I recently just started using psst which is a Spotify GUI that's much lighter. When you right click a song and go to show similar tracks u get an array of sliders corresponding to the audio analysis/features like valence, danceability, energy, etc to tweak the recommendations.<p>It made a light and day difference for music discoverability for me, while the default spotify radio keeps giving me songs i skip instantly multiple times along with songs I've listened to a hundred times, doing this through the API, is 100x better. I've discovered 30 new songs that I love this past week while that number has been steadily dwindling for the past 6 months using Spotify.
APIs that don't put money on the table are being phased out. Musk did it with twitter and it didn't die (I'm not debating quality/financials). Then reddit did it (and even blocked VPNs) and it didn't die. Sure, it might've lost some quality, but the stock is up 200% since March.<p>So as long as they're winning, every corp is going to either shut down APIs or absurdly gouge prices. This is the new internet that we've voted for with money and attention.
I have used Spotify Audio Features API to display albums and playlist on a radar charts showing acousticness, instrumentalness, energy etc. And to make recomendations (generate playlists) for similiar music based on these charateristics.<p>It has been fun project but now I am glad that I have never considered making anything serious out of it.<p>I did this project because my impression is that Spotify had been always trying to steer me not to music that I like but to music that Spotify makes most money of. It had always been paid promotions over user's tastes in music.<p>And I am not on Spotify anymore for years now. Apple Music have really tasteful recommendations and music curation.
While we're thinking of alternatives to Spotify, for years I've been buying albums straight from Bandcamp whenever possible, and HDTracks/etc for artists not on that platform. Then toss up the FLAC/MP3's on my Jellyfin server. I'm pretty sure artists get a lot more of your money that way, and you're not locked into yet another streaming platform that doesn't let you own the actual music files.
Does anyone here work at Tidal?<p>Hi there. Tidal... The only reason I still use Spotify is that your search is quite bad. I would love it to be more fuzzy and include approximate results so I can actually find music in it. I have to be TOO exact/specific when searching for something to actually find it, especially if it's niche music.<p>I would also like it to be easier to drag music between playlists/search results.<p>If you fix those 2 things, I will switch. A good search is the only reason Spotify has me hooked.
This is very sad, and another nudge away from Spotify for me.<p>I remember the API being a motivator for signing up, and I've hacked together a few toys with it over the years.<p>Realistically now, the only benefit Spotify provides over my MP3 collection is that it's better organised.
> <i>Introducing some changes to our Web API</i><p>This language won't alarm people except those who know they should care about Web API?<p>I guess PR people have to be involved.<p>> <i>Posted November 27, 2024</i><p>Isn't the day before Thanksgiving one of the best "Friday news dumps"?<p>(Americans already traveling, followed by 4-day weekend and family obligations.)<p>(Though, while bad news might go unnoticed or unexcorciated by many, due to the holiday timing, the timing might've totally ruined the holiday of someone who had a pending "use case", but hadn't yet gotten API approval for it.)
The hostility towards users and developers continues.<p>I have a fun Spotify web app that gives you an old school jukebox experience. I recently open sourced it as a final act of giving myself and all our users freedom to control our music and music playing experience.<p><a href="https://github.com/nzoschke/jukelab">https://github.com/nzoschke/jukelab</a><p>But I’m laying foundations to move off from Spotify.<p>Their playback SDKs are buggy and by default always give up control to the recommendation algorithm. APIs get shut down. Developers bugs and questions go unanswered. Trying to control Sonos + Spotify is some sort of cruel prank. Albums and tracks in your collection go dark.<p>For me I’ve switched to Tidal for streaming which at least for now is does well at the raw basics of playing high quality music. Tunemymusic is good for copying playlists.<p>Then to Bandcamp for buying dance music to DJ.<p>I’m very close to buying and ripping CDs again to truly have control.
Apple Music and Tidal play multiple times more to artists.<p>People are staying on Spotify just because of inertia and because "everyone" is there, not because it's the best at anything any more.
As I already posted to the growing thread of discontent at <a href="https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-for-Developers/Changes-to-Web-API/m-p/6542355/highlight/true#M15738" rel="nofollow">https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-for-Developers/Chan...</a> this is Spotify's usual deprecation strategy and they've done this before to their APIs. I think it's usually due to incompetence but this time that feels like only half the story. Sadly, despite their frequent self-sabotage, they still have the best API by a million miles.<p>Anyway, anyone with a private project that doesn't mind a manual step, can grab an access token from <a href="https://open.spotify.com/get_access_token" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/get_access_token</a> using their browser. There's also projects like librespot (and various ports) which can provide access programmatically[0] using Spotify's client ID. Oauth is useless at preventing this kind of access.<p>[0] <a href="https://github.com/librespot-org/librespot/wiki/Options#access-token">https://github.com/librespot-org/librespot/wiki/Options#acce...</a>).
