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Installing the Spotify MCP Server

We teach you how to enable Claude to control your Spotify

Model context protocol (MCP) servers provide the tools for AI to take actions on your behalf. In this tutorial, we teach you how to install the Spotify MCP server that allows AI to queue up songs and make playlists. The server is straightforward to set up if you know some basic level software development.

Prerequisites

  • Base level understanding of software engineering, Git

  • Install Node.js. (We’ll be using a Nodejs MCP Server for this tutorial, but there are other Spotify MCP servers written in other languages.

  • An MCP compatible client like Claude Desktop (Anthropic) or Cursor

  • Spotify Premium Account

Installation

The MCP server we will be installing is Spotify MCP Server by Marcel Marais. This is in my opinion, one of the most comprehensive and well written MCP servers. The detailed set up instructions are here in the GitHub ReadMe. I will also take you through the instructions in this article

Step 1: Create a Spotify Developer Account and App

  1. Go to the Spotify Developer Dashboard

  2. Log in with your Spotify account

  3. Click the "Create an App" button

  4. Fill in the app name and description

  5. Accept the Terms of Service and click "Create"

  6. In your new app's dashboard, you'll see your Client ID

  7. Click "Show Client Secret" to reveal your Client Secret

  8. Click "Edit Settings" and add a Redirect URI (e.g., http://localhost:8888/callback)

  9. Save your changes

Step 2: Clone the repo and configure settings

Clone the Spotify MCP server repo. This downloads the server code to your computer.

git clone https://github.com/marcelmarais/spotify-mcp-server.git

Create a spotify-config.json file in the project root (you can copy and modify the provided example):

cp spotify-config.example.json spotify-config.json

Open up the spotify-config.json and paste in the client ID and client Secret tokens that you got in the Create Spotify Developer App step. This step allows the MCP server to connect to your Spotify MCP App.

{
  