4 ms·

Show HN: JavaScript implementation of Spotify client (Chrome only)

68 points by EmielMols 15y ago

mikemaccana 15y ago
Pauses on 'Connecting...'. Chrome 11, OS X 10.6. Spotify premium account. Console log is: main: stack state changed => keygen all.js:122session: generating keys all.js:123session: generated keys all.js:157main: stack state changed => connecting all.js:111protocol: connecting to 195.211.73.201
- EmielMols 15y ago
  Hmm, that's weird. Second attempt also fails? For me it's still working.
- augustl 15y ago
  For the record, this also happens to me.
thisisblurry 15y ago
Since I live in the US, how about some screenshots?
- EmielMols 15y ago
  Thanks for your interest. Trying to sustain the traffic now, but I'll upload some screenshots ASAP. Concerning look&feel it's close to the original client.
  - balac 15y ago
    which he has probably never seen because he lives in the US :) Great work though, it would be awesome to have a browser based spotify client!
    - SanjayUttam 15y ago
      Unless he used a proxy...(picky, sorry, couldn't help it)
udp 15y ago
It's a shame this doesn't work for unlimited accounts. You'd have thought they wouldn't mind that, since unlimited has no ads either.
- EmielMols 15y ago
  Agreed. I can't do anything about it though :-( This is a Spotify policy decision.
- gregschlom 15y ago
  It kind of makes sense since the main difference between premium and unlimited accounts is that unlimited cannot play on mobile. If their API was open for unlimited accounts, anyone could make own mobile clients, bypassing the restriction.
  - udp 15y ago
    Ah, good point! I didn't think about that.
brodd 15y ago
Why would anyone post their credentials to a site like this? It doesn't matter what the disclaimer says, I've got my credit card connected to my account. Also, the domain name (spotifyontheweb.com) is registered trough privacyprotect.org.
brugidou 15y ago
too bad it doesn't work behind a firewall... real nice work though :) any idea if there's a way to use ports 80 or 443? I guess we need to ask spotify for that right?
petervandijck 15y ago
If you're looking for work you should let people in without having to provide credentials that they may not have. (ie. I'm hiring and would like to see this but don't have Spotify credentials)
- EmielMols 15y ago
  It's not about the interface. It's about the technology behind it which can only be showcased by actually using it.
- estel 15y ago
  That's pretty hard to do though: providing valid demo Spotify Premium details would be just the sort of breach of TOS that would cause spotify to come down on the site like a tonne of bricks; and non-real Spotify Premium details would be almost entirely pointless (the underlying library requires valid credentials to do anything).
estel 15y ago
I'm getting "Internal error message: Socket io error: Error #2031", which I'm guessing is a result of high traffic? Edit: nevermind, stopped now. Might have been because I had the real client open?
- estel 15y ago
  Though I do keep getting "The Spotify Updater is trying to install the update, but didn't succeed The error message is: The system cannot find the file specified. (2)" From the actual application? In what way does the app interact to cause this?
  - EmielMols 15y ago
    Sorry, I had some issues with the traffic.. but that's now fixed. Spotify is updating right now, so that might explain the error.
pclark 15y ago
"Internal error message: Socket io error: Error #2031" I have a premium account
- EmielMols 15y ago
  Sorry, there were some traffic issues. Fixed now!
robin_reala 15y ago
What tech does this use that makes it Chrome only?
- justincormack 15y ago
  Lack of ogg support would rule out Safari. Not sure what Opera and Firefox are missing.
citricsquid 15y ago
I just signed up to Spotify premium to try this, excellent work! It would be nice to see Spotify launch an official web based client.
- EmielMols 15y ago
  Thanks for the kind words!
cleverjake 15y ago
Works wonderfully for me =] will the source be forthcoming?
daleharvey 15y ago
this half worked for me on the first attempt, not on the second, I pray to god that spotify pay you lots of money and you go make this official because it would be an awesome addition to spotify
ivh 15y ago
I have Spotify Premium and this works for me. Well done! Also just wrote feedback to Spotify to hire the maker and expand the web-client.
kilian 15y ago
Very cool, though if I was you, I'd put the "please don't use it for listening" somewhere more prominent and save yourself a lot of money ;) Streaming is very fast. What are you planning to do next?
chris_j 15y ago
For anyone in the UK, I recommend trying we7 (http://www.we7.com/ http://www.we7.com/) which is a similar service to Spotify and which which already has a web client.
- JCB_K 15y ago
  It's not really similar at all. This is just another web radio service, whereas on Spotify you can listen whatever you want. Also, the UI is horrendous.
  - chris_j 15y ago
    That's not correct. We7 isn't just another web radio service. It absolutely is a service where you can listen to whatever you want, with a fairly decent selection of (major label) tracks. The major advantage over Spotify up until now has been the fact that it has a web interface, although I do take your point that the UI is pretty horrendous.
- nickbarnwell 15y ago
  Why would they use something that's similar to Spotify when they could use Spotify? The number of times I'm on someone else's computer and go "Oh, I'd really like to listen to some super obscure track not already on my MP3 player/smartphone/Kindle/what-have-you" are virtually nil, and competitors lack the huge selection of music that Spotify has.
guruz 15y ago
Works very fine for me here from Norway :) Congrats.. :)
nubela 15y ago
how bout having the interface with grooveshark's APIs?
snissn 15y ago
Can somebody post screenshots etc, for the poor souls that don't have the capacity to try this out? edit: via @emiel (author's twitter) http://t.co/qE0s5hm http://t.co/qE0s5hm
patrickaljord 15y ago
> US visitor, no Chrome or no Premium? Screenshot Thanks, because Canada, Asia, Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia do not have internet access ;)

68 points by EmielMols 15y ago

Pauses on 'Connecting...'. Chrome 11, OS X 10.6. Spotify premium account. Console log is: main: stack state changed => keygen all.js:122session: generating keys all.js:123session: generated keys all.js:157main: stack state changed => connecting all.js:111protocol: connecting to 195.211.73.201

EmielMols 15y ago
Hmm, that's weird. Second attempt also fails? For me it's still working.
augustl 15y ago
For the record, this also happens to me.

thisisblurry 15y ago

Since I live in the US, how about some screenshots?

