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Cover image for How to show Now Playing in Spotify with Next.js
Theodorus Clarence
Theodorus Clarence

Posted on • Originally published at theodorusclarence.com

How to show Now Playing in Spotify with Next.js

#nextjs #tutorial #react

Introduction

On my personal website, I use Spotify API to show what song is currently playing. Now, I will try to explain on how do I do that.

Next.js has a built-in API in a single application, so choosing Next.js is a perfect choice so we don't expose our API keys.

spotify-playing

Website Demo

1. Create an Application on Spotify Developer

  • Go to Spotify Developer Website.
  • Click Create An App
  • Fill in App Name, App description, then Create

1

  • Next, you will be provided with Client ID and Client Secret (Don't give this secret to anyone)

Client Info

  • Open edit settings, then fill out http://localhost:3000 on RedirectURIs

Edit Settings

The first step is done! Now, you need to do authentication to get access & refresh token

2. Authenticate Your Account

To do authentication, we need to prepare CLIENT_ID and put it into this link below:

https://accounts.spotify.com/authorize?client_id=CLIENT_ID_HERE&response_type=code&redirect_uri=http
%3A%2F%2Flocalhost:3000&scope=user-read-currently-playing
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example:

https://accounts.spotify.com/authorize?client_id=eaccb97f6d0e405897adf1dd80b95c01&response_type=code&redirect_uri=http
%3A%2F%2Flocalhost:3000&scope=user-read-currently-playing
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Open that link in a browser, then you will get redirected into a uri, copy the website link

Redirect URI

Example of the redirect link:

http://localhost:3000/?code=AQBeA9SD7QbA9hUfv_TfmatYxT51CY87msMnOZmMbhf7ZaxfbvG7oKEsATOJBxDyFap0Aq6uftY0v4Hq1QSy3MgQBfAHhmrifty-62rfDRlFnd0AzXRBOMpoOSA6SNw_uTPp7AixAE5zosgiIIf7efhzf1QOJfLh1HUYi248z8jk1x2jjKG2YLvMyJuP0rjB5tP5UHjoFGBvKbULpchkF6yiJHnS
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code that you have is the one after (=). Don't forget to write it down.

Next we need to get authorization client that is already encrypted with base64, use this website to encrypt with the format of client_id:client_secret

For example:

Base64 Encode

Next, write down the encrypted base64

After that, open up terminal/cmd, and run this command, don't forget to change the base64 and the code to yours.

curl -H "Authorization: Basic CHANGE_BASE64_HERE"
-d grant_type=authorization_code -d code=CHANGE_CODE_HERE -d redirect_uri=http%3A
%2F%2Flocalhost:3000 https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token
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*make sure the command is in one line

Example:

curl -H "Authorization: Basic ZWFjY2I5N2Y2ZDBlNDA1ODk3YWRmMWRkODBiOTVjMDE6YTQxOTVjMmQwYTQyNDM2MDllNjk3ZTYwMmU3MGI3NjI=" -d grant_type=authorization_code -d code=AQBeA9SD7QbA9hUfv_TfmatYxT51CY87msMnOZmMbhf7ZaxfbvG7oKEsATOJBxDyFap0Aq6uftY0v4Hq1QSy3MgQBfAHhmrifty-62rfDRlFnd0AzXRBOMpoOSA6SNw_uTPp7AixAE5zosgiIIf7efhzf1QOJfLh1HUYi248z8jk1x2jjKG2YLvMyJuP0rjB5tP5UHjoFGBvKbULpchkF6yiJHnS -d redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost:3000 https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token
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You will get a JSON like this:

{
  "access_token": "BQDKxO7h1I1wA3esGK9zCFWn97XORJEPjwAHAEIxCnDXcmy9GbEuPacquwWvpiM4d33gJVHVOP9KUxY8AXkpXc-_zRFZBfneHM2vEeV1Fbfr-0Mw94oimlNf77dRiyxPpm4IUVNLloUWgYcfkAO0",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "expires_in": 3600,
  "refresh_token": "AQAtxXvnzRTt4c2-2_Av2WyJQKWxUW_hMVN6QNiqv2i8A2ZElVarmvdhqyc8Pf-Z5n827FTFxTpHq5E3kOsrlRWM3TuJWxjVQsW0icR0zo3BXRFLt2FB2Qfj-pFaZwY-qc8",
  "scope": "user-read-currently-playing"
}
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Example on the terminal:

Terminal

what we need to write down is the refresh_token. That token will last infinitely

Now you can do the request with Next.js or another backend application

3. Creating API routes in Next.js

If you need a reference to create the app, you can check my repository. Don't forget to star it!

