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.

[Ximzend]

@stevenascott They will need to program the functionality in another way, but I think it's possible.

This support article says:

As laid out in our Terms and Conditions, Spotify is only for personal, non-commercial use.

This means you can’t broadcast or play Spotify publicly from a business, such as bars, restaurants, schools, stores, salons, dance studios, radio stations, etc.

To play in a commercial environment, check out our friends at Soundtrack Your Brand.

[stevenascott]

I suppose that's not really something the devs need to worry about though. Just the end users who might violate licensing.

[florom]

@Ximzend - I'm not a native speaking english person but this sentence: 

"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)."

does not mean that it was not permitted to change a single audio stream. It means you must not combine two audio streams such as DJ apps do and therefor DJ apps were the first to be dumped by Spotify. Most such apps now uses TIDAL and/or SoundCloud.

My app was permitted to process audio samples for about seven years without any complaints from Spotify. Only Spotify knows why they suddenly dumped all apps using the streaming SDK. We never got any explanation. Well, that's how big companies works.

[Ximzend]

@florom changing audio falls under remixing, and that is prohibited.

[stevenascott]

I suppose this is just like how police may never catch you going 10+mph but one day the department decided to crack down to gain some extra revenue/control.

[florom]

@Ximzend - do you work for Spotify?

[TomesOfTomes]

Yes please. These integrations made the platform next level.

[rgbdisco]

Please put back the star in Jukestar 🙏

[stevenascott]

Curious why the dev hasn't rewritten to use a different SDK, or moved on to Tidal, or another service. I know writing software isn't easy, but so much from this project could be re-used, and just point the backend to a new service/SDK. 

I think there's real money in something like this. I've got two clients that have been looking for alternatives since this SDK issue took down Jukestar. I'd rather not write my own, but I can't find anything, for any service. 

I see Modipy, but something tells me it doesn't actually work.

[AaronLathrop]

So I can say.  Without jukestar working there is no reason for me to continue my Spotify premium.  Spotify, please reinstate whatever is necessary to make  jukestar work

[stevenascott]

This is silly, just use https://festify.rocks/. Works the same way, basically. Proving 100% that the allowed SDKs are more than sufficient. I can't pretend to know why the dev won't adapt, but they could. Probably not worth the effort.

 Anyhow Festify works great. I used it for a party this weekend. It's not even the only option.

[JoeH76]

Spotify just released what seems to be an updated version of their Group Session called “Jam” and now it’s available to Free users to join the session; only the host requires a Premium subscription. This feature has now rendered these third party apps unnecessary which I am quite all right with. Even though there’s still Hi Res, this feature alone convinces me to keep my premium membership.

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-09-26/spotify-jam-personalized-collaborative-listening-session-fre...

[JoeH76]

I meant to say, even though there’s still NO Hi Res