I’m trying to figure out how Spotify converts their URIs into those scannable codes. The codes have 23 bars with 8 different heights, so there are 8^23 possible combinations. But Spotify URIs like spotify:track:4iV5W9uYEdYUVa79Ozker5 have way more possible values (62^22). This means you can’t just directly convert the URI string into the barcode format. Has anyone worked out the algorithm Spotify uses to map URIs to these visual codes? I’m curious about the technical approach they take to handle this encoding challenge.
Spotify doesn’t jam the full URI string into the barcode. They’re probably using the track ID’s numeric value or running it through a hash function to squeeze it into that 8^23 space. I’ve reverse-engineered similar systems before - the usual trick is taking the base62 decoded track ID and running it through some deterministic function that fits the barcode limits. Most streaming services don’t need their full identifier range anyway, so collision risk is pretty low. The algorithm’s likely using modular arithmetic or a truncated crypto hash that fits the visual format. That’s why the barcode space looks smaller than the URI space but still keeps active tracks unique in their catalog.
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