README.md
spotify_player is a fast, easy to use, and configurable terminal music player.
Features
A demo of spotify_player v0.5.0-pre-release on youtube or on asciicast:
Checkout examples/README.md for more examples.
By default, the application's installed binary is spotify_player.
A Spotify Premium account is required.
openssl, alsa-lib (streaming feature), libdbus (media-control feature).
For example, on Debian based systems, run the below command to install application's dependencies:
sudo apt install libssl-dev libasound2-dev libdbus-1-dev
On RHEL/Fedora based systems, run the below command to install application's dependencies :
sudo dnf install openssl-devel alsa-lib-devel dbus-devel
or if you're using yum:
sudo yum install openssl-devel alsa-lib-devel dbus-devel
Application's prebuilt binaries can be found in the Releases Page.
Note: to run the application, Linux systems need to install additional dependencies as specified in the Dependencies section.
Run brew install spotify_player to install the application.
Run scoop install spotify-player to install the application.
Install via Cargo:
cargo install spotify_player --locked
Install via Arch Linux:
pacman -S spotify-player
Note: Defaults to PulseAudio/Pipewire. For a different backend, modify the official PKGBUILD and rebuild manually. See Audio Backends.
Install via Void Linux:
xbps-install -S spotify-player
Install via FreeBSD:
pkg install spotify-player
Install via NetBSD:
pkgin install spotify-player
Build from source on NetBSD:
cd /usr/pkgsrc/audio/spotify-player
make install
spotify-player is available as a Nix package. Install via:
nix-shell -p spotify-player
To build from source locally, run nix-shell in the root of the source checkout. The provided shell.nix will install prerequisites.
Note: The streaming feature is disabled in the Docker image.
Download the latest Docker image:
docker pull aome510/spotify_player:latest
Run the Docker container:
docker run --rm -it aome510/spotify_player:latest
To use your local config and cache folders:
docker run --rm \
-v $APP_CONFIG_FOLDER:/app/config/ \
-v $APP_CACHE_FOLDER:/app/cache/ \
-it aome510/spotify_player:latest
spotify_player requires a Spotify Premium account and authenticates against the Spotify Web API using the OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow with PKCE. No client secret is stored or required.
The simplest way to authenticate is to just run the application — on first use it prompts for whichever credentials are not yet cached. Each prompt opens the Spotify authorization page in your browser; after you approve access, Spotify redirects to a local loopback address (login_redirect_uri, default http://127.0.0.1:8989/login) where spotify_player captures the authorization code and exchanges it for an access token. Credentials are cached in the application's cache folder, so this is a one-time step per machine.
Alternatively, run the spotify_player authenticate CLI command to authenticate both credentials up front — useful for setting things up ahead of a daemon or headless launch. Unlike a normal launch, authenticate always forces a fresh interactive login for both credentials, ignoring any cached tokens, so it can also be used to re-authenticate from scratch.
Two distinct credentials are involved:
Both authenticate through your Spotify account; the only thing that differs is the client ID presented to Spotify (see below).
With the streaming feature enabled (the default), the first launch can open the Spotify authorization page twice — once for each credential described above, in this order:
client_id (ncspot's by default). This is cached as user_client_token.json.credentials.json.These are two independent OAuth flows with two different client IDs, so Spotify requires a separate approval for each, and each token is cached separately in the cache folder. This is a one-time step per machine — once both tokens are cached, subsequent launches reuse and silently refresh them, and you will not be prompted again unless the cache is cleared or a token is revoked.
The spotify_player authenticate command runs both flows in one go (forcing a fresh login for each). If the streaming feature is disabled, the librespot session is not needed, so you are prompted just once (step 1).
Every request to the Spotify Web API is attributed to a Spotify application, identified by a client ID. The client ID — not your account — determines the API quota you are subject to.
By default, spotify_player uses ncspot's client ID. This is intentional: that client ID is registered in extended quota mode and predates Spotify's November 2024 Web API changes. As a result it has a much higher rate limit and access to endpoints (browse, personalized content, generated playlists, …) that newly-registered applications can no longer use.
[!IMPORTANT] You almost certainly should not configure your own
client_id. Any application you register today starts in Spotify's restricted default quota mode. Using such a client ID commonly leads to429 Too Many Requestsand403 Forbiddenerrors and missing browse/personalized data. This was the root cause of several reported issues (e.g. #890, #893, #912, #913), and switching to the bundled default client ID (#918) resolved them.The recommended setup is to leave
client_idunset so the bundled default is used.
A custom client ID is only worthwhile if you have a specific reason — for example an application that has been granted extended quota mode by Spotify, or organizational policy requiring your own registered app.
If you do need one, register an application on the Spotify developer dashboard, add your login_redirect_uri (default http://127.0.0.1:8989/login) to the app's allowed redirect URIs, then set client_id (or client_id_command) in app.toml. See the Client id command section of the configuration docs for details.
