# What is Fastpotify? ## The problem The official Spotify client is a website in a box: a bundled browser engine that takes the better part of a gigabyte of memory to show you a list of songs. On Linux it is an afterthought; on a small laptop it is a tax. The lightweight alternatives mostly live in the terminal, which is a fine place to live, but not everyone wants their music there. Fastpotify is a native Spotify client written in Rust with [egui](https://github.com/emilk/egui), playing music through [librespot](https://github.com/librespot-org/librespot). One small binary, no browser engine anywhere in the process, a launch measured in fractions of a second, with the layout you already know from Spotify, so there is almost nothing new to learn.  ## What it does - **Plays music on this computer.** Fastpotify is a Spotify Connect device: pick it from your phone, or press play here. Gapless, up to 320 kbps, with optional volume normalisation and an on-disk audio cache. - **Controls every other device.** Move playback to a speaker, a phone, or another computer from the device picker, and keep controlling it: play, pause, skip, seek, shuffle, repeat, volume. - **Your whole library.** Playlists, Liked Songs, saved albums, followed artists, podcasts, and saved episodes, filterable in the sidebar and as full pages. Playlists you own can be created, edited, and reordered. - **Search** across songs, artists, albums, playlists, podcasts, and episodes, with artist pages, discographies, and related artists. - **Stays out of the way.** Closing the window keeps the music playing from the system tray. MPRIS means your media keys, your bar, and `playerctl` see it like any other player. Every common action has a keyboard shortcut. - **Looks the part.** Pages and the player bar take a tint from the album art of whatever you are looking at or listening to; light and dark themes, or follow the system. ## What it does not do yet This is a young project, and it says so: - **Playing on this computer needs Spotify Premium**, as with every librespot-based client. Browsing, search, and remote control work on any account. - Sign-in happens twice in a lifetime, not once: the Web API and streaming are separate grants at Spotify. [How it connects](/how-it-connects/) explains why. - No lyrics, no video podcasts, no social features. - Playlist reordering is a menu action, not drag-and-drop. - Fastpotify is an **unofficial** client built on Spotify's public Web API and librespot. Spotify changes these from time to time; when they do, features can break until the client catches up. If something misbehaves, [an issue](https://github.com/crmne/fastpotify/issues) with the terminal output of `fastpotify -v` and what you expected instead is gold. ## Prior art Fastpotify stands on earlier efforts: [librespot](https://github.com/librespot-org/librespot) reimplemented Spotify's playback protocol and carries every open client, including this one; [spotify-tui](https://github.com/Rigellute/spotify-tui), [spotify-player](https://github.com/aome510/spotify-player), and [ncspot](https://github.com/hrkfdn/ncspot) proved how much client fits in a few megabytes; and [Omarchy Spotify](https://github.com/stappmus/Omarchy-Spotify) showed what a full-featured lightweight Spotify experience can look like on the Linux desktop. Fastpotify is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Spotify AB. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.

The problem

The official Spotify client is a website in a box: a bundled browser engine that takes the better part of a gigabyte of memory to show you a list of songs. On Linux it is an afterthought; on a small laptop it is a tax. The lightweight alternatives mostly live in the terminal, which is a fine place to live, but not everyone wants their music there.

Fastpotify is a native Spotify client written in Rust with egui, playing music through librespot. One small binary, no browser engine anywhere in the process, a launch measured in fractions of a second, with the layout you already know from Spotify, so there is almost nothing new to learn.

What it does

• Plays music on this computer. Fastpotify is a Spotify Connect device: pick it from your phone, or press play here. Gapless, up to 320 kbps, with optional volume normalisation and an on-disk audio cache.
• Controls every other device. Move playback to a speaker, a phone, or another computer from the device picker, and keep controlling it: play, pause, skip, seek, shuffle, repeat, volume.
• Your whole library. Playlists, Liked Songs, saved albums, followed artists, podcasts, and saved episodes, filterable in the sidebar and as full pages. Playlists you own can be created, edited, and reordered.
• Search across songs, artists, albums, playlists, podcasts, and episodes, with artist pages, discographies, and related artists.
• Stays out of the way. Closing the window keeps the music playing from the system tray. MPRIS means your media keys, your bar, and playerctl see it like any other player. Every common action has a keyboard shortcut.
• Looks the part. Pages and the player bar take a tint from the album art of whatever you are looking at or listening to; light and dark themes, or follow the system.

What it does not do yet

This is a young project, and it says so:

• Playing on this computer needs Spotify Premium, as with every librespot-based client. Browsing, search, and remote control work on any account.
• Sign-in happens twice in a lifetime, not once: the Web API and streaming are separate grants at Spotify. How it connects explains why.
• No lyrics, no video podcasts, no social features.
• Playlist reordering is a menu action, not drag-and-drop.
• Fastpotify is an unofficial client built on Spotify’s public Web API and librespot. Spotify changes these from time to time; when they do, features can break until the client catches up.

If something misbehaves, an issue with the terminal output of fastpotify -v and what you expected instead is gold.

Prior art

Fastpotify stands on earlier efforts: librespot reimplemented Spotify’s playback protocol and carries every open client, including this one; spotify-tui, spotify-player, and ncspot proved how much client fits in a few megabytes; and Omarchy Spotify showed what a full-featured lightweight Spotify experience can look like on the Linux desktop.

Fastpotify is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Spotify AB. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.