YouTube Music basically doesn't have an API. I wonder what the aversion to having an API is. I get that it might not be making any real money, so removing any APIs would be a cost saving.<p>Someone should do API music, you just get an API token and the API documentation. Having the ability to use something like old-school xmms with an API integration to a streaming service would be amazing.
Spotify recently reported record profits, but at what cost?<p>After raising prices, cutting payouts to artists, and laying off a significant number of employees, Spotify managed to post a $499M profit.<p>It just doesn’t sit right with me when a company thriving financially decides to cut jobs and squeeze artists even further.<p>The only thing that’s kept me on Spotify is the family plan—I didn’t want the hassle of setting things up again for my elderly parents. But the prices have shot up fast.<p>Here’s a comparison of current family plans:<p>* Spotify: $19.99 (for 6 people)<p>* Pandora: $17.99 (for 6 people)<p>* Apple Music: $16.99 (for 5 people)<p>I remember when I first signed up, the Spotify family plan was just $12.99. Hard to believe how much it’s increased in just a few years.<p>Recent News<p>* Spotify Rakes in $499M Profit After Lowering Artist Royalties Using Bundling Strategy | Headphonesty || <a href="https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/11/spotify-reports-499m-operating-profit/" rel="nofollow">https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/11/spotify-reports-499m-op...</a><p>* Spotify to lay off 17% of employees — read the full memo CEO Daniel Ek sent to staff members || <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/spotify-lay-17-employees-read-full-memo-ceo-daniel-ek-sent-staff-rcna127868" rel="nofollow">https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/spotify-lay-17-employ...</a>
Ah damn, that sucks. Just recently someone improved the HomeAssistant integration and added lots more song data, and I see that it stopped working for me because of this (my api key was in development mode)
Ever since they decided to spend hundreds of millions on Rogan whilst also gouging artists, I've been looking for an alternative to Spotify.<p>This might be the push I needed.
Spotify siphons yet more income artists should be getting into corporate coffers and Daniel Ek's bank account.<p>No music lover should be using Spotify. They are notorious for driving the downward trend in streaming payments to artists.
They are arguably worse than the worst of the old Music Industry we were taught to hate in "tech disruptor culture 1.0".<p>Bandcamp revenue goes straight to artists, largely. I got 89 out of 99 dollars paid on a release of mine.
That's very sad. The api had some cool stuff. I used to hack with it during COVID, and build e.g. <a href="https://tunemeet.com" rel="nofollow">https://tunemeet.com</a>.<p>It generally seemed like they encouraged third-party apps, and I have heard that also used to be the culture inside Spotify, but I guess that's no more.
Apple Music's API still going strong. I use it my minimal, "just the good parts" alternative Apple Music client: <a href="https://shelf.fm" rel="nofollow">https://shelf.fm</a> <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shelf-fm/id1520498918" rel="nofollow">https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shelf-fm/id1520498918</a>
Unfortunate. I love <a href="https://www.chosic.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.chosic.com/</a> to discover new music that uses the Spotify Web API.<p>While this update claims it's for new apps, if there's anything we've learned from Twitter, Reddit, etc. is that they will eventually kill all third-party apps.
The official app doesn't even have a way to hide all podcasts for good, you have to click "music" at the top every single time you use the app, and now this, never-ending enshitifficattion.
If your third-party product/service at the mercy of this Web API access already has the access entitlement it needs, is this move to restrict API access for others a gift that reduces upstart competitor threats to you?
One of the gratest Spotify tools is : <a href="https://everynoise.com/#otherthings" rel="nofollow">https://everynoise.com/#otherthings</a><p>I hope they will long live
> As we continue to review the experience provided on Spotify for Developers, we've decided to roll out a number of measures with the aim of creating a more secure platform.<p>I'm sorry but more secure platform to what extent exactly?<p>They're breaking tooling because someone might know what I'm listening to? This is so frustrating along with getting a Spotify update almost every morning.
'We analyzed the data and concluded that our users get too much value out of our service. We're left with no other choice than to shut down the services which were causing value leaks.'
> Kills API<p>> Third party integrations continue to play an important role in the way users can experience the Spotify experience through third party apps. We evaluate the set up of our platform on an ongoing basis and remain committed to ensuring it provides the best possible opportunities for developers, artists, creators and listeners.<p>Read that as: Hell yeah, we're gonna enshittify.
Spotify announced they have shut down several API endpoints, effective immediately. They have grandfathered in existing apps that have extended mode Web API access.