Are there commands to control the Spotify for Linux preview? (e.g. Pause)?

Question

I am trying to be able to play, pause, chose next track or previous track from command line, but unfortunately no one seems to know how to do this (I have goggled repeatedly). I need it to be a command so that I can use it with blue proximity, so pause when I walk away. Are there any commands for this?

score 18 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 11 '17 at 00:25

The Spotify client has supported the MPRIS2 DBUS specification for ~4 years. Simply put this means most media remote controls should be able to control it.

If you need command-line access, you can talk to it directly over DBUS. Here's an example I stole from Fran Diéguez:

dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Pause

For more commands, see the MPRIS2 Player specifications.

score 9 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 30 '15 at 12:01

9

The following command works for me (Play or Pause):

qdbus org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.PlayPause

edited Oct 30 '15 at 12:01

Community

1

answered May 26 '15 at 23:04

guymac

191

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 11 '18 at 09:56

DBus commands for controlling spotify (from here), working for me on 17.10:

Play

dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Play

Pause

dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Pause

Play/Pause toggle

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

Are there commands to control the Spotify for Linux preview? (e.g. Pause)?

4 Answers4

Play

Pause

Play/Pause toggle

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Next

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