Getting started with Web API (2024)

This tutorial will help you to make your first Web API call byretriving an artist's metadata. The steps to do so are the following:

1. Create an app, if you haven't done so.
2. Request an access token.
3. Use the access token to request the artist data.

Here we go, let's rock & roll!

Prerequisites

• This tutorial assumes you have a Spotify account (free or premium).
• We will use cURL to make API calls. You can install it fromhere our using the package manager of yourchoice.

Set Up Your Account

Login to the Spotify Developer Dashboard. If necessary, read thelatest Developer Terms of Service to complete your account set up.

Create an app

An app provides the Client ID and Client Secret needed to request anaccess token by implementing any of theauthorization flows.

To create an app, go to your Dashboard, click on the Create anapp button and enter the following information:

• App Name: My App
• App Description: This is my first Spotify app
• Redirect URI: You won't need this parameter in this example, so let's use http://localhost:3000.

Finally, check the Developer Terms of Service checkbox and tap on theCreate button.

Request an access token

The access token is a string which contains the credentials and permissionsthat can be used to access a given resource (e.g artists, albums or tracks) oruser's data (e.g your profile or your playlists).

In order to request the access token you need to get your Client_ID andClient Secret:

1. Go to the Dashboard
2. Click on the name of the app you have just created (My App)
3. Click on the Settings button

The Client ID can be found here. The Client Secret can be found behind the View client secret link.

Request artist data

For this example, we will use the Get Artist endpoint to requestinformation about an artist. According to the API Reference, the endpointneeds the Spotify ID of the artist.

An easy way to get the Spotify ID of an artist is using the Spotify Desktop App:

1. Search the artist
2. Click on the three dots icon from the artist profile
3. Select Share > Copy link to artist. The Spotify ID is the value that comes right after the open.spotify.com/artist URI.

If everything goes well, the API will return the following JSON response:

Congratulations! You made your first API call to the Spotify Web API.

Summary

• The Spotify Web API provides different endpoints depending on the data we wantto access. The API calls must include the Authorization header along with avalid access token.

• This tutorial makes use of the client credentials granttype to retrieve the access token. That works fine in scenarios where youcontrol the API call to Spotify, for example where your backend is connectingto the Web API. It will not work in cases where your app will connect onbehalf of a specific user, for example when getting private playlist or profiledata.

What's next?

• The tutorial used the Spotify Desktop App to retrieve the Spotify ID of theartist. The ID can also be retrieved using the Searchendpoint. An interesting exercisewould be to extend the example with a new API call to the /search endpoint.Do you accept the challenge?

• The authorization guideprovides detailed information about which authorization flow suits you best.Make sure you read it first!

• You can continue your journey by reading the APIcalls guide which describes indetail the Web API request and responses.

• Finally, if you are looking for a more practical documentation, you can follow theDisplay your Spotify Profile Data in a Web App how-to which implements astep-by-step web application using authorization code flow to request the accesstoken.