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Introducing Spotify Soloist<br>Posted August 13, 2026

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TL;DR

Spotify Soloist is a new Spotify Connect terminal client for headless and DIY setups. It runs on Raspberry Pis and Linux, works with both Free and Premium Spotify accounts, and is available for download today.

Why Spotify Soloist?

Some of the most creative Spotify setups don't have a screen: a Raspberry Pi wired into the living room stereo, a home server feeding a multi-room setup, a bare board with a DAC hat. Soloist is a new client built for those setups.

Soloist is a command-line Spotify headless client. A Premium account is needed to set up Spotify Soloist, but once it's running both Free and Premium users can connect. It shows up in the Spotify app like any other device and is built on the same powerful playback engine as the Spotify desktop and mobile apps.

Music, Podcasts and Audiobooks: the whole catalogue, streaming into your custom setup

Spotify Connect — control playback from your phone or desktop

Jam — listen together with your family and friends

Loudness normalization with peak limiting

Smart Shuffle and Autoplay to keep the music flowing

Lossless audio , up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz (Premium)

Crossfade and automix for smooth transitions between tracks (Premium)

For DIY integrations, Spotify Soloist includes a local WebSocket API with playback control (play, pause, seek, volume, shuffle, repeat), playback events, and queue access with full track metadata for up to 80 upcoming tracks. Build an e-ink now-playing display, an LED matrix visualizer, or a physical skip button on a GPIO pin — if it speaks WebSocket, it can talk to Soloist.

Spotify Soloist is now available for use. Check out the getting started guide to begin.

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