Music and now playing¶

Cuebot can see which song you are playing and show it on stream. It can also run an action when the song changes, and let your viewers put songs in your Spotify queue with a !sr command. Everything is on the Audio > Music page.

There are two ways Cuebot finds your music:

Way	Works with	Needs
Players on this computer	Spotify, VLC, foobar2000, Firefox, Chrome, YouTube Music and most other players, on Windows and Linux	Nothing. No account, no password.
Your Spotify account	Spotify on any device: a PC, a Mac, a phone or a speaker	A free "Spotify app" you make once (about two minutes, see below). Song requests and skipping need Spotify Premium.

Mac

On a Mac, Cuebot cannot see the players on your computer yet. Sign in to your Spotify account to show the songs you play in Spotify.

Experimental

Spotify (showing the song and song requests) and now playing on Windows are built and tested by Cuebot's own tests, but not yet with a real Spotify account or on a real Windows computer. Now playing on Linux was tried with real players (mpv and VLC). See What's experimental.

Want viewers to request YouTube videos instead of songs? See YouTube video requests below.

Show the song you are playing¶

Open Audio > Music.
Tick Watch what plays.
Start a song in your music player. Its name, artist and player show up at the top of the page within a second or two.
Leave Show songs from on Automatic. If you have several players open (say Spotify and a YouTube tab) and Cuebot shows the wrong one, pick One player on this computer and type part of its name, like spotify. The names Cuebot sees are listed under Open players.

The Previous, Play / pause and Next buttons press the media keys of the player that plays now. Handy to test.

Put it on stream (OBS)¶

On the Music page, tick Write the song to a text file.
Click Copy file path.
In OBS, click + under Sources, choose Text (on Linux: Text (FreeType 2)) and click OK.
Tick Read from file, click Browse and paste the path you copied. Click OK.

That is it: the text in OBS changes with every song. To change what it says, edit Text, for example Now playing: %title% by %artist%. You can use %title%, %artist%, %album%, %player% and %duration%. While the music is paused the file shows When nothing plays (empty by default, so the text disappears).

A !song command¶

Viewers type !song and Cuebot answers with the song.

Go to Automation > Commands, click +, name it song and type !song under Commands.
Go to Automation > Actions and make an action called Song.
On Triggers, click + Trigger, pick Commands › Command triggered and choose song.
On Sub-actions, click + Sub-action and pick Now playing › Get now playing.
Add Chat (all platforms) › Send chat message (any platform) with this message:
```
Now playing: %nowPlaying.title% by %nowPlaying.artist%
```
Tick Reply on the platform the trigger came from.

You do not even need Watch what plays for this: Get now playing looks when it runs.

Say every new song in chat¶

Tick Watch what plays on the Music page.
Make an action with the trigger Now playing › Song changed.
Add Send chat message (any platform) with 🎵 %title% by %artist%.

The trigger gives you %title%, %artist%, %album%, %player%, %durationText% (like 3:45), %artUrl% (the cover picture, when the player has one) and %link% (Spotify songs only). It runs once per song, not when you pause and play again.

Set up Spotify¶

Spotify asks every streamer to make their own small "app" on Spotify's developer site. It is free, it is only for you, and you do it once. You need to log in with the Spotify account you stream with.

Why your own app?

Since 2026 a Spotify app that is "in development mode" may only be used by 5 people, and the person who made it needs Spotify Premium. One shared Cuebot app would stop working after five streamers, so each streamer makes their own. You do not need to send it to Spotify for review.

1. Make the Spotify app¶

In Cuebot, open Audio > Music and click Open Spotify for Developers (or go to developer.spotify.com/dashboard).
Log in with your Spotify account. The first time, Spotify asks you to accept the developer terms: tick the box and click Accept the terms. (If Spotify asks you to verify your email address, do that first.)
Click Create app.
Fill in the form:
- App name: anything, like Cuebot for <your name>.
- App description: anything, like Song requests for my stream.
- Website: leave it empty.
- Redirect URIs: in Cuebot click Copy redirect address, paste it here and click Add. It looks like http://127.0.0.1:43117/callback.
- Which API/SDKs are you planning to use?: tick Web API.
Tick that you agree with the terms and click Save.

127.0.0.1, not localhost

Spotify only accepts the address with 127.0.0.1. If you type localhost yourself, sign-in fails with "INVALID_CLIENT: Invalid redirect URI". Copy the address from Cuebot and it is right.

2. Copy the Client ID into Cuebot¶

Your new app opens on Spotify's site. Click Settings.
Under Basic Information you see Client ID: 32 letters and numbers. Copy it.
In Cuebot, paste it into Client ID.

You do not need the Client secret. Leave it alone and never paste it anywhere.

In Cuebot click Sign in. Your browser opens Spotify.
Spotify shows what Cuebot may do (see what you play, control your player). Click Agree.
The browser says "Cuebot is signed in to Spotify. You can close this tab." Close it.

The Music page now says Signed in. To test: open Spotify, start any song, type a song name into Try it and click Add a song. It should show up in Spotify's queue.

A !sr song request command¶

Media Requests can also listen for !sr

Cuebot's Media Requests page (YouTube videos) also uses !sr once you tick Taking requests there. It starts switched off. If you turn it on and also use !sr for Spotify, change one of the two words, for example Media Requests' Request word to !video. Otherwise one !sr does both.

