Stream Contention
Your application may be in contention with other devices the user is logged into. Due to licensing restrictions, Beats Music is obligated to ensure that only a single device may be actively streaming music at any given time.
Only one of a user’s devices can have the “baton” at any point in time. The baton indicates which device is currently allowed to stream music.
When you attempt to play audio, the device associated with the user’s access_token is checked to see if it currently has the baton. If it does not have the baton, a StreamContention error is returned.
Acquiring the baton
You may acquire the baton by passing the acquire param with value 1 to the audio endpoint.
The acquire param should only be used when a user takes an explicit action, such as clicking a play button.
Handling Stream Contention Errors
When you receive a StreamContention error, your device should respond as follows:
- Halt playback and all streaming activity.
- Extract the message provided in the error.
- Present the user a modal dialog populated with the supplied message.
- A Dismiss button should merely dismiss the dialog and wait for the next user input.
After user closes dialog, add acquire=1 to the next request.
