Spotify 0.9.17 for GNU/Linux (and the upcoming 1.x beta!)

[nikreiman]

On 24 March 2015, we rolled out an update to the desktop client for GNU/Linux. For installation instructions, see:

https://www.spotify.com/download/previews/

The version of the client is 0.9.17, and it will be the final 0.9.x client released for this platform. It has been a long time since the previous release (with the prior version being 0.9.11), and for those interested in the release notes, they will be identical to those for other desktop platforms for the versions 0.9.12-17, with the addition of the following platform-specific fixes:

- The machine's hostname is shown to other devices from Spotify Connect

- A 512px icon is used for the taskbar and menubar (unity integration)

We have decided to make a final release of 0.9.x desktop so that our users can pin this package if desired. Also we will make a separate package for the 0.9.17 release so that it is easier to find in the apt repository in case users need to revert to the prior version.

*EDIT*: The 0.9.17 package is now available, it is called spotify-client-0.9.17. If you don't want to receive the 1.x version, you can install this package instead (note that it both provides and conflicts with the spotify-client package).

Going forward, the official Linux beta will be released very soon! There are already some unofficial beta links floating around the forum, but so far we have not published a deb package to our official apt servers yet. We have been very busy getting 1.x out the door and sadly have not had as much time to devote to the GNU/Linux releases as we would like. Also, it has been unfortunate that we have not been better at keeping up with releases for this platform in general, but we have taken some steps to improve this for future releases.

Specifically, this means:

- We will be releasing a regular tarball file alongside our debian package for the benefit of non-debian users

- Spotify client releases will be made available for GNU/Linux users at the same time as users on other platforms

- We will also make a public `testing` apt repository to house unstable beta builds for testing

- However, we do not have a 32-bit version of the client available now. This is difficult for us to do for a number of reasons, but we will consider doing this if there is enough demand from the userbase.

[olejon]

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@nikreiman wrote:

- Spotify client releases will be made available for GNU/Linux users at the same time as users on other platforms

---

Great, exactly what I expected with this change of technology to more cross-platform technologies.

[epassaro]

The new tray icon is too big for KDE enviroments. There's a way to force Spotify to select a smaller size?

If not, maybe i prefer downgrading to the older version.

Thanks in advance.

[2nd_Street]

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nikreiman wrote: 

- The machine's hostname is shown to other devices from Spotify Connect

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Spotify Connect is available for the linux client??

[Nico751]

yes at least in the beta, see this: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Desktop-Linux-Mac-and/Spotify-0-9-11-for-GNU-Linux/m-p/1071197...

[sleeksorrow]

I very appreciate that you thought of those amongst us that find version 1.0 not ready yet in regard of multiple aspects. I guess Windows users would have LOVED the possibility to pin 0.9 or roll back 😉

Additionally I think we linux guys are the best audience to give access to a testing and pre-beta repository. We are used to try bleeding edge, cope with expected breakage and over all we know, how to suffer proudly 😉

So thank you very much that you grant us options instead of immutable decisions.

And thank you for your courage to do such a big rewrite. The negative feedback shows, that this was a tough decision, but I hope that the new software base in v1.0 will allow you to redeliver the lost features soon and in a more senseful way, as well as opening possibilities for new and better features.

Up to now - ignoring the missing features - I find the new software base breathtakenly great. It loads blazing fast, using way less RAM and CPU resources and feels way more responsive. Additionally I love some of the new features it already has, like the lyrics view and the easy access of the queue.

But I want to clearly state, that I expect you to listen to feedback (at least the sincere and polite one) and give us back all the features on v1.0 which we need and got used to with 0.9.x. Thank you.

[Warstomp]

Great news.

I found 2 problems on my spotify client:

If I click on the menu -> Help -> Spotify Community I receive "Page not found" link (https://www.spotify.com/bg/lithium/community/)

The second problem that I have is with some icons. See the attached file.

Spotify 0.9.17.1.g9b85dd436

Ubuntu 14.04 64Bit

Behind Proxy with authentication

[Rizzer]

Thank you for the increased Linux support.

[Fred]

Thank you for this release. My first impressions so far,

The good: 

• Start up time is way faster
• CPU-load is lower
• Doesn't skip a track or freeze when thumbing up in radio (YES!!!!)
• Lag is almost gone - when scrolling within a song/track or when changing order in a playlist, it's 'snappier' - seems more seamless

The bad:

• Minimizing by clicking on the [x] in upper left corner and trying to restore by the taskbar icon will first give an option of 'hide Spotify', which must be clicked first and after that when clicking on the icon will show a 'Open Spotify' menu item. 
• With Spotify open, clicking on the taskbar icon will give an option of hiding spotify. Behavior will then be the same as when hiding by clicking [x]
• Clicking on album art for the current song (lower left of the client) will bring you to the current playlist, but no longer scroll to the current track - it'll go to the top of the playlist and stay there
• As has been pointed out by @Warstomp , the link in the help to the community is wrong
• In toplist view, most albums will display greyed out, which usually indicates unavailability, however they are available. (My region is Sweden)
  

Anyway, many thanks to @nikreiman  for starting this thread, and all the devs for making this improved Linux version. Very excited to learn that there will be more frequent attention to the Linux version going forward!

[nikreiman]

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@epassaro wrote:

The new tray icon is too big for KDE enviroments. There's a way to force Spotify to select a smaller size?

If not, maybe i prefer downgrading to the older version.

Thanks in advance.

