Restore Web API write access for individual developers (Development mode) — follow/playlist endpoi

[dbesoain]

  I'm an individual developer building a small, personal music-discovery tool. Since the

  recent changes, ALL write endpoints (PUT /me/following, playlist modify) return 403

  Forbidden for my own account in Development mode — even with the correct scopes

  (user-follow-modify) and a freshly created app. Read endpoints (GET) work fine and

  return 200 with the same token/scopes.

  I created a brand-new app to rule out an app-specific flag, and it returns the same

  403, which points to an account/policy-level restriction. Extended Quota now appears to

  require enterprise contracts, leaving no path for personal/hobbyist write access.

  My use case is the opposite of abuse: I surface emerging, low-popularity artists

  outside my algorithm and want to FOLLOW them to support new talent — fully aligned with

  Spotify's mission of helping artists get discovered.

  Could you please (1) restore basic write access (follow, playlist-modify) for

  Development mode on the owner's own account, or (2) offer a non-enterprise path to

  write scopes for personal projects?

  Client ID: 4d5390831dd442f29c3f6b22cd48f030 · Endpoint: PUT /me/following?type=artist →

  403 Forbidden.

  Thank you.

[Ximzend · Accepted solution]

Hi @dbesoain 

Thanks for posting in the Spotify Community!

Spotify made a lot of changes to its API.

I understand your struggle. According to Migration Guide, all save and follow actions use PUT /me/library now.

I hope this helps you in making your music discover tool. Let me know if you need anything else.

[dbesoain · Accepted solution]

Thank you so much, Ximzend — you nailed it! 

  You're 100% right: switching from the old `PUT /me/following` to `PUT /me/library`

  (with the artist URIs in the query, e.g. `?uris=spotify:artist:...`) did the trick. It

  went from 403 Forbidden to following all 43 artists in my discovery playlist in one go.

  So it was never a ban — just the February 2026 migration removing the old endpoint,

  exactly as you said.

  Really appreciate you taking the time to point me to the migration guide — huge help

  for the music-discovery tool I'm building. Marking this as the solution and dropping a

  Like. 

  Cheers from Chile!