Connection guides

Most providers connect with a single sign-in click. Three don't: Spotify (you register your own app), a self-hosted Subsonic server (you supply a URL and credentials), and Discogs (you paste a personal access token). Here's how to do each. TIDAL is a one-click sign-in but has two quirks worth reading first. You do the actual connecting from Connectors.

Connect Spotify (your own app)

Spotify caps the shared PairWave app at 5 users, so the way to connect regardless is bring your own app: register a free Spotify app under your own account and connect PairWave with its Client ID and secret. You stay inside your own Development Mode, and the 5-seat limit no longer applies to you.

1. You must already be signed in to PairWave with another provider (Google/YouTube, TIDAL or SoundCloud). Spotify is link-only — it can't be your first sign-in.
2. Open the Spotify Developer Dashboard and click Create app. Name and description can be anything.
3. In the app settings, add this exact Redirect URI: https://pairwave.willowyrd.com/api/spotify-byo/callback. It must match character-for-character, so copy it from here (or from the Connectors page) rather than typing it.
4. Under APIs used, tick Web API, then save.
5. Open Settings → copy the Client ID and Client secret.
6. Back on Connectors, expand “Use your own Spotify app” on the Spotify row, paste both values, and click Connect with your app. Spotify will ask you to authorize, then send you back connected.

If it fails, it's almost always the Redirect URI: re-check it matches the one on the Connectors page exactly, including https:// and no trailing slash.

Connect a Subsonic server

This works with any Subsonic / OpenSubsonic server — including Navidrome, as well as gonic, Ampache, Airsonic, LMS and others. If you run one of those, this is your provider even though it's no longer named “Navidrome”. Unlike the streaming services there's no global catalog: PairWave can only add tracks that already exist as files in your own library.

1. Sign in to PairWave with another provider first — a Subsonic server exposes no email, so it can't be your first identity.
2. Get your server URL — the address you open your web player at, e.g. https://music.example.com. Include the port if you use one.
3. Use your normal username and password. If your server supports OpenSubsonic API keys (Navidrome does), you can generate one in its settings and use that instead of your password — prefer it where available.
4. On Connectors, expand “Connect a Subsonic server”, enter the URL and username, pick Password or API key, paste the secret, and click Test & connect. PairWave pings the server to check the credentials before saving.

Your password or key is encrypted at rest and never sent to the browser. A track that isn't in your library yet is simply skipped, and re-checked automatically on every later sync — so once you rip that CD or add that file, it links itself with no action from you.

Connect TIDAL

TIDAL connects with a single click on Connectors — there's no app to register and no token to paste. Two things are worth knowing before you link it up.

• A paid subscription is required. TIDAL has had no free tier since 2022, so a TIDAL account that can be linked is always a paying one.
• Playlists PairWave creates are “unlisted”, not private. TIDAL only offers public and unlisted — there is no private playlist. Unlisted means it isn't surfaced in your profile or in search, but anyone holding the link can open it. This applies to the destination playlist of a migration; playlists you already own keep whatever visibility you gave them.

Matching to TIDAL is strong: every track in its catalog carries an ISRC, the same exact identifier Spotify exposes, so cross-platform matches rarely fall back to fuzzy title comparison. TIDAL also reports the mix name (“Extended Mix”, “Radio Edit”) separately, which PairWave folds back into the title so the DJ-oriented extended-mix bias can see it.

Connect Discogs

Discogs is a record catalog rather than a streaming service: you connect it to build a Wantlist (or Collection) from a playlist — the vinyl to hunt for the music you already listen to. It connects with a personal access token, not an OAuth click.

1. Sign in to PairWave with another provider first (Google/YouTube, TIDAL or SoundCloud). Like Spotify and Subsonic, Discogs is link-only — it can't be your first sign-in.
2. Open your Discogs developer settings and click Generate new token. This personal access token acts on your own account — keep it private.
3. On Connectors, find the Discogs row in Connections, paste the token, and click Connect Discogs. The row then shows your Discogs username.
4. Head to Syncs → Discogs to pick the playlist to mirror and whether it feeds your Wantlist or Collection, then review each match.

Your token is encrypted at rest and never sent to the browser. You can disconnect anytime from the Discogs row on Connectors; revoke the token itself on Discogs if you no longer want PairWave to hold it.