Spotify now dictates what we do with our own library data.

[hassnick]

Spotify have begun threatening developers who use the Spotify SDK to facilitate “migrating from Spotify to a competing service” (ie SongShift, Tune My Music), warning that their API access will be revoked if they continue to provide such services.

What in the name of flying **** Spotify?!

This company has got to be one of the most unethical in the Music streaming industry. They pay artists record low royalties, ignore community requests for desired features for years with no valid explanation (see here re Apple Watch integration, it’s a whole unnecessary controversy that symbolises Spotify’s lack of care for its customers), and now to top it all off, they’ve essentially tried to cage you into Spotify by making it really annoying to move because it’s too much effort to manually transfer your music library and playlists. 

This is quite frankly outrageous. This is an open letter to Spotify; a response from a representative from Spotify would be appreciated (and preferably a response that doesn’t simply state that such behaviour is prohibited in the SDK ToS, because you’ve completely missed the point if you think that’s a valid explanation for this sly and greedy low-blow).

Thanks to you Spotify, you’ve once again soured the public view on the Music streaming industry with your attempt to plug a leak in your user base.

Apparently, none of us are free to choose what streaming service we use or control the data that we create with said service.... wow, what a terribly draconian notion.

[hassnick]

Update: Spotify have altered their terms of service again to allow developers to move playlists out of Spotify that a user has created, only restricting Spotify-curated playlists.

 Thank you for reversing this change.