6 ms·

Show HN: Lofi, a Tiny Spotify Player

73 points by dvt 4y ago

dankwizard 4y ago
Python 2 is an interesting choice
- hbcondo714 4y ago
  Maybe because the initial commit was in January 2019: https://github.com/dvx/lofi/commit/caf81d949d4c7d5177507139fca2f8ac5fc0207a https://github.com/dvx/lofi/commit/caf81d949d4c7d5177507139f...
  - zihotki 4y ago
    It was an interesting choice even in 2019. Python 2 was sunset on January 1, 2020.
  - naavis 4y ago
    Python 3 came out in 2008.
  - KeplerBoy 4y ago
    Python 2 was an odd choice 4 years ago.
- arrakeen 4y ago
  it appears to be a node application with the python2 dependency inexplicably being needed for some sort of node FFI build tool
- explodingcamera 4y ago
  I think the Python 2 requirement is just a mistake in the README, I'm pretty sure the node-gyp version they're using only supports python 3.
rohan_ 4y ago
This is like the winamp mini player
- 7e 4y ago
  I came here to drop the same comment.
- rob74 4y ago
  However WinAmp had a slightly smaller memory footprint...
- sanitycheck 4y ago
  WinAmp is currently using... 28MB. This is an Electron app which requires another Electron app to be running at the same time. What a time to be alive.
  - notpushkin 4y ago
    28 MB? For two Electron apps? This seems off by at least one decimal place.
    - sanitycheck 4y ago
      No no... Winamp is 28MB. "This" refers to the Spotify thing at the top of the page, which I have not tried!
      - pmlnr 4y ago
        28MB? Damn it got bloated.
MrGilbert 4y ago
This project is really cool! It's kinda unfortunate that there is still no real replacement for libspotify on Windows, and that you have to have the desktop application installed and running.
- master-lincoln 4y ago
  That's why I would rather call this tool a Spotify desktop remote control than a player...
  - arlcode 4y ago
    I am using the Spotify integration for home assistant, an IKEA ZigBee remote and a Chromecast for the actual playback. Works like a charm
  - MrGilbert 4y ago
    Yes, I agree. Doesn’t make it less cool, though. I would love to see a port of librespot for Windows, but my guess is that Spotify tolerates librespot, because it’s only available for *nix.
    - nsteel 4y ago
      Librespot should work under Windows. There's multiple audio backends available, some are platform specific. > We recently switched to using Rodio for audio playback by default, hence for macOS and Windows, you should just be able to clone and build librespot (with the command below). The "recently" above was ~4 years ago! https://github.com/librespot-org/librespot#readme https://github.com/librespot-org/librespot#readme
yzdbgd 4y ago
This is really cool ! I built a self hosted Spotify alternative a while back. The idea was to be able to listed to your own music from anywhere with most of the useful features of Spotify. https://github.com/yzdbg/dstream https://github.com/yzdbg/dstream
notpushkin 4y ago
This is neat! One note: for loopback on macOS, instead of iShowU Audio Capture Device, one could also use BlackHole, which is open source: https://github.com/ExistentialAudio/BlackHole https://github.com/ExistentialAudio/BlackHole And can be installed with brew: brew install blackhole-2ch
rob74 4y ago
Totally unrelated: why is the "bug" emoji a caterpillar (https://emojipedia.org/bug/ https://emojipedia.org/bug/)? Ok, you could say all insects (including preliminary stages) can be called bugs, but if you did a poll, probably most would imagine a bug as a beetle or a "true bug" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemiptera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemiptera)...
- myfonj 4y ago
  +1. There's even "beetle" [0.a], "cockroach" [0.b] and "fly" [0.c] emoji in the Unicode, that are way closer to what I envision as a "software bug" than caterpillars, centipedes (!)[2.c] and even slugs (!!)[1.a] that are used to represent the "bug" you've linked [1]. And yes, technically it should be a moth [2], probably (?). [0.a] https://emojipedia.org/beetle/ https://emojipedia.org/beetle/ [0.b] https://emojipedia.org/cockroach/ https://emojipedia.org/cockroach/ [0.c] https://emojipedia.org/fly/ https://emojipedia.org/fly/ [1] https://emojipedia.org/bug/ https://emojipedia.org/bug/ [1.a] https://emojipedia.org/mozilla/firefox-os-2.5/bug/ https://emojipedia.org/mozilla/firefox-os-2.5/bug/ [2] https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/worlds-first-computer-bug/ https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/worlds-fir...
- Ansik 4y ago
  I usually check http://scrumoji.org http://scrumoji.org for some inspiration, there the caterpillar is used for bug so might be the source for some others too!
  - zichy 4y ago
    At a previous job we used https://gitmoji.dev https://gitmoji.dev, which scrumoji is based on. At some point I started using the ladybug emoji for bugs because it's actually a bug while my colleagues kept using the caterpillar emoji because they preferred caterpillars. I thought it was a nice way to bring some individuality into our commit messages!
- anotherhue 4y ago
