Spotify Readme

A dynamic, customizable, and real-time Spotify now-playing widget for your README files that syncs with the song you’re currently playing. If you're not currently playing a song, it'll display one of your recent songs! Feel free to ask for help or make any PRs/issues/suggestions 😄

Previews

Default

/api

Spinning CD Effect

/api?spin=true

Include Scan Code

/api?scan=true

Rainbow Equalizer

/api?rainbow=true

Dark Theme

/api?theme=dark

Setup/Deployment

This will take approximately 5 minutes.

Note

This guide was last updated on Aug 30, 2023. The steps might differ slightly in the future if Spotify or Vercel updates their website interfaces.

0. Star This Repo (Mandatory) 🌟

• Yes, this step is required.

1. Spotify's API 🎶

• Head over to Spotify for Developers.
  • Accept the Terms of Service if necessary.
  • Verify your email address if you haven't done so already.
  • Click on the Create app button.
    • In the App name & App description fields, you may put whatever you want.
    • In the Redirect URI field, add http://localhost/callback/.
    • Agree with Spotify's TOS and click Save.
  • Click on the Settings button.
  • Take note of the Client ID & Client Secret.

2. Intermediary Steps 🛠️

https://accounts.spotify.com/authorize?client_id={CLIENT_ID}&response_type=code&scope=user-read-currently-playing,user-read-recently-played&redirect_uri=http://localhost/callback/

• Copy and paste the above link into your browser.

  • Replace {CLIENT_ID} with the Client ID you got from your Spotify application.
  • Vist the URL.
    • Log in if you're not already signed in.
    • Click Agree.

• After you get redirected to a blank page, retrieve the URL from your browser's URL bar. It should be in the following format: http://localhost/callback/?code={CODE}.

  • Take note of the {CODE} portion of the URL.

• Head over to base64.io.

  • Create a string in the form of {CLIENT_ID}:{CLIENT_SECRET} and encode it to base 64.
  • Take note of the encoded Base64 string. We'll call this {BASE_64}.

• If you're on Windows or don't have the curl command, head over to httpie.io/cli/run.

  • Press enter.
  • Clear the pre-filled command.

• If you're on Linux or Mac with the curl command, open up your preferred terminal.

• Run the following command (replace {BASE_64} and {CODE} with their respective values):

  curl \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
    -H "Authorization: Basic {BASE_64}" \
    -d "grant_type=authorization_code&redirect_uri=http://localhost/callback/&code={CODE}" \
    https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token

• If you did everything correctly, you should get a response in the form of a JSON object.

  • Take note of the refresh_token's value. We'll call this {REFRESH_TOKEN}.

3. Host on Vercel 🌀

• Fork this repository.
• Head over to Vercel and create an account if you don't already have one.
  • Add a new project.
    • Link your GitHub account if you haven't done so already.
    • Make sure Vercel has access to the forked respository.
    • Import the forked respository into your project.
      • Give it a meaningful project name.
      • Keep the default options for the other settings.
      • Add the following environment variables along with their appropriate values:
        • CLIENT_ID ⇒ {CLIENT_ID}.
        • CLIENT_SECRET ⇒ {CLIENT_SECRET}.
        • REFRESH_TOKEN ⇒ {REFRESH_TOKEN}.
      • Click Deploy.
      • Click Continue to Dashboard.
        • Find the Domains field and take note of the URL.
          • Example: {PROJECT_NAME}.vercel.app.

4. Add to your GitHub 🚀

• In any markdown file, add the following (replace {PROJECT_NAME} with the name you gave your Vercel project):

  <a href="https://github.com/tthn0/Spotify-Readme">
    <img src="https://{PROJECT_NAME}.vercel.app/api" alt="Current Spotify Song">
  </a>

• Please leave the anchor tag hyperlink reference to this GitHub repo to retain creator credit and for other users to find!

Customization

To customize the widget, add query parameters to the endpoint. There are many possible combinations! See how it pairs with other widgets on my own README! (If you're on mobile and have a small screen, use a desktop browser or change the zoom level to zoom out.)

Parameter	Default	Values
spin	false	false, true
scan	false	false, true
theme	light	light, dark
rainbow	false	false, true

Keep Your Fork Up To Date

You can keep your fork, and thus your private Vercel instance up to date with the upstream using GitHub's Sync Fork button.

Note

This wasn't a completely original idea. This was inspired by novatorem's project that was supposed to be for me only. Since others have asked for the source code, I decided to make this a public repo. I also incorporated the latest two PR's from the orignal project into this one and made it easy to customize!