Changes to Web API

[Loneliest_Cabin]

Folks, some news on changes to the web API has been posted on the Spotify For Developers blog.

We want to reiterate the main message from the blog that we're committed to providing a safe and secure environment for all Spotify stakeholders. As such we have recently made some important changes related to access to some of our endpoints and functionality. You can read the details on the blog: https://developer.spotify.com/blog/2024-11-27-changes-to-the-web-api

We are here to listen to any feedback you may have. 

[kingosticks4]

There's nearly 300 pieces of negative feedback here and not a single comment from Spotify.

Jay wrote an article at https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/5/24311523/spotify-locked-down-apis-developers which Spotify had the grace to respond to, and they chose to reiterate the joke about this being about security.

So, moving forward, I suggest you explore ways to access their API via less official means.

[tyrfro]

I totally agree with you, really strange nobody from Spotify meetup this
thread

There are other ways to get hold of information, but this thread is not
about that, its about why they closed down the API, and I still can not
understand this.

[kingosticks4]

I think "why" is very uninteresting. They did it and they did it badly, just as always. The only interesting and useful thing left to discuss is how to workaround it, to fix everyone's now broken projects.

[sylvesta]

Hey guys here's a workaround

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/applemusicapi

[Karnay]

Sadly this is no workaround because apple music does not have the data I need or at least I don't find them. Deezer would maybe be an option, but they don't take new apps and I am not sure if I should use it.. But maybe I will try it

[MLsound]

You are just being despotic and outrageous, affecting a lot of music devs with arbitrary decisions. Killing a lot of potential businesses plans, lot of human resources of individual work wasted for nothing and most important being disrespectful with your developer community. Thank you for nothing Spotify Team.

[mirbs]

Disappointed by this change, and also disappointed I did not see any announcement about this change being mad before it was rolled out.

I'm a big fan of my Discover Weekly playlist, and I built out a tool that helps me automatically back up this playlist each week. With this API change, I'm no longer able to get my Discover Weekly playlist, thus now my automation tool no longer works.

Wish this change could be rolled back, as I find great value in being able to automatically back up my Discover Weekly playlist.

[fetimo]

Like others it's extremely disappointing to see these invaluable features be pulled. It would be fantastic if the Extension Request process could be reviewed to align with these changes so that hobbyists like myself can still make use of it for legitimate purposes. I'd wager that many of the current Spotify employees got interested in the platform by tinkering with this formerly great API.

[icemaker]

Really disappointed. I've built a personal app just for me to create my playlists based on bpm of songs...

All this work for nothing now 😕

[sylvesta]

Please let us developers help you create music discovery tools.  We know you're barely profitable, we know, but opening up the API is very low-cost.  Maybe introduce a developer membership we can pay annually like Apple Developers have.  The net gain in revenue will be greater than what it costs to let indie devs hit the API.  If it's a cost thing, tell us, we are happy to foot the internet bill.  Let's come to a compromise.  It feels very unfair that The Echo Nest got absorbed by Spotify, the lead dev laid off a few years ago, and now the open API for the largest music collection in history to be ... turned off.  We are supposed to crank up the volume, together, Spotify!

[Marion15]

It sounds very controversial to me ,

As a casual listener reading sarcastic comments about parts of Spot I don't ever see or understand. It could be a improvement for listeners or create a new protest march. What kind of sign do I make? Where do I march?

I was never aware of developers. Are they paying subscribers or Fee users? Do they benefit subscribers or abuse the system for personal gain.

I have noticed comments implying personal use for commercial gain, and wondered if it was a acceptable use of the service ? Do they contribute to the service we use? Obviously they don't have much control of the choices made. 

I hope someone would share a simple version of the decision

[drdoubleyou]

The curated playlists access has been instrumental to my app development. Without it my project is basically defunct.

My only conclusion is that Spotify's own recommendation system became so dog poopoo compared to us "3rd party" developers (hate that term)  that they had to kick us out 😂 Please bring it back Spotify, I am experiencing a bit of aimlessness now that a major project is completely gone...

[a_occlusion]

Removed 'Similar Playlist'.
You have removed 'Get recommendations'.
What's next?

Just say outright that you hate your users and will never let them enjoy music the way they want to.
Or say outright that you will offer something in return.
Other than deep frustration, Spotify's actions are uninspiring. It's disgusting, it's shameful. It's a betrayal.

[AndrewUA]

After spending months on development of an app, I have to stop development now as I lost faith in Spotify. I have cancelled my subscription for myself and 4 family members today. I guess, Spotify is trying to keep some kind of competitive advantage by prohibiting getting a playlist by id, if playlist is owned by Spotify. I hope they get what they want, but it’s going to be hard to keep loyal users and developers. I was creating a feature that none of other platforms have and it would definitely bring hundreds if not thousands of users to Spotify platform. But not anymore 😞

It’s a shame.

[samr8]

Its really funny that spotify ran that ad campaign a couple years ago begging Apple to "play fair" (https://timetoplayfair.com/) and then they do things like this. That page still says: "Fighting for a fair and open internet" LOL

[1156288878]

I am also very sad to hear that the Get Recommendations endpoint got removed. Killed my toy project...

[ArtistDevelop]

Hope they will reconsider a payment model or something to support these kind of features. 

If not, I'm really considering of cancelling my family subscription and move my music listening somewhere else.
This move goes against everything I thought Spotify was, and to be frank can't support a business that treats it's developers like this.

Let's call this change an early April joke and reverse it?

[dannebrog13]

While it's understandable you want to prevent the development of competing song rec transformer models and other scraping for AI purposes, it is a shame you without notice just cut off access to valuable endpoints legitimate non-competitive apps and for people like me who use it occasionally for hobby purposes (I just like to do data analysis on my playlist tracks and some artists now and then).

Please reconsider adding a free casual user tier to all endpoints and maybe paid models beyond that. 

[dannebrog13]

It is their data but that data is built on music essentially given to them to monetize. Including bands I played in. And considering that they no longer even pay artists below a certain threshold of number of plays, well...

There are ways they could have protected themselves from AI scrapers and still allowed use of data that they wouldn't have if people didn't contribute the music.

Greedy on both ends.

[pfeff]

I needed the BPM and key signature data. The only solution I’ve found is https://songstats.com/for/developers which is still basically using the info from Spotify (though it also pulls from other services if you need data that they provide)

I emailed and they’re charging me 0.02eur per unique request. Not brilliant as Spotify was free, but it was the only way I could get my app working again so I’m just keeping my eye on the costs.