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Spotify Connect for Computers Turns An iPhone Into a Remote Control for Mac

To those saying use AirPlay, this is much better for me and I'm sure for many other people too.

AirPlay requires both devices to be on the same WiFi network - and only a home WiFi network. Even if they're on the same enterprise or university WiFi network then they won't be able to see each other.

Spotify Connect tells their servers what song is playing on which device. So if I play a song on my iPhone, I can select to play it on my Mac. Even if my phone is on 4G and the Mac is on ethernet, then it will still see it and can select songs - these will stream from the ethernet on the Mac and play on there. If I introduce my iPad too then that also knows what's going on and I can select songs on there, all devices update live and show the current position in the song whilst still playing out the speakers connected to my Mac.

I was listening on a song on my Mac directly earlier today. Later in the day, I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket to go to the shop, and it told me what I was listening to on my Mac earlier and asked if I'd like to resume playback on my phone. I did.
 
I'm very pleased to see this functionality added. Theres also a play Q which is fantastic. Only thing that seems missing is a thumbs up/thumbs down option for radio. Did anyone find it?
 
dannys1 said:
It definitely didn't offend me. Its just one of the most bizarre things i've seen someone ask.
Click to expand...

Wow, really? Stick around and the wonders will never cease.

Make sure you are sitting down, but you can actually use your iPhone as a remote for the AppleTV.

Amazing.
 
JaJaWa said:
To those saying use AirPlay, this is much better for me and I'm sure for many other people too.

AirPlay requires both devices to be on the same WiFi network - and only a home WiFi network. Even if they're on the same enterprise or university WiFi network then they won't be able to see each other.

Spotify Connect tells their servers what song is playing on which device. So if I play a song on my iPhone, I can select to play it on my Mac. Even if my phone is on 4G and the Mac is on ethernet, then it will still see it and can select songs - these will stream from the ethernet on the Mac and play on there. If I introduce my iPad too then that also knows what's going on and I can select songs on there, all devices update live and show the current position in the song whilst still playing out the speakers connected to my Mac.

I was listening on a song on my Mac directly earlier today. Later in the day, I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket to go to the shop, and it told me what I was listening to on my Mac earlier and asked if I'd like to resume playback on my phone. I did.
Click to expand...
This is a solid explanation as to why this is a great development even in the face of AirPlay being a thing.

My personal use of this is to control music on my PC while I am KVM switched to my Mac. My PC is, for obvious reasons, hooked up to my speakers/headphones via a dedicated sound card, hence is much better at playing music than my Mac. But it is very tedious to switch inputs to the PC when I'm on the Mac for the sole purpose of pausing the music. This development solves the problem and I am extremely happy with it.
 
What's The Point?

Not understanding the point here.

If I have to use my phone, I'd just connect my phone to one of my Blu-tooth speakers to control the audio. It isn't like computers have decent built in audio (Yes I have speakers hooked up to my PC), which again, I'd just play on my computer speakers if I want to use my computer. Seems like a solution in search of a "problem." I'm sure some people may find it useful, but it can't be that many. I'd rather them focus their time on fixing their buggy app.
 
Found a pretty cool use for it - open Spotify on Mac, go to Apps and install musiXmatch. Open the tab for that. Now you can select songs on your phone and you've got an instant karaoke machine.
 

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JaJaWa said:
To those saying use AirPlay, this is much better for me and I'm sure for many other people too.

AirPlay requires both devices to be on the same WiFi network - and only a home WiFi network. Even if they're on the same enterprise or university WiFi network then they won't be able to see each other.

Spotify Connect tells their servers what song is playing on which device. So if I play a song on my iPhone, I can select to play it on my Mac. Even if my phone is on 4G and the Mac is on ethernet, then it will still see it and can select songs - these will stream from the ethernet on the Mac and play on there.
Click to expand...

Yes! This is very cool indeed. I just tested the interaction of Spotify Connect between my iPhone 6, the beta of Spotify on my MacBook Air, and my new Yamaha receiver (that has Spotify built into it.) I was able to send Spotify music from the iPhone to the Mac and the Yamaha, and from the Mac to the iPhone and the Yamaha too.

I even took my iPhone off WiFi, and used LTE, and was still able to keep these devices in sync. Odd, then, that this note says that "all devices [must be] on the same WiFi."

https://support.spotify.com/us/learn-more/guides/#!/article/spotify-connect

(Because that's simply not true.)
 
They forgot to mention that you need to open the Spotify app on your mac in order to select it as an output from the Spotify app on your iPhone. Otherwise your iPhone won't let you select it.
 
It also (now) needs a paid (Premium) Spotify subscription, whereas before, when this article was originally written, it did not.
 
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