The end of Spotify App on Desktop platform?!

[finnaqua]

Hi, I saw a notice that in next updates Spotify will going to kill its Apps on Desktop Client Service!?

Check here. https://gigaom.com/2014/11/03/spotify-kills-its-app-platform-three-years-after-its-launch/

[Amarro]

No not really or? :DD i would cry a year long if those seriously happenes.

[Jordi]

Hi there welcome to the community,

Sadly I can confirm this. The apps will be killed from the Desktop Client. I don't know an exect date, but I think that some popular apps like the lyrics app will not be gone (can't confirm this). I hope that they return some apps on an alternative way.

[Amarro]

@Jordi and what is the reason? Seriously this is really shocking.....

[Jordi · Accepted solution]

It shocked me to. Here is a quote from the developer.spotify.com:

As Spotify evolves and priorities change, we sometimes have to remove APIs from active development and shift focus to the relevant platforms. With the new APIs and SDKs now available we are phasing out Spotify Apps support from the desktop client. In the upcoming version you will no longer be able to run third-party applications within the desktop client. This means the App Finder and apps inside the desktop client will no longer be available.

The update will gradually roll out from today, starting with a smaller percentage of new and existing users, with the majority of our existing users receiving the update early in 2015. On 1 February 2015, Spotify Apps will no longer be available for end users.

[finnaqua]

I don't want to believe too. If so it will be so bad 😞

[Amarro]

I seriously don't want to flame right now.. but well.

Im NOW sitting here and am in a room in soundrop with 2 friends. We are listening to "Bring me the horizon - Sleepwalking" and are singing (/screaming) the song lyrics using MusiXmatch. The next songs of the soundrop room we decided by using lazify....

If those features will be removed, spotify won't be the great room for music lovers anymore... That makes me really really... really sad right now..

[Carina · Accepted solution]

Please guys, we need all of your support! None of us wants the app (/finder) to be removed, so have a look at the following submission in our ideas exchange and leave your kudos + comments over there to support it!!

Go for it: http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/Keep-the-old-app-API-in-the-desktop-software-for-exist...

[hans-jürgen · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the link, interesting article, also the links inside of it to other ones:

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/10/31/spotify-kills-app-finder

https://gigaom.com/2012/01/11/spotify-app-platform-numbers/

https://gigaom.com/2012/06/12/first-spotify-app-gets-funded-soundrop-raises-3m/

I can confirm that e.g. the Last.fm for Spotify app is still used today after three years, the official support group saw a rise in members from about 300 to 1,000 in the last year. Probably much more users installed it without becoming a group member since Last.fm stopped their own radio streaming on April 28th, 2014. If you do a search in the Spotify desktop software for "last.fm", you can find many playlists generated with that app as well, either recommended albums or similar / most played / loved / recently played tracks. And in the last weeks the app was constantly #3 in the Top Apps of the App Finder. Lazify is another app based on the Last.fm database, by the way, generating similar tracks playlists.

Last but not least it could easily fill the gap in personalised recommendations that will occur if Spotify really abandons the Discover section in their software which they are testing at the moment.

[Sheugel]

Also, there are lots of developped apps that you can run locally with a developper account. I wonder if those will still work. I really hope so and that they keep the most popular ones like MusixMatch or Twitter Music (may be provided that their developpers host them).

[Amarro]

And soundrop as well... But actually they won't i think.. and that is really heartbreaking...

[krikelin]

Too bad.

Seriously, it's not about the shift to mobile. I believe it is because Spotify increase the label share, and make Spotify a commercial channel like radio, instead of a music discovery platform, they has to sell out because they need money.

EDIT: In a Facebook comment a developer from Spotify told me it was technical reasons Spotify stopped their apps platform.

[MartinL]

If that is the case it very well could be the end of the service. Many apps fill the gap where Spotify fails to deliver and with such rash decisions it makes the service a unreliable partner for other companies. 

[Amarro]

A friend of me said today he will switch to deezer if this happens.. i mean to satan... please don't let my friend do sins.

[jimmypowder]

I will cancel my service if they go this . I use the apps a lot to make playlists

[krikelin]

For those who want Soundrop could install software such Bluestacks and run the Soundrop android application on their computer. Not an optimal way to run music apps but I hope there will be more powerful web APIs for desktop soon with playback included.

[krikelin]

Too bad, Soundrop will shut down by last December this year, and the same fate goes also through Cube.FM.

I'm considering to start up an open source project to create a clone of Soundrop in Node.JS which people can clone or fork. Initially it will use YouTube as music source until the web API will support full streaming. It will build on my Orquidea Javascript framework https://github.com/drsounds/orquidea-jquery .

It shouldn't be too hard to emulate the Soundrop functionality I think, feel free to fork and contribute to my project. And I'm also considering to create an App Finder clone too, "Bungalow" that will bundle my music apps together into an own distinct site.

[krikelin]

I'm also considering to create an App Finder like web app, "Bungalow" where I will include my Soundrop clone in, as an "Astral plane" for selected apps that becomes lost when App Finder is gone forever.

I will probably release it together with my company which I'm working for and merge my other project "Mashcast/Radioflow" etc. into to this system.