Concerns About Implementing Chartmetric API on a Spotify-Approved Platform

[edwin99]

Hi everyone,

I run a platform that has been approved for access to the Spotify API and currently has around 50 active users. All features strictly follow the limits and requirements defined in Spotify’s API Terms of Service.

I’m planning to build a dashboard for registered artists where they can view statistics related to their Spotify artist profiles, such as streams, monthly listeners, followers, and similar metrics. In addition, I’d like to show stats from other DSPs as well.

To achieve this, I was considering integrating third-party APIs (for example, Chartmetric) in order to aggregate and display these statistics within my platform.

My concern is that Spotify’s API terms state that scraping or accessing statistics and data that are internal to Spotify for Artists is not allowed and may result in revocation of API access. At the same time, platforms like Chartmetric are widely used and still active, which makes it a bit unclear how this is handled in practice.

Before moving forward, I’d like to understand whether integrating third-party APIs that provide Spotify-related statistics could put my Spotify API approval at risk, and how this can be done safely without violating Spotify’s terms.

Thanks in advance for any clarification or guidance.

[thumbprint]

Did you ever get an answer to this? Also, what was the process for you to get the approval to access Spotify's API? Thanks

[ThePodfather]

Hi @edwin99,

After reviewing your question against our Developer Terms of Service and Developer Policy, there are a few sections relevant to what you're describing:

1. Creating derived metrics is restricted
The https://developer.spotify.com/policy states that developers may not analyse the Spotify Service for any purpose including "creating new or derived listenership metrics, benchmarking, functionality, usage statistics, user metrics." Building a dashboard that displays streams, monthly listeners, and follower stats,  even if sourced via a third-party API rather than directly from Spotify,  would likely fall under this.

2. Integration with other services
The policy also states that you must not create "any product or service which is integrated with streams or content from another service." Combining yourSpotify API access with data aggregated from other DSPs would likely conflict with this requirement.

3. Aggregation of Spotify Content
The https://developer.spotify.com/terms restrict developers from storing, aggregating, or creating compilations or databases of Spotify Content beyond what is strictly necessary to operate your application.

Based on this, adding a third-party-powered analytics dashboard to your platform is not allowed under the current terms. 

Hope this helps clarify things!

[edwin99]

Hi @ThePodfather , thanks for the reply. 

But if I didn’t show any private Spotify for Artists data (such as number of streams, listeners, etc.), and only displayed playlist placements, milestones like reaching a certain number of streams, and in separate tabs the additions of tracks on TikTok, Instagram, etc., would that still not be allowed?

Because I see very well-known platforms like Chartmetric, Songstats, and others that have been active for years and don’t seem to have any issues of this kind, even though they publicly show this data.

Thanks.

[ThePodfather]

@edwin99 Showing playlist placements and milestones like "reached X streams" would still fall under the derived metrics restriction in the Developer Policy, as these are derived from Spotify listening data regardless of how they're sourced or presented.

Displaying data from other platforms (TikTok, Instagram, etc.) in your app is outside the scope of Spotify's developer terms, that's between you and those platforms.

You can read more about this in the Developer Policy (https://developer.spotify.com/policy).

Hope that clears things up.