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Independent Playlist Curators "Take actions in Spotify on your behalf"

Independent Playlist Curators "Take actions in Spotify on your behalf"

Hello all,

In researching available Playlists and Curators, we often come across independent curators who ask for a variety of steps to be taken (re: follow the playlist, add a song to your library, etc.).  Following this string, there is often a webpage from Spotify that asserts the following:

 

You agree that (Such and Such Curator) will be able to: 


  • View your Spotify account data
    • Your email
    • Your public playlists, who you follow and who is following you

  • Take actions in Spotify on your behalf
    • Add and remove items in Your Library
    • Manage who you follow on Spotify
    • Create, edit, and follow playlists

It just seems a bit funky to allow these power users to 'add/remove' from your Library, to 'manage who you follow' and to then 'create, edit and follow playlists' on your behalf..???

 

Hoping folks have experience with this.  Is Spotify aware how rampant this is amongst popular playlists curators?  Is there any controls we can put in place to combat any malicious behaviour on their behalf..?  These are all very popular Playlists and so it is tempting to try - but those terms seem... iffy..?  😉

 

Am I being too naive / careful..?  

 

Thanks for your help and guidance, folks!

The Shyp

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8 Replies

So - nobody with any insights or experience handling curators at all..?

 

Just re-upping for the mods and rock stars to hopefully weigh in!  

 

Thank you so much, 

The Shyp 

I would also love a response to this one.  I've seen these terms on many curation sites and would like some feedback on best practices.

Awesome, Thanks!

I've also just come across this issue, and would greatly appreciate if someone can help with this. 

 

I've just released an album and am keen to get some exposure on playlists but having to give playlist curators such a level of access to our accounts just seems plain wrong, and it seems like there has been some major oversight somewhere.

 

This actually seems like it would be breaching some sort of privacy laws, I can't see any good reason why an option like this should even exist. With the GDPR and all that kind of stuff going on I really think an admin needs to step in and answer this ASAP.

 

Hey, all!

 

The access third party apps or services request from your Spotify profile depends on how it is built and what purpose it has. On Spotify's end they only provide the API to link such services and provide you with information of what accesses you will be granting should you choose to accept that. It's best to get in touch with the specific service providers to check why they require the different permissions.

 

Hope that helps, have a nice day 🙂

SebastySpotify Star
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Note: I'm not a Spotify employee.

Hey Sebasty - Many Thanks for weighing in.  I think you're mostly right..

 

From what I've been able to gather since, there are many Playlister sites and Curators that utilize the API with what I can only assume is Spotify consent - in order to ensure that Artists who submit songs are following the intial asks (in terms of following their Playlists and liking their accounts) as a part of the terms necessary for Submitting.  

 

Most sites do not make clear the use of that API Access to Artist accounts, while I was able to find the "Terms" associated with a respectable Playlister, who put it into black and white terms for Artists.  This is not always the case with other Curation services, so kudos to them for outlining the way they did:

 

WHY DO I NEED TO CONNECT MY SPOTIFY ACCOUNT TO SUBMIT A TRACK?

Each time you want to submit a track to one of the playlists using our system we are going (to) ask you to follow the curator's account, our Spotify account and the playlist you want your track featured on.
 
Once you click the submit button and authorise the connection our APP is going to automatically take these actions for you (you are going to follow the listed profile & playlist). Your submission form will be unlocked after that. 

 You can disconnect your account from the app at any time.  

 

We do not store any sensitive personal information like your unique username, profile/channel ID, gender, street address, real name and etc. Display names are not unique and can be easily changed, so we have decided, that this is the only information we would need to keep track of who is submitting music. We never extract and store any location information from your authorised account (like your street address). 

 

We will NEVER extract personal details and will never make you follow any profile or playlist other than the actions which are clearly stated on the submission pages.

  

This is very clear, and Kudos to them for being upfront and sincere.  This is certainly not the case normally, so I would advise that Artist accounts always use their own discretion when Submitting.  I'm not sure how much harm could be done by allowing this access for less reputable sites - but mysterycore is a thing - so Artists beware.  😉  haha.. 

 

Cheers, all.  To Playyy, RobertNash and all other Artists out there - hope this helps!

Frank and Andrew (known as The Shyp here on Spotify).  

 

I agree! 


Just showed some support to a local artist in Norway today "DARKBOAT" and got the same message. I agreed to pre save then removed access later via spotify.com/account then clicked on apps and you'll see all that has access to your account.

 

Love

I think this is potentially a huge problem for both Spotify and Spotify users.

 

Giving a third part company the ability to control my Spotify activity is  just asking for bots, fake streams, fake follows, and fake activity in general.

 

How can any human look at this laundry list and think it is even remotely okay!?!?

I have given a user-currator permission to "like" playlists on my behalf, and I wish I hadn't. How do I revoke permission from that Spotify user?

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