Behind the scenes

Matching Spotify links

When a Spotify link is submitted into the search bar, trebbl no longer matches this link across platforms using the ISRC (International Standard Recording Code). Instead, we now perform searches behind the scenes to find the best likely match.

This might mean that some links are not converted to the same album across platforms (think songs which appear regularly on compilations). However, I had to make due to the reasons below.

Why the change?

First, lets quickly touch on ISRCs.

ISRC is short for International Standard Recording Code, and is a unique identifier for music tracks. It’s like a barcode for music, and it’s used to track sales and royalties. When I first built the website, I used ISRCs to match tracks across platforms because it was the most reliable way to ensure the right recording you wanted to share was used.

So why change?

Unfortunately, Spotify are about to release a change to their API restricting the use of data for smaller developers like myself. This is nothing new, last year they made a big change to application classifications which make it nearly impossible for applications to build certain features without already scaling to 250k users.

The upcoming change removes the field used for accurate matching - ISRC. As you can imagine, doing nothing would break the core functionality of the website, so I had to find a workaround. I'll be keeping an eye on the performance and accuracy of the new matching system, and if it becomes a problem, I may have to accelerate some changes I'm planning for trebbl.

What’s next?

I don't plan on trebbl going anywhere, more features are on their way, and I'm always open to suggestions, so if you have any thoughts on what you'd like to see next, feel free to reach out!