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. 

[bazingatorade]

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@pfeff wrote:

The only downside to the Songstats implementation is that I have to request
individually and there’s a rate limit, so I have to throttle on my end.
With Spotify I was able to pass in multiple IDs or ISRCs in a single
request.

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Thanks for your input ! 
Those are some serious limitations thaugh.
Only being able to request info song by song means that just for a 30 songs batch request we were able to do with Spotify (typically a small playlist), it's now 30x0.02 = $0.6
50K songs would now cost $1000.
Not even accounting for the rate limit and possible lags, at 30 requests a pop...

[bazingatorade]

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@kingosticks4 wrote:

You'd think Spotify would be smart enough to spend efforts stamping out third parties who are just reselling their data. Instead of angering their actual users. Not the smartest management.

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There's a risk they will also do that in a near future, for those searching for alternatives, like me.

[Mathazard]

Hi Everyone,

We're all in the same case right now. Spotify put us in a difficult position. But nobody have an alternative solution ? An another platform or an another API that could help us ? 

Please if you have any suggestion, let us know !

[LKits]

Hello! Is it possible to get my own account playlists On Repeat and Repeat Rewind?
I was using API in development mode, but since Spotify restricted that access to my own account (what the **bleep**?), then couldn't use it anymore.

I could use some hacky solution through web browser and javascript, but this can't really be a solution, now can it?

[hans-jürgen]

Depending on what you want to do or need, Last.fm has a free API, and you can also scrobble your Spotify listening to your Last.fm account for free: API Docs | Last.fm

[soundstat]

I've been developing SoundStat.info out of necessity after Spotify restricted access to their audio analysis API. As a developer who heavily relied on their detailed track insights, I needed a solution that could provide similar technical musical characteristics.
My service aims to replicate and potentially improve upon Spotify's audio analysis features. We're tracking key metrics like tempo, key, mode, energy, danceability, and other acoustic properties. I've designed the system with a dynamic database that learns and improves with each request - the first analysis of a track might take a bit longer, but subsequent requests become increasingly fast.
Currently, I'm focused on optimizing the analysis time and scaling the infrastructure to ensure reliable performance. It's been a challenging but interesting project to create an alternative when a critical API access gets cut off. The goal is to provide musicians, producers, and developers with the kind of detailed track analysis they've come to expect.
The service is still in development, but it's already showing promise as a robust replacement for the previously available Spotify audio analysis capabilities.

[bveAThome]

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to express my concern regarding the recent decision to disable a specific Spotify API endpoint on which my applications rely. This change has disrupted critical features in my programs and caused significant inconvenience for both myself and my users.

I understand that your team must weigh a variety of factors when making such decisions. However, the abrupt removal of this functionality has had a substantial impact on my users’ daily experience. I therefore respectfully request that you reconsider your decision and explore the possibility of restoring the affected API features.

Should the Spotify team require any additional information or evidence of the API’s importance, I am more than willing to provide it. My intention is to ensure safe, compliant, and valuable use of Spotify’s services for our shared user community.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

[Young_Broken]

I've been working for 3 months on my diploma project for college. Now it's all gone.

[dstar9]

All I want to do is create a copy of my Discovery Weekly playlist so I don't miss out on new songs. The API solved this issue and helped me catch up on Discover Weekly playlists I didn't have the time to review during busy weeks.

I've missed manually copying 3 out of the last 4 Discover Weekly playlists since the API changes.

Spotify, can you at least allow owners to see all private playlists?

[Samppa3]

I've used Skiley for this for number of years and it has saved me playlist of each Discover Weekly-playlist. Still working nicely.

https://skiley.net/

[earthbound]

Just say outright what your real reasons are.

Saying that this relates to safety and security is complete nonsense.

The data you have shut off access to has nothing whatsoever to do with any private user data or anything of that sort.

Rather, it relates to your silly idea that by keeping data about music proprietary, you help yourselves maintain any market advantage. Which it does not.

Open metadata drives further market adoption and value. Private metadata always does the opposite.

You're standing on the shoulders of millions of musicians ancient and modern, and public information about and research about their work is a world heritage which ethically, you owe it to musicians and their audience (the world) useful information about.

It's not about what's in it for you. It's about what's in it for everyone. But pro tip what's in it for everyone always comes back to you.

You would be wise to open it back up.

At a minimum, you owe the developer community an apology for being disingenuous about your reasons and for cutting off many labors of love unannounced.

[dstar9]

Nice! I'll take a look at this. I'd still rather not expose my Spotify info to third parties, but if this is the only way I can automatically have a copy of my Discover playlist saved, then so be it.

[soundstat]

What type of Spotify API you use in project? if Audio features, you can try my project soon. soundstat.info

[nelsoncasey13]

This is shameful

[Dragonlaird]

Hi @Loneliest_Cabin,

I fully support making improvements to any API to improve security, privacy, and performance. It boosts confidence that API changes are planned and the API is being actively developed.

Common practice for releasing changes involves providing details of the upcoming changes before they are published, to give developers time to revise their own project plans to take these into account.

Occasionally, changes must be released quickly, with little or no advance notification, such as fixing a newly discovered loophole or bug.

This is the only scenario where changes should be released without providing advanced notification.

Having said all that, it is obvious that several of the changes made, have zero relationship with improving safety or security, so using that as a reason for these changes simply doesn't work.

For example, fetching a list of available genres does not relate to user details, requires no specific Scope, and effectively disables many related API endpoint features, as previous values can no longer be used or relied upon.

There may be plans to re-introduce some of these endpoints, perhaps slightly modified or refined for performance. In this case, we would appreciate being advised of this, perhaps by releasing details of upcoming changes, as mentioned above.

If there are no plans to re-introduce removed endpoints, we would equally appreciate an explanation of why.

We realise this is your product and you can do with it whatever you wish, but please remember those consuming your product. They are ambassadors of Spotify and deserve a little more respect and engagement.

[einrisempai]

Absolutely shameful. I can't help but reconsider my subscription: curious to know what the stakeholders will think of this.

[gpit2286]

I have been using the deprecated end points to build myself running playlists since Spotify took that functionality away a long time ago. This stops all of that -- not even trying to sell a service, just trying to use the service for myself. This is super unfortunate. Ten year subscriber and the first time I've thought about finding a new service to use.

[RednotePL]

Thanks for killing my project that was forever in dev mode because I didn't need to release it publicly

[chromosundrift]

Same story. So much development down the drain. If only I had made an extension request? No. I'm lucky I didn't because I then would only learn this lesson later at the next rug pull when I'd wasted even more time.

[JohnC2]

These changes have essentially broken the music system I have been using for years. It is hard to see how the changes protect anyone and are more about protecting revenue. Partly I also feel that despite the glad words Spotify would like to see the API disappear and force everyone onto Spotify Connect. I've been using Connect since these changes and it is a poor replacement. The Spotify user interface hasn't change in years and is basic. It really is making me consider a change to another streaming service.