Spotify is a great service! I have been using it for quite a while, but I felt that something was missing.
Winamp has been my main player for years and I got inspired to make a combination support thing with this application, here is what SpotiAmp is all about.
Features
- Global keyboard hotkeys to control play, stop, pause, next, previous, volume up/down and mute
- Mute commercials / ads. It comes with a price, read about below!
- Simple Webserver support, now Ajax-support
- Winamp WM_COMMAND / WM_WA_IPC support to let other applications (like girder) control Spotify
- Version 0.95 fixes bugs regarding the interface and have some new eye candy
Requirements
You must install Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package to use SpotiAmp (This also apply to Vista and Windows 7!)
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32-bit version (You need 32-bit, even if you have a 64-bit system. Spotiamp is a 32-bit software)
Download
Download html for webserver
The Ajax HTML shall be unpacked in the same directory as the Spotiamp.exe.
If you put Spotiamp.exe in the same directory as Spotify then the directory structure should look like this:
C:\Program Files\Spotify\Spotify.exe
C:\Program Files\Spotify\Uninstall.exe
C:\Program Files\Spotify\SpotiAmp.exe
C:\Program Files\Spotify\html\ <-- All files from ajaxhtml.zip here
Download old versions (v0.9 uses 2010 Redist, older 2008)
You must install Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package to use SpotiAmp v0.8 (This also apply to Vista and Windows 7!)
32-bit version
- Spotiamp v0.8 exe version
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Spotiamp v0.8 zip version
- SpotiAmp v0.5 – exe version
- SpotiAmp v0.5 – zipped version
Known limits:
1. It has been tested with Windows XP (SP3) and Windows 7. Vista suck and does not work quite right. Wine is NOT supported!
2. This version is confirmed working with Spotify v0.9.7.17 (Spotify updates itself each time you start it, you should check version, if you have trouble)
Global hotkeys, neat
You select the hotkey combination you like. Windows-key has also been added (made a new hotkey-ctrl for that silly button).
Should be pretty straight forward to configure, you’ll get an error if a combination already exists.
Mute commercials, wtf?
I know, but after hours of programming I got really, really, reeeeally tired of the commercials.
Audio commercials should be banned in my eyes, especially when Spotify actively pauses when you want to mute. This is your counter-measure, but remember it could easily be “fixed” by Spotify-crew if they want.
In the other end Spotify needs to live and royalties has to be paid. Just to nag you and not letting you forget that you don’t use premium a nag-screen has been implemented.
It looks like this:
(Note: If Spotify actively contacts me regarding this function, I will permanently remove the feature.)
Webserver support
Download the really simple html-page and extract it in the same where you have SpotiAmp.exe (desktop is not a good place for it, if you want to use webserver).
A really simple interface has been added, by requesting control.htm?[command] on the port the server is opened to a command is executed.
Here are the [command] alternatives: PREV, PLAY, NEXT, VOLUP, VOLDOWN and MUTE.
If the SpotiAmp works in Wine a simple wget should be able to execute commands on your Spotify 🙂 Perfect for HTPC computers who want to control Spotify a little.
The html look like shit and if you bother check out degeros version. Neat solution to grab the screen!
Winamp WM_COMMAND support
Many people have Girder or something similar together with a remote (or simular).
By adding a simple WM_COMMAND Winamp-style based IPC you’ll manage Spotify the same way as Winamp.
It fakes the Winamp v1.x window and you can use the PostCommand(::FindWindow(NULL, L”Winamp v1.x”), WM_COMMAND, NULL, WINAMP_BUTTON2) or simular.
Please check out Winamp developer site and download the SDK extract the WINAMPCMD.H and wa_ipc.h. Most functions are not supported, but you can control the basics.
Comments
If you have any comments regarding the release, please add it below.
HI,
It works fine, but could be possible change the app so when I minimized it, disappear from my task bar, and stay as a background aplicacion?
Hi Denis,
There is an option to minimize to tray in the settings menu 🙂
Regards. Lars
Is this updated still? Would it be possible to change playlists? Else it seems to work very well 🙂
Hi, it is not heavily updated, but it works as expected.
It does not change the playlists by command, but if there has been introduced keyboard shortcuts or simular it can be integrated.
