Requesting written permission to use the playback api in a commercial project

[hacktisch]

Amsterdam,  The Netherlands
Monday, November 7th, 2022

I am developing a commercial app on the Spotify API that needs to use the playback api. Commercial projects are only allowed to be published if Spotify grants written approval to the app. Strangely enough, the place where this must be asked is on this public forum board (I tried to request it privately, was chatting with Spotify support today - 5 different Spotify employees all told me that the only way to do this is via this public question board; which I feel strange about but here it is)

I will of course not publicly provide details about my product which is still in development. I was told that Spotify staff shall contact me privately. Please contact me, so I can explain what I am building.

Warm regards

Merijn

[hacktisch]

@Spotify Please do not let developers in suspense who are enthusiastically developing integrations with your platform (which you are seemingly encouraging them to...), even rejecting a request is better than leaving people in suspense forever. I've seen people asking the exact same question as I have, but 8 (!!) years ago who have still not received a response.

I've decided to be as bold to apply the rule "Silence means consent". I will wait one more week and try to reach out to the chat staff again, but if this again shows unfruitful, I shall actually continue my product development. I am keeping my all interactions with Spotify employees documented: in case of future dispute about this matter, I will be able to show that I stand in my right. As I am following the exact process dictated by Spotify themselves; when Spotify refrains from following their own protocol and ignores my request, I shall declare my permission granted by default as of Monday the 28th of November 2022. 

[ohej]

Hello there!

I'm afraid silence does not mean consent for these use cases. I suggest you spend some time becoming familiar with Spotify Developer Policy, Complying with the Developer Policy and the Developer Terms. This should give you an indication about your use case.

All newly created apps will be placed in "development mode". From here you can submit a quota extension request which means your app will be manually reviewed to see if it's complying with the rules. 

You can read more about this process here and the announcement from 2021 here.

[hacktisch]

I'm glad I received an answer, thank you for that. 

So to summarize and to make sure I understand this correctly (it's not quite clear in the documentation, and it's not clear to Spotify's chat support staff either):

If someone wants to use the playback api in a commercial project, he must apply for extended quota, and request written permission for commercial use of this api when submitting this application.
The response to this application will be a written approval of commercial use of the playback api (alongside I suppose some kind of extended quota).