Ximzend — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 16:49:05 GMT

Hi @stitoo

Thank you for asking this in the Spotify Community, and Welcome!

For Spotify integrated hardware, I refer you to the Commercial Hardware section of Spotify for Developers. I am not sure if you are allowed to integrate a voice assistant through this route, but it is is still a step in the right direction.

Cheers!

Re: Spotify Developer TOS question

stitoo — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 17:33:01 GMT

Hello!

Thank you so much, this basically explained everything.

I will definetly be looking into this after some time, when we might be actually thinking about making our product commercially available.

Now for the time being (within the next year or so) the product will only be a private school project, so there's basically no need for that. I still need to know whether or not I'm able to integrate the voice commands as a private project or not, in the TOS it sounds like it applies for everything, including private projects (not just commercial products), so it would theoretically be breaking that. That isn't that big of an issue though as I can just have it accessible using an app and not voice commands.

Still thank you so much for your answer, I really needed it.

Have a nice day!