March 23, 2026

DevLog: Spotify Woes

I've been working on a new car cockpit to replace the placeholder one. One thing I've been hoping to do is put content on an in-car screen a little like CarPlay in real life. I figured if you've got Spotify running in the background, I could use the API to at least let you play/pause/change track etc as well as show what's playing and the album cover and whatever else the API will give me.

However...

You may have seen some devices use "Spotify Connect". For example I have a stereo at home that can act as a speaker for Spotify playing from a phone or PC. I wondered if I could make my game a Spotify Connect device. With that, I could even delay the music output slightly, giving myself a buffer to work with. I'd get the music input, generate some scenery etc a second ahead of the car, and delay the music output by a second so it'd go past right on time. Easy.

But Spotify Connect is only for "approved partners". Could I be an Approved Partner? Well, "Spotify currently accepts applications only from organizations (not individuals)". In reality it looks to be exclusively big commercial corps making hardware.

But hang on. Isn't it actually easy to use Spotify Connect? Isn't there an open source GitHub project just for using it? There sure is. Would it be a good idea to use a legally-dubious open source hack in a commercial game? Not really.

Okay, okay, but why worry about Spotify Connect? Spotify has a API that's separate to Spotify Connect, that anyone can use. It doesn't let you stream actual audio but at least you can control the music and see what's playing and all that. That'll let me have a nice little CarPlay-style display in the in-game car.

Right?

Right?

No. 

Under "Some prohibited applications":

- Do not synchronize any sound recordings with any visual media, including any advertising, film, television program, slideshow, video, or similar content.

Hmm, that really sounds like me, but mine's a game...

- Do not create a game, including trivia quizzes.

Oh. What if it wasn't a....

- Users per app: 5

FIVE USERS max? Can't I apply for more than five..?

- Requirements:

  --  Established Business Entity (legally registered business or organisation)

  --  Operating an active, and Launched Service

  --  Maintaining a minimum of active users (at least 250k MAUs)

To go beyond the five user limit you first need at least 250,000 users.