App monetization through non-end users

[MartinAlejandre]

Hello, I am developing an App that uses the spotify api. I went through the developer terms and policy, and I have a question regarding compliance:

My app is an SDA and it is free. However, I want to monetize it by allowing users to enable featured tracks. If featured tracks are enabled, the app will push from time to time some tracks to the user's queue to listen.

Hence, I am not selling the SDA, and I am not adding in-app payment. All I am doing is giving the users the option to listen to some specific tracks from time to time.

It is similar to, if a user creates a playlist and it has many followers, the user can monetize by adding tracks to that playlist for some price. I think this could comply with the spotify policy, but I wanted to verify it.

In case this doesn't comply with the spotify policy, what about this: I have a public playlist that is under my spotify user. I sometimes stream tracks from that playlist through the SDA. I can monetize by adding tracks to the playlist for some price.

If none of the above comply with the spotify policy, it wouldn't make much sense to me. I can understand how you may not want someone to charge end-users money for an SDA, since they would just be leveraging spotify for free. However, I am not charging end-users, but musicians. Does this make sense?

Regardless, if the above don't comply with the policy, could I for example add links to featured tracks in my app, that the users can press and be taken to the track page in spotify? If this also doesn't comply then it would make me very sad. Because the only workaround I would have is to remove streaming from my app. Instead of adding tracks to the queues with the api, I would have to create playlists in the user's profile, only for the users to listen to them once, and then delete the playlist. This is a workaround that I would like not to take, since it really makes much worse the experience for end-users. The app would virtually have the same functinality, except that instead of being able to press `play` in the app and automatically have a queue of tracks, users would have to be redirected to spotify playlist and press `play` in spotify.

But the final result would be the same, which is why I hope I can offer a better experience for users and still monetize the app.

[Ximzend · Accepted solution]

Hi @MartinAlejandre 

Welcome to the Community, and thank you for your question.

Regarding monetization through featured tracks, charging musicians could be seen as violating Spotify’s policy against artificial manipulation, even if you're not charging end-users.

Monetizing through a public playlist may also breach Spotify's guidelines about play counts and interactions.

Adding links that direct users to tracks on Spotify is typically allowed, as it keeps interactions on their platform without manipulation.

Creating temporary playlists may ensure compliance but could negatively impact user experience.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask!

[MartinAlejandre]

Hey @Ximzend thanks for your quick response! Is it weird that I didn't get an email on my inbox notificating that I had an answer?

Anyways, I see how that violates the policy. It is a shame that it is so hard to monetize apps that use the spotify API. I will probably go with the links approach.

Thanks again for your quick response!