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Spotify
Updated Sep 28, 2026
Spotify is the music service most people have, and it holds a full listening history that most people do not think about until they go looking for it. Getting it out takes two checkboxes on a single form, and the one that matters is the one people skip. The account export gives you a recent window. The extended streaming history gives you every play since the day you signed up.
What you'll get
Extended Streaming HistoryPlaylists & LibraryInferences (Taste Profile)Search QueriesPayments
Before you start
- Log in at spotify.com on a computer.
- Open your profile icon in the top right, then Account, then Privacy settings.
- Find Download your data.
- Tick both Account data and Extended streaming history. They are separate boxes on the same form, and the extended one is the whole reason to bother.
How to download
- Submit the request.
- Open the confirmation email and click its link. This is what starts the 30 day clock.
- Wait. Account data usually lands within days. The extended history can take up to 30, which is the regulatory ceiling rather than a realistic wait; most people report a few days.
- Download both ZIPs when they land. They arrive as separate emails, so check twice if only one turns up.
Pro tip
Click the link in the confirmation email. The 30 day clock starts when you confirm, not when you request, so people who request and forget lose the whole window. It is the single most costly minute in this whole process and it costs one click.
After the download
- Inferences.json is Spotify's model of you as labels: genres, moods, contexts. You cannot change it, only read it. Plenty of people find the specificity either interesting or faintly insulting.
- The extended history comes as one JSON file per year, with every play: track, artist, when it finished, how many milliseconds you actually listened, and whether it was skipped. Sort on that last one and you get a picture of what you genuinely played rather than what shuffled past.
- Follow.json is worth reading for what it reveals about visibility. Anyone you follow can see your listening activity by default.
- Payments.json includes every charge, including failed attempts and the free trial converting into a subscription. Useful if you are disputing something.
- stats.fm and similar free tools read the extended history and chart your top artists over time, if you do not want to open the JSON yourself.
- Do this twice a year. A paying subscription and a free account are the same request, and the history keeps growing in between.