Cheers, Lars
Hi again
I don’t use spotify that much lately,but when I do and I try using spotiamp I came across some annoying behaviour that keeps me from using spotiamp. Whenever an ad is playing, spotiamp is trying to mute it and now it is stuck in some endless loop, the name of the song is alternating with “paused”, spotify is paused and there’s no way out of it other than closing spotiamp and manually unmuting.
Thanks
Shay
Hi Shay,
It might be changes in the Spotify client, I dunno since I pay for premium.
Without running Spotiamp, try this while a commercial is running:
1. Press mute On in Windows
2. Notice that Spotify client automatically pauses the commercial.
3. Press play, without unmuting.
Here you can have 2 scenarios:
1. If the commercial still continues, the commercials.ini file is probably wrong.
Try to rename it to something else, and start collecting commercials again.
2. If it pauses again, the Spotify client have changed behaviour.
Please let me know what is the smallest volume it continues to play on…
-Lars
Thanks Lars
The behaviour of the client has not changed. I will try reseting the commercials.ini file.
I like SpotiAmp and use it all the time, but lately the commercials are using just an artist name with no title at all, and looks like SpotiAmp cannot deal with this.
Also – I’m using the french version of Spotify and SpotiAmp cannot deal with special letters (e.g letters with accents).
Is this possible to publish the source code? or even just restructure the software such that the whole regular expression match will be in its own DLL and publish this code?
Thanks in advance
Thank you for the feedback Shay.
Could you please send/paste me the commercials.ini file when it failes?
Also examples on the “special” characters, I think I might have forgotten some Unicode for handling the text?
What do I have to do to make it work with girder?
What do you want Girder todo with Spotiamp, send hotkeys?
Create a new command: Under “Keyboard” put in whatever hotkey combo SpotiAmp/Spotify uses.
can’t you upload a commercial.ini that includes all commercials that can be avoided for now?
Sorry no… I’m currently paying for Spotify and don’t use the commercial-part of the app anymore.
I guess adding Spotify* in both artist/song will mute a lot of crap 😉
Still no news abaout why it only mutes the left speakers on some systems?
I haven’t been able to reproduce the issue.
My suggestion is to update the sound drivers + SRS software since Spotiamp mutes the “master” channel. When master is muted no sound should be heard from any software.
The program can’t find the ‘MS Visual C++ 2008 SP1’ in Windows 7 x64.
Yes it’s installed.
I finally figured out how to fix the â??Could not find Visual C++ 2008 SP1 runtime files. â?¦â?.
I downloaded and installed this package http://wareinfo.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/visual-c-2008-runtime-files-sp1-mfc90dll-files/ and it’s working like a charm 🙂
It seems like its the same as the 32-bit version above.
Thank you siggvara, that did the trick!
No more “When did I add THAT song to my playlist” looking around, feeling embarresed “Oh, it’s just Justin Bieber commercial – phew” 😀
Thank you Lars Werner!
Any fixes for the muting of only the left speakers? If I click the mute button four times it mutes both sides, but it does not do it automatically.
Thanks for a very nice software.
I love you Lars, you make my computer life a lot easier.
Keep on rocking.
Thank you for this wonderful tool.
It works great on my desktop, but on my netbook I get the error message “Could not find Visual C++ 2008 SP1 runtime files. …” when I try to run.
I’ve installed and reinstalled the Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package several times but no luck. Seems like SpotiAmp is looking for the runtime files at the wrong location.
Any idea how to fix this?
Running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.
I guess my check routines for the x64 wasn’t good enough (didn’t have a x64 to test it on myselv).
Please run it in XP-mode and see if the problem goes away.
I’m running 64 bit on my desktop aswell (sorry for not mentioning it). The only difference is that this is Ultimate edition.
Tried it in both XP and Vista mode, but no luck.
I guess you have installed this: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=BA9257CA-337F-4B40-8C14-157CFDFFEE4E&pf=true
But what you can try is to install the x86 version using XP-mode: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=2051a0c1-c9b5-4b0a-a8f5-770a549fd78c&displaylang=en&pf=true
If that doesn’t work I’ll guess the VC++ redist-checker is going out of the window 😉
Yes thats the one I installed.
Could’t install the x86 (tried running that in xp mode aswell). Got message that it couldn’t install on my machine type.
So I guess it’s byebye VC++ redist-checker 😛
Har Spotify 0.4.3.426, WinXP, og SpotiAmp 0.8. Dell laptop med “IDT High Definition Audio Codec” og “SRS Premium Sound”.
Nei, forresten, den muter venstre, men ikke høyre.