Collaborative Playlist Expired?

[SustainedNote]

Premium

USA

Device - Macbook Pro OSX 11.6.1, Samsung S10, iPad Pro (updated)

My Question or Issue

I create collaborative playlists with friends and clients. Recently, Spotify changed the collaboration feature to "Invite Collaborators", which is nice as it copies the link immediately. But there are at least 2 issues I'm experiencing.

1) My followers/friends/clients are reporting that many of the playlists I send them are "Expired" by the time they open the playlist. (This is a big problem for me as not everyone can get to my playlists right away).

2) Others are reporting that the collaborative playlists cannot be added to on Browsers. (This is not a huge deal, but an issue for some). 

Do we know how long the playlists are "collaborative" for? And why there is a time frame now?

Interestingly, I don't see the playlists that I "Invite Collaborators" to, listed as "Collaborative" with the little collab icons anymore. Why is that? Am I missing something? When I right click them, all I see is the option to "Make Private" or "Invite Collaborators". No longer can I select the classic "Make Collaborative".

What's up with collaborative playlists? This is the most useful feature of spotify for me and I am perplexed. 

Here's an Expired screenshot from my follower's phone as well as their followed playlist that they cannot add to. Note how "10.03.22 Dancing" playlist is not in their available  playlist list.

[Kiril]

Hey @SustainedNote,

Thanks for posting in the Community!

Yes, there was a resent change to privacy of playlists and also to the way collaborative playlist function. Basically now every playlist (public or private) of yours can be shared for a collaborator to join on it via a collaboration link, that lasts for 7 days. The receiving party must open the link and follow the list, so they will be added as collaborators to it. If they have missed the timeframe to follow your playlist, then you'd simply need to send them a new invitation link. This expiration limit is set for security reasons, so your link and playlist doesn't get abused and you also retain the option to remove collaborators at a later stage. You can find more info about Collaborative playlists here, and for more details on the privacy of playlists - check out the page here.

Hope this helps clarify things. Don't hesitate to give us a shout if there's anything else we can help with.

[SustainedNote]

Kiril,

That hasn't been my exact experience. I've tried to resend the expired playlists links by right-clicking on the playlists and selecting "invite collaborators" again. When sending these links to my clients they were still not able to access the playlists. I've had to fully delete and re-create the playlists to share them again. Is this functioning as planned? Or should the original playlists work again for 24 hours?

[SustainedNote]

Also, if someone follows the playlist within 24 hours, is that playlist then set as "collaborative" for anyone else that reaches it using that link after 24 hours? For instance, if one client makes it within 24 hours but another doesn't, will it be accessible by both, or just the one that made it in time? 

Having everyone make it to my collaborative playlist within 24 hours is impossible for many of my friends and clients. 

[Kiril]

Hi again @SustainedNote,

Thanks for your replies.

To answer your question directly - the generated invitation link works only 7 days and then it expires and becomes unusable for all who received it. Those who opened it in time should be successfully added as collaborators and you should be able to see and control this for the particular playlist. The time limit for the link is put in place for security reasons and prevents eventual wrongdoings with your playlist. You can generate new invitation links at your collaborators' own convenience, but make sure to alert them that the link will expire in 7 days, and if they for some reason couldn't get to it, then they should request a new one from you.

Hope this makes sense. If you have further questions or need anything else, the Community is here for you.

[SustainedNote]

Thank you for the concise answer. I am quite displeased with this change. My friends and clients work on playlists with me for months. People are added iteratively to my collaboration as they go. I cannot be tasked with making new links for the hundreds of people that can collaborate on each playlist. This breaks one of the best features of the Spotify for me.

The chance of "wrongdoing" in one of my playlists is so minute that, to me, it's not even worth considering in relation to the immense upside of continual, growing, excited collaboration. I'm sure there are some instances wherein tampering with a playlist could be detrimental, but the cost of rolling collaboration here is immense!

I can see a solution being: 1) re-establishing the "make collaborative" feature as continually collaborative and 2) having the "invite collaborators" be there for 24 access. 

Is there a way I can lodge this request and rally to get this changed back? 

[Eni]

Hey there @SustainedNote, 

Thanks for your reply. 
 

We understand where you're coming from and appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us. We will make sure to pass it onto the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience.

Also, you can have a look in our Idea Exchange to see if someone else has already made a similar suggestion. If there isn't one, you can give these steps a go and submit your idea so that other users can also support it. The higher the number of votes an idea gets, the more likely it is for it to be implemented.

Also, you can read more about how your feedback reaches Spotify here.

If you have any questions or need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.

[FranciscaGallagher]

Hello,
I'm developing a collaborative list for a married couple and the link constantly expires, I have the premium version... so I don't understand why they haven't fixed this yet. What are the options that the link of my collaborative list works once and for all???????

[AlejaR]

Hey @FranciscaGallagher.

Thanks for posting in the Community.

As mentioned above by @Kiril, the created invitation link is valid temporary and will last 7 days before expiring and being rendered useless for everyone who received it. Those that successfully opened it at the appropriate time should have been added as collaborators, and you should be able to see and manage this for the specific playlist. 

The link's duration limit was set up for security reasons to guard against any misuse of your playlist. You can create new invitation links at your collaborators' convenience. but remember to notify them that the link expires in 7 days, and that if they were unable to access it for any reason, they should ask you for a new one.

We really appreciate your feedback and the time you took to write to us about this. As suggested by @Eni, to discover if a similar concept has already been submitted by someone else, check out our Idea Exchange Board. If there isn't one, you can follow these instructions to submit your proposal and have other users endorse it as well. The likelihood that an idea will be implemented increases with the number of votes it receives.
 

We hope you found this helpful. We're always here to help.

[martamarszal]

Hello, 
I'm also struggling with this limitation.
But I'm also wondering how long the link is really valid. Above you all say that it is valid for 24h. In this Spotify support article (https://support.spotify.com/us/article/collaborative-playlists/) it says it is valid for 7 days. Which one is it - 24h or 7 days?

[Vasil]

Hey @martamarszal,

Thank you for noticing this!

After taking user feedback into account, Spotify recently extended the validity of collaborative links.
They are now valid for 7 days (up from 24h)! 🙂
Cheers & take care 😄

[CollaborateAndListen]

My friends and I have have been contributing to shared playlists for years but recently started having issues.  

In the past, a link was posted to a slack channel for the shared playlist which we could all

access.

Recently when we use the posted link some (but not all) of us intermittently get error messages saying that “the link has expired” and can’t access the shared playlist.

can anyone help or advise?  

[melancholic_pigeon]

Bad change. Ruins all the features I used collaborative playlists for.