–
Do you think the official Spotify client for Linux would look better with a major overhaul? So have the developers behind the Spicetify customization tool, which can do just that.
I last introduced a “hacky” way to use custom Spotify skins in 2016 using the Spotio project. This effort has long been dormant, but several like-minded methods have emerged over the ensuing years, made possible by a comprehensive CLI tool. Spice (via Diolinux).
Now I put “hacky” in quotes because while these efforts aren’t “one-click” solutions that most users will feel comfortable applying, they aren’t exactly difficult or exotic to either realize. It’s not exclusive to Linux either; you can also use the exact same themes on both Windows and macOS systems.
Things you can do with Spicetify:
- Change colors in the user interface
- Inject CSS for advanced customization
- Inject extensions to extend functionality, change UI, etc.
- Inject custom applications
- Remove bloated components to improve performance
For me, I just wanted a new theme.
And if you’re just going to run command-line scripts you find online (which you shouldn’t, but hey: I do that once I’ve given them a quick read), you can choose from a wide range of community-created Spotify themes using Spicetify, the most famous of which: Dribbblish (see the hero shot).
It took me less than 5 minutes (and a quick wallpaper change) to switch from a Spotify that looks like this:
–
to a Spotify that looks like this:
–
I think it looks pretty awesome! 😅
Admittedly, this effort required copying/pasting a bunch of commands from the ReadMe doc of the theme of my choice. But considering the result: well worth the (minor) effort. Provided you execute all documented commands in order et use a little common sense when applying them (like checking you’re right straight away), it’s pretty easy.
The sidebar of this theme is collapsible. Here’s what it looks like extended:
–
Additionally, the Dribbblish theme also has a bunch of sub-variants (called modes):
And if Dribbblish isn’t to your liking, don’t worry: there are plenty of other Spicetify Spotify themes to choose from, including these:
Note: To use Spicetify, you must have the latest official version of Spotify for Linux installed from the Spotify repository, Flatpak, or a community repository such as the AUR. While you can probably use Spicetify with the Spotify Snap version, it’s probably more effort than it’s worth considering other versions are available (and not something I’ve tried) .
Now I won’t walk you though everything necessary steps since Spicetify docs already do an exceptional job. I will go over the basics of installing and configuring the tool on Ubuntu using the repo version of Spotify.
First, run the script to download and install Spicetify:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/khanhas/spicetify-cli/master/install.sh | sh
Next, you need to allow Spicetify (and the world at large) to stroke your Spotify installation:
sudo chmod a+wr /usr/share/spotify
sudo chmod a+wr /usr/share/spotify/Apps -R
Once done, cd into the Spicetify folder (assuming you ran the first command directly from home):
cd spicetify-cli
And run:
./spicetify backup apply enable-devtool
Then:
cd
And run (install git first if not):
git clone https://github.com/morpheusthewhite/spicetify-themes.git
Followed by:
cd spicetify-themes
And copy them where they should be:
cp -r * ~/.config/spicetify/Themes
Now you are almost ready to modify/apply themes.
You can preview available themes (and note their names, which are case sensitive) and apply one like this:
~/spicetify-cli/spicetify config current_theme THEMENAME
Followed by:
~/spicetify-cli/spicetify apply
Some themes, including the “dribbblish” theme I used, require you to perform additional steps. These are listed in the theme’s ReadMe.md file and are relatively simple (just copy/paste commands).
That’s about it in terms of themes, but check out everything Spicetify is capable of.
–
