Free · your whole listening history
Get your Spotify history out of Spotify
Spotify keeps every play you've ever had, and will hand you the whole file if you ask for it. Request it at spotify.com/account/privacy with the extended streaming history box ticked, wait for the e-mail, then upload the ZIP here. We match each play against our catalog, so a decade of listening turns into a profile you can rate and review on, and take with you again if you ever want to.
Four steps
Open your Spotify privacy page
Go to spotify.com/account/privacy while signed in, and scroll to Download your data. It's a page inside your account settings, not something you install.
Tick Extended streaming history
This is the box that matters. The default download covers roughly the last year. Extended streaming history covers every play since you opened the account: dates, times, track, artist, album, and how long you listened.
Confirm the e-mail, then leave it alone
Spotify sends a confirmation link and starts the job. They quote up to 30 days for the extended file. In practice it usually lands within a week, as a download link by e-mail.
Create a free account and we'll e-mail you when the file should have arrived. You need one to upload it anyway.
Drop the ZIP into Riffiter
Settings → Connections → Spotify history. Upload the archive exactly as it arrived, without unpacking or renaming it. We read every play and match it to our catalog, and it becomes your listening history here. Upload it again later and nothing duplicates.
Not a Spotify listener? Apple Music hands over a comparable file, and Last.fm sends new plays over as they happen, with no waiting at all.
If you have a browser agent
Steps one and two are a form, and a browser agent running in your own signed-in browser can fill it in for you. Paste this into whichever one you use and watch what it does.
Open https://www.spotify.com/account/privacy in this browser, where I am already signed in to Spotify. Scroll to "Download your data". Tick the checkbox for "Extended streaming history" and leave every other option alone. Then submit the request and tell me exactly what Spotify showed you afterwards. Do not enter a password or any login details. If I am not already signed in, stop and tell me instead of signing in.
It has to be an agent in the browser where you are already signed in to Spotify. Never type your Spotify password into a chatbot, and no agent can do anything about the wait: the file still comes days later by e-mail, which is what the reminder above is for.
Why an upload, and not a login button
Spotify used to let any music site read your listening once you allowed it. That ended. New apps are capped at five users, and the extended access that lifts the cap is reserved for registered companies with 250,000 monthly users, so the “connect your Spotify” buttons still working out there were approved years ago.
The export survived because it isn't a product decision. Data protection law gives you the right to a copy of your own data, so Spotify ships one: a plain archive of every play, with timestamps. It costs you a form and some waiting, and what you get back is a file no policy change can revoke.
Uploading it is what turns that folder into something you can use. Your plays land on album and track pages, your years turn into charts, and the albums you played to death are the ones we ask you to rate first.
For everything after today
The export covers your past. To keep new listening arriving without asking Spotify for another file every year, point your player at Last.fm or ListenBrainz. Both are still open to any app, both sit happily behind Spotify, and we read either one every half hour. Connect one in settings and you can forget about it.
FAQ
- How do I download my Spotify listening history?
- Sign in at spotify.com/account/privacy, scroll to Download your data, tick Extended streaming history, and confirm the e-mail Spotify sends. They prepare a ZIP and e-mail you a link. The extended file covers your whole account; the default one covers about a year.
- How long does Spotify take to send it?
- Spotify says up to 30 days for extended streaming history. It usually arrives faster than that, often within a week. The default account download is quicker, but it only holds the last year of plays.
- What's actually in the export?
- One JSON entry per play: the timestamp, track, artist, album, and how many milliseconds you listened. That's enough to rebuild your whole listening timeline. There are no ratings in it, because Spotify has never had ratings. That part starts here.
- Why can't Riffiter just connect to my Spotify account?
- Spotify closed that door. New apps run in development mode, which allows 5 users total, and the extended access that lifts it requires a registered company with 250,000 monthly users. So a new music site cannot offer a working Spotify login, whatever the button says. Your own data export carries no such limit.
- What happens to my plays after I upload them?
- Each play is matched to an album and track in our catalog, so your history turns into pages you can rate and review, plus per-year stats and a list of the albums you actually finished. Plays we can't place are kept as text and match later, as the catalog grows.
- Do I have to keep uploading files forever?
- No. The export is for your past. For everything from here on, connect Last.fm or ListenBrainz. Both are still open to any app, both keep listening in the background, and both work fine with Spotify as your player.
- Is this affiliated with Spotify?
- No. Riffiter is an independent music rating and review site. We only read a file Spotify gave you, at your request, about your own listening.
Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB. Riffiter is not affiliated with Spotify; we only read the export you requested yourself.