spotify-notify

Note: Spotify for Linux now supports notifications and media keys natively, making this script redundant.

Spotify-notify is a notifier for currently playing song in Spotify on a linux system, using the notify-osd notifier (found in e.g. Ubuntu). It also includess support for media keys. It is intended for use on Ubuntu systems - current dependency is notify-osd.

Getting started

Installation

If you want to install spotify-notify permanently, it's recommended to follow these instructions. They apply to Ubuntu only but may work on other Debian-based distros as well.

Just execute the following terminal commands to install spotify-notify:

sudo mkdir /opt/spotify-notify/     # Create new directory to install spotify-notify
cd /opt/spotify-notify/             # Change current directory to this folder
# Download current version of spotify-notify
sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sveint/spotify-notify/master/spotify-notify.py
sudo chmod a+x spotify-notify.py    # Mark spotify-notify.py as an executable
python spotify-notify.py -s &       # Start spotify-notify in background

Adding spotify-notify to autostart

In Ubuntu you can easily add spotify-notify to the autostart. You only need to open the startup-programmes dialog. More details can be found in the Ubuntu Wiki. As the name you can choose something like "Spotify Notify" and as the command to be executed, choose

python spotify-notify.py -s

The comment field can be left empty.

Advanced

Running spotify-notify (general information)

To get it running, you first need to clone this repository or download the file spotify-notify.py. Afterwards you can run spotify-notify by

python spotify-notify.py

It will launch Spotify for you if not already running. Please see options below to change default behavior.

If you want to launch the file directly you can first add execution rights to it:

chmod a+x spotify-notify.py

then launch by

./spotify-notify.py

Command line options

Available options are:

Option	Description
-h, --help	Show help message and exit
-a ACTION, --action=ACTION	Music player actions (playPause/play/pause/next/previous).
-n, --skip_notify	Song change notifications will be turned off.
-m, --skip_media_keys	Multimedia keys will not interact with spotify.
-s, --skip_spotify	Spotify will not be opened if it is not running and spotify notify will not close when spotify is closed.
-d, --debug	Debug messages will be displayed.

FAQ

Q: How can I launch the script at startup?

Just add a new entry to the startup applications, using the following as the "Command"-string;

/<path>/<to>/spotify-notify/spotify-notify.py -s

• Make sure that "spotify-notify.py" is executable
• Make note of the "-s" parameter at the end, as this makes sure that spotify-notify doesn't start Spotify, and that it doesn't quit when you quit Spotify.

Q: I want to use the script just for the media key support. How can I do this?

Launch with -n as parameter.

Q: Do I need Ubuntu to use this script? Will others distros work?

A: Other distros supporting the same messaging system might work, please report any success stories!

Spotify-notify is in no way affiliated with Spotify. Spotify is the registered trade mark of the Spotify Group.