Spotify on the Linux command line

The Spotify Linux desktop client can easily be controlled from the command line through the standard messaging bus on Linux, DBUS.

Here are the commands I'm using. Of course, I've wrapped these in more user friendly BASH functions, which again I've hooked up to desktop shortcuts, but since you're likely to use a different desktop environment than I or you want to roll your own integration, these are the lower level commands that you need.

Happy listening! 𝅘𝅥𝅯

Toggle play/pause state

$ dbus-send \
    --print-reply \
    --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
    /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
    org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.PlayPause

Skip to the next song in the play list

$ dbus-send \
    --print-reply \
    --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
    /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
    org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Next

Play the previous song in the play list

$ dbus-send \
    --print-reply \
    --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
    /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
    org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Prev

Getting information about the current song

$ qdbus \
  --literal org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify \
  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
  org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
  org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player \
  Metadata