Incorrect rejection for Extension Quota from before the May 15th deadline

[dangerdev]

Hey Spotify team and community,

I’m just a solo developer trying to build something fun and meaningful. I submitted my app VinylVerdict.fm on May 13, two days before the new quota rules went into effect. It’s a lighthearted site where users can log in with Spotify and have their music taste reflected and have an abstraction based on their listening history... no scraping, no AI training, no weird data farming. Just for fun.

This morning, I got the extended quota rejection email, and I’m honestly crushed. I put everything into building this before the deadline, and I followed what I thought were all the rules. The reason listed was that I “analyze Spotify Content,” but I thought that rule didn’t apply to apps submitted before the May 15 change?

I’m just asking for a second look. I’m not some shadow AI company or a metrics scraper, I’m just trying to build something music lovers like me can enjoy.

According to Spotify’s April 15, 2025 Developer Blog update:

“Applications submitted before May 15, 2025, will be reviewed under the previous criteria.”

My app was submitted May 13, 2025, which is within that window. However, the rejection I received cited this as the reason:

“You must not analyze the Spotify Content or the Spotify Service for any purpose, including without limitation, benchmarking, functionality, usage statistics, or user metrics.”

This language was not part of the public developer policy before May 15. It was first introduced in the April 15 blog post, but stated that it would apply going forward, not retroactively...

• My app does not benchmark Spotify’s service or extract usage metrics.

• I do not train any AI/ML models.

• I link all artist, album, and track data directly back to Spotify, and follow branding/linking rules exactly as outlined.

• I’m just asking to be reviewed based on the criteria that existed when I submitted.

I know the team is swamped and trying to protect the platform, but I genuinely hope you’ll reconsider this or at least offer a path forward. I can make changes if needed, I just need to know what’s actually possible, or if there's any way I can get in contact with someone for an appeal, as the whole quota extension request tab is now gone from my application on the web app. I'm really just looking for answers as to why my application seemed to get a canned auto-rejection email.

- Devin
vinylverdict.fm

[Ximzend]

Hi @dangerdev 

Thanks so much for posting in the Spotify Community!

I am really sorry to hear that your quota extension request was rejected. That’s definitely frustrating.

Just to clarify, the line "Do not analyze the Spotify Content or the Spotify Service for any purpose" has actually been part of the Spotify Developer Policy since May 27, 2021.

I hope this helps clear things up a bit. If you have any more questions or need further support, feel free to ask. The Spotify Community is here to help!

[dangerdev]

Hi @Ximzend,

Thanks for the clarification.

I still believe my application doesn't fall under that policy. Just to explain, my app doesn't analyze Spotify Content or the Spotify Service. It only pulls a user’s own listening history (top tracks, recently played) and feeds those names into a themed, satirical personality critique. I understand it says, "without limitations", but even so, my application does not fall under any of the listed examples given: "creating new or derived listenership metrics, benchmarking, functionality, usage statistics, user metrics, or building profiles of users, including for the purpose of targeting them with advertising or marketing." 

A human could do the exact same thing by looking at a friend’s top artists and making a quip like “Wow, all sad indie folk? You good?” Anyone can do this already, there's applications made UNDER these guidelines that do exactly this and more. I just made a fun tool to automate this and give quirky responses.

it's not doing any real analysis of Spotify or it's data... it’s commentary about the user, based on their choices. Like a music-themed roast, not a metrics dashboard. I think there was a quick judgement call based around the misunderstanding of the word "analysis" and now my application has to suffer because of this since there is no way to appeal going forward. It would have been nice to have been given a chance to restructure the application to appease their vague guidelines regarding this, but since the extension quota section no longer exists, my application is now dead with no hope in sight 😞