Connecting SimplePlay2000 to Spotify
Companion to Unit 13 in the in-app Learning Companion · Publisher: SimplePlay2000 Ltd.
What SimplePlay2000 does — and does not do
- SimplePlay2000 is a generic remote control. It sends commands — play, pause, skip, and edits to your own playlists — to the Spotify application running on your computer. Spotify delivers and plays every track.
- No Spotify audio passes through SimplePlay2000. The sound you hear comes from Spotify exactly as Spotify sends it, directly to the OS output. SimplePlay2000's own trim, fades, per-cue volume and track controls cannot be applied to Spotify tracks — and neither can device routing (ST / A1 / A2). There is no audio here for us to route.
- We possess only what the API grants. SimplePlay2000 can do exactly what Spotify’s Web API allows, and no more. The transport can be assigned to MIDI pads; individual Spotify tracks cannot — they live in your Spotify account, not in your show file, so a pad bound to one would point at nothing the next time you opened the app.
- SimplePlay2000 does not host, store, supply or license any music. It holds no catalogue and serves no content.
- Your use of Spotify is between you and Spotify AB, under Spotify's own terms of use. What you may play, in which territories, and under what conditions — including any public-performance licensing your venue or event requires — is governed by that agreement, not by SimplePlay2000.
- Your credentials stay yours. You create your own Spotify developer app and sign in on Spotify's own site in your own browser. SimplePlay2000 never sees or stores your Spotify password. There are short instructions on how to do this below.
SimplePlay2000 works with your playlists
SimplePlay2000 plays and edits the playlists on your Spotify account — the ones you created. A playlist made by someone else, or generated by Spotify itself, will not open here: Spotify does not share those contents with other applications, and SimplePlay2000 shows them in red with the owner's name so you know before you click.
You can still build whatever you like from what you find. Search the full Spotify catalogue, drag any song into a playlist of your own, and that list is yours to run, reorder and edit from within SimplePlay2000. The rule is simple: your playlists, your control.
If you start something in Spotify that did not come from one of your playlists — a radio, a mix, an album someone sent you — SimplePlay2000's transport still drives it: play, pause, skip and scrub all work. What it cannot do is show you the list it came from. The only lists it can see and change are your own saved playlists.
A Spotify Premium subscription is not included with SimplePlay2000
Controlling playback from another application requires a paid Spotify Premium account. That subscription is purchased from Spotify, billed by Spotify, and is entirely separate from your SimplePlay2000 licence. Nothing about buying, renewing or holding a SimplePlay2000 licence includes, discounts, extends or otherwise affects a Spotify subscription. Two products, two accounts, two renewals.
What you need before you start
- A Spotify Premium account. Premium is required for this functionality.
- About five minutes on Spotify's developer site to create a free app. The app costs nothing and is separate from your Premium subscription. It's simple, FREE, and pretty easy with the instructions below.
- Somewhere for Spotify to actually play — the Spotify desktop app, or the web player at open.spotify.com — signed in with the same account. That is what plays the music. Spotify has to be playing a track there before SimplePlay2000 can pick it up.
Setup, step by step
-
Sign in and get to the dashboard
This takes a few hops, and Spotify doesn't land you on the dashboard at the end of them — so here's the whole path:
- Open developer.spotify.com/dashboard
- You arrive at a sign-in page, not the dashboard. Sign in using the email address your Spotify account uses — the Premium one you run shows on. It has to be that exact address, not another one you own, because that's the account Spotify looks up.
- Spotify emails you a security code. Open your email and fetch it.
- Type the code in.
- You land on a home page — still not the dashboard.
- Open developer.spotify.com/dashboard again to arrive there.
It's your normal Spotify login throughout; there's no separate developer account to create. Once you're signed in, the dashboard opens straight away every time after this.
-
Press “Create app”
Give it any App name and App description you like. Something like “SimplePlay2000” makes it easy to recognise later in your account's Apps list.
-
Add the Redirect URI — exactly this
In the Redirect URIs field, enter the address below and press Add so it appears as a row:
-
Tick “Web API”, accept the terms, Save
Under Which API/SDKs are you planning to use? tick Web API only. Accept Spotify's Developer Terms of Service and press Save. None of the other check boxes are needed.
-
Copy the Client ID
Open the app you just created. The Client ID is a 32-character code — copy it. You will also see a Client Secret: SimplePlay2000 never needs it, so leave it alone and do not share it with anyone.
-
Paste it into SimplePlay2000
In SimplePlay2000, open the Sys tab in the side panel on the right and press the Spotify button. Paste the Client ID into the field and press Enter.
-
Press Connect
Your web browser opens at Spotify's own sign-in page. Approve there, and the page will tell you to return to SimplePlay2000. The panel should now read Connected as ⟨your name⟩ with a Premium badge beside it.
-
Open Spotify on this computer
Start Spotify and sign in with the same account — the desktop app and the web player both work. It is what actually plays the music, so it has to be running for anything to be heard.
One more critical detail: Spotify has to be playing a track in the Spotify app before SimplePlay2000 can pick it up. Press play in Spotify once, and the window finds it.
From then on it is treated like one of the family — like any other source you run. Fire a cue and DIVA pauses Spotify exactly as it would pause a playlist track; in DUET they share the air. The one pill in the top bar governs cues, playlist and Spotify alike.
If something doesn't work
- “Not Premium”. The account connected, but Spotify reports it as a free account. Browsing and playlist editing still work; playback control will not until that account holds Premium.
- The browser never comes back. Two usual causes: the Redirect URI doesn't match http://127.0.0.1:8888/callback exactly, or another program is using port 8888. SimplePlay2000 names which one it hit.
- Spotify says it's rate-limiting. Spotify caps how much any one application may ask for. Hit the cap and the Spotify window pauses until the wait it names has passed — usually minutes, longer after heavy use. Nothing is broken and nothing is lost, and the Web Player strip in the PLAYLIST section still controls Spotify meanwhile: it works through your computer's own media controls rather than this web service, so the cap doesn't reach it.
- A playlist won't open. Spotify does not share the contents of playlists created by Spotify itself or by other applications. Playlists you created open normally; others show in red with the owner's name.
- Nothing plays. Spotify has to be running somewhere — desktop app or web player — for playback to have a destination. SimplePlay2000 shows a notice above the transport when it can't find one.
Turning it off
Disconnect in the Sys tab clears the stored credential from that computer. You can also revoke SimplePlay2000's access entirely at any time from the Apps page in your Spotify account settings. The permission is yours, and it stays yours to withdraw from either end.
More detail inside the app
The in-app Learning Companion covers the Spotify window in full — Unit 13 — including the Spot tab, building playlists, the transport, and how Spotify fits with DIVA and DUET. Open it from Sys → Learning Companion!