I don’t live in the US but I listen to music via Spotify’s web app when I’m writing or just browsing the net. I use the free ad-supported tier because I don’t need access to premium mobile features (podcasts FTW) and it’s better than blatant piracy.
My media keys won't open spotify. I reloaded my iMac last week with Mojave and now my keyboard pause play Rew FF buttons don't work with Spotify. Every time it opens stupid iTunes which I don't use anymore. I've tried that Mac media key forwarder and have it set to Spotify. This is an intentional change in macOS High Sierra. Rather than the media keys always controlling iTunes, they will now control whatever media is playing at a given moment. 9To5Mac has detailed a way to change this behavior with a third-party application, macOS High Sierra Media Key Enabler for iTunes and Spotify: Apple just released High Sierra and it brought good things and annoying things: they changed the behaviour of the media controller keys, they no longer control itunes, they. For me, it only works to control Spotify. I can't seem to get it to work on any browser though:/ Even if I am actively on a Youtube page (on either Chrome or Safari), the media keys do not function. I checked the 'Preferences' on BeardedSpice to make sure 'Youtube' was allowed. A month ago all of the media keys on my logitech wireless keyboard were working with spotify. Took a month off.now only the pause/play key works. All of the keys work in other media application, so it isn't the keyboard or the Mac. This sucks.almost as bad as the Spotify radio feature. Name the shortcut EXACTLY as the Controls. Now press JUST the key on your macbook. Click + to remap Previous. Name it Previous and press the key to map that shortcut. PS: This won't work if iTunes is not the active app. So if you're using some other app and press the shortcut, it's not going to work and change the song. Mac Media Key Forwarder. Mac Media Key Forwarder for iTunes and Spotify. I no longer maintain Mac Media Key Forwarder beacuse I moved to Linux. If you have time to maintain it feel free to fork it and write me, I will put the link here. Try beardedspice for replacement. Forwards media keys to iTunes or Spotify.
Cool Tip: I use Hola Unblocker Chrome extension to mask my real location in Spotify’s web player. That’s also how I made the Spotify account.The reason I don’t use Spotify’s stellar Mac app is because every week or so I get kicked off for “not being in a supported country”. I need to reinstall the app and wait for the game of cat and mouse to begin again. So eventually I just gave up and settled on the web player. I don’t get support for plugins but that’s OK.
One thing I sorely miss on the Mac app is access to Mac’s built in Play/Pause, Next, and Previous keys. When you’re listening to music on Spotify/Pandora/Rdio on the web, the tab is usually in the background. I hate going hunting for it every time I need to pause playback.
Which is why I’m glad to share with you a simple Mac menubar utility that lets you control more than a dozen web based music/media player sites using your Mac’s media keys. All you need to do is use a keyboard shortcut to set the current tab as active and just like that Mac’s media keys will take over the tab’s playback.
How To Install BeardedSpice
Download the zipped file from the website, use Mac’s built in Archive Utility to unzip it, and drag the unzipped app to the Applications folder. The first time you open the app, Mac will give a default warning. Just click Open.
Hello YouTube: BeardedSpice supports video sites like YouTube and Vimeo as well with no issues in performance. Scroll to the last section for the entire list of supported services.Now you’ll see the BeardedSpice logo in the menubar. As the name suggests, the logo is a beard and a mustache.
How To Use And Configure BeardedSpice
Now that BeardedSpice is up and running, go to any of the supported web based media players. Click the menubar utility and you’ll see the media tab listed.
Click on a web page to activate it. A checkmark beside the selected site will show up.
Configuring Keyboard Shortcuts
To make the activation process for web based players as quick as possible, BeardedSpice supports keyboard shortcuts. The default shortcut to activate BeardedSpice is Cmd+F8. F8 is conveniently also the Play/Pause key.
But for some reason I found this shortcut to be buggy. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Thankfully, you can change the keyboard shortcut.
Click the BeardedSpice menubar utility and go to Preferences. Here click on the space beside Set active tab and type in your preferred shortcut. I have mine set to Cmd+8 as it’s right below the Play/Pause button.
Enable/Disable Supported Services
From the same Preferences menu you can decide which web players you don’t want BeardedSpice to interact with.
Here’s the entire list of supported web players:
- 8Tracks
- Amazon Music
- BandCamp
- BeatsMusic
- Bop.fm
- Google Music
- GrooveShark
- HypeMachine
- Last.fm
- Mixcloud
- Music Unlimited
- Pandora
- Rdio
- Shuffler.fm
- Slacker
- Songza
- SoundCloud
- Spotify (Web)
- Synology
- XboxMusic
- YouTube
- VK (“My Music” from vk.com)
- Vimeo
Where Do You Plan On Using BeardedSpice?
What services do you plan on using BeardedSpice with? Do you wish that it supported more players like Netflix.com? Let us know in the comments below.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Also See#music #spotify
Spotify App Not Working
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Spotify On Mac Not Working
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