I have a macOS menu-bar internet radio player (Radio Player Mini, de.bbruch.RadioPlayer) that has been rejected under Guideline 5.2.3. I appealed to the App Review Board (ticket APL526851) and the rejection was upheld. I am not posting to contest that decision — I am trying to find out what a compliant version of this app would actually look like, because the feedback so far has not given me anything I can implement.
What the app does. It is a playback client. It hosts, stores, caches, records and re-transmits nothing. Selecting a station opens an AVPlayer connection directly to the stream URL that the station operator itself published; the audio goes from their server to the user's Mac and never passes through any infrastructure of mine. Station metadata comes from radio-browser.info, an open community directory whose entries are submitted by the station operators themselves, whose data is placed in the public domain, and whose API is documented for third-party app use. I operate no catalog of my own.
What I have been asked for. Direct licensing agreements with individual station operators, evidence that radio-browser.info conveys redistribution rights to the audio itself, or per-station opt-in confirmations. As far as I can tell none of these can exist for a client of an open directory: radio-browser.info has only ever claimed to publish metadata, and individually licensing tens of thousands of independent broadcasters is not achievable for a playback client. The Board's response said my documentation did not prove rights to stream the content, which I accept — but I do not know what document would.
The alternative App Review has described. In thread 763085, regarding this same directory, an App Review representative wrote:
"However, to comply with guideline 5.2.3, it would be appropriate to limit your app to streaming open-source stations only. Alternatively, you may provide documentary evidence proving that you have all the necessary rights or permissions for the third-party audio streaming."
This is the part I would like clarified, because it sounds like a path that does not require licensing documents, and my appeal response did not address it.
My actual questions:
What qualifies as an "open-source station" for 5.2.3? Is that a property of the station, of the directory it is listed in, or of the stream itself? Does streaming only from an open, operator-submitted, public-domain directory satisfy that alternative? If not, what would? If I remove the directory entirely and ship a player where users add stream URLs manually or import their own list — no bundled catalog and no discovery feature — does 5.2.3 still apply? This is the change I am currently planning, and I would rather confirm it before building it than discover after another rejection. For context, apps built on this same public directory are currently listed on the Mac App Store, and in thread 807128 an app using this identical API was approved on iOS while being rejected on macOS under 5.2.3. I mention this only to explain why the boundary is unclear to me from the outside, not as an argument that anyone else's approval entitles me to one.
I am willing to restrict the catalog, drop the discovery feature, or change the data source. I just need a requirement I can build against.
Thanks.