Spotify has changed its strategy tune more than once over the last few years. Users have enjoyed varying usage rights inside and outside of its payment and free-usage models. Despite this arguably frustrating and less than solid roadmap base, software application developers who wish to use the company's services to add musical elements to their programs may be interested in the firm's latest web API updates.
The new Spotify Web API allows programmers to put everything from album art to music previews into their own third-party web apps. There is also a new ability to create real Spotify playlists for users from within the confines of the third-party app.
The firm says that there are now more multimedia options and "baked-in smarts" than ever before.
The new web API gives developers the option to create music apps on top of Spotify with The Echo Nest, a music intelligence platform company that provides music services to developers and media companies.
"We've been hard at work integrating the two APIs so that you can make awesome stuff like this. Your apps can build real Spotify playlists for your users, leveraging all of that Echo Nest data, and all without leaving the experience you've designed.
New features include rich metadata, a new web API lets you retrieve extensive track, album, and artist details from the Spotify catalog, including cover art and 30 second track previews. There are also user profiles and playlists. With a user's permission, developers can access user profile information including playlists, display name, image, country, email, external URL, and subscriber status. Web apps powered by this new API can also build new playlists for users to enjoy later, in their Spotify apps.
"Spotify and subsidiary The Echo Nest are more committed to the developer community than ever. Our newly combined platform makes it simpler to provide amazing music experiences on the web, and these enhancements are just the beginning," said the company.
