Sunset of libspotify. Please reconsider.

[stormtroopoa]

Hello Spotify,

yesterday libspotify was shutdown. I noticed that my DIY device has stopped working for my childrens devices. After some digging I came across that post:

https://developer.spotify.com/community/news/2022/04/12/libspotify-sunset

I don't see any real alternative for libspotify to stream content. Just API to control Spotify connect. Do I miss something?

I know libspotify has been deprecated some years ago. Without a real alternative I couldn't replace it though.

I want to stream music and control playback with my RaspberryPi without any other client being connected.

There are many DIY open source solutions out there using (e.g. mopidy).

If there is no real alternative all my work, 1000s of hours spent and those of others be wasted.

Have a heart for developers and reconsider your decision!

PLEEEEEASE.

[stormtroopoa]

Btw, this topic has already brought to your attention some month ago:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-for-Developers/Developer-Official-alternative-to-libspotify...

[peadarforbes]

I was also using this as a way for my kids to control spotify.  They tapped RFID cards that streamed music from spotify.

You have taken the Music away from my kids and they are devastated! Also many hours of DIY work gone down the drain.  Please reconsider - for the sake of the children!

[MaxDurstHansWurst]

Same here. We have built for our and our friends kids two fire trucks, two ambulances and a mouse, all not only with rfid cards to control the playback, but with led buttons, even displays for the cover, relying on the great Phoniebox community. 

The kids are  very sad as their boxes stopped working. Even though there is some local music they can still use, my son even told me with tears in his eyes: “now I cannot make any use of my fire truck . It’s useless for me” 

I am not blaming you. As I software engineer, I can perfectly understand why you had deprecated libspotify and also why you finally shut it down now. But still I think it’s a pity. 

[sbctm]

As far as I understand all projects using mopidy, mopidy-spotify, mopidy-iris or similar on Raspberry Pi are dead now. This is so sad. I am a spotify premium user for 7 years now and the only reason is that it worked flawlessly with my headless audio system relying on these projects. Thousands of developer hours have been spent on these projects.

[kingosticks4]

Mopidy is more than just Mopidy-Spotify and there other music sources available. Sadly, these big streaming providers are all hopeless when it comes to providing a streaming SDK outside of the browser. Mopidy- Local, Podcasts, Soundcloud (!), YouTube (?), Internet Radio, and others should all still work.

But by all means, vote with your wallet and your feet. Dumb moves like this from Spotify just erode the value of their Premium subscription.

[WeaselPig]

Another request to reconsider this terrible and anti-community decision.  I only pay for premium because I can use Spotify flexibly to stream to home-brewed devices via raspberry pi.  You guys are killing this for no apparent reason.  Surely it costs you almost nothing to keep this access available to people?

[stormtroopoa]

No comment from Spotify? Really? Josh Brown, hello?

I know it is not a developer fault. These things always originate from some terrible management decision, with apparently no estimation of the implications.

So, hey managers, have some courage to at least admit your fault! Do you only think in terms of your precious short-term oriented stock value? Don't bother with annoying open source developers?

You're destroying lifes here! I spend 4 years of my precious life developing upon my application because I had faith in you.

You can't provide a feature upon which other developers build their applications (and maybe even businesses) on and then just cut it off. You simply cant!

I always had a very positve attitude towards Spotify and brought a lot of new users to your service. This is over now. Won't continue my subscription and stop promoting your service.

I am so disappointed beyond your imagination.

[fmarzocca]

I will cancel my Premium account and search for another service, compatible with mopidy.
Dear Spotify bosses: dumb decision.

[vispinet]

This is terrible. I am in the same boat as the music box I built for my 1 yo son using a Raspberry pi, ton of hours of DIY work, stopped streaming from Spotify. I've been a loyal premium customer for years but this move will push me to consider other services. Please reconsider your decision.

[Thalhammer1]

Well at least its not my code that broke this time. Guess I'll have to cancel my 3 premium accounts and recommend to everyone using my software to do the same. I had really hoped spotify would at least keep server support for libspotify alive until there are alternatives to it. Its really heart breaking to see a once good and caring company turn bad for no real reason.

[Alazonos]

I'm also massively disappointed you pulled the plug on libspotify. My daughter loved her audiobooks that could me started and stopped RFID cards. It's a pity you do not provide an alternative framework for the tech-savvy users that build onto your platform and make it worth so much more than the sum of its parts. Please reconsider!

[paulb39]

After over 2 hours of being on their chat support, and having to talk to multiple support agents, they confirmed there are no plans to provide an alternative to libspotify. I asked them to have someone from spotify reply to this thread, we'll see if they do. My subscription expires in August, I'm not going to renew, only reason I used spotify is because of libspotify, I have no reason to use it anymore. I suggest to anyone who also will be canceling their subscriptions, to message them to let them know why you are canceling.

[domdek]

I have invested hundreds hours of coding but also a lot of money (rpi4, hifiberry, power supplys, jlpcb, case, speakers etc). Spotify please reconsider this decision! I am using premium mostly because of libspotify.

[aFewTooManyHobbies]

Seriously, this not being fixed will be the kick in the but for me to shut down my spotify family account. If I go out and get something new for my smart-home audio I might as well switch to that new thing across the board. 

[peadarforbes]

there is a mopidy library for tidal - people should cancel spotify and move to tidal. 

[kingosticks4]

Actually I disagree with that. Tidal has no public API at all. They have no interest in anything outside of their closed app. Spotify, although heading in a frustrating direction for a while in regards to developer support, tighter restrictions etc, at least it actually has an API. And has at least one (probably only one) person working on new things. Although arguably the wrong things!

I do think this move devalues their Premium membership. But I guess they crunched the numbers and worked out it's a relatively small number of subscribers so they don't care and won't even bother replying here. Wish they'd spent that time working on a successor library instead.

[kingosticks4]

By the way, my previous reply assumes Mopidy-Spotify is able to restore playback support somehow. Probably via an unofficial method. Otherwise, yeh, might as well just use a competitor.

[peadarforbes]

my misunderstanding - thanks for clarifying. I'm just annoyed - and so are my kids. They hate Spotify now - can you imagine that?!

[wgruen]

same here, my kids are really sad and i have to get all my old CDs from the attic