Here is a summary of what I learnt trying to setup Spotify in OSMC.
Hopefully this helps others given there is a lot of outdated/incorrect information out there.
ENVIRONMENT
- Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5
- OSMC October 2024 2024.10-1 installed from OSMC_TGT_rbp4_20240825.img.gz
- Kodi 21.1
- All OSMC/OS updates applied at time of posting i.e. apt update && apt full-upgrade -y
SPOTIFY VS SPOTIFY CONNECT FUNCTIONALITY
As far as I can see there are two options for Spotify functionality.
The appropriate one is determined by how you intend to use it.
-
Spotify
A client application that manages what is playing.
e.g. the Spotify iOS|Android|Linux|Windows app or web client https://open.spotify.com
-
Spotify Connect
An application that outputs music playing on a Spotify client e.g. Sonos speaker.
Spotify Connect - Spotify
A Spotify client may or may not have Spotify Connection functionality depending on how it was designed.
LIBRESPOT LIBRARY
It appears most (all?) open source options for Spotify or Spotify Connect for OSMC/RPi rely on the librespot library.
Librespot only works Premium accounts as stated here.
Discussion about it here, here and here.
SPOTIFY OPTIONS
From a couple of hours trawling the web I found the options below.
There might be others. Feel free to point them out if there are 
Based on development history and forums posts glk1001’s plugin.audio.spotify (aka Spotify add-on) is the go to solution for Spotify on Kodi/OSMC/RPi.
The primary discussion about glk1001’s Spotify add-on is https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=265356&page=137
Note: glk1001’s plugin.audio.spotify does not provide Spotify Connect.
See here and here.
Note: glk1001’s plugin.audio.spotify is a Kodi add-on so it can be controlled via the OSMC UI in the normal fashion.
GLK1001 SPOTIFY ADD-ON INSTALLATION
Source: https://glk1001.github.io/
Doco: glk1001.github.io/README.md at master · glk1001/glk1001.github.io · GitHub
Add GLK Repository as Source
- Click Settings
- Click File manager
- Click Add source
- Click None
- Enter:
Path = https://glk1001.github.io/
- Click Done
- Enter:
Name = GLK Kodi Spotify Repository (or as desired)
- Click OK
Install Spotify Add-on
- Click Settings
- Click Install from zip file
- Click GLK Kodi Spotify Repository
- Click plugin.audio.spotify-1.3.xx.zip
Authenticate Spotify Add-on (one time)
- Click Settings
- Click Add-on browser
- Click My add-ons
- Click Music add-ons
- Click Spotify
- Click Open
Message displayed The Spotify login failed. Use another Spotify app on your LAN to authenticate this plugin. In the other app, goto “Connect to a device” and select the device “Kodi-Spotty”. PRESS “OK” here when you’ve done that.
- Click OK
- Open Spotify app on phone
- Click Connect to a device
- Click Kodi-Spotty
Message displayed Successfully authenticated the Kodi Spotify plugin. Your Spotify user for the plugin is x@y.z
- Click OK
Note: Spotify uses network broadcasts (mDNS and SSDP) to detect Spotify devices.
If your Spotify Add-on device is not on the same network/wifi (e.g. due to VLANing) as your Spotify app device, Kodi-Spotty will not be detected and can not be selected as a device.
Technically it is possible to make this network configuration work but that depends on your networking hardware and is well beyond the scope of this topic.
The easy solution is to make sure your Spotify Add-on and Spotify app device are on the same network.
GLK1001 SPOTIFY ADD-ON CONFIGURATION
No additional configuration was required to use the Spotify Add-on after the initial installation and plugin authentication.
There are some configuration options available under Add-on browser > My add-ons > Music add-ons > Spotify > Configuration
SPOTIFY CONNECT OPTIONS
From a couple of hours trawling the web I found the options below.
There might be others. Feel free to point them out if there are
Based on development history and forums posts raspotify is the go to solution for Spotify Connect on OSMC/RPi.
Note: raspotify does not integrate into OSM, it is a service that runs continuously in the backgroup.
As a result it can not be controlled via the OSMC UI, playing a song to raspotify will not stop anything playing in OSMC or vice versa.
| URL |
Last Update |
Comment |
| GitHub - dtcooper/raspotify: A Spotify Connect client that mostly Just Works™ |
Jan 2025 |
Wrapper for librespot-org librespot library |
| GitHub - henri-funck/service.librespot_connect |
Nov 2024 |
Derivative of Librespot for LibreELEC, didn’t investigate as I assumed it’s not suitable for OSMC |
| GitHub - nicokaiser/rpi-audio-receiver: Raspberry Pi Audio Receiver with Bluetooth A2DP, AirPlay 2, and Spotify Connect |
Feb 2024 |
Wrapper for raspotify, provides Bluetooth (A2DP), AirPlay 2, and Spotify Connect functionality |
| GitHub - sdbabhishek/OSMC_Spotify: Listen Spotify on OSMC Raspberry pi |
Jun 2020 |
Development ceased, only contains readme for raspotify installation |
| GitHub - CatoAntonsen/MMM-SpotifyConnectUI: The 'MMM-SpotifyConnectUI' Magic Mirror module is for displaying cover, artist and track-information. |
Feb 2017 |
Development ceased, UI for spotify-connect-web |
| GitHub - Fornoth/spotify-connect-web |
Jan 2018 |
Development ceased, fork of plietar |
RASPOTIFY INSTALLATION
Source: GitHub - dtcooper/raspotify: A Spotify Connect client that mostly Just Works™
Doco: Home · dtcooper/raspotify Wiki · GitHub
sudo apt-get -y install curl && curl -sL https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify/install.sh | sh
- Method 2
If you don’t trust random bash scripts from the internet the key commands from install.sh are:
curl -sSL https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify/key.asc | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/raspotify_key.asc
sudo chmod 644 /usr/share/keyrings/raspotify_key.asc
echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/raspotify_key.asc] https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify raspotify main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspotify.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install raspotify
- Method 3:
And if you aren’t comfortable adding the raspotify repository.
Note: This method requires manually installing dependencies first, and raspotify updates will not be automatically downloaded i.e. when Scanning for updates or running apt update && apt full-upgrade
wget https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify/raspotify-latest_armhf.deb
sudo apt install alsa-utils libpulse0
sudo dpkg -i raspotify-latest_armhf.deb
RASPOTIFY CONFIGURATION
Doco: Configuration · dtcooper/raspotify Wiki · GitHub
No additional configuration was required to use raspotify as a Spotify Connect device.
After clicking Connect to a device (in the Spotify Android app on my cellphone) raspotify (osmc) is show, as another device to select.
There are some configuration options you might want to investigate e.g. audio quality and device name.
Note: Spotify uses network broadcasts (mDNS and SSDP) to detect Spotify Connect devices.
If your Spotify client is not on the same network/wifi (e.g. due to VLANing) as your raspotify device, raspotify will not be detected and can not be selected as a device.
Technically it is possible to make this network configuration work but that depends on your networking hardware and is well beyond the scope of this topic.
The easy solution is to make sure your Spotify client and raspotify device are on the same network.
Insightful and I am sure beneficial for other users.
The only thing I’d note is that OSMC is not based on Raspbian
Sam