EmielMols 15y ago
Thanks for your interest. Trying to sustain the traffic now, but I'll upload some screenshots ASAP. Concerning look&feel it's close to the original client.
- balac 15y ago
  which he has probably never seen because he lives in the US :) Great work though, it would be awesome to have a browser based spotify client!
  - SanjayUttam 15y ago
    Unless he used a proxy...(picky, sorry, couldn't help it)

udp 15y ago

It's a shame this doesn't work for unlimited accounts. You'd have thought they wouldn't mind that, since unlimited has no ads either.

EmielMols 15y ago
Agreed. I can't do anything about it though :-( This is a Spotify policy decision.
gregschlom 15y ago
It kind of makes sense since the main difference between premium and unlimited accounts is that unlimited cannot play on mobile. If their API was open for unlimited accounts, anyone could make own mobile clients, bypassing the restriction.
- udp 15y ago
  Ah, good point! I didn't think about that.

brodd 15y ago

Why would anyone post their credentials to a site like this? It doesn't matter what the disclaimer says, I've got my credit card connected to my account. Also, the domain name (spotifyontheweb.com) is registered trough privacyprotect.org.

brugidou 15y ago

too bad it doesn't work behind a firewall... real nice work though :) any idea if there's a way to use ports 80 or 443? I guess we need to ask spotify for that right?

petervandijck 15y ago

If you're looking for work you should let people in without having to provide credentials that they may not have. (ie. I'm hiring and would like to see this but don't have Spotify credentials)

EmielMols 15y ago
It's not about the interface. It's about the technology behind it which can only be showcased by actually using it.
estel 15y ago
That's pretty hard to do though: providing valid demo Spotify Premium details would be just the sort of breach of TOS that would cause spotify to come down on the site like a tonne of bricks; and non-real Spotify Premium details would be almost entirely pointless (the underlying library requires valid credentials to do anything).

estel 15y ago

I'm getting "Internal error message: Socket io error: Error #2031", which I'm guessing is a result of high traffic? Edit: nevermind, stopped now. Might have been because I had the real client open?

estel 15y ago
Though I do keep getting "The Spotify Updater is trying to install the update, but didn't succeed The error message is: The system cannot find the file specified. (2)" From the actual application? In what way does the app interact to cause this?
- EmielMols 15y ago
  Sorry, I had some issues with the traffic.. but that's now fixed. Spotify is updating right now, so that might explain the error.

pclark 15y ago

"Internal error message: Socket io error: Error #2031" I have a premium account

EmielMols 15y ago
Sorry, there were some traffic issues. Fixed now!

robin_reala 15y ago

What tech does this use that makes it Chrome only?

justincormack 15y ago
Lack of ogg support would rule out Safari. Not sure what Opera and Firefox are missing.

citricsquid 15y ago

I just signed up to Spotify premium to try this, excellent work! It would be nice to see Spotify launch an official web based client.

EmielMols 15y ago
Thanks for the kind words!

cleverjake 15y ago

Works wonderfully for me =] will the source be forthcoming?

daleharvey 15y ago

this half worked for me on the first attempt, not on the second, I pray to god that spotify pay you lots of money and you go make this official because it would be an awesome addition to spotify

ivh 15y ago

I have Spotify Premium and this works for me. Well done! Also just wrote feedback to Spotify to hire the maker and expand the web-client.

kilian 15y ago

Very cool, though if I was you, I'd put the "please don't use it for listening" somewhere more prominent and save yourself a lot of money ;) Streaming is very fast. What are you planning to do next?

chris_j 15y ago

For anyone in the UK, I recommend trying we7 (http://www.we7.com/ http://www.we7.com/) which is a similar service to Spotify and which which already has a web client.

JCB_K 15y ago
It's not really similar at all. This is just another web radio service, whereas on Spotify you can listen whatever you want. Also, the UI is horrendous.
- chris_j 15y ago
  That's not correct. We7 isn't just another web radio service. It absolutely is a service where you can listen to whatever you want, with a fairly decent selection of (major label) tracks. The major advantage over Spotify up until now has been the fact that it has a web interface, although I do take your point that the UI is pretty horrendous.
nickbarnwell 15y ago
Why would they use something that's similar to Spotify when they could use Spotify? The number of times I'm on someone else's computer and go "Oh, I'd really like to listen to some super obscure track not already on my MP3 player/smartphone/Kindle/what-have-you" are virtually nil, and competitors lack the huge selection of music that Spotify has.

guruz 15y ago

Works very fine for me here from Norway :) Congrats.. :)

nubela 15y ago

how bout having the interface with grooveshark's APIs?

snissn 15y ago

Can somebody post screenshots etc, for the poor souls that don't have the capacity to try this out? edit: via @emiel (author's twitter) http://t.co/qE0s5hm http://t.co/qE0s5hm

patrickaljord 15y ago

> US visitor, no Chrome or no Premium? Screenshot Thanks, because Canada, Asia, Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia do not have internet access ;)