You can also use my nextjs-tailwind-starter by using:

npx create-next-app -e https://github.com/theodorusclarence/nextjs-tailwind-starter project-name
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or, if you prefer typescript, there is also a starter template

After all app is installed, add querystring dependency

yarn add querystring

or

npm i querystring
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Next, make an api route in /pages/api/spotify.js

// /pages/api/spotify.js
import querystring from 'querystring';

const {
  SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID: client_id,
  SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET: client_secret,
  SPOTIFY_REFRESH_TOKEN: refresh_token,
} = process.env;

const basic = Buffer.from(`${client_id}:${client_secret}`).toString('base64');
const NOW_PLAYING_ENDPOINT = `https://api.spotify.com/v1/me/player/currently-playing`;
const TOKEN_ENDPOINT = `https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token`;

const getAccessToken = async () => {
  const response = await fetch(TOKEN_ENDPOINT, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Basic ${basic}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
    },
    body: querystring.stringify({
      grant_type: 'refresh_token',
      refresh_token,
    }),
  });

  return response.json();
};

export const getNowPlaying = async () => {
  const { access_token } = await getAccessToken();

  return fetch(NOW_PLAYING_ENDPOINT, {
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${access_token}`,
    },
  });
};

export default async (_, res) => {
  const response = await getNowPlaying();

  if (response.status === 204 || response.status > 400) {
    return res.status(200).json({ isPlaying: false });
  }

  const song = await response.json();
  const isPlaying = song.is_playing;
  const title = song.item.name;
  const artist = song.item.artists.map((_artist) => _artist.name).join(', ');
  const album = song.item.album.name;
  const albumImageUrl = song.item.album.images[0].url;
  const songUrl = song.item.external_urls.spotify;

  return res.status(200).json({
    album,
    albumImageUrl,
    artist,
    isPlaying,
    songUrl,
    title,
  });
};
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Add .env.local with authorization data that we have written (change the data below with yours)

SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID=eaccb97f6d0e405897adf1dd80b95c01
SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET=a4195c2d0a4243609e697e602e70b7
SPOTIFY_REFRESH_TOKEN=AQAtxXvnzRTt4c2-2_Av2WyJQKWxUW_hMVN6QNiqv2i8A2ZElVarmvdhqyc8Pf-Z5n827FTFxTpHq5E3kOsrlRWM3TuJWxjVQsW0icR0zo3BXRFLt2FB2Qfj-pFaZwY-qc8
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Your API is ready with route: GET https://localhost:3000/api/spotify

4. Use API with Next.js

For data fetching, we can use SWR. SWR is a great library that can fetch the API periodically. SWR will do refetching each time we refocus a the window. Also, install react-icons to get the spotify logo.

yarn add swr react-icons

or

npm i swr react-icons
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Add SWR in pages/index.jsx like this:

import useSWR from 'swr';

export default function Home() {
  const fetcher = (url) => fetch(url).then((r) => r.json());
  const { data } = useSWR('/api/spotify', fetcher);
  return (
    <>
      <section className='bg-gray-600'>
        <main className='flex items-center justify-center'>
          {console.log(data)}
        </main>
      </section>
    </>
  );
}
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There will be 2 types of JSON data that will be sent by the Spotify API:

  1. When there is no song playing 
   {
     "isPlaying": false
   }
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  1. When there is a song playing 
   {
     "album": "Menari Dengan Bayangan",
     "albumImageUrl": "https://i.scdn.co/image/ab67616d0000b273d623688488865906052ef96b",
     "artist": "Hindia",
     "isPlaying": true,
     "songUrl": "https://open.spotify.com/track/08OPqLv99g8avzmxQepmiw",
     "title": "Besok Mungkin Kita Sampai"
   }
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So, we can conditionally render the data like this:

<a
  target='_blank'
  rel='noopener noreferer'
  href={
    data?.isPlaying
      ? data.songUrl
      : 'https://open.spotify.com/user/erence21?si=yTsrZT5JSHOp7tn3ist7Ig'
  }
  className='relative flex items-center p-5 space-x-4 transition-shadow border rounded-md hover:shadow-md w-72'
>
  <div className='w-16'>
    {data?.isPlaying ? (
      <img
        className='w-16 shadow-sm'
        src={data?.albumImageUrl}
        alt={data?.album}
      />
    ) : (
      <SiSpotify size={64} color={'#1ED760'} />
    )}
  </div>

  <div className='flex-1'>
    <p className='font-bold component'>
      {data?.isPlaying ? data.title : 'Not Listening'}
    </p>
    <p className='text-xs font-dark'>
      {data?.isPlaying ? data.artist : 'Spotify'}
    </p>
  </div>
  <div className='absolute bottom-1.5 right-1.5'>
    <SiSpotify size={20} color={'#1ED760'} />
  </div>
</a>
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You can check out the live deployment on spotify-playing.theodorusclarence.com

Originally posted on my personal site, find more blog posts and code snippets library I put up for easy access on my site 🚀

Top comments (5)

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demonicirfan profile image
Irfan Asif •

I deployed the project on vercel but the api is not working there what changes i have to do so that i can make it work. Can you please tell. I have added the redirect route also as my website address.

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theodorusclarence profile image
Theodorus Clarence •

dont forget to add the api key to the deployment env

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hrqmonteiro profile image
Henrique Monteiro •

When i do the curl command i get {"error":"invalid_client"}%

How to fix???

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liambrockpy profile image
Liam Brock •

Awesome tutorial, thank you! I decided to modify mine to show most recently played as I prefer being able to always show a song (for anyone interested just change the scope at step 2 to user-read-recently-played and modify the api endpoint in spotify.js, also make sure you handle the response.json() correctly too)

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wereallmonks profile image
Claudia •

Yeah, it works on dev but not production for me either.

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