Viewers type !sr never gonna give you up (or paste a Spotify song link), and the song goes into your queue.

Go to Automation > Commands, click +, name it sr and type !sr under Commands. Set a cooldown so one viewer cannot fill your queue, for example a Per user cooldown of 120 seconds.
Go to Automation > Actions, make an action called Song request and add the trigger Commands › Command triggered with the command sr.
Click + Sub-action and pick Spotify › Add song to Spotify queue. Leave Song on %rawInput% (what the viewer typed after !sr).
This step has two lists: Added and Not added. Select Added (the word BRANCH shows up) and add Send chat message (any platform) with:
```
@%user% added %spotify.title% by %spotify.artist% 🎶
```
Select Not added and add another Send chat message (any platform) with:
```
@%user% sorry, that did not work: %spotify.error%
```

Tick Reply on the platform the trigger came from in both messages.

Viewers can send:

a song name: !sr bohemian rhapsody queen. Cuebot takes Spotify's first search result, like typing it into Spotify's search box. Adding the artist helps.
a Spotify song link: !sr https://open.spotify.com/track/4cOdK2wGLETKBW3PvgPWqT. Album and playlist links do not work, only songs.

Other Spotify steps¶

Step	What it does
Spotify › Skip song	Next song. Good for a `!skip` command for moderators, or a Stream Deck button.
Spotify › Previous song	Back one song.
Spotify › Pause / resume	Pause, play, or switch between the two.
Spotify › Set volume	Volume from 0 to 100, like `!volume 30` with `%input0%`. Some devices (many phones) do not allow it.
Now playing › Media control	Play/pause, next, previous on any player, including players on this computer.

YouTube video requests (Media Requests)¶

Audio > Media Requests lets viewers ask for YouTube videos in chat. The videos play on your stream, one after another, in an overlay.

Go to Overlays > Overlays & Widgets, open your overlay (or make one) and add the Media request player widget. See Overlays and alerts. The overlay must be in OBS as a browser source.
Go to Audio > Media Requests. Under Settings, tick Taking requests. It starts switched off, so chat can't fill a queue before your player is set up.
Viewers type !sr and a YouTube link or a search, like !sr despacito. The video goes into the Queue.

The commands, which you can change under Settings:

Viewers type	What happens
`!sr` and a link or search (the Request word)	Adds a video to the queue.
`!wrongsong` (the Take back word)	Takes back their latest request.
`!skip` (the Skip (moderators) word)	Skips the video that plays. Only you and your moderators.

More settings:

Cost (points): what a request costs in points. 0 means free. Viewers get their points back when a request is removed.
Requests per viewer: how many videos one viewer may have waiting.
Longest play (minutes, 0: whole video): longer videos are cut off.
Subscribers only and Answer in chat (Cuebot says where the request is in the queue, or why it was turned down).

On the page you can also Pause and Skip, set the Volume, move videos up and down, Remove one, Clear the queue, and paste a YouTube link yourself (free) with + Add. Actions can do the same with the Media requests sub-actions.

Troubleshooting¶

What you see	What to do
"Open Spotify on a device first and play a song"	Spotify only takes commands while it is open somewhere. Open Spotify (PC, phone or web player), play any song, then try again.
"Spotify needs Premium to change songs"	Adding to the queue, skipping, pausing and volume need Spotify Premium on the account you signed in with. Showing the song works without it.
"Your Spotify account is not allowed in your Spotify app yet"	Sign in with the same Spotify account that made the app. To use another account, open your app on developer.spotify.com, go to User Management and add that account's name and email.
"INVALID_CLIENT: Invalid redirect URI" in the browser	The redirect address in your Spotify app does not match. In Cuebot click Copy redirect address, then on developer.spotify.com open your app, Settings > Edit, remove the old address, paste the new one, click Add and Save.
"Another program already uses port …"	Pick another Port on the Music page (any number from 1024 to 65535), copy the redirect address again and change it in your Spotify app too.
"Spotify sign-in ran out" / Needs attention	Spotify ends sign-ins after a while (about six months), or you removed Cuebot under Manage apps. Click Sign in again.
"Spotify found no song for …"	Spotify's search found nothing. Try other words, add the artist, or send a song link.
"Spotify is busy. Try again in … seconds."	Spotify asks apps to slow down sometimes. Wait the few seconds. A command cooldown helps.
Nothing is playing, but music plays	Tick Watch what plays and click Check now. Cuebot sees players that show up in the Windows volume pop-up (Windows) or in your desktop's media controls (Linux). Some players do not share what they play: on Linux, mpv needs the `mpv-mpris` plug-in; older VLC versions on Windows do not share it at all. Browser tabs show up while they play.
The wrong player shows	Pick One player on this computer and type part of its name.
Windows says it cannot read music players	Cuebot needs Windows 10 (October 2018 update) or newer for this. Sign in to Spotify instead.

To disconnect Spotify completely, click Sign out in Cuebot, then on spotify.com open Account > Manage apps and remove your app.

How it works (for the curious)¶

On Linux, Cuebot reads players through MPRIS, the shared "media player" language of the Linux desktop (the same thing your desktop's media controls use).
On Windows, Cuebot reads the same list as the volume pop-up (the Windows media controls). It starts a small helper for this, powershell.exe, which closes when Cuebot closes.
Spotify is asked every 5 seconds what plays, while you are signed in. Your Spotify sign-in is stored encrypted on your computer, like your other sign-ins.