# DESIGN.md · Spotify brand & design guidelines (LG-005)

> Written for AI coding agents. Values marked **OFFICIAL** come from the documented source named below; values marked **ESTIMATED** were measured by us from our own screenshots and are approximate. Never treat ESTIMATED values as official brand tokens.

## Overview
- Type: Brand Guidelines · Category: H. Logos and Brand Identity
- Platforms: Web
- Color theme: Monochrome light · Layout pattern: Documentation · Mood: Corporate, structured
- License / terms: Spotify trademarks; follow the guidelines; link only
- Industry: Music streaming
- Patterns: Docs sidebar, Usage rules

Public rules for using Spotify’s logo, icon and attribution in third-party apps. Logo files are on the newsroom media kit (newsroom.spotify.com/media-kit/logo-and-brand-assets). Tip: note how clear-space, minimum size and color rules are stated: copy that structure for your own guidelines.

### Analysis (ours)
Spotify’s Design & Branding Guidelines (our capture) live inside the developer docs: a deep purple top bar (#412E6F, ESTIMATED) with ‘Spotify for Developers’, Documentation and Community, a pale left sidebar of sections (Introduction, Attribution, Using our content, Browsing Spotify content, Linking to Spotify, Playing views, Showing entities, Using our logo, Using our colors, Logos and naming restrictions, Fonts), and a white content column with a bold heading, an introduction linking the Developer Terms of Service, End User Agreement and Privacy Policy, then a green rule above ‘Attribution’ and a diagram of app screens showing where the Spotify attribution goes. Lesson: the guidelines are organized by integration task (attribute, link, play, show content) rather than by asset, which is what a developer actually needs. Pitfall: the rules are part of the developer terms, so treating them as optional advice can break your agreement.

### Best practices (ours)
- Organize your own brand rules by the task a partner is doing (attribute, link, embed), not only by asset type.
- Show rules as annotated screen diagrams; one picture of ‘where the logo goes’ beats a paragraph.
- Link the legal terms at the top so partners know the rules are binding.
- When integrating Spotify, follow its attribution and logo rules exactly; don’t restyle the mark.

### Usage terms at a glance (our summary, not legal advice)
- Commercial use: Only as the guidelines allow
- Attribution: Required in integrations (per guidelines)
- Redistribution: Trademark; follow guidelines
- How you get it: Docs + newsroom logo files

## Color tokens
No official color tokens documented for this entry.

ESTIMATED · dominant colors measured from our screenshot(s) of the source site (median-cut quantization; share = % of pixels). Approximate, not official:

- `#FFFFFF` ~49%
- `#412E6F` ~12%
- `#A8BCC5` ~11%
- `#D9E7E4` ~5%

## Typography
No official type scale documented for this entry; use the product’s own typography guidance.

## Spacing, radii, shadows
Not documented for this entry. Do not invent values; derive from your own design system.

## Components
No component inventory documented for this entry.

## Layout rules
- Observed layout pattern: **Documentation** (from our captures).

## Do’s and don’ts
- Do: Keep chrome neutral and let content (images, icons, type) carry color.
- Don’t: Don’t introduce decorative color that competes with content.
- Do: follow the source’s license/terms listed above.
- Don’t: present ESTIMATED colors as official tokens.

## Sources
- https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/design
- Library entry: https://design-library-byt.pages.dev/entry/LG-005