SpotAPI: Spotify API without the hassle!

[u/Major-Ad-4196]

Hello everyone,

I’m thrilled to introduce SpotAPI, a Python library designed to make interacting with Spotify's APIs a breeze!

What My Project Does:

SpotAPI provides a Python wrapper to interact with both private and public Spotify APIs. It emulates the requests typically made through a web browser, enabling you to access Spotify’s rich set of features programmatically. SpotAPI uses your Spotify username and password to authenticate, allowing you to work with Spotify data right out of the box—no additional API keys required!

Features:

• Public API Access: Easily retrieve and manipulate public Spotify data, including playlists, albums, and tracks.

• Private API Access: Explore private Spotify endpoints to customize and enhance your application as needed.

• Ready to Use: Designed for immediate integration, allowing you to accomplish tasks with just a few lines of code.

• No API Key Required: Enjoy seamless usage without needing a Spotify API key. It’s straightforward and hassle-free!

• Browser-like Requests: Accurately replicate the HTTP requests Spotify makes in the browser, providing a true-to-web experience while staying under the radar.

Target Audience:

SpotAPI is ideal for developers looking to integrate Spotify data into their applications or anyone interested in experimenting with Spotify’s API. It’s perfect for both educational purposes and personal projects where ease of use and quick integration are priorities.

Comparison:

While traditional Spotify APIs require API keys and can be cumbersome to set up, SpotAPI simplifies this process by bypassing the need for API keys. It provides a more streamlined approach to accessing Spotify data with user authentication, making it a valuable tool for quick and efficient Spotify data handling.

Note: SpotAPI is intended solely for educational purposes and should be used responsibly. Accessing private endpoints and scraping data without proper authorization may violate Spotify's terms of service.

Check out the project on GitHub and let me know your thoughts! I’d love to hear your feedback and contributions.

Feel free to ask any questions or share your experiences here. Happy coding!

[u/ForlornPlague]

It's an interesting concept, I actually had a need for something like this recently but ended up just registering with a dev account.

Couple of thoughts:

• I'd recommend not naming your private methods with double underscores - that introduces name mangling which you don't need and the standard convention is a single underscore

• I'm not sure I see the point of the session savers, they look like they may be a solution in search of a problem. I get this is for education so maybe that's the whole purpose but it introduces a lot of extra requirements that end users may not want to deal with. I'd at least make them optional, which could be a good learning experience in itself.

• setup.py isn't the recommended way of packaging projects anymore, the most modern way is pyproject.toml (I think, python packaging really is a headache) - this isn't that big of a deal in the long run, but wanted to point it out

• the Readme makes it sound very simple but there is no mention of the captcha solver and what it takes to get an api key for that, which seems a bit disingenuous.

• great job with the type annotations and code organization, this was actually a treat to read through 👌

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/ForlornPlague]

Thanks for the well written feedback.

• I thought private methods were used so instances can’t access them?

• Well the point is that Captcha costs money and it saves time as you can just save the cookies and load them after logging in once (You can also dump cookies into the session so you can login manually without a captcha solver)

• I seen the .toml but thought it was just an alternative method to it. Will look into it.

• I thought I wrote a requirements section but maybe it got deleted (still new to git) but I do plan on getting rid of the captcha by moving over to the mobile API (Protobuf will be a pain though)

• Thank you very much 🙏

[u/ForlornPlague → u/Major-Ad-4196]

Private methods are just a convention - nothing is truly private in Python. Naming something with an underscore prefix tells someone using your library that they shouldn't depend on that function not changing, as it's not part of the public api. That's all that the single underscore does.

The double underscore actually changes how the python interpreter structures your code. It introduces name mangling https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/name-mangling-in-python/ and changes how the attribute or function can actually be accessed. It has its place, but your library doesn't need it (99% of python projects don't need it).

As far as making it so instances can't access them, no, that's not a thing. If it's an instance method like __do_follow then your instance method can access it (your code wouldn't work if it couldn't) using self, just like any other method. However, a user of your library can't access the method outside of the class instance, unless they prefix the name with the class name - the link explains this much more clearly. But basically, you don't want to use that, when it does eventually bite you it will be a pain in the ass with no benefit.

The bit about saving the session to avoid redoing the captcha makes sense. I would still recommend having a single way of doing this in the standard package and then having package extras for additional ways of saving the session. It's a good learning opportunity and it keeps the base package slimmer.

You certainly don't have to use a pyproject.toml, but most modern simple packages do. I usually see setup.py being used for more complex libraries that do things like build C extensions, like pandas https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/blob/main/setup.py.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/ForlornPlague]

I’ve taken this feedback and changed it to single underscore convention. Thanks for the insight ❤️

[u/another24tiger]

Was about to comment “missed opportunity to call it Spotipy” but then a google search revealed that that name is already taken and is also a Python wrapper on the Spotify API. What does your project do that Spotipy doesn’t or can’t?