  "An inordinate fondness for beetles." A possibly apocryphal reply to theologians who inquired if there was anything that could be concluded about the Creator from the study of creation; as described in "Homage to Santa Rosalia, or why are there so many kinds of animals" by G. Evelyn Hutchinson in American Naturalist (May-June 1959); This alludes to the fact that there are more types of beetles than any other form of insect, and more insects than any other kind of animal. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
app4soft 4y ago
> a Tiny Spotify Player Grab 80 Mbytes binary.[0] [0] https://github.com/dvx/lofi/releases/tag/v1.6.1 https://github.com/dvx/lofi/releases/tag/v1.6.1
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- bobsmooth 4y ago
  Tiny in size, not footprint.
  - app4soft 4y ago
    In readme[0] small footprint named as an advantage instead: > Design goals > ≤ 100MB memory footprint [0] https://github.com/dvx/lofi#design-goals https://github.com/dvx/lofi#design-goals
    - rob 4y ago
      So they met their stated design goal?
    - JasonFruit 4y ago
      I remember when Puppy Linux's (on-disk) size limit was 50MB. There's a reason you don't use, "Is it tiny?" in twenty questions.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- skrebbel 4y ago
  Cone on, the page makes it clear that “tiny” refers to the size and scope of the UI.
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  Ah it's a JS app because of course it is. (don't hate me please, I write JS for a living and I need this job <_<)
bartislartfast 4y ago
I was hoping for something tiny in resources, not just window size. I miss Billy - https://www.sheepfriends.com/index-page=billy.html https://www.sheepfriends.com/index-page=billy.html I really wish we could see a low-resource-usage development movement akin to the lofi / retro gaming trend (playdate etc) . I have MS Office 2003 installed on my thinkpad and it starts instantly. It's very satisfying. I feel like apps just grow and grow in size and memory usage to match the average spec of machine instead of being truly thrifty
password4321 4y ago
Psst: Fast Spotify client with native GUI, without Electron, built in Rust https://github.com/jpochyla/psst https://github.com/jpochyla/psst 20210816 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654
- jnovek 4y ago
  Psst seems to be missing a lot of basic functionality at this point. E.g. you can't reorder albums, they are presented in the order they were added to your library. It's promising but I can't see myself using it day-to-day in its current state. I wish there was a mature, non-Electron Spotify client that worked in Linux. I just use the web because the official Linux client is so flaky.
  - password4321 4y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654#28207594 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654#28207594 > https://github.com/hrkfdn/ncspot https://github.com/hrkfdn/ncspot https://github.com/Rigellute/spotify-tui https://github.com/Rigellute/spotify-tui https://github.com/xou816/spot https://github.com/xou816/spot https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654&p=2#28206619 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654&p=2#28206619 > macOs … https://github.com/toothbrush/Spotiqueue https://github.com/toothbrush/Spotiqueue
    - shaunsingh0207 4y ago
      Spotify-tui is the only one that implements connect functionality, and even then it doesn't have the extended auto-mixes that spotify plays when you're playlist ends. I'm glad there are options for alternative native clients, but none of them are anywhere near feature parity with the official client
  - Cthulhu_ 4y ago
    > Very early in development, lacking in features, stability, and general user experience.
- 4y ago
chaorace 4y ago
As a Linux user, I've given up on alternative Spotify clients. The official client sucks... but at least it works consistently and has full feature support. Instead of replacing it, I've resolved to minimize my interaction with the client as much as possible via rofi[1] and media shortcuts. [1]: https://github.com/davidborzek/spofi https://github.com/davidborzek/spofi
- ad-astra 4y ago
  What about the web client?
pmlnr 4y ago
> To build, you'll need node-gyp, a compatible Python version (2.x) ...
senko 4y ago
From the FAQ: > For Lofi to show currently playing tracks, Spotify needs to be actually running! Start playing something in Spotify (you can minimize the app afterwards) and Lofi should work as expected. So it's a visualizer, not a player. Can it work without having the Spotify app running? I'm currently using librespot on my headless rpi acting as a spotify-enabled speaker but sometimes it has sync errors, so I'm in the market for alternative tiny players.
- nsteel 4y ago
  What's a sync error in this context ?
  - senko 4y ago
    Devices/apps not being able to see each other or hand off playback reliably (mostly works but sometimes I meed to restart the rpi client). As opposed to playback, once it's playing, it's smooth, no complaint there.
ctvo 4y ago
The Germans need to help us come up with a word for that feeling when you click on a project expecting to use it only to find it's another Electron type application and click back disappointed.

73 points by dvt 4y ago

dankwizard 4y ago

Python 2 is an interesting choice

hbcondo714 4y ago
Maybe because the initial commit was in January 2019: https://github.com/dvx/lofi/commit/caf81d949d4c7d5177507139fca2f8ac5fc0207a https://github.com/dvx/lofi/commit/caf81d949d4c7d5177507139f...
- zihotki 4y ago
  It was an interesting choice even in 2019. Python 2 was sunset on January 1, 2020.
- naavis 4y ago
  Python 3 came out in 2008.
- KeplerBoy 4y ago
  Python 2 was an odd choice 4 years ago.
arrakeen 4y ago
it appears to be a node application with the python2 dependency inexplicably being needed for some sort of node FFI build tool
explodingcamera 4y ago
I think the Python 2 requirement is just a mistake in the README, I'm pretty sure the node-gyp version they're using only supports python 3.

rohan_ 4y ago

This is like the winamp mini player

7e 4y ago
I came here to drop the same comment.
rob74 4y ago
However WinAmp had a slightly smaller memory footprint...
sanitycheck 4y ago
WinAmp is currently using... 28MB. This is an Electron app which requires another Electron app to be running at the same time. What a time to be alive.
- notpushkin 4y ago
  28 MB? For two Electron apps? This seems off by at least one decimal place.
  - sanitycheck 4y ago
    No no... Winamp is 28MB. "This" refers to the Spotify thing at the top of the page, which I have not tried!
    - pmlnr 4y ago
      28MB? Damn it got bloated.

MrGilbert 4y ago

This project is really cool! It's kinda unfortunate that there is still no real replacement for libspotify on Windows, and that you have to have the desktop application installed and running.

master-lincoln 4y ago
That's why I would rather call this tool a Spotify desktop remote control than a player...
- arlcode 4y ago
  I am using the Spotify integration for home assistant, an IKEA ZigBee remote and a Chromecast for the actual playback. Works like a charm
- MrGilbert 4y ago
  Yes, I agree. Doesn’t make it less cool, though. I would love to see a port of librespot for Windows, but my guess is that Spotify tolerates librespot, because it’s only available for *nix.
  - nsteel 4y ago
    Librespot should work under Windows. There's multiple audio backends available, some are platform specific. > We recently switched to using Rodio for audio playback by default, hence for macOS and Windows, you should just be able to clone and build librespot (with the command below). The "recently" above was ~4 years ago! https://github.com/librespot-org/librespot#readme https://github.com/librespot-org/librespot#readme

yzdbgd 4y ago

This is really cool ! I built a self hosted Spotify alternative a while back. The idea was to be able to listed to your own music from anywhere with most of the useful features of Spotify. https://github.com/yzdbg/dstream https://github.com/yzdbg/dstream

notpushkin 4y ago

This is neat! One note: for loopback on macOS, instead of iShowU Audio Capture Device, one could also use BlackHole, which is open source: https://github.com/ExistentialAudio/BlackHole https://github.com/ExistentialAudio/BlackHole And can be installed with brew: brew install blackhole-2ch

rob74 4y ago

Totally unrelated: why is the "bug" emoji a caterpillar (https://emojipedia.org/bug/ https://emojipedia.org/bug/)? Ok, you could say all insects (including preliminary stages) can be called bugs, but if you did a poll, probably most would imagine a bug as a beetle or a "true bug" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemiptera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemiptera)...

myfonj 4y ago
+1. There's even "beetle" [0.a], "cockroach" [0.b] and "fly" [0.c] emoji in the Unicode, that are way closer to what I envision as a "software bug" than caterpillars, centipedes (!)[2.c] and even slugs (!!)[1.a] that are used to represent the "bug" you've linked [1]. And yes, technically it should be a moth [2], probably (?). [0.a] https://emojipedia.org/beetle/ https://emojipedia.org/beetle/ [0.b] https://emojipedia.org/cockroach/ https://emojipedia.org/cockroach/ [0.c] https://emojipedia.org/fly/ https://emojipedia.org/fly/ [1] https://emojipedia.org/bug/ https://emojipedia.org/bug/ [1.a] https://emojipedia.org/mozilla/firefox-os-2.5/bug/ https://emojipedia.org/mozilla/firefox-os-2.5/bug/ [2] https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/worlds-first-computer-bug/ https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/worlds-fir...
Ansik 4y ago
I usually check http://scrumoji.org http://scrumoji.org for some inspiration, there the caterpillar is used for bug so might be the source for some others too!
- zichy 4y ago
  At a previous job we used https://gitmoji.dev https://gitmoji.dev, which scrumoji is based on. At some point I started using the ladybug emoji for bugs because it's actually a bug while my colleagues kept using the caterpillar emoji because they preferred caterpillars. I thought it was a nice way to bring some individuality into our commit messages!
anotherhue 4y ago
"An inordinate fondness for beetles." A possibly apocryphal reply to theologians who inquired if there was anything that could be concluded about the Creator from the study of creation; as described in "Homage to Santa Rosalia, or why are there so many kinds of animals" by G. Evelyn Hutchinson in American Naturalist (May-June 1959); This alludes to the fact that there are more types of beetles than any other form of insect, and more insects than any other kind of animal. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

app4soft 4y ago

> a Tiny Spotify Player Grab 80 Mbytes binary.[0] [0] https://github.com/dvx/lofi/releases/tag/v1.6.1 https://github.com/dvx/lofi/releases/tag/v1.6.1

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
bobsmooth 4y ago
Tiny in size, not footprint.
- app4soft 4y ago
  In readme[0] small footprint named as an advantage instead: > Design goals > ≤ 100MB memory footprint [0] https://github.com/dvx/lofi#design-goals https://github.com/dvx/lofi#design-goals
  - rob 4y ago
    So they met their stated design goal?
  - JasonFruit 4y ago
    I remember when Puppy Linux's (on-disk) size limit was 50MB. There's a reason you don't use, "Is it tiny?" in twenty questions.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
skrebbel 4y ago
Cone on, the page makes it clear that “tiny” refers to the size and scope of the UI.
Cthulhu_ 4y ago
Ah it's a JS app because of course it is. (don't hate me please, I write JS for a living and I need this job <_<)

bartislartfast 4y ago

I was hoping for something tiny in resources, not just window size. I miss Billy - https://www.sheepfriends.com/index-page=billy.html https://www.sheepfriends.com/index-page=billy.html I really wish we could see a low-resource-usage development movement akin to the lofi / retro gaming trend (playdate etc) . I have MS Office 2003 installed on my thinkpad and it starts instantly. It's very satisfying. I feel like apps just grow and grow in size and memory usage to match the average spec of machine instead of being truly thrifty

password4321 4y ago

Psst: Fast Spotify client with native GUI, without Electron, built in Rust https://github.com/jpochyla/psst https://github.com/jpochyla/psst 20210816 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654

jnovek 4y ago
Psst seems to be missing a lot of basic functionality at this point. E.g. you can't reorder albums, they are presented in the order they were added to your library. It's promising but I can't see myself using it day-to-day in its current state. I wish there was a mature, non-Electron Spotify client that worked in Linux. I just use the web because the official Linux client is so flaky.
- password4321 4y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654#28207594 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654#28207594 > https://github.com/hrkfdn/ncspot https://github.com/hrkfdn/ncspot https://github.com/Rigellute/spotify-tui https://github.com/Rigellute/spotify-tui https://github.com/xou816/spot https://github.com/xou816/spot https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654&p=2#28206619 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28203654&p=2#28206619 > macOs … https://github.com/toothbrush/Spotiqueue https://github.com/toothbrush/Spotiqueue
  - shaunsingh0207 4y ago
    Spotify-tui is the only one that implements connect functionality, and even then it doesn't have the extended auto-mixes that spotify plays when you're playlist ends. I'm glad there are options for alternative native clients, but none of them are anywhere near feature parity with the official client
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  > Very early in development, lacking in features, stability, and general user experience.
4y ago

chaorace 4y ago

As a Linux user, I've given up on alternative Spotify clients. The official client sucks... but at least it works consistently and has full feature support. Instead of replacing it, I've resolved to minimize my interaction with the client as much as possible via rofi[1] and media shortcuts. [1]: https://github.com/davidborzek/spofi https://github.com/davidborzek/spofi

ad-astra 4y ago
What about the web client?

pmlnr 4y ago

> To build, you'll need node-gyp, a compatible Python version (2.x) ...

senko 4y ago

From the FAQ: > For Lofi to show currently playing tracks, Spotify needs to be actually running! Start playing something in Spotify (you can minimize the app afterwards) and Lofi should work as expected. So it's a visualizer, not a player. Can it work without having the Spotify app running? I'm currently using librespot on my headless rpi acting as a spotify-enabled speaker but sometimes it has sync errors, so I'm in the market for alternative tiny players.

nsteel 4y ago
What's a sync error in this context ?
- senko 4y ago
  Devices/apps not being able to see each other or hand off playback reliably (mostly works but sometimes I meed to restart the rpi client). As opposed to playback, once it's playing, it's smooth, no complaint there.

ctvo 4y ago

The Germans need to help us come up with a word for that feeling when you click on a project expecting to use it only to find it's another Electron type application and click back disappointed.