[API][Playlists] Allow users to add tracks to collaborative playlists they don't own

[derekpovah]

The /playlists/{playlist_id}/tracks API endpoint currently returns a 403 when attempting to add tracks to playlists the authenticated OAUTH user does not own.

This is not intuitive since collaborative playlists can be edited in the desktop/mobile apps. It would be really awesome if the endpoint supported adding tracks to collaborative playlists not owned by the current user.

[codderz]

Why would anyone want this feature? There are already bots that destroy other people's collaborative playlists by adding tracks to others playlists.

[derekpovah]

Yeah, and it totally sucks. Absolutely no one wants any of that spam nonsense.  

Having a proper playlist permission system in place is pretty obviously a prerequisite to this feature. I can only assume that bots use the GUI to accomplish the playlist spamming, so I think locking it down to authenticated API users, coupled with actual playlist permissions, would allow Spotify to better police abuse through existing rate limits and the like. 

[Eni]

Hey folks! 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

@derekpovah, we moved your post from the Ideas board to the relevant Help board, where it fits better.

We're happy to say that the teams at Spotify are actively working on delivering changes to the way permissions and collaborators are managed for playlists.

Additionally, it seems that other users feel the way you do and posted the following ideas: 

• [Playlists] Limit Editing Access in Collaborative Playlists
• [Playlists] Only selected Playlist Authors for Collaborative Playlist

This is being discussed internally and any update would be posted in these threads. In this case, we suggest that you subscribe via the three-dots menu in the top right corner next to the title. We'll make sure to keep you updated with any news on the matter there.

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.

[derekpovah]

Hello @Eni! Thanks for chiming in. This is pretty clearly not a help topic, though. The API behaves one way and I think it should behave differently. The current behavior is the current behavior and no amount of help (other than from Spotify engineering) can change it.

[Alex]

Hey @derekpovah,

Thanks for the reply.

This used to be the default functionality of Collaborative playlists until recently. Everyone who could see a collaborative playlists was able to add/ remove songs from it. Multiple users complained about this, because playlists created for their friends often got messed up by other users with malicious intent.

Currently, the creator of a Collaborative playlist can add collaborators which have permission to edit the playlists' content and it's not open to everyone.

Hope this makes sense 🙂 

[derekpovah]

@Alex, this should not have been moved to the help section. It is definitely an idea. The GUI already lets you add tracks to collaborative playlists and I'm talking specifically about the API here.

[thomasa88]

What is the status of this feature request today? I'm getting the 403 error when attempting to modify a collaborative playlist created by another user.

I haven't found any recent discussions about this and no mention collaborative in the API docs (?).