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. 

[MarcoMadera]

Hi, I understand the change, are there any planned timelines to remove access of these endpoints for existing production applications with extended mode access? This information would help us, thanks.

[squirreltoken]

Bring back the SONG TEMPO at least? Can you not add this to the general info of a track as a hotfix? What is so secret about the tempo? For many people, this is the reason to use this API. Itunes even shows BPM in its basic app. And Spotify wont even let you know the super secret tempo of a song with an API. Time to Switch. This is backbreaking. Im using the API to design sports classes (BPM matters!!) and convinces many trainers to switch for this feature. I wake up and I cant use it. I cant describe how bitter this is.

[albertbst]

In addition to the listed endpoints, the Get Playlist endpoint doesn't work anymore with Spotify featured playlists (e.g. Release Radar, Top 50 Charts). This change is really inconvenient for those who want to get out the most of those wonderful playlists. Please, make this work again!

[mixlog]

We're also bummed about this. We use the api to get track information in order to give users of our app a preview and album art in their otherwise text-only data. I'd love to know about a possible replacement or the return of these endpoints so we can continue to develop great experiences. Thanks

[bvermeulen]

Well let's see. Stopping the API end points in the way it was done, does not seem it was thoroughly planned and thought through. For me track features and 30-s preview url's are the most important features that are now lacking.

[ersheight]

Can we please have some info if this decision is final?

[alexanderjdclay]

This is so frustrating!! I literally have a personal project that is a cron job to access the OnRepeat playlist and if there are new tracks in there add it to a mega "On Repeat All Time" playlist but as per the changes here

Algorithmic and Spotify-owned editorial playlists

It is now broken and unfixable, its the simplest of projects and doesnt qualify for extended access as its just a personal project!!! so so upsetting and a real poor change to impact us developers, rather annoying as I have a big playlist of all my fave songs i listen to all the time that will stop being updated from the mini spotify one now!!

[alexanderjdclay]

Yeh unfortunately they curbed it as believe they come under here

Algorithmic and Spotify-owned editorial playlists

Super annoying to utilise these playlists to make other playlists as cant access them

[EchoExplorer]

This is horrible!!
I moved over from a Spotify competitor to spotify because of the beautiful API. I designed a fully customised home automation system that uses the API to manage my playlists based in a finetuned manner and all sorts of other features.
This used Node Red and it no longer works.
The Home Assistant Integration also stopped working.
I made the extension request, but Spotify specifically says for personal home automation projects you have to stay in developer mode, and they're cutting all these functionalities in the developer mode :'(
Not sure what to do now. Please revert this sudden and bizarre decision!

[defaultplayer]

Everything has been fine, then you ruin the desktop app, now you've also ruined the tui app, then it get's fixed and then you do this. Maybe "Work with the stakeholders" i.e. the people literally-funding-your-income with a bit more courtesy?

[defaultplayer]

oh the music for my dnd game is also broken as well. Cheers guys. Really appreciate everything you're doing...

[petra_ggs]

Spotify is really going down the drain 😣

[angry-student]

Thank you stakeholders for ruining my master thesis 😄

[giuseppevincenzo]

Here another developer whose app is no longer useful because you have deprecated these endpoints. Please reconsider and make them available again.

[peketeus]

Hi,

Regarding a recent change to the Spotify API that has impacted our university group project.

We were working on a development project as part of our coursework, using the Spotify API to build an web app. The app was designed to help users create new playlists to Spotify accounts based on various search parameters. Just as we were nearing completion, a sudden change to the API limiting endpoint usage has made our app unusable for most part.

This change has effectively undone two months of hard work, and we’re now facing a possibility to showcase an app what does not work properly.

Is there any way to keep using the endpoints without limitations, at least until the end of this year?

[presence_user]

Hello preview_url is always null, this has broken our app. Can you please hotfix it or provide us with clear instructions about how we are supposed to get preview_url? Without it, the all api makes no sense because users cannot play the songs.

[presence_user]

Also, to whoever is leading the team there, you guys cannot discontinue an api core feature without providing the new one, and even in that case, you should give developers enough time to migrate. Can't imagine how many apps deployed on GooglePay and AppStore are simply non-functional due to this change. Please let us know what we are supposed to do.

[BenjaminRask]

This is so sad and frustrating. I am a completely new dev just dipping my toes into actual interesting API developing and then my entire project is shut down with no warnings and no way to regain lost time and effort.

I just wish that i could get just a 4 week extension. Thats all. I have to present my project very soon and i just need it to work which it now can't. Very upsetting.

[tazaraz]

This change is bad for the company as a whole. In an ever-increasing player count in a zero-sum market, you are pushing away developers and restricting features which would set you apart from the others. The only thing this could result in is a less feature-rich environment.

You say you're "excited about the continued engagement we’re seeing to learn, experiment, innovate, and deliver unique experiences with Spotify", but with this change, you are doing the exact opposite.

Keep in mind that things others develop can be a very good inspiration for the main application. In this regard, you are robbing yourself of unique ideas you could incorporate into the main selling point.

I made a smart playlists functionality like Apple Music offers, and the only difference between their API and Spotify's was all those extra features, which are now removed. At this moment, the AM API offers more data. Yikes. Apple giving more customizability than Spotify is almost like an insult to Spotify, but you did this yourself...

[thaimikes]

I am in a very similar situation to others.  worked hard because as (falsely) advertised "Spotify Web API enables the creation of applications that can interact with Spotify's streaming service, such as retrieving content metadata, creating and managing playlists, or controlling playback."  so, this is a lie. So, moving away from this disceptive culture of leaders, does anyone have any suggestions on how to get "Audio Features"-like data (e.g. energy, valence, danceability, etc...)??  I was going to start testing by pointing to MusicBrainz/AcousticBrainz BUT A'Brainz only goes from 2015-2022 😕 and M'Brainz doesn't seem to have as much meta data.  Is this data really ONLY Spotify specific?