Spotify
On the box, Spotify plays in the display's browser, through Spotify's Web Playback SDK. For this you need a Spotify account and your own Spotify app o…
On the box, Spotify plays in the display's browser, through Spotify's Web Playback SDK. For this you need a Spotify account and your own Spotify app on developer.spotify.com. That sounds more involved than it is: a wizard guides you in five steps.
Setting up
Library › Spotify › Setup wizard:
| Step | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sign in at developer.spotify.com with your Spotify account and choose Create app |
| 2 | Enter the values shown into the Spotify app (App name, App description, Redirect URI; the Redirect URI can be copied with a button). Under the APIs tick “Web API” and “Web Playback SDK” |
| 3 | Enter Client ID and Client Secret from the Spotify app. They are under Settings there; View client secret shows the secret. Then Save and continue |
| 4 | Connect with Spotify: sign in at Spotify and agree, then you come back to the app. Then Next |
| 5 | optional: set the Playlist prefix and Turn on Smart Sync, or finish with Without Smart Sync (see below) |
Spotify keeps a sign-in valid for 6 months. The box reminds you 14 and 3 days before, in the app and via Telegram. Sign in again is on the Spotify page.
You can look at and change the credentials later under Library › Spotify › Credentials. You delete them completely on the Spotify page under Disconnect & reset › Reset access. The content in the library stays.
Adding content
Search on Spotify
Library › Search on Spotify: enter a search term, choose whether to search in All, Artist, Albums or Track, and choose the category under Add as. From the hits you add with ＋:
- an album,
- an artist: this creates an artist subscription, all episodes come onto the box, new ones later by themselves (Managing content),
- for a track the whole album it is on.
Paste link
Library › Paste link takes a Spotify address directly: album, playlist, artist, podcast or audiobook. As the Type you choose Spotify link. More fields:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Artist / name (optional) | your own name for the entry |
| Category | Audiobook, Music or Radio & podcasts |
| Cover and Artist cover (optional) | picture addresses, if Spotify's picture does not fit |
| Sort order | Default (podcasts: newest episode first, otherwise alphabetical), A–Z, Z–A, oldest or newest first |
| Shuffle | play the tracks in random order |
| Only a part of the episodes | e.g. only episodes 1 to 20 of a series, counted in the order of Spotify |
As a type there is also Spotify search: instead of a single album you save a search as an entry. The field is then called Search term. The box shows all albums found (at most 100) collected under one tile. You phrase the search with Spotify's search filters, for example:
artist:"Name of the series" AND album:"Episode"The field Tile name is required: that is what the tile is called on the display. With a second entry, such as artist:"Name of the series" AND album:"Volume", one artist gives two separate tiles.
Smart Sync: playlists onto the box automatically
With Smart Sync, Spotify playlists whose name begins with the playlist prefix land on the box automatically. Example: if the prefix is “MuPiBox”, all playlists that start like this, such as “MuPiBox Audiobooks”, appear without further action.
Under Library › Spotify › Sync settings you set:
- the Playlist prefix (preset with the box's name),
- the Sync interval: how often the box checks Spotify for changes, 5 to 60 minutes,
- whether Automatic sync is on. If it is off, there is no sync at all, not even by hand. The content on the box stays.
Save applies the values. While Smart Sync is on, Sync now on the Spotify page starts a sync at once.
The Spotify page also shows the playlists found and Conflicts: items that are already on the box by hand and are also in a playlist. Let sync manage it hands such an entry over to the sync.