Preview URLs Deprecated?

[agegraves]

Hey I am working on an app to auto-create Instagram posts for artists on Spotify with the idea that you'd direct them to your Spotify profile.  I was going to use preview urls to let a user preview what their ad looks like but seems it's deprecated and returning as NULL now.  Does anyone do anything similar to this in some other way?

Thanks!
Age

[ribezaz]

Hey @agegraves 

Yes, it appears that many tracks no longer have a preview_url available via the Spotify API. While Spotify has not officially announced that preview_url is deprecated, many developers have reported that it's consistently returning null for most tracks.

Check if the track has a preview

• Not all tracks had previews even before, so double-check with multiple tracks.
• You can try using a different API request to verify availability.

1. Use a third-party service

   • Some music metadata providers (like Last.fm, Apple Music, or Deezer) may provide short preview clips.
   • You can explore integrations with these services.

2. Direct users to the Spotify track instead

   • Instead of playing a preview, your app could include a "Play on Spotify" button that directs users to the full song.

3. Fetch track samples from another source

   • If your app needs audio previews, you might need to license or retrieve short clips manually.

For now, if preview_url is returning null consistently, it seems like Spotify may have limited or removed this feature for most songs.

Keep an eye on Spotify Developer Community for updates! 

Cheers,

ribezaz

[agegraves]

Okay thank you for confirming