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Spotify is revoking support for all third-party DJ apps

Spotify is revoking support for all third-party DJ apps

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Starting on July 1st

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Spotify will no longer work with third-party DJ apps starting on July 1st, 2020. The news was posted by Algoriddim, the developer behind a popular DJ software for iOS called Djay. A Spotify representative confirmed the news to The Verge.

“As of July 1, 2020 Spotify will no longer be playable through 3rd party DJ apps,” reads Algoriddim’s announcement. “You’ll still be able to use Spotify in Djay until the end of June 2020. In the meantime, we’ve introduced new streaming services that will enable you to continue mixing all of the great music you love, plus give you extended access to new content and features.”

This is a big loss for Djay, which was the most robust DJ app on the market to have Spotify streaming integration. You can still use the app to DJ with Tidal and SoundCloud, and the post provides tools for people to transfer their Spotify playlists and tracks over to these other services.

Algoriddim integrated streaming with its DJ app long before many other companies. Now, the trend has been on the rise with other DJ software and even hardware in recent years. SoundCloud integrated with Serato DJ back in 2018, Pioneer DJ released a beginner controller last year for streaming music and smartphone DJing, and Denon’s Prime 4 standalone player and its SC5000 and SC5000M media players have Wi-Fi and Tidal integration.

The two streaming services that appear to be the most amenable to these kinds of partnerships are Tidal and SoundCloud. Spotify isn’t currently integrated with much DJ software or hardware beyond Djay, which worked out its official partnership with the platform back in 2014. Pacemaker for iOS uses Spotify integration, and Virtual DJ used to have Spotify integration, but that was revoked in 2017.

At the time, Virtual DJ told DJ TechTools that “Spotify is currently no longer available in VDJ 8 as they have recently changed their terms in regards to using Spotify inside Professional DJ applications.” DJ TechTools noted that there was an existing limitation in Spotify’s licensing that prevented “the streaming or caching of 2 tracks simultaneously.”

There’s still language in Spotify’s developer Terms of Service around this specific topic. “You may not, and you may not permit any device or system used in connection with the Spotify Service to, segue, mix, re-mix, or overlap any Spotify Content with any other audio content (including other Spotify Content),” the agreement reads.

It’s unclear if Spotify intends to change the language in its developer ToS again come July 1st, or if it’s simply enforcing language that it already had in place. Regardless, it looks like the company is placing efforts elsewhere (or perhaps inward?), while Tidal and SoundCloud plow forward in forging partnerships within the DJ community.