This has happened with pretty much every site that has gotten big. Look at Twitter: They gave developers access to their data, allowed them to build companies around it, and then removed access abruptly.<p>In some cases, they offered these companies the same data at an exorbitant cost. Most of the time, it's not even factored into the business model of the company and they are forced to find another source of data or quit.<p>This is why you shouldn't base your entire company or idea on one source of data.
You will never own your data on a 3rd party platform so there was always this risk. Music industry was blind to it.<p>As silly as it sounds, email is still a great way to own the comms with your customers. OK it's not what it was, but at least you have control!