Spotify opens its doors to developers

Jonasl: That's strange. I'm guess that Spotify will not like it if apps would rip the streams. Don't you think that they would prohibit that? That would mean that they would have at least some control over the GUI or interface otherwise. I guess that audio ads would be a viable alternative that is not easy to circumvent.. ( Delete or Edit)

One more thing: you can get a key on this page: http://developer.spotify.com/en/libsp... :-) ( Delete or Edit)

You are absolutely right about audio ads, those could be incorporated into the library itself. All sound decoding and server communication is hidden from the user of the library. Spotify could have chosen to push audio ads into the third party applications, but that raises more questions. For example, how to control that the third party app does not mute the audio output during ads?

Advertisers most likely buy a campaign with a mixture of banner and audio ads. Without the banner ads, new business models are needed. There is just to much hassle with ad support in the hands of external developers. With this approach they "just" need to focus on anti-ripping.

Thanks for the key link, but i already found that :-) On that page you have to provide a motivation to get a key. What is the policy for a key application to get accepted? That's yet to be seen. Of course Logitech and other hardware companies will get a key. The question is whether the average joe with a interest for programming can get a key for an application which will be used by one or two people. ( Delete or Edit)

Oh and it's not allowed to create a client that can be put on a mobile devices (handhelds). Well that's nice. That excludes a LOT of clients then. I mean, most of the Linux clients will be able to run on Linux-based Mobile Internet Devices. I'm guessing this is due to a licensing issues (?). However, it still limits a lot of possible applications.. ( Delete or Edit)

AFAIK you don't just need to be a Premium user to have develop using the API, you also need to be one to use any application developed with it. So there is no need for advertising in API based clients currently (the terms of the current API actually prohibit the display of advertising). ( Delete or Edit)

ironic that the musicians *must* be paid, but that the license agreement disallows me getting paid from when i write an app that uses the api. Hmmmm.... ( Delete or Edit)

hehe, yes. Perhaps "lets a couple of people peek through the letterbox" might be more accurate? ;) ( Delete or Edit)

I personally disagree. If someone wants to make an ad-free client they will. I remember hacked ICQ clients and website explaining how to decompile binaries to strip out ad-banners. Spotify embeds adverts in the audio stream. The user has to be logged in to hear the stream. Therefore, Spotify are still delivering adverts, tracking and recording user listening habits etc.

It's great that they're moving to a more open model. By their own admission this is a 'first step'. However, if they want to be taken seriously by the development community they need to be more open with their intentions, letting us know where they're are going and how they plan to support and foster that community. ( Delete or Edit)

@Andrew if they wanted to be taken seriously, they would have taken a "first step" that reflected any knowledge what-so-ever of previous "first step" attempts made by other firms. This "first step" does not reflect such research. In my view this "first step" doesn't even reflect a quick google. ( Delete or Edit)