Weird Spotify POST 500 Playback Error

[kingofsquirrel3]

I'm using Electron and WideVine to play with the Spotify Web Playback API and everything works fine, I start a song but then it plays only for about three seconds and then skips to the next track and so on. I get this Error about three times:

POST https://api.spotify.com/v1/widevine-license/v1/audio/license?exp=1617882491&cp=&tok= [My token] 500

and then I get Playback error. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I  think this is an issue with Spotify because WideVine works fine with other applications.

[Hubo]

Hey @kingofsquirrel3, thanks for your post here.

That doesn't sound right. I've taken a look and right now it's not supported to use Electron together with the Web Playback SDK. Right now, you can use the web browsers shown on this page: https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/web-playback-sdk#supported-browsers. Hopefully there'll be support for Electron soon. Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy coding,
Hubo

[kingofsquirrel3]

But chrome is supported there, and isn't chromium just the base build of Chrome? So it should work with WideVine. And if not, there is no way to do so until they add Support for Electron right?

[Hubo]

Hey there, thanks for getting back to me!

Note: I'm not 100% sure on this. As far as I know, Chrome is a web browser based on Chromium (Google added a skin, plug-ins, licensing add-ons etc.). Electron is also based on Chromium (Chromium Embedded Framework/CEF) but might miss a few plugins/licensing add-ons that make the Spotify Web Playback SDK work.

You might be able to use this blog on Medium to find a solution to your problem here: https://alexanderallen.medium.com/spotify-web-playback-sdk-feat-electron-50ff930d5c74.

Hopefully you'll be able to find a way to get this to work.

Thanks, have a great day,
Hubo

[kingofsquirrel3]

Hello! I actually was following that Medium guide! I'll try to explain as best as I can: Electron does not have a needed plugin for an Electron App called WideVine, which basically just adds the support to stream video and audio. There was an issue open on the Spotify Github Page where a Spotify Employee stated that you could use WideVine in Electron to make it work, but that was some time ago. This article you listed has three parts, the first one trying to implement WideVine into Vanilla Electron, which does not work, and the seconde one using an Electron Fork. With using an Electron Fork you can make a connection to the Spotify Web Player API, but it rapidly skips tracks and has some bugs on Spotify's End tho. The third Part of this article is very short, but he basically just says exactly that Spotify has a problem with that and even tho there are already issues posted they are doing nothing about it and he just gave up on it too.

[kingofsquirrel3]

And then there would be another question, how do Alexa and those Smart Homes do it? They can play any Songs? Or do they just have a web server set up?