Important: App review and quota extension waiting times

[Nikola]

The Spotify for developers platform helps many bring their ideas to life. Whether it's a short term app helping an artist’s release or something more long term - there is always a chance of success. Things start to grow and then you might also need what we call a quota extension.

When you request a quota extension or you're simply waiting for your app to be reviewed, there is a follow up process that sets certain limits with the sole purpose of making things fair, better functioning and with an optimal level of user-experience quality.

During this process a few questions may arise. Such as:

• How long does it take to review my submission? 

During peak periods, it may take longer than six weeks. 

• Why does it take that long?

The review and extension request process is an iterative process. It is a matter of the developer and the Spotify team finding exactly where things need to be in order for the application to find its audience.

• What can I do as a developer to speed up the process? 

Make sure everything in your request is clear and correct, that you’re providing enough and correct information, adhering to Spotify’s developer terms, policies and design guidelines. If your request is rejected and needs to be resubmitted, an SLA of another 6 weeks will be applied after resubmission. Therefore the more attention and efforts you put into submitting a fully correct request from the beginning - the better are the chances that you will not have to resubmit and save precious time.

• An example of adhering to terms and conditions is our updated terms on using Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models (AI/LLM) when consuming the Spotify API. Since this is a new and emerging field, we felt it was important to update the Terms of Service to clarify that using Spotify data or information to train models is outside the scope of what the platform is built for.

• Does it help for me to reach out to other teams about this issue? 

It will not help a developer to try to reach out to other Spotify teams to get their request expedited or a question answered. We are the dedicated point of contact who can approve your request and involving other teams may actually interfere with the process. It's best to follow the instructions outlined above and you will receive an answer as soon as possible.

• What do I do if my submission gets rejected?

Don’t despair just yet. You will receive an email with applied rejection reasons, and further instructions on how (if) to proceed. Please make sure to read the email thoroughly to understand the reasons for rejection, and possible next steps. If a change can be made to be compliant, simply make the change and resubmit your request. As mentioned above - another review timeline of 6 weeks will be applied upon resubmission. You can navigate in the best way using the email and other applicable resources such as the Dev Terms, Dev Policy or Design Guidelines. 

Please keep in mind that if you’re waiting for an answer to an email you’ve sent us - our Developer email will not be monitored for an extended period during this summer. But it’s highly probable that your question will be answered by the topics covered above. You can also refer to the Spotify for developers general questions: 

- WebAPI Documentation

- App Modes

- Developer Terms

- Developer Policy

- Design Guidelines

- App Reviews Instructions

- Community Forum for specific questions

Thank you for your understanding and patience. Take care!

[Moquent]

It's been more than 3 months since I applied. I didn't get any email/communication whatsoever. What do I do? Should I just keep waiting until then

[rfjnjll]

Hi, @Nikola

We are planning to add a login mechanism to our media site "NiEW" so that users can listen to various playlists on the site's music player by logging in. However, no matter how many times I submit an extend request, it is always rejected because it "violates thumbnail regulation" or "does not have detailed screenshots".

https://niewmedia.com/

As far as we can tell, there is no violation of regulations on the screen after login, but can you tell what the reason might be?

Also, no matter how many screenshots I attach, I get an error on the application screen and cannot attach them. I am now sharing the images through a Google drive link, are you seeing that?

It would be great if you could check.

[tdz0110]

Hi Nikola,

I have submitted quota extension requests twice. Both times I got rejected but received no email from you guys. Is there any other way for me to view the rejection reasons? Or is there any developer support contact I can send email to ask for the rejection reasons?

Thanks in advance!

[kgmodi]

Hi Nikola, 

I am in the same boat. When I checked my dashboard for App approval today, I saw the rejected decision. However, I did not receive any email with the reasons for rejection. Below is the message - 

"Your request submitted on May 3, 2023 did not meet all of our requirements.

Our review team sent you an email with the details of the rejected submission. If there are changes that can be made, you are welcome to revise the form and resubmit your application for review."

