Overview
CuteSpotify makes it possible to listen to your Spotify songs on Ubuntu Touch. It’s based on MeeSpot (a MeeGo Spotify client), which I’ve updated to make use of Qt5 and Ubuntu’s QML components. It’s still a little rough around the edges but most of the core functionality is in place now.
One particular problem to look out for is that because of the way Ubuntu Touch currently handles applications CuteSpotify has to be kept in the foreground and the phone has to be kept switched on for music to play (otherwise the application gets suspended). Approaches for handling applications that need to keep running are currently being debated, so hopefully that won’t be the case in future version of Ubuntu Touch.
As a temporary workaround, if your phone is in developer mode (achieved by connecting it up to the Ubuntu SDK) you can run “sudo service powerd stop” (default password is phablet) to stop the phone from going to sleep while you’re listening to music, then “sudo service powerd start” to resume normal power management when you’re done. (See popey’s comment for an alternative method).
Video
Installation
To install CuteSpotify on Ubuntu Touch simply search for “CuteSpotify” on your phone and it should appear.
Source
The source code for CuteSpotify can be found here: https://github.com/Elleo/cutespotify
You don’t need the SDK. Just attach the phone to a computer which has ADB installed (which could be Ubuntu or not) and “adb shell stop powerd”.
While sub-optimal, this does mean you can listen to your music without it cutting out… I do hope we can figure out a solution to this soon.
Comment by Alan Pope ã‹› (@popey) — November 12, 2013 @ 12:25 am
Hi! Is there a way to get this app to work with nexus 4 and the latest ubuntu touch? This app was the key reason for me to switch to ubuntu touch on my phone but it is not working at all. I can log in but only see my play star and skip buttons – nothing else.
Comment by zven — August 19, 2014 @ 10:59 am
Hi zven,
When I have a bit of spare time I’ll try and update it to work with more recent Ubuntu Touch releases, been rather busy recently I’m afraid.
Cheers,
Mike.
Comment by Mike — August 19, 2014 @ 1:25 pm
Hi Mike! Thank you for the update! Looking forward to it! Having a working music player is one of the most important features for a smartphone (for me) right now – and spotify is alright for this … If there is anything i can do – please let me know.
zven
Comment by zven — August 19, 2014 @ 1:37 pm
Hi. I’ve just got my hands on an BQ 5 and have some additonal problems with CuteSpotify: It doesn’t remember my Spotify account name and password (sometimes, but not always). Secondly it doesn’t recognize which playlists is downloaded for offline playing on next startup. Sadly, these issues makes the app very cumbersome, almost unusable, for me at the moment. Hope this can be fixed and thanks for your efforts anyway! 🙂
Comment by Arne Hanssen — July 5, 2015 @ 11:20 am
I got my hands on a BQ M10, it seems that switching to desktop mode allows you to play music in the background and even when switching the tablet to sleep mode.
Hope it helps,
Mk
Comment by MkAJ — April 24, 2016 @ 6:01 pm