Spotify

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Spotify is a playlist hosting silo and streaming music service.

Exporting

SaveMyMix

SaveMyMix (page no longer resolves as of 2017-09-25) is a quick and easy tool for exporting your playlist data from Spotify (more services coming soon). It encodes playlist data in CSVs and zips the files for download. All of this is done client-side in the browser. This helps you maintain data independence and reduces reliance on 3rd party services.

FreeYourMusic

FreeYourMusic is a paid service that enables cross-platform syncing for music libraries and playlists between popular streaming services, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. Whilst primarily focused on enabling people to easily switch between services, there are also "File Backup" options that will generate a CSV of songs, albums, and playlists.

GDPR/Data Access Request

Under https://support.spotify.com/uk/article/data-rights-and-privacy-settings/ it is possible to export your data from Spotify. This appears to only have ~1 year of full music streaming data, however. Jamie Tanna has found that emailing support requesting the full data (see links below) will provide the full data (in Jamie's case, 2011-2019).

Scrobbling/Last.fm

Whilst not the same as a single batched data export, Spotify's native integration with Last.fm's scrobbling service enables real-time data duplication with minimal hassle. By connecting Spotify and Last.fm accounts, scrobbling can be turned on in Account Settings, saving each track "listen" to a service with a stronger history of data preservation and user access.

Criticism

Creepy Privacy Policy

A recent privacy policy update was critiqued by WIRED, which caused Spotify to clarify:

2015-08-20 WIRED: You Can’t Do Squat About Spotify’s Eerie New Privacy Policy (UPDATED)
- 2015-08-21 Spotify response: SORRY.

Monetize Emotions

2018-06-10

Big Mood Machine Spotify has plans to analyze playlists and target advertising based on the emotional mood of the listener.

Safety

Can't block followers

Spotify allows people to follow the profiles of other people. However, it doesn't allow the option to remove or block someone. This can cause distress to people who wish not to have certain people following their profile. https://community.spotify.com/t5/Social/remove-follower/td-p/4937266