Spotify Seeking to Bar Apps That Transfer to Other Music Services From Using SDK

[MacRumors]

Spotify is reportedly seeking to admonish developers who use its API for apps that allow users to transfer to a rival music streaming service, such as Apple Music, by revoking access to the Spotify SDK.

Developers who facilitate users with the ability to copy their Spotify library and playlists to other services are being informed that their access to the Spotify SDK is to be revoked.

Music streaming service transfer app SongShift has issued a post saying that it has been told to stop offering transfers away from Spotify or it will lose access to the Spotify SDK.

Unfortunately, as of SongShift v5.1.2, you will no longer be able to create transfers from Spotify to another music service. We understand this will be a disappointment for a lot of you. We wish we didn't have to.

The Spotify Developer Platform Team reached out and let us know we'd need to remove transferring from their service to a competing music service or have our API access revoked due to TOS violation.

Spotify has allowed SongShift to continue offering transfers into its service, however. Only transfers out to other streaming services have been blocked.

The move is backed by Spotify's developer agreement, which states that developers should not "transfer Spotify Content... to another music service that competes with Spotify or the Spotify Service."

In recent months, Spotify has heavily criticized Apple for anti-competitive behavior. The company has joined the "Coalition for App Fairness" to "fight back" against Apple, sided with Epic Games over its ongoing dispute with Apple, and formally complained to the European Comission about Apple allegedly stifling competition, resulting in an EU antitrust investigation.

Apple is using its dominant position and unfair practices to disadvantage competitors and deprive consumers by favoring its own services. We call on competition authorities to act urgently to restrict Apple's anti-competitive behavior, which if left unchecked, will cause irreparable harm to the developer community and threaten our collective freedoms to listen, learn, create, and connect.

The move to actively prevent users from transferring away from Spotify, thereby constraining competition, seems peculiar as the company has railed against Apple for supposedly doing the same. Interestingly, Apple has not instituted any equivalent bar on transferring away from Apple Music to other streaming services.

Article Link: Spotify Seeking to Bar Apps That Transfer to Other Music Services From Using SDK

 

[cgs1xx]

Hmmm... double standards..??

 

[Porco]

Well I could be wrong, but on the face of it that seems kind of hypocritical.

 

[2979382]

The same Spotify that also has a problem with the Apple ecosystem being too "closed"? The hypocrisy...

 

[Eddy Munn]

Market leader using their power to make their service worse for users, at the detriment of competitors.

 

[haruhiko]

Oh hahaha, what an irony.

 

[2010mini]

So... Spotify accuses Apple of being anti-consumer, and yet does the same thing.

usually we call that hypocritical.

 

[Joseph C]

Not a good look from Spotify given their protestations about Apple not “being fair”.

Apple Music closed the gap with Spotify in the last few years and I moved back late last year having been a Spotify user since around 2010 - and haven’t looked back.

Recommendations, curated playlists, UI and integration with Apple’s ecosystem make it the clear winner for me.

Bye Spotify.

 

[Techwatcher]

Isn't this in itself anti-competitive? Guess they realize at the end of the day it's all about their bottom line. Anyways, I'm glad I used SongShift just in time for my return to Apple Music from Spotify weeks ago.

I just don't see what people see in Spotify (have a premium free trial), Apple Music is clearly better. All of the music services have been catching up to Spotify in terms of their music discovery algorithm so it's not like they have any other clear advantages. And with Apple TV coming to Xbox Series X and PS5, I'm sure Apple Music will be on there too.

 

[Tavicu]

Hmmm ... nice )

 

[johannnn]

LOL at this. Couldn’t they at least have waited a month after whining about Apple?

 

[s66]

This is Spotify letting end users know that if they ever want to transfer out to Apple Music or any other such service: NOW is the time to do it while they still can. Lock in about to happen.


I'm not entirely sure, but there are EU regulations that force companies to let you leave with your data (it's part of GDPR AFAIK). A playlist etc. would certainly be data where that would apply, and they have to let you leave with it in a usable format. GDPR fines are pretty steep.

 

[dumastudetto]

I wonder if this in preparation for the new Apple bundles which may encourage people to ditch Spotify and adopt the vastly superior Apple Music service?

 

[ronnyw]

I have been a SongShift user to shift playlists between Spotify and Apple Music. Both directions (having both subscriptions). Until now I was about to cancel my Apple Music subscription and only use Spotify again, knowing that I still could work with my playlists later on. But now that Spotify limits the access I'll cancel the Spotify subscription instead and stick with Apple Music. Great Spotify.

 

[Macaholic868]

Hmmm... double standards..??

It’s par for the course. If the other person does it then it’s bad but if you do it then there’s nothing to see here, move along.

 

[borez]

In the interim, is there any way to shift playlists to other streaming services? Thinking of doing so before they clamp down hard.

 

[2979382]

Not a good look from Spotify given their protestations about Apple not “being fair”.

Apple Music closed the gap with Spotify in the last few years and I moved back late last year having been a Spotify user since around 2010 - and haven’t looked back.

Recommendations, curated playlists, UI and integration with Apple’s ecosystem make it the clear winner for me.

Bye Spotify.

It's a desperate attempt to keep themselves afloat. While I like Spotify as a service and have been a premium user for years, I think its days might be numbered. They kind of put all their eggs in one basket. Both Apple and Google and Amazon have other products and services they can integrate with, whereas Spotify does not. I myself am increasingly considering making the move to Apple Music for streaming and discovery, everything else I buy on vinyl anyway.

 

[trim]

Do as I say, not as I do
- Spotify

 

[dannys1]

Funnily enough I sub to both Spotify and Apple Music and as a paying premium subscriber I transferred some Spotify playlists over to Apple Music where I prefer my actual library to be - now they're stopping me doing this (automatically at least).

 

[jeblis]

Just another example of Spotify being a terrible company.

They used to force you to use Facebook.
Their poor programming was trashing SSDs.
Check out their Wikipedia page for more.

 

[JosephAW]

Can it even be done the other way? Apple to Spotify?

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Guess it’s time to set up two applications then. One is a playlist exporter and the other is a playlist importer.

 

[Abazigal]

Hmm. I am guessing that Spotify expects more people to switch once Apple‘s service bundle becomes available and wants to make it more inconvenient for users to do so. Can’t say I blame em, but it’s also increasingly clear that Spotify is not the aggrieved underdog they are painting themselves out to be.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Market leader using their power to make their service worse for users, at the detriment of competitors.

How is this worse for Spotify users?

 

[easy4lif]

Color me shocked.

Truthfully, it’s their sdk and the company signed up knowing they’d get busted eventually.