Spotify MCP server

This MCP server lets you control Spotify through Claude, allowing you to manage playback, search for content, and manipulate your Spotify queue using natural language commands.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• A Spotify Premium account
• Spotify developer API credentials
• Python with uv package manager (recommended version ≥0.54)

Installation

Step 1: Obtain Spotify API Credentials

1. Create an account on developer.spotify.com
2. Navigate to the dashboard
3. Create a new app with http://localhost:8888 as the redirect URI
4. Set "APIs used" to "Web Playback SDK"
5. Note your Client ID and Client Secret

Step 2: Set Up the MCP Server

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/varunneal/spotify-mcp.git

Step 3: Configure Claude Desktop

Add this tool as an MCP server by editing your Claude Desktop configuration file:

• On MacOS: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add the following configuration (replace placeholders with your actual values):

"spotify": {
    "command": "uv",
    "args": [
      "--directory",
      "/path/to/spotify_mcp",
      "run",
      "spotify-mcp"
    ],
    "env": {
      "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID": "YOUR_CLIENT_ID",
      "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET": "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET",
      "SPOTIFY_REDIRECT_URI": "http://localhost:8888"
    }
}

Alternative: Install via Smithery

You can also install the MCP server automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @varunneal/spotify-mcp --client claude

Usage

Once installed, you can use Claude to control your Spotify playback. The MCP server supports the following features:

Playback Control

• Start, pause, and resume playback
• Skip to the next or previous track
• Control volume

Content Search

Ask Claude to search for:

• Songs/tracks
• Albums
• Artists
• Playlists

Content Information

Request details about:

• Currently playing track
• Specific tracks, albums, artists, or playlists

Queue Management

• Add tracks to your queue
• View your current queue
• Remove tracks from the queue

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues with the MCP server:

1. Ensure uv is updated to version ≥0.54
2. Verify Claude has execution permissions for the project: chmod -R 755 /path/to/spotify_mcp
3. Confirm you have a Spotify Premium account (required for the Spotify developer API)
4. For debugging, use the MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv --directory /path/to/spotify_mcp run spotify-mcp

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "spotify" '{"command":"uv","args":["--directory","/path/to/spotify_mcp","run","spotify-mcp"],"env":{"SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID":"YOUR_CLIENT_ID","SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET":"YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET","SPOTIFY_REDIRECT_URI":"http://localhost:8888"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "spotify": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/path/to/spotify_mcp",
                "run",
                "spotify-mcp"
            ],
            "env": {
                "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID": "YOUR_CLIENT_ID",
                "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET": "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET",
                "SPOTIFY_REDIRECT_URI": "http://localhost:8888"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "spotify": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/path/to/spotify_mcp",
                "run",
                "spotify-mcp"
            ],
            "env": {
                "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID": "YOUR_CLIENT_ID",
                "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET": "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET",
                "SPOTIFY_REDIRECT_URI": "http://localhost:8888"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect