Spotify recently updated their Web API access requirements on May 15th, and it’s making things really tough for small developers and indie creators. The new restrictions mean you basically can’t publish apps for public use unless you meet some pretty crazy requirements.
Here’s what you need now for extended API access:
- Must be an officially registered business entity
- Your app has to already be live and public
- Need a minimum of 250,000 active monthly users
- Must operate in major Spotify supported regions
- Have to demonstrate clear revenue generation
This is pretty frustrating honestly. I understand Spotify probably wants to limit AI scraping or whatever, but these changes are way too extreme.
It feels like they’re shutting out everyone who isn’t already a major company. What about college students working on projects? Or developers who just want to build cool music apps as a hobby? There’s no pathway for small creators anymore.
I wish there was something we could do about this. Right now all I can think of is raising awareness and hoping enough people complain that they might reconsider these rules.
honestly this whole situation is such bs. been using spotify api for years on personal projects and now they basically told hobbyist devs to get lost. tried reaching out to their dev support and got some copy-paste response about “protecting platform integrity” - like come on, my little playlist analyzer isnt gonna bring down their servers lol. guess its time to switch to something else entirely
I ran into this exact problem when trying to migrate an existing project that had been working fine for months. The worst part is how they implemented this - existing apps that were grandfathered in before May 15th can still function, but any new registrations are essentially dead on arrival unless you’re already a major player. What really gets me is the chicken-and-egg problem with the 250k user requirement. How are you supposed to prove you have that many users when you can’t even get the API access needed to build the app in the first place? The whole thing seems designed to protect their data from AI companies, but it’s collateral damage for legitimate developers who just want to create innovative music experiences. Some developers are exploring alternative platforms like Last.fm or building their own music discovery tools, though obviously the ecosystem isn’t nearly as robust as Spotify’s was.
These changes completely killed a project I was working on for my startup. We had been developing a music recommendation engine that integrated with Spotify’s API, and overnight our development became pointless. The revenue generation requirement is particularly ridiculous - most successful apps start as free services to build user base before monetizing. Spotify is essentially forcing developers to have a profitable business model from day one, which goes against how most tech products actually develop. I’ve been forced to pivot toward YouTube Music API instead, though their data isn’t as comprehensive. The timing was terrible too - no advance warning for developers who had invested months of work. It’s clear they prioritized corporate partnerships over the developer community that helped make their platform valuable in the first place.