[leonardowistuba]

I am also in the same situation as you kgmodi and tdz0110

Got a rejection today, but no email detailing why.

[Nikola]

Hi everyone,

Us Community moderators unfortunately don't have the answers to these app development questions. We do get why it's really important for you to receive the API integration approval and that having these long waiting times is quite frustrating. The sheer amount of applications that get to us each day however makes it very difficult to expedite the process, as each application has to be reviewed. We promise that the team is working as fast as they can, which might actually explain the briefness of some of the responses that you're reporting.

The best advice we can provide is to make sure your email provider is not filtering our emails (we do recommend using a tried and true email provider) and that when you receive a reply, even if it is a rejection, you try and follow the instructions as best as you can. If there really isn't an accompanying explanation (it could be a side effect of trying to process all requests) of why you got rejected, the best thing to do is to read the developer policy really carefully and make amendments and ensure you're not breaking any terms. If a submission was rejected, there must be a reason for it, so we suggest tweaking your app or your application to comply with the requirements. Only then would a resubmission be meaningful, otherwise you risk a long wait time without any positive results.

We know this might not be what you expected to hear and we can only hope you understand and accept our apologies for the frustration caused. The team is looking into options how to optimise the process, but we don't have anything concrete yet.

Take care!

[Podhal]

Hi i have issue with Logging into Spotify API Dashboard (and with add new post) - Receiving Notification for Three Days.

1.  For the past three days, I've been encountering an issue while trying to log into the Spotify API Dashboard. Every time I attempt to log in, I receive an error notification prompting me to try again later.

Has anyone else experienced a similar problem? Is this due to some outages on the Spotify API website, or could it be an issue with my account? I've already tried clearing my browser cache and using a different browser, but that didn't help.

2. Add new post noti: An Unexpected Error has occurred. Your request failed. Please contact your system administrator and provide the date and time you received the error and this Exception ID: 37FF74E2. Click your browser's Back button to continue.

[csjgamingtv]

same i get a 403 error accessing it

[Sonorus]

Hi Nikola,

I am just wondering how long the review takes in general which could help all developer to plan our timeline better. 

Thanks.

[isofi]

Hi Nikola, my Quota Extension has been approved but since I submitted a Scope Extension request the 'Extension Requests' link has dissapeared from my dashboard. How do I track the status? 

[bijou_fm]

I really must say I'm disappointed with how Spotify treats developers.

[Pdmprt]

Is there a way to check if an idea is potentially approvable before fully implementing it? I have an idea that can be explained in a sentence, have started playing around with it but would be great to confirm that it is not considered to violate terms before spending too much time on it.

[CheeroIp]

Very specific 😀. 

Ill submit an app next week and let you know how it goes. 

What do you think I should expect?

[CheeroIp]

Nice implementation (and nice contents).

It seem working just fine now. What was the problem?

Could be helpful to know how things got resolve.

[CheeroIp]

Extension update:

How long does it take to review my submission? 
During peak periods, it may take longer than six weeks. 

Must be low season because my application got a review in less than 4 day (with a weekend in the middle) so barely 2 days.
Not bad.
Three problems though:

1. No actual reason or explanation why the app got rejected.

This is a big no no.
Developers spend weeks or months working on a project or in case of a company thousands of dollars and a No thanks, better luck next time isn't really acceptable.

2. The rejection note isn't accessible after being open one time (or maybe after I initiated a new submission process)

3. No mail notification.

---

[prabincankod]

its been over 2 weeks ive not received any mail from the spotify team.

[CheeroIp]

do you mind sharing your app on here?

If it's ready for a spotify extension it should be ready to be shared.

[naosk8]

Hi Sonorus,

This is just my case:

I got an initial review within a week but rejected (I'm still waiting for the next review for a month).

Nikola said, "If your request is rejected and needs to be resubmitted, an SLA of another 6 weeks will be applied after resubmission." in this discussion thread.

[CheeroIp]

I don't understand why people that submit dont also share the apps here. It's not that is possible to get an application right at 1st submission. Isn't testing with real people an other developers something that everybody would want to do?