topic ?si= Parameter in Spotify URL's in Desktop (Windows)

?si= Parameter in Spotify URL's

shijo87 — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 11:58:39 GMT

Plan

Premium

Country

Device

Operating System

Windows 8.1

My Question or Issue

So recently Spotify added a "?si=" parameter to song when you copy the url. This apparently gives the url a unique stamp in where it was copied and by who. This is seemingly due to new EU regulations.
However it's caused a problem for me.

Now I'm sure most of you know about Spotify's lacking shuffle feature, in that is doesn't really shuffle that well.

So like most other I have been copying my playlists and putting them into a randomizer before pasting them back into my playlist to get some sense of a shuffle every now and then, mainly since it seems weird that I hear the same 3-4 in every 30-45 minute session out of a playlist of 900+ songs.
Mind you I'm using the desktop app for this and copy by pressing ctrl+A in a list, then ctrl+C and then ctrl+V once I have finished randomizing it.
Before this worked like a charm. Now due to this parameter I can't paste songs back into my playlist anymore.

For example I can paste the following just fine into a playlist.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5hfbRY5gVE3FlEriQrdmdP

But the original that I got out of Spotify when copying the URL does not work.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5hfbRY5gVE3FlEriQrdmdP?si=DhbBXqTcQ2W3QSA-Kgbznw

Now onto my problem. When I tried pasting all the songs back into my playlist I deleted the current songs.

Then I found out I could not paste the songs.
The playlist was still there so I can't restore it and I now have a notepad document with the links of well over 900 songs.

Instead of manually sorting through them and deleting each parameter with and after "?si=" I figured I'd check here first to see if anyone has faced a similar issue and maybe knows a simpler solution.

Would also love for Spotify staff to pick this up and maybe have a look at why you can't paste things back into a playlist anymore.

Thanks for any help you all can offer. 🙂

Re: ?si= Parameter in Spotify URL's

Alfredo — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 02:37:31 GMT

Hey @shijo87.

I've tried this on my end, and this parameter only shows up when you manually right-click a song > Share > Copy Song Link.

Could you send us the exact Spotify version you're using? Also, you can try using a different account to see if it behaves the same.

Keep us posted.

Re: ?si= Parameter in Spotify URL's

shijo87 — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 03:37:57 GMT

Hi @Alfredo,

Thanks for the reply!

I'm currently on version:

 1.0.86.337.ga8d5cef9

I'm not sure if that is the same version that I was using last week however so whichever version it was on last Tuesday (August 31st) was likely the version I was on back then.

Currently slowly sorting through the songs to remove the parameter but it's a pretty tedious task. I will get there in the end though.

Re: ?si= Parameter in Spotify URL's

Soitora — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 02:56:46 GMT

I agree that while it is annoying, you can circumvent this issue by copying the Spotify URI instead of the Spotify Link

I suggest otherwise that you download and open up Notepad++, go to Search (Ctrl+F), go Replace, enter \?si=.*$ in Search for, leave Replace empty, now click on Regular Expression as Search mode then Replace All, now it should have removed ?si=X on all your lines for you.

Sincerely, Soitora

Re: ?si= Parameter in Spotify URL's

ReinyLegit — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 14:22:10 GMT

Regex is almost always the answer. Nice work.

Re: ?si= Parameter in Spotify URL's

hematogender — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 13:22:16 GMT

I don't agree we should use any workarounds. A link without si parameter can be dragged from other app (e.g. Telegram) to the Spotify app directly and it opens just fine, but if a link contains that parameter, Spotify doesn't recognize it at all. I have to search for an album manually or open it in the browser first, then clicking "open in the app" and closing that tab. This is a joke.

The one who should use regex is Spotify, not the end user. Frankly, I'm shocked this issue exists for 2 years and still isn't resolved. It is counter-intuitive.

Re: ?si= Parameter in Spotify URL's

ReinyLegit — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 01:55:42 GMT

I agree that we shouldn’t “have to” use workarounds. But given the fact that Spotify shows zero interest in changing this, I disagree that we shouldn’t use a workaround. Time is a limited resource and we need to get on with our lives.

Re: ?si= Parameter in Spotify URL's

kkdoom — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 21:32:33 GMT

"So recently Spotify added a "?si=" parameter to song when you copy the url. This apparently gives the url a unique stamp in where it was copied and by who. This is seemingly due to new EU regulations."

Do you have a source for that? Been seeing the si parameter for some time and was just curious about what information it contains

Re: ?si= Parameter in Spotify URL's

Jeremy — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 11:24:35 GMT

Hey folks,

Thanks for posting about this here in the Community!

The ?si= bit in a track's URL can be used by the app as a reference.

While we don't have any additional information about this at the moment, if you'd like to get a link to a track without this, we'd recommend copying the Spotify URI instead or removing that part from the track's URL. An alternative would be to give a try to @Soitora's steps on a workaround.

If an option to generate a link to a track without this context is something you'd like to see in the app is something you'd like to see, you can always share it in our Ideas exchange where other Spotify users can add their support and feedback.

If you have any questions we're always one reply away 🙂

Cheers!

Re: ?si= Parameter in Spotify URL's

giannilupindo — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 10:58:05 GMT

The "si" parameter seems to be the "software ID", so if you keep it you can choose if you wish to open the song or the playlist in a browser or in the Spotify app.