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. 

[anthonybaldwin]

**bleep** this change. This has NOTHING to do with safety, RE: the fact I can't use the API to backup Discover Weekly.

[BlinkBP]

Restricting APIs because of AI scraping is reasonable. But Spotify (and other companies) could still allow low rate API usage with some daily or monthly request caps, so that not every API user is affected.
It's unreasonable to punish and alienate your whole user base.

[yournatalita]

Oh, yeah, AI ruined another thing that was so dear to me: my stupid pet projects where I could play with Spotify API. I mean it's Spotify's data and they can do whatever they want with it and I agree they shouldn't share it with third party. Everything good comes to an end and it was too good to be true for so long.

With that in mind, I would expect AI music not getting into my recommendations (or platform in general), but who I am to judge their priorities.

[iammarkjohnson]

Thanks for sharing the update. Appreciate the focus on security — I’ll check the blog for details. Glad to know you’re open to feedback.

[spencerthayer]

WE FINALLY KNOW WHY SPOTIFY BETRAYED DEVELOPERS!

Spotify did not "secure the platform." It secured partners. On November 27, 2024, Spotify shut the door on new and in-development apps for core endpoints like Audio Features, Audio Analysis, Recommendations, Related Artists, Featured, and Category Playlists. Then on September 24, 2025, Spotify announced privileged integrations for Rekordbox, Serato, and DJay across 51 markets. That timeline is not a coincidence. It is a strategy.

Call the talking points what they are. “Security” and “anti-scraping” were cover stories. The practical effect was to cut off independent developers from the very data that made Spotify worthwhile, while green-lighting the same value proposition for select commercial partners inside closed software. Indie tools got a 403. Big vendors got a login button.

This is monopoly, not stewardship. Spotify removed the public road, then sold access to the toll lane. Startups and researchers lost the tempo, key, valence, and analysis needed to create real features that users actually need. Meanwhile, Spotify promotes “seamless mixing” with handpicked desktop DJ apps, locking creativity behind private deals and Premium paywalls.

Stop pretending this helps users. It kneecaps competition, buries open innovation, and rewrites the rules to favor whoever signs the biggest partnership checks. If Spotify wants the DJ market, it should compete openly. Restore feature parity for independent developers or say plainly that the platform is now a walled garden for partners who have big pockets.

Spare us the security theater and AI doomerism and give the community back the tools you took.

[NALStudio]

Thankfully the original post was edited to include the actual reason, safe and secure environment for shareholders 😄

[luminous]

I"m one year late to this and it still annoys the **bleep** out of me that the best endpoints available would become deprecated. What doesn't make sense to me, is reading over everyone's earlier posts, is that it seems that you guys had the rug pulled under you. But in that initial Spotify blog post where API changes were announced, it made it seem like anyone who already had access to the API, would retain access. So was that an outright lie?