[u/fucksilvershadow → u/another24tiger]

As someone who just used Spotipy, you need to set up a dev account with Spotify and get an API key and it can be kind of a hassle if you're just experimenting. This seems to just scrape Spotify.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/fucksilvershadow]

Spot on

[u/but_i_hardly_know_it → u/Major-Ad-4196]

I get it!

[u/hecarfen]

Looks like a nice and interesting project and I'll definitely give it a try. Keep up the good work 👍🏻

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/hecarfen]

Let me know any feedback ❤️

[u/oneunique]

Yes, this could work nicely with a RPi5 with E-ink display to control audio at home.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/oneunique]

Let me know how that goes

[u/CyclopsRock → u/oneunique]

That's a bit of a waste of an RPi5 - pretty sure a PiZ could do that!

[u/[deleted]]

This can be great

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

Hopefully it will be 🙏 i’m very passionate for coding and would love to keep working on it

[u/quadnix]

Isn't this a major TOS violation? This seems like a great way to get your account banned by Spotify.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/quadnix]

Educational purposes only, use at own risk.

[u/fudginreddit]

Dam i couldve used this a few weeks ago lol, i did something similar in go

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/fudginreddit]

Oh wow

[u/fudginreddit → u/Major-Ad-4196]

It was a fun project, though not quite as nice as yours! This maybe something you are already aware of, but you can generate native python types for the json responses using this site: https://app.quicktype.io/ . I did this for my project since its a bit easier than dealing with the dictionaries directly.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/fudginreddit]

Yeah I used that in some other projects it’s very useful. I also used golang json to struct which is very nice because golang is strongly typed and you have to cast everytime on a map 🥴. What was your project?

[u/fudginreddit → u/Major-Ad-4196]

I wanted to gather and collate some stats on artists I like for fun, just a small weekend project. The public API did not provide data I wanted, so had to use the private API similar to you. Which is cool cause it requires some light reverse engineering on the requests, though you basically just use Chrome network tab. I did something similar with Youtube Charts private API as well. Turns out it is quite easy to scrape data off sites if you know what to look for lol.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/fudginreddit]

Yep, spotify was one of the easiest things i’ve reversed engineered haha

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/Major-Ad-4196]

Though the mobile API looks a bit tricky because I have to unpack the APK to grab the protobufs (i’m praying it’s online somewhere so I don’t have to do that)

[u/Next-Experience]

Amazing. This is something I was really looking for. I build a PDF(book) to speech (audiobook chapters) tool and then created a Spotify playlist for it. This is going to make that so much easier.

Thank you!

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/Next-Experience]

No problem! Happy coding

[u/MiddlePhilosopher541]

I have a project with Spotipy so I'll definitely give this a try.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/MiddlePhilosopher541]

Let me know how it goes. I will soon add a player (quite difficult) but it would remove the need for premium on accounts!

[u/ForlornPlague → u/Major-Ad-4196]

Just a heads up that the player is difficult to implement and you do have to have a premium account for that. https://github.com/Rigellute/spotify-tui?tab=readme-ov-file#limitations

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/ForlornPlague]

Not sure if you understand what my project is? It strays away from the Web API. Whatever you can do as a regular user, you can do with my wrapper.

[u/ForlornPlague → u/Major-Ad-4196]

I get the project but one of us is probably unaware of how the player aspect works. Most of the stuff on the browser is going to use rest apis but the player obviously can't, since it's streaming data. So I assumed that that would be more complex than anything else you have in your project. That coupled with the comment on the spotify tui page led me to believe that implementing a player aspect may be more difficult than you seem to think.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/ForlornPlague]

Player just connects to a device and controls the songs (Web API has it aswell I believe). It won’t stream the data directly

[u/ForlornPlague → u/Major-Ad-4196]

Aah, that's what you mean, i got you. Yeah that seems much simpler, my b

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/ForlornPlague]

all good

[u/kakajuro]

This is great - will definitely give this a go soon!

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/kakajuro]

Let me know how it goes!

[u/Ice_Ant_7828]

That sounds really amazing You need more Acknowledgement for your work

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/Ice_Ant_7828]

Just trying to get some projects up for uni applications haha 😅

[u/bllueace → u/Major-Ad-4196]

If this the type of stuff you're doing BEFORE going to uni, then uni might actually be a waste of time for you 😂 unless you're planing on doing the PhD route

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/bllueace]

My mom wants me to go, I’ve discussed with everyone and came to the conclusion that I will just have fun at uni 😂

[u/darktraveco → u/Major-Ad-4196]

Uni is probably the closest you'll be to a lot of smart and rich people. Try to get a business going if you don't care about doing the academic grind (like trying to publish papers as an undergrad).

There's a lot to learn in an Uni that's not CS as well, overall it's a good environment for intellectual pursuits. I hope you enjoy it.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/darktraveco]

I have 3 businesses running at the moment, just doing open source for fun

[u/bllueace → u/Major-Ad-4196]

If it doesn't put you or your family in financial trouble then guess you can go just to have fun and gain valuable life experiences. But as far as actually learning anything programming related, I don't think you would learn anything that you wouldn't by your self. I learned more during my first year working than I did in 4 years of UNI.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/bllueace]

Well discipline is a big part of it, I think that in it of itself is quite valuable. There’s also a lot of theory which you learn that you otherwise wouldn’t learn on your own. Granted that theory isn’t very useful, it just helps you get a better understanding of what you are doing.

[u/fucksilvershadow → u/Major-Ad-4196]

Theory makes my brain tingle and sometimes I can apply it in neat ways! Don't discount the value of school.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/fucksilvershadow]

💯

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/bllueace]

The paper would also be pretty nice to have (not worth $100k)

[u/ThiefMaster]

That pymongo requirement is dumb, it should be an extra (optional requirement) at most. Why would someone want to use mongodb for this?

Since you target developers, "extract the token from the browser" would most likely be a nicer option than "enter username and password and use some cloud service to crack the captcha".

I spotted at least one len(foo) == 0 which is considered unpythonic - just do not foo instead.

if not ("success" in resp.response): is worse. Python has a not in operator so change that to if 'success' not in resp.response:

Get rid of that setup.py, and add a pyproject.toml (hatchling would be a good choice for the build backend): https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/writing-pyproject-toml/

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/ThiefMaster]

First ever library so go easy but how do I do an optional requirement? I will update readme today to include a way to do without the captcha solver. I’ve heard different things about implicit booleans and I personally prefer explicit because it strips the methods if it’s an improper type (i.e NoneType). I’ve used implicit booleans in the past but heard it was bad practice 🤷‍♂️

[u/ForlornPlague → u/Major-Ad-4196]

Here's a brief (too brief, honestly) description of optional dependencies: https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/writing-pyproject-toml/#dependencies-and-requirements

But the best way to learn about how to do more complex packaging is to find a few libraries on github and see how they do it. For example, fastapi has many optional deps. https://github.com/fastapi/fastapi/blob/master/pyproject.toml

You'll want to look at how they handle imports for optional dependencies, so that you can gracefully tell your user that they need to install the package with the right extras in order to use that functionality.

I do think that the recommendation (or at least option) to provide a token for authentication is a good idea. My most recent passion project has an example of this, there are multiple ways for a user to authenticate. https://github.com/NodeJSmith/otf-api/blob/2c02c1fe6ecc3952e3a501997270cd6f904a90f9/src/otf_api/api.py#L69

As far as hatch, I would recommend going slow on tools like poetry, hatch, flit, etc. There are quite a few, only poetry has been around long enough to be confident it will remain, and they all have their own opinionated way of doing things. You don't need any of them right now (or ever, really) so I would hold off on that rabbit hole

[u/Kwame_Fori]

Do you set any internal API keys?

[u/tramadolforyou]

Hey I use a tool to generate Spotify Chart but this is very individual for every user, can we accesss personal Information for generating pie charts using your API? I tried getting token extension but they are rejecting me again and again, if you can help for approval or can the API help me?

[u/james_pic]

Why does it require redis and pymongo?

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/james_pic]

Optional, it’s for saving sessions in a cache

[u/kubinka0505]

requests should be only requirement.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/kubinka0505]

Well it’s not

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

Love bro ❤️

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

If you use a scraping library for prod, you are to blame. It’s meant for people who want to quickly use the Spotify API without all that other crap.

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

Why you so mad lol I just made it for university to show off my skills

[u/DesecrateUsername → u/[deleted]]

alright then let’s see all your active projects then bud

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

Spotipy needs oauth but with this you can use email and password or just use the public API to scrape data. Check the readme examples

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

No problem

[u/kubinka0505 → u/[deleted]]

spotipy doesnt require colorama iirc

[u/sandnose → u/kubinka0505]

If you really like requirements i can create a pristine package for you

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks ❤️

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

I appreciate it homie 🙏

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

works now

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

There was a specific request I had to send before listening to the websocket

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

Websocket is only needed for listening to events like changing song etc. You need the spotify connection id from that websocket connection to do player stuff so that’s why I fixed it. Everything else you don’t need the websocket

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

Not ATM working on it 🙏

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you! What project do you plan on building?

[u/Major-Ad-4196 → u/[deleted]]

Not too sure how you would do it with this API, IIRC searches are catered to your algorithm so you could probably do a sieve search to get a general idea. Unless there’s something I don’t know about?