Photo Credit: Colm Doyle
Spotify is cracking down on the information developers can access through its API, joining other tech companies like Reddit and YouTube. The crackdown removes most recommendation features from third-party apps. Here’s the latest.
Spotify introduced these changes to its web API on November 27, just a day after the Thanksgiving holiday. New web API use cases can no longer access certain endpoints and functionality, while existing apps will remain unaffected by the change. New apps will no longer be able to access related artists, recommendations, audio features, audio analysis, get featured playlists, get category’s playlists, 30-second preview URLs, or Spotify-owned editorial playlists.
Audio analysis is a particular loss for developers, as that feature breaks down a track’s structure and rhythm, including the beats per minute. Users looking to create a specific playlist featuring songs over a certain BPM will now find it harder to do so with audio analysis blocked from Spotify’s API.
The move also blocks developers from accessing algorithmically-created playlist. Spotify says the change is intended to make the platform more secure. But it’s worth noting that these changes will also stop developers from creating their own algorithmically inspired playlists while utilizing Spotify’s API to do so.
“It’s unbelievable that with these restrictions there is now NO way to find out the song BPM,” writes one disgruntled developer discussing the news on reddit. “This is so ridiculous it hurts. There is nothing secret about it. Yet we are now back to the stone age to find out a song’s BPM. These restrictions came overly hasty and f*cked up so many developers. It’s incredible.”
Meanwhile, the ListenBrainz team has taken the removal of these API datapoints as Spotify enshittifying its platform. It seeks to offer an alternative by giving developers a path forward for their projects that rely on API music data. The ListenBrainz Labs API can be used to explore similar artists, offer recommendations to users, custom playlist generation, and popularity data for artists on the platform. The data will be no where near as comprehensive as Spotify—but it’s the only alternative for anyone looking to build an app with music data.