Skip to main content
One Hit Wonder
January 13, 2019
Not for now

Can we please get a "Current song playing" API endpoint?

  • January 13, 2019
  • 30 replies
  • 2352 views
Okay, this has been bothering me for a bit. I was recently "flexed on" by visiting Discord and seeing a bunch of Spotify Rich Presence on peoples profiles. I got into researching for a Deezer alternative, at least something that displays the current song, and I found nothing.

To anyone that doesn't know: Discord is a messaging app that has grown quite popular(think of it as a Skype replacement), and lets you display stuff on your profile, like if you're playing a game or listening to music. Most programs/services have either a 3rd party rich presence app or provide it themselves.

There isn't even an API endpoint for the current song playing and its info. Now I don't want to play an armchair developer, but I was very disappointed I couldn't even make my own Discord rich presence because a music service cannot provide me with the current song playing through their own API.

My tone may seem a bit harsh, but I've been resorting to using a 3rd party app that saves their songs in an SQLITE3 database, and I'm planning on getting the current song from there with C and write my own simple Discord rich presence.

Some of you might now use Discord and might find this completely unnecessary, but I'm mostly making this thread because of the lack of endpoint, not just lack of Discord rich presence.

What the API endpoint would probably need(the bare minimum):
  • Title of the current song, artist, album, album artwork link
  • Status(paused/playing/...)
  • Time(3:30/4:20)
Other things you could achieve with that endpoint:

  • Rich presence on every other thing that provides it with a very tiny memory footprint and overhead(who needs a GUI for that???), which further exposes Deezer to the younger demographics
  • 3rd party clients that would fill up some of the niche markets, first thing I can think of is a terminal client? People make that and other people like it, doesn't cost anyone nothing
One more disclaimer. I am aware of the "workaround" with the Javascript SDK. However I find this completely unnecessary as that limits everyone's options, and something as simple and permanently running in the background does not need a javascript SDK.

If I missed something somewhere, go ahead and contact me.

Once again I apologize for possibly sounding either confrontational or rude. I just want this endpoint, and not rely on 3rd party software for the fun little programs/scripts I like to make in my free time. I would never make this thread if I haven't seen a thread on StackOverflow that's 3 years old and has the problem of that missing endpoint.

30 replies

bluezzbastardzz
Superuser
Superuser
March 6, 2020

Right, I thought I had already posted and voted here, but maybe it was another related idea about that necessary API endpoint. For example the internal Deezer scrobbling option does not show the currently playing song on your Last.fm profile for this reason, only the last scrobbled song. There is a workaround for that by using the Web Scrobbler browser extension which can provide this info, but then you are tied to the Deezer web player.

Same is true for another existing Chrome browser extension which can actually show the currently playing Deezer song in your Discord profile.

And there is a small Windows standalone app which also suffers from that and only shows the previous song.

Concerning a possible Discord/Deezer/Last.fm connection, there is the Discord .fmbot which can show your “Scrobbling now” track from your Last.fm profile’s Recent Tracks list and more statistical infos in a channel and can be added to any Discord server by an admin or moderator. So if you scrobble your Deezer listening to Last.fm, you could also show it on Discord in real-time when using the Web Scrobbler browser extension in the Deezer web player. Using the internal Deezer scrobbling it will only show the previous track. Example from the Last.fm Discord server:

 

ZZee ya, Hans-Jürgen (Bluezz Bastardzz and Indigo Rocks, live album on Deezer, last.fm/user/hjbardenhagen)
One Hit Wonder
December 26, 2020

Hi, any news on this ?

Guitar Hero
December 27, 2020

@Creadeyh probably on indefinite hold, like every project at deezer that would make integration into any other service (even user-made) even slightly easier, apparently

Rafael.
Ultimate Superstar
Ultimate Superstar
February 10, 2021
Updated idea status In discussionFeedback
One Hit Wonder
April 4, 2021

Any updates?

Rising Star
May 19, 2021

Hello Deezer,

anything new on this?

NetherMC
Roadie
Roadie
January 12, 2022

Anything new? 

Nora Bauer
Roadie
Roadie
January 25, 2022

keeping it alive…

it would be great to have this!

Roadie
February 9, 2022

So here is where the lack of a current song API is really affecting me. I took the decision to move from Spotify to Deezer for many reasons and I am struggling today to set it all up. On of the things I did with Spotify is live scrobble what I'm playing on the app to my lastfm. This is then picked up by something called Pixelchat which creates a live widget of what I'm playing including album art etc and I can display that as a browser source on my live Twitch stream. This allows all my viewers to see what song is playing instead of asking all the time. 

 

It works seamlessly with Spotify, instantly updating any song I’m playing. But with Deezer it only updates after the song has finished or I move to another track (therefore it’s always displaying one track ago rather than live). 

 

This is actually a big deal for me and I’m disappointed after what looks like the OP suggesting this 3 years ago it hasn't moved on. Rethinking my choice to move if I am honest now. I don't want to be tied to using a web browsing scrobbler as it picks up everything including youtube videos etc so it can mess with what's displayed on my stream.

 

Come on Deezer, sounds like a currently playing integration to Lastfm is something a lot of people would like for varying reasons.

Yula
Deezer Staff
Deezer Staff
March 31, 2022
Updated idea statusFeedbackNot for now
(She/her) add your pronouns to your signature!