Feature request: Allow third-party applications to receive exported playlist data

[jeanrp]

Feature request: Allow third-party applications to receive exported playlist data

Hi,

I'd like to propose a generic integration mode that would allow users to send playlist data from Exportify directly to another application, instead of having to download a CSV and then manually upload it somewhere else.

Motivation

Spotify's current Development Mode limits new Spotify applications to 5 authenticated users. Applications that need broader access must qualify for Extended Quota, which currently has requirements that make direct Spotify integration impractical for many small or early-stage applications.

Because of this, applications that only need basic playlist metadata such as track title, artist, URI, or ISRC don't have a practical way to offer Spotify playlist imports to their users directly.

Exportify already solves the Spotify side of this problem using the official Spotify Web API and lets users explicitly export their own playlist data.

The current workflow for another application is therefore:

User opens Exportify
        ↓
Authenticates with Spotify
        ↓
Selects playlist
        ↓
Downloads CSV
        ↓
Returns to third-party application
        ↓
Uploads CSV

I was wondering whether Exportify could support an optional integration mode that removes the manual file download/upload step.

Proposed flow

A third-party application could open Exportify in an integration mode:

Third-party application
        ↓
"Import from Spotify"
        ↓
Exportify
        ↓
Spotify authentication
        ↓
User selects playlist
        ↓
User confirms export
        ↓
Playlist metadata returned to originating application
        ↓
User continues in originating application

For example, another web application could open Exportify in a popup.

After the user selects a playlist, Exportify could return the playlist data to the originating application using something like window.postMessage().

Conceptually:

{
  type: "exportify-playlist",
  playlist: {
    name: "My Playlist",
    tracks: [
      {
        name: "Track Name",
        artists: ["Artist Name"],
        uri: "spotify:track:..."
      }
    ]
  }
}

The exact API, transport mechanism, origin validation, and security model could of course be designed differently depending on what fits Exportify best.

Keep it user-controlled

I think it would be important for the user to explicitly approve the transfer.

For example:

Send "Tech House" to tracksync.example?

87 tracks will be shared.

[ Cancel ] [ Send Playlist ]

This keeps the behavior consistent with Exportify's current purpose: the user chooses their own playlist and explicitly exports their own playlist metadata.

Why make this generic?

I'm working on an application that could use this functionality, but I don't think this should be application-specific.

A generic integration capability could potentially be useful for:

• DJ library tools
• Playlist backup tools
• Music library managers
• Playlist migration applications
• Music analysis applications
• Other services that need user-authorized playlist metadata

It could essentially make Exportify a lightweight playlist portability layer while preserving its existing client-side architecture and avoiding the need for Exportify to store user data.

Question

Would you be open to adding something like this to Exportify?

If this is something you'd be interested in supporting, I'd be happy to work on a PR. I wanted to discuss the approach first before implementing anything, especially around the preferred integration mechanism and security model.

[hoogrey]

Thanks for raising this. I maintain an independent learning project that reads Exportify's CSV (Track Name and Artist Name(s)) as input: https://github.com/hoogrey/gequhai-playlist-downloader. It uses that playlist metadata for third-party audio lookup/downloads without asking users for Spotify credentials, so it's one example of the CSV handoff described here. A generic, user-approved integration could help downstream apps; keeping CSV export would also remain useful for local scripts like this one. The project is not affiliated with Exportify, and users must have the rights to any content they download.