---

The tray icon change only applies to version 0.9.17, not the 1.x beta. However if it is not working well with your desktop environment then you can go to /opt/spotify/spotify-client/Icons and manually remove the spotify-linux-512.png icon and symlink another one to that same name.

[nikreiman]

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@2nd_Street wrote:

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nikreiman wrote: 

- The machine's hostname is shown to other devices from Spotify Connect

---

Spotify Connect is available for the linux client??

---

The 0.9.17 client supports (or rather, should support) Connect as a player. The 1.x clients support it as both a player and controller.

[nikreiman]

---

@sleeksorrow wrote:

I very appreciate that you thought of those amongst us that find version 1.0 not ready yet in regard of multiple aspects. I guess Windows users would have LOVED the possibility to pin 0.9 or roll back 😉

Additionally I think we linux guys are the best audience to give access to a testing and pre-beta repository. We are used to try bleeding edge, cope with expected breakage and over all we know, how to suffer proudly 😉

So thank you very much that you grant us options instead of immutable decisions.

And thank you for your courage to do such a big rewrite. The negative feedback shows, that this was a tough decision, but I hope that the new software base in v1.0 will allow you to redeliver the lost features soon and in a more senseful way, as well as opening possibilities for new and better features.

Up to now - ignoring the missing features - I find the new software base breathtakenly great. It loads blazing fast, using way less RAM and CPU resources and feels way more responsive. Additionally I love some of the new features it already has, like the lyrics view and the easy access of the queue.

But I want to clearly state, that I expect you to listen to feedback (at least the sincere and polite one) and give us back all the features on v1.0 which we need and got used to with 0.9.x. Thank you.

---

Thanks for the feedback. 🙂 As you noted, the rewrite also gives us the opportunity to re-implement the missing features, but we are certainly aware that some of our users are upset with this situation. I won't go into details here regarding our plans for specific features, but there are other threads here where Spotify reps address them in more detail.

In regards to the Linux client specifically, there are also many missing features in the 1.x betas for this platform, and we do plan on re-implementing these as well. These include things such as dbus support, unity integration, application menus, now playing notifications, etc. With the notifications, for instance, when we rewrite this feature it will finally have a real toggle in the settings, which is much easier for us to do now than it was with the old client. This is definitely an example of how the new architecture will allow us to re-implement things smarter. 🙂

However, the first "feature" that we are working towards in regards to improving the quality of the GNU/Linux clients is distribution. We definitely haven't made releases often enough on this platform, which is partially because of the amount of work involved. So now we are investing time in automating much of this process, which should hopefully pay off in the long run.

[nikreiman]

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@Warstomp wrote:

Great news.

I found 2 problems on my spotify client:

If I click on the menu -> Help -> Spotify Community I receive "Page not found" link (https://www.spotify.com/bg/lithium/community/)

The second problem that I have is with some icons. See the attached file.

Spotify 0.9.17.1.g9b85dd436

Ubuntu 14.04 64Bit

Behind Proxy with authentication

---

Weird, I haven't seen missing icons in awhile. Try nuking the cache (rm -rf ~/.cache/spotify) and restarting the client.

[sleeksorrow]

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@nikreiman wrote:

The 0.9.17 client supports (or rather, should support) Connect as a player. The 1.x clients support it as both a player and controller.

---

I already read that "Connect is a premium feature". Do I assume correctly, that this means, unlimited subscription is also not sufficient? Then I know I can stop trying.

[nikreiman]

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@sleeksorrow wrote:

---

@nikreiman wrote:

The 0.9.17 client supports (or rather, should support) Connect as a player. The 1.x clients support it as both a player and controller.

---

I already read that "Connect is a premium feature". Do I assume correctly, that this means, unlimited subscription is also not sufficient? Then I know I can stop trying.

---

IIRC Spotify doesn't have an Unlimited subscription anymore, though maybe it still exists in some countries? Anyways, I'm really not sure about this but my understanding was that Connect just doesn't support the free tier.

[Fred]

@sleeksorrow , it is as mentioned, connect is a feature that requires premium. This is a system wide restriction. So, those who still are on unlimited, will not have the connect feature. 

@nikreiman  even though it no longer is possible to sign up for unlimited, there are still users who signed up for unlimited when it was offered who continue on unlimited. As far as I know it is still possible to keep that subscription if you already have it. 

[sleeksorrow]

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@epassaro wrote:

The new tray icon is too big for KDE enviroments. There's a way to force Spotify to select a smaller size?

If not, maybe i prefer downgrading to the older version.

---

While this sounds problematic for sure, I just want to add that this is no general problem on KDE. There have to be more variables involed, as i cannot reproduce your issues with spotify 0.9.17 on KDE 4.14.2 on Ubuntu Trusty.

I attached a screenshot.

Perhaps it's only happening with certain taskbar heights? Maybe try resizing it a bit smaller and see if it recovers.

[olejon]

Free users can use SpotCommander on 0.9.17, and on 1.0 as soon as it supports D-Bus.

[user-removed]

and how to force my HTC One and Kubuntu with Spotify to work together? 😉 On my Windows computer in work Spotify connect  works great, but at home... 😞 "The 0.9.17 client supports (or rather, should support) Connect as a player" - in my spotify on Linux (64bit version) in "device" HTC One is listed, but on phone "show devices" is empty 😞

I've got premium...

[Fred]

@user-removed  I'm on 0.9.17 using Ubuntu and on a samsung android phone and things work, so I know it's possible for this to work. 🙂 Could you please try to log out and back in on your phone while playing music on your Kubuntu computer?You may also want to try a restart of your computer before doing this. Also, are you connected through wifi with your phone, or is it through phone data?