Plugin for Spotify (1 Viewer)

[craigbeat]

Not sure if this would actually work, but I was looking at some of the projects linked to from the spotify blog, and it got me thinking - using those lists of songs and artists that Spotify publish when they update their library, would it be possible to write a plugin that stores that info in a db. You could then use the link data to launch the song in spotify running in the background. Yes, you won't have info like what song is playing, or how far in to the track it is, but spotify can already be controlled by the MCE remote (previous / next).

Just an idea...

 

[Fade]

Not sure if this would actually work, but I was looking at some of the projects linked to from the spotify blog, and it got me thinking - using those lists of songs and artists that Spotify publish when they update their library, would it be possible to write a plugin that stores that info in a db. You could then use the link data to launch the song in spotify running in the background. Yes, you won't have info like what song is playing, or how far in to the track it is, but spotify can already be controlled by the MCE remote (previous / next).

Just an idea...

There is a plugin which uses playlists from spotify in mediaportal. But you has to have spotify running in the background and you can only play the music in the playlists you already made. It's linked to earlier in the thread.

 

[hulkhaugen]

i discovered SpotiAmp, and he uses these so-called Global Hotkeys to control Spotify with his piece of software. Is it possible to use this method to make a plugin? He also provides a commercial-skip, which i DON'T like. I think ppl should be paying these lousy few 9,99 bucks a month for such a great service, or at least live with the commercial...

EDIT: FoxyTunes can also play Spotify music externally with artist and song title info, even though Spotify runs in the background.

I really really really want a Spotify plug-in for Media Portal only thing i miss!!

 

[deadkenny]

On the subject of the linux API, would cygwin be a solution to using this? I've not looked at the linux API however and it would require the source to compile under cygwin.

However I think the way Spotify are going is to do deals with various vendors to link into their product, thus ensuring revenue for them which in turn goes straight into the pockets of the studios.

Would be fantastic to have a Spotify plugin or connector though. I'm waiting for one for SqueezeBox / SqueezCentre too. The Spotify dudes have said that support for other devices is on their list of things to do (that was in response to questions about SqueezeBox etc). I suspect it will happen as it will involve a deal with Logitech.

Have to admit, despite my reservations about being stuck with their own client, I have fallen in love with Spotify. It's quite different from last.fm as you can play almost everything you want (with some exceptions for licence reasons), though I use that also but mostly just for the "scrobbling" side. It's very revolutionary. I wouldn't be surprised if it's hitting piracy quite hard, and maybe CD sales too. Though I still like my CDs for stuff I'm serious about and rip them to lossless formats.

 

[tompa]

now its there for iphone! Overview - Spotify

...but when is it ready for mp?
/tompa

 

[hulkhaugen]

Nope, only for linux so far, just to keep them from hacking it. Is it launched in USA yet?

I think Spotify wants to come out of Beta before making/opening for 3rd party programs/plugins...

EDIT: Does anyone of you programmers out there know how to make a plugin for Wimp, as a alternative? It's basically the same as Spotify, maybe a bit more complex. It's based on Adobe Air, i don't know how to work with such software, just throwing it out there...

 

[doggedilo]

i think they want to keep it to their client, the user agreement for using their api almost makes it impossible for any of the opensource developers to use it.

 

[hulkhaugen]

in what way?

 

[maxx_nantes]

there is a plugin called mypostify (quoted before in this topic).
I think much more could be done about it.
It works perfectly (calling the official spotify app) but could be a bit sexier with, for exemple, a better skin management ability (if you want to listen to, for example, Muse - Showbiz album, I guess that a request to google image with muse+showbiz+cover would give you waht you're looking for and that such a request would work with any album form any artist).
It also lacks a real skin.

As I have no abilities either in C++ dev or in skinning, I guess I can only give advice

 

[craigbeat]

I started on a plugin for spotify last night that uses the newly released Metadata API for spotify. It's going to be very basic to start with, and will have the following sort of structure:
Search for and store artists that you like (at the moment I'm passing a list of pre-defined artists).
Whenever you go into an artist's details, it will get their most recent albums - I want to actually show all the albums for an artist without having to 'drill down' but spotify is limited to 10 queries per second from one IP address. I might change this so that it will load the cached albums, but update on a one-by-one basis - thoughts on this would be helpful.
Once you go into an album, another query is sent to spotify to return the track listing - again, this will be stored in a database.
You can then add tracks to a queue, and play them.

Please note: this whole method requires spotify to be running in the background, so it's not an ideal solution. The other problem is that the API does not return album covers yet, so I need a different solution.

Status: I only started it last night, but have got it to list albums from a pre-defined artist list within MediaPortal - a bit rubbish I know! Over the weekend, I'm going to try and get some time to do track listing and playing (no queue at this point). I'll take it from there!

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!