How to run Spotify on Linux

Spotify is a popular streaming music service developed by Spotify AB of Sweden. Like music streaming services, it enables you to enjoy and share the songs you love anytime,anywhere. Well, not exactly anywhere – Spotify is currently only available in a few western European countries – Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Spotify requires the use of desktop clients. At this time, clients are only available for Windows and Mac OS X. A Linux client is still in development. A preview version for Debian Squeeze and Ubuntu 10.04 of the development branch was released on July 12, 2010. This post shows to install the Linux client on both distributions, and then to take it for a spin in countries where the Spotify service is available. Keep in mind that you can also install Spotify on any other distribution derived from Ubuntu or Debian.

To install and run Spotify requires the following steps:

1. Add the Spotify repository – Launch a shell terminal and type sudo add-apt-repository ‘deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free’ . The single quotes around the sourceline is part of the command.
2. To Verify packages, add the Spotify public key by typing gpg –keyserver wwwkeys.de.pgp.net –recv-keys 4E9CFF4E and gpg –export 4E9CFF4E |sudo apt-key add -.
3. Update The Package Database by typing sudo apt-get update
4. Install the Spotify Client – By typing sudo apt-get install spotify-client-qt.
5. Run Spotify – From the same shell terminal that you’ve been running the previous commands, type spotify to launch the client.

   The login window of the Spotify client is shown below. To use the service, you’ll have to register and login, and if the service is available in your country, you may then partake of the service. Note that Spotify has a free, ad-supported streaming service, and a few paid options.
   

   

   The Spotify Client on Ubuntu 10.04

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