get_artist_audio_features() fails to work on some artists due to preview_url

[tnieuwe]

Hello,

Not sure if this is related to the CRAN removal, but there is an issue with the get_artist_audio_features() function with certain artists for me. For example running:
cur_artist_features <- get_artist_audio_features("Alex G")
Works fine, but running:
cur_artist_features <- get_artist_audio_features("Modest Mouse")
Returns the following error:

Error in `map()`:
i In index: 6.
Caused by error in `dplyr::rename()`:
! Can't rename columns that don't exist.
x Column `preview_url` doesn't exist.
Backtrace:
  1. spotifyr::get_artist_audio_features(cur_artist)
 11. dplyr:::rename.data.frame(...)
 Error in map(.x, .f, ...) : 
Caused by error in `dplyr::rename()`:
! Can't rename columns that don't exist.
x Column `preview_url` doesn't exist.

I'm not sure how to diagnose the issue. Similarly, "Built To Spill" works, but "Chumbawamba" does not.

[t-davidson]

I encountered the same problem. Perhaps the Spotify API has stopped returning the preview_url field. I found the part of the code where this field is used and commented it out in a fork of the repository, see t-davidson@296712e

I have tested it and it works without error (although obviously, this may be a problem if preview_url was a field you were interested in extracting). I made a pull request (#203), but it does not seem like this repository is being actively maintained. You could use devtools to re-install the package from my fork.

[nickreich]

Thanks @t-davidson ! I was running into the same issue and your patch seems to work. I use this package in an exercise for my data science class, and you saved me an 11th hour coding scramble by just being able to point students to your patch of the package.

[t-davidson]

I’m glad to help, I was facing exactly the same scenario!