Using the non-streaming SDA for metadata in a music bingo app

[coldergrass]

Plan: Free / Premium
Country: United States
My Question or Issue:
I’m developing a paid music bingo app for macOS (Apple App Store). The app is a utility for event hosts — it does not stream or play music from Spotify. Instead, users provide their own MP3 files, which are played locally.

The app’s core function is to track which songs have been played, update bingo cards accordingly, and identify when a board has a bingo.

To enhance the host’s experience, I’d like to use the Spotify Web API to look up and display metadata for each song (title, artist, album, cover art, etc.), with proper attribution as Spotify data.

Given that this is:

• A paid, non-streaming app
• Using only user-provided local MP3s for playback
• Accessing Spotify only for visual metadata enrichment

…would this be an allowed use case under the non-streaming Spotify Developer Agreement (SDA) for commercial use?

[coldergrass]

I just want to add some more clarify (only the event host would see the meta-data). People playing would not see any of it.

[Ximzend]

Hi @coldergrass 

Thanks for reaching out! Under the Spotify Developer Policy, the Spotify API can’t be used in games.

That said, there are plenty of other music metadata services available that might work well for your project. It could be worth exploring a few to see which best fits your needs.

[kartuva]

@ximzend
That's not really true, at all. PLENTY of games that use the Spotify API. You are just approving randomly.