I’m trying to set up Spotify app development on my Windows 7 64-bit machine but running into issues with application keys.
Here’s what I’ve done so far:
- Got my developer account set up properly
- Copied the 32-bit libspotify.dll file into the SYSWOW64 folder
- The developer menu shows up in my Spotify client
The problem is when I try to use the inspector tool. I get a blue popup saying “choose the app you wanna inspect” but when I select any app, nothing actually happens. I can’t get the inspector to work.
I also need application keys to start building my own apps or test the sample code, but the application key request form doesn’t seem to be working at all. I fill it out but nothing happens when I submit it.
My Spotify client version is 0.8.2.610.g090a06f8. I tried checking the console (using CTRL+ALT+HOME) but it doesn’t show any error messages.
Am I missing something in my setup? Has anyone else had this issue with getting application keys or getting the inspector to work properly?
You’re stuck with dead tech that Spotify dumped years ago. I wasted weeks on libspotify with the same Windows 7 setup in 2018 - ran into the exact same inspector and key request issues you’re seeing. It’s not your setup that’s broken. Spotify killed libspotify support and stopped handing out app keys around 2016-2017. Even if you found old keys somewhere, they’ve been shutting down the backend infrastructure piece by piece. That inspector failing on app selection? Classic sign of deprecated SDK components with no server support left. I finally gave up and switched to their Web API. Way easier once you get through the initial setup. OAuth’s well documented and you get way more features than the old SDK ever had.
Had this exact problem during my final year project in 2018. Spent days thinking my Windows 7 setup was broken and reinstalled the SDK multiple times. That inspector thing where nothing happens when you select an app? Spotify killed libspotify completely and shut down all the backend infrastructure. The app key request system’s been dead since around 2016 when they switched to their Web API. The docs were still up for months after they axed the service, which was super confusing. I ended up rewriting my whole music analysis tool using the Web API, but honestly it turned out way more reliable and feature-rich than the old SDK would’ve been anyway.