After changing the client ID, re-run spotify_player authenticate to refresh the cached token.
Control Spotify remotely with Spotify Connect. Press D to list devices, then enter to connect.
Stream music directly from the terminal. The streaming feature is enabled by default and uses the rodio-backend audio backend unless otherwise specified.
The app uses librespot to create an integrated Spotify client, registering a spotify-player device accessible via Spotify Connect.
Default audio backend is rodio. Available backends:
alsa-backendpulseaudio-backendrodio-backendportaudio-backendjackaudio-backendrodiojack-backendsdl-backendgstreamer-backendTo use a different audio backend, specify the --features option when building. For example:
cargo install spotify_player --no-default-features --features pulseaudio-backend
Notes:
--no-default-features to disable the default rodio-backend.To disable streaming, build with:
cargo install spotify_player --no-default-features
Real-time audio visualization is displayed in the playback window as a frequency-band bar chart (64 log-scale bands from bass (left) to treble (right)) while music is streamed locally via the integrated librespot player. The visualization area is hidden when playback is on an external Spotify Connect device or when the playback is not playing.
Set enable_audio_visualization to true in your config to enable this feature. See config docs.
Media control is enabled by default. Set enable_media_control to true in your config to use it. See config docs.
Media control uses MPRIS DBus on Linux and OS window events on Windows and macOS.
To enable image rendering, build with the image feature (disabled by default):
cargo install spotify_player --features image
Image rendering is powered by ratatui-image, which auto-detects the terminal's graphics protocol (Kitty, iTerm2, Sixel) on startup. Terminals without any graphics protocol support fall back to block characters.
Notes:
Image rendering examples:
foot terminal):For a pixelated look, enable the pixelate feature (also enables image):
cargo install spotify_player --features pixelate
Adjust the pixelation with the cover_img_pixels config option.
cover_img_pixels | 8 | 16 | 32 | 64 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| example |
To temporarily disable pixelation, set cover_img_pixels to a high value (e.g., 512).
To enable desktop notifications, build with the notify feature (disabled by default):
cargo install spotify_player --features notify
Note: Notification support is limited on macOS and Windows compared to Linux.
Mouse support: You can seek to a position in the playback by left-clicking the progress bar.
To enable daemon mode, build with the daemon feature (disabled by default):
cargo install spotify_player --features daemon
Run as a daemon with -d or --daemon: spotify_player -d.
Notes:
Daemon mode is not supported on Windows.
Daemon mode requires streaming and an audio backend.
On macOS, daemon mode does not work with media control (enabled by default). To use daemon mode on macOS, disable media control:
cargo install spotify_player --no-default-features --features daemon,rodio-backend
To enable fuzzy search, build with the fzf feature (disabled by default).
spotify_player provides several CLI commands for interacting with Spotify:
get: Get Spotify data (playlist/album/artist data, user's data, etc)playback: Interact with the playback (start a playback, play-pause, next, etc)search: Search spotifyconnect: Connect to a Spotify devicelike: Like currently playing trackauthenticate: Authenticate the applicationplaylist: Playlist editing (new, delete, import, fork, etc)For more details, run spotify_player -h or spotify_player {command} -h.
Notes
spotify_player authenticate to authenticate the app.client_port (default: 8080). If no instance is running, a new client is started, which may increase latency.The command-line interface is script-friendly. Use the search subcommand to retrieve Spotify data in JSON format, which can be processed with tools like jq.
Example: Start playback for the first track from a search query:
read -p "Search spotify: " query
spotify_player playback start track --id $(spotify_player search "$query" | jq '.tracks.[0].id' | xargs)
Press ? or C-h to open the shortcut help page (default for OpenCommandHelp).
Tips:
Search command to search in the shortcut help page and other pages.RefreshPlayback manually updates playback status.RestartIntegratedClient is useful for switching audio devices without restarting the app.List of supported commands:
| Command | Description | Default shortcuts |
|---|---|---|
NextTrack | next track | n |
PreviousTrack | previous track | p |
ResumePause | resume/pause based on the current playback | space |
PlayRandom | play a random track in the current context | . |
Repeat | cycle the repeat mode | C-r |
Shuffle | toggle the shuffle mode | C-s |
VolumeChange | change playback volume by an offset (default shortcuts use 5%) | +, - |
Mute | toggle playback volume between 0% and previous level | _ |
SeekStart | seek start of current track | ^ |
SeekForward | seek forward by a duration in seconds (defaults to seek_duration_secs) | > |
SeekBackward | seek backward by a duration in seconds (defaults to seek_duration_secs) | < |
Quit | quit the application | C-c, q |
ClosePopup | close a popup | esc |
SelectNextOrScrollDown | select the next item in a list/table or scroll down (supports vim-style count: 5j) | j, C-n, down |
SelectPreviousOrScrollUp | select the previous item in a list/table or scroll up (supports vim-style count: 10k) | k, C-p, up |
PageSelectNextOrScrollDown | select the next page item in a list/table or scroll a page down (supports vim-style count: 3C-f) | page_down, C-f |
PageSelectPreviousOrScrollUp | select the previous page item in a list/table or scroll a page up (supports vim-style count: 2C-b) | page_up, C-b |
SelectFirstOrScrollToTop | select the first item in a list/table or scroll to the top | g g, home |
SelectLastOrScrollToBottom | select the last item in a list/table or scroll to the bottom | G, end |
ChooseSelected | choose the selected item | enter |
RefreshPlayback | manually refresh the current playback | r |
RestartIntegratedClient | restart the integrated client (streaming feature only) | R |
ShowActionsOnSelectedItem | open a popup showing actions on a selected item | g a, C-space |
ShowActionsOnCurrentTrack | open a popup showing actions on the current track | a |
ShowActionsOnCurrentContext | open a popup showing actions on the current context | A |
AddSelectedItemToQueue | add the selected item to queue | Z, C-z |
FocusNextWindow | focus the next focusable window (if any) | tab |
FocusPreviousWindow | focus the previous focusable window (if any) | backtab |
SwitchTheme | open a popup for switching theme | T |
SwitchDevice | open a popup for switching device | D |
Search | open a popup for searching in the current page | / |
BrowseUserPlaylists | open a popup for browsing user's playlists | u p |
BrowseUserFollowedArtists | open a popup for browsing user's followed artists | u a |
BrowseUserSavedAlbums | open a popup for browsing user's saved albums | u A |
CurrentlyPlayingContextPage | go to the currently playing context page | g space |
TopTrackPage | go to the user top track page | g t |
RecentlyPlayedTrackPage | go to the user recently played track page | g r |
LikedTrackPage | go to the user liked track page | g y |
LyricsPage | go to the lyrics page of the current track | g L, l |
LibraryPage | go to the user library page | g l |
SearchPage | go to the search page | g s |
BrowsePage | go to the browse page | g b |
Queue | go to the queue page | z |
OpenCommandHelp | go to the command help page | ?, C-h |
PreviousPage | go to the previous page | backspace, C-q |
OpenLogs | go the the application logs page | g o |
OpenSpotifyLinkFromClipboard | open a Spotify link from clipboard | O |
SortTrackByTitle | sort the track table (if any) by track's title | s t |
SortTrackByArtists | sort the track table (if any) by track's artists | s a |
SortTrackByAlbum | sort the track table (if any) by track's album | s A |
SortTrackByAddedDate | sort the track table (if any) by track's added date | s D |
SortTrackByDuration | sort the track table (if any) by track's duration | s d |
SortLibraryAlphabetically | sort the library alphabetically | s l a |
SortLibraryByRecent | sort the library (playlists and albums) by recently added items | s l r |
ReverseOrder | reverse the order of the track table (if any) | s r |
MovePlaylistItemUp | move playlist item up one position | C-k |
MovePlaylistItemDown | move playlist item down one position | C-j |
CreatePlaylist | create a new playlist | N |
JumpToCurrentTrackInContext | jump to the current track in the context | g c |
JumpToHighlightTrackInContext | jump to the currently highlighted search result in the context | C-g |
To add or modify shortcuts, see the keymaps section.
Not all actions are available for every Spotify item. To see available actions, use ShowActionsOnCurrentTrack or ShowActionsOnSelectedItem, then press enter to trigger the action. Some actions may not appear in the popup but can be bound to shortcuts.
List of available actions:
GoToArtistGoToAlbumGoToRadioAddToLibraryAddToPlaylistAddToQueueAddToLikedDeleteFromLikedDeleteFromLibraryDeleteFromPlaylistShowActionsOnAlbumShowActionsOnArtistShowActionsOnShowToggleLikedCopyLinkFollowUnfollowActions can also be bound to shortcuts. To add new shortcuts, see the actions section.
When entering the search page, focus is on the search input. Enter text, use backspace to delete, and enter to search.
To move focus from the search input to other windows (track results, album results, etc.), use FocusNextWindow or FocusPreviousWindow.
By default, configuration files are located in $HOME/.config/spotify-player. Change this with -c <FOLDER_PATH> or --config-folder <FOLDER_PATH>.
If no configuration file is found, one will be created with default values.
See configuration documentation for details on available options.
By default, cache files are stored in $HOME/.cache/spotify-player (logs, credentials, audio cache, etc.). Change this with -C <FOLDER_PATH> or --cache-folder <FOLDER_PATH>.
Logs are stored in $APP_CACHE_FOLDER/spotify-player-*.log. For debugging or issues, check the backtrace file in $APP_CACHE_FOLDER/spotify-player-*.backtrace.
Set the RUST_LOG environment variable to control logging level. Default is spotify_player=INFO.
spotify_player is written in Rust and built on top of libraries like ratatui, rspotify, librespot, and more. It is inspired by spotify-tui and ncspot.