Spotify MCP server

The Spotify MCP server allows Claude to control your Spotify account, enabling playback control, search functionality, and playlist management through the Model Context Protocol. This integration is built on top of the spotipy-dev API.

Features

• Start, pause, and skip music playback
• Search for tracks, albums, artists, and playlists
• Get detailed information about music content
• Manage the Spotify queue
• Create, update, and manage playlists

Installation

Getting Spotify API Keys

Before using the Spotify MCP server, you need to obtain API credentials:

1. Create an account on developer.spotify.com
2. Navigate to the dashboard
3. Create a new app
4. Set the redirect URI to http://127.0.0.1:8080/callback (you can choose any port, but must use http and an explicit loopback address)

Note: You need a Spotify Premium account to use the developer API.

Method 1: Run with UVX (Recommended)

Add this snippet to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "spotify": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--python", "3.12",
        "--from", "git+https://github.com/varunneal/spotify-mcp",
        "spotify-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID": "YOUR_CLIENT_ID",
        "SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET": "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET",
        "SPOTIFY_REDIRECT_URI": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/callback"
      }
    }
  }
}

Method 2: Run Locally

To avoid opening the Spotify redirect URI for every tool call, you can run the project locally:

1. Clone the repository:

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

2. Add this to your MCP configuration:

{
  "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://127.0.0.1:8080/callback"
      }
    }
  }
}

Finding Your MCP Configuration File

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

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

• Ensure uv is updated to version 0.54 or newer
• If running locally, set execution permissions: chmod -R 755 /path/to/spotify-mcp
• Check logs:
  • On Mac: ~/Library/Logs/Claude
  • On other platforms: Follow the MCP documentation

Using the MCP Inspector

For debugging, you can use the MCP Inspector:

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

This will display a URL to access the inspector in your browser.

Usage

After installation, Claude can interact with your Spotify account. Here are some examples of what you can ask Claude to do:

• "Play the song 'Bohemian Rhapsody'"
• "Pause my music"
• "Skip to the next track"
• "Search for Taylor Swift albums"
• "Add this song to my queue"
• "Create a new playlist called 'Workout Mix'"
• "Show me what's in my 'Favorites' playlist"
• "Add this song to my 'Chill Vibes' playlist"

The MCP server handles the communication between Claude and the Spotify API, allowing for natural language control of your music experience.

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://127.0.0.1:8080/callback"}}'

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://127.0.0.1:8080/callback"
            }
        }
    }
}

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://127.0.0.1:8080/callback"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect