Please reconsider shutting down iOS/Android streaming SDKs

[jimmyl1]

Like Rolf and their Amazing Slow Downer app, Zeyu and their MixOnSet app, Prady and their Boom app, Jukestar also uses the Mobile Streaming SDK to bring thousands of people to Spotify each week.

Jukestar uses the Mobile Streaming SDK to take control of the music queue in real-time enabling a live social jukebox at house parties. It doesn't manipulate, alter, cross-fade or change the music sound in any way, so I don't believe it will impact Spotify's music broadcast licenses.

Over the years I have experimented with multiple versions of the newer "App Remote SDKs" however since the Jukestar app is no longer actually playing the music, I have not found a reliable way to keep the app from being killed in the background by the Android/iOS operating systems. The new App Remote SDK also has had a range of issues reported by other developers on GitHub that unfortunately have received very limited attention to date.

If you could please reconsider shutting down the Mobile Streaming SDK. Even if possible, reaching out to us developers to provide us some more context on the operating costs and challenges of keeping this older Mobile Streaming SDK alive in its existing deprecated state, like it has been for the last 3 years.

What is Jukestar?

The Jukestar social jukebox app will automatically distribute the playlist based on who requested what, when they requested it and what other guests think of the songs. This way, everyone gets a fair go. No one can hog the playlist. The good stuff gets played. The bad stuff gets skipped. Accessible by everyone.

Thanks,

James

--

James Litjens

Founder

Jukestar

https://jukestar.mobi

Get the party started.

[Shpiker]

As others have mentioned, jukestar is the only reason i keep a Spotify paid account. It's fantastic for any kind of gathering including just a casual work group where people assemble their musical preferences over the course of their time together. Brilliant app and i would severely miss it!

[dmbrudenell]

C’mon Spotify! Remember how you came into being, providing an alternative listening experience. Please help other for the same. Show your support to innovate by allowing your service to be the platform which promotes creativity.

[Hvedevej22]

We have been using jukestar at our silverwedding, and I signed up for Spotify to use it, so if they now shutdown that possibility I will reconsider my Spotify membership. 

[juliarrr6]

I am super sad, that Jukestar is not working anymore. We used it last month at our wedding and it was great for song requests by the guests. It was also nice at several parties this year...

Please Spotify,  reconsider shutting down the Mobile Streaming SDK so that app like Jukestar can restore their functionality.

[wiktorell]

You MUST let Amazing Slow Downer app use your API as they used to do. SDA is a very important part in my toolchain. If not I will change to apple music only because of this

[vitosky]

Please reconsider access to streaming Spotify content in a way that works for slowing down audio, specifically Amazing Slow Downer. Your elimination of these services will, in time, eliminate your customers. 

[Hvedevej22]

This was the only reason for me to buy spotify, as I have several other streaming services, so guess now I have to reconsider if I should find another one that can bring this service.

[Grilli]

I'm a fan of Jukestar too and can't understand the decision of Spotify, shutting down the Mobile Streaming SDK 🤯

Spotify please reconsider shutting down the Mobile Streaming SDK so that app like Jukestar can restore their functionality.

[Shagman68]

I use the outdoor amp for parties and gatherings to do music for all of our neighbors when we gather together and I miss the SDK to tie it all together and now I have to go manually into Spotify and create playlists while I'm busy hosting a party.

[Shagman68]

Imagine my surprise New Years Eve and I could not launch my Outloud Jukebox app and all my neighbors could not pick their music for the party. So my drunk **bleep** was taking manual requests on my own phone to add songs to the queue. It made my evening not so enjoyable. Thanks Spotify for ruining my party. By the way your "Social options" are not very good. If you are killing this service off, you had better come up with a better social song queuing that does not include all of my guests owning a premium Spotify account. Most of my neighbors are cheap and getting the Pandora accounts.

[Ahmonkey]

This app was amazing and was my reason for subscribing to spotify i may have to change to another streaming service due to this change as apps like jukestar are a much needed feature

[MaxxFR]

Please! Reconsider your shutting down Streaming SDK Jukestar was terrible solution to simple party all the time! 

[stevenascott]

Is the API still dead?

[florom]

It's dead and buried, only the tombstone is missing.

[stevenascott]

The weird thing is that I can go straight to the Spotify API documentation and it still exists. I even found another open source app that uses this. Is it a situation where the Jukestar devs don't want to update their code, or some major capabilities are missing in the normal SDK/API?

[florom]

The link to the iOS Streaming SDK is dead:
https://github.com/spotify/ios-streaming-sdk/

You probably refer to the current useless iOS SDK:
https://github.com/spotify/ios-sdk/

If you found some other app that can stream and process Spotify audio, then they must have a special agreement with Spotify,
I don't think anyone have that.

And it's not that someone is lazy and don't want to update their code, personally I would update my code yesterday if it would change anything but it doesn't, trust me.
The streaming SDK is dead and buried.

But there are other audio streaming services with SDKs similar to the old Spotify SDK:

SoundCloud
https://developers.soundcloud.com

Deezer
https://developers.deezer.com

[Ximzend]

With the new SDKs you can still control music playback off Spotify that is running in the background.

[florom]

Correct, you can still control music playback off Spotify that is running in the background but you can't get access to the raw audio samples. So for example slow down or change the pitch is not possible. Being able to do that is what made the old streaming SDK so great.

[stevenascott]

So, if I understand this correctly, it should be possible to still have a Spotify jukebox of sorts, correct? Just no fading/tempo/etc changes? Because there are TONS of people that would pay good money to have even the most basic voting-based Spotify jukebox. I'm working with a bar in Maui right now actually that I recommend this app to, and they're really sad to see that it doesn't work any longer. I also used this for a bunch of parties. 

I think this could be easily monetized in a way that makes bars/restaurants/etc very happy. They said that TouchTunes charges like 60%.

Perhaps there's no real benefit in crying over the loss of a specific SDK, when another exists that can do 90% of what you want? Just thinking out loud here. This is a huge market and no one is tapping it, at all. Except maybe one or two opensource type solutions. I'm not aware of anything other than a few hardware-style "Spotify Jukeboxes" that I found online which appear to be some sort of scam. This app could be developed into something that runs on a Windows PC, or tablet, or whatever, and bars could use it as a revenue source, while still letting users vote on music, unlike a typical jukebox solution.

[Ximzend]

@florom, your were not allowed to do that according the Spotify Developer Policy (since 27 May, 2021) anyway: "Do not permit any device or system to segue, mix, re-mix, or overlap any Spotify Content with any other audio content (including other Spotify Content)."