[API/Compliance] Custom User Metrics

[alexalextran]

Hi, I'm currently developing a app, which allows users to rate and review songs, similar to letterboxd, each review for a song would add the respective song into a listened folder for users and would therefore provide custom metrics for users. 

Does that feature breach any terms or services regarding the spotify API?
Namely this clause here from the developer policy within the documentation.

1. Do not analyze the Spotify Content or the Spotify Service for any purpose, including without limitation, creating new or derived listenership metrics, benchmarking, functionality, usage statistics, user metrics, or building profiles of users, including for the purpose of targeting them with advertising or marketing.

It should be noted, that the application uses the spotify web API to allow users to browse for songs and only retrieves meta data, but does not generate metrics based on Spotify user profiles or listening habits and only generates metrics on custom data generated from the app itself.

[Ximzend]

Hi @alexalextran, thanks for posting in the Spotify Community, and Welcome!

Here's an analysis of your app's features in relation to Spotify's API terms:

• Your app allows users to rate and review songs, adding reviewed songs to a "listened" folder, and generates custom metrics based on that folder.
• The key clause from the Developer Policy states: "Do not analyze the Spotify Content or the Spotify Service for any purpose, including without limitation, creating new or derived listenership metrics, benchmarking, functionality, usage statistics, user metrics, or building profiles of users...".
• This clause prevents developers from using Spotify's data to create metrics that compete with or undermine Spotify’s, or to build user profiles for advertising using Spotify data.

Permitted Functionality:

• Using the Spotify API to allow users to browse songs and retrieve metadata is permitted.
• Linking back to the Spotify service is also allowed, as well as using metadata as part of your app experience.

Potential Issues:

• Your app should not use any Spotify data to calculate listening metrics.
• If your app uses any Spotify data to calculate listening metrics, it would be a violation of the "Do not analyze..." clause.
• It must not infer the "listened" folder and related metrics based on the playback history of users from the Spotify API.
• Your app should not offer metadata and cover art as a standalone service.
• It is recommended to avoid storing data that can be fetched on the fly using the Spotify API, like profile images, display names, and account country. Storing this data can lead to stale information being rendered by the application. Spotify advises that you should periodically review personal data stored by your app, and seek to retrieve less personal data, store less personal data, and shorten the length of time for which any personal data is stored.

To Ensure Compliance:

• Your app must use its own internal data to generate the "listened" folder and related metrics.
• Metrics should be based solely on user interactions within your app (i.e., the songs they've reviewed).
• Your privacy policy must clearly explain that metrics are based on user actions within your app and not on Spotify's usage data.
• Do not attempt to create user profiles based on Spotify listening habits for targeted advertising or marketing.
• Be truthful and transparent about your app's data practices, and provide a privacy policy that describes how you access, use, process and disclose user data. Only request and process the data needed to operate your SDA.
• Give users control of their data. Provide users with an easily accessible mechanism to disconnect their Spotify account from your SDA, and provide clear instructions on how to do so.
• Follow the law and user guidelines. Do not build or distribute an SDA which violates the Spotify user guidelines.

In Conclusion:

As long as your app creates its "listened" folder and metrics solely from user actions within your app, and does not use Spotify's data to derive metrics about listening habits or build user profiles, then it likely does not breach the clause in question. It's crucial to ensure that no data is taken from the Spotify API for metrics generation, and that your application uses only the data that it generates. It is advised to familiarize yourself with the Spotify Developer Policy and Terms.

I hope this answers your question. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask!