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9. Spotify

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A tag can play an album, a playlist, an audiobook or a podcast of Spotify. It plays like an album: it continues where it stopped, and "next" and "back" work. It needs the internet, a Spotify Premium account for the key, and a Spotify account of its own for the box. Setting up the account, the player and the entries needs the role admin; a tag is linked to an entry as to an album (section 7.2).

Once per box, tab "Spotify", cards "Account" and "Player":

  1. The key: on developer.spotify.com, Dashboard → "Spotify Soloist API Key", logged in with a Premium account. Paste it under "Account" and save it. The box fetches the player of Spotify; "Player" then says "Ready".
  2. "Connect", then choose the box within five minutes in the Spotify app of a phone in the same WLAN – logged in to the Spotify account of the box. The app lists it under "Devices" (the speaker symbol below a track that is open), with its name in the library, otherwise with its host name. After a few seconds the app may say that it cannot connect: the box has taken over the login and does not play yet. "Account" shows "Connected since …".

Then for every entry:

  1. In the Spotify app: "Share" → "Copy link". Tab "Spotify", "Create a new entry": paste the link. Name and cover come from Spotify; a podcast is named by hand.
  2. "Test" plays it for one minute – only while no tag is on the box.

  3. Tab "Tag management": assign the entry to the tag.

  4. An account of its own: One Spotify account plays in one place at a time. The box has an account of its own (a family subscription has six), so that a tag on the box stops nobody's music.

  5. The phone has no influence while a tag plays: what it changes on the box is undone. Music started elsewhere with the account of the box pauses the box; "Play" takes it back.
  6. Continuing: Spotify always starts at the first track; the box skips silently to the saved one. With a long playlist that takes a few seconds; the LED is aqua meanwhile.
  7. Spotify speaker: With "Spotify speaker while no tag is on the box" switched on (card "Speaker"), the Spotify app of the box's account can play on the box while no tag is on it. The buttons of the box steer it, and a tag wins. The volume is always the box's.
  8. The player of Spotify stops working 90 days after it was built. The box looks for a new one by itself from 30 days before that; "Update now" asks Spotify at once.
  9. Key and login stay on the box: they are not in the library and not in a backup.

9.1 Advent calendars

An advent calendar of Spotify with 24 figures: each figure is a tag and belongs to one day. Placed on the box, it plays its calendar – from 1 December on, day by day. There are two kinds:

Kind On Spotify What a figure plays
Chapters an album (or playlist) with all 24 chapters from the start the chapter of its day, and stops at its end; placed again, it continues where it stopped, and once heard to the end it starts its chapter again
Growing a playlist to which Spotify adds the next chapter every day where the last figure stopped; a chapter added since plays next, without the old ones. If there is nothing new yet, the newest chapter plays again

Setting up (role admin):

  1. In the Spotify app: "Share" → "Copy link" of the album or the playlist.
  2. Tab "Spotify", "Create a new advent calendar": paste the link, choose the kind and the year. "Only from its day" is on: day 17 plays from 17 December on. Switched off, every figure plays at once – for a calendar of last year.
  3. Tab "Tag management": assign each figure its day ("Day 1" to "Day 24" under the name of the calendar). Scanning with the phone works as for every tag (section 13.5).

  4. Tab "Spotify", "The 24 days": shows the figure of each day, the days still without one, and when each day opens.

  5. A figure of a later day plays nothing, and the LED blinks yellow. Left on the box past midnight, it starts by itself when its day begins. A day that is open stays open – also after December, and also when the box was without the internet.

  6. The buttons work as for every entry of Spotify. With a chapter, "next" ends it and "back" goes to its beginning – they never lead to another day.
  7. On the phone (section 13.7) the figures play with the same rules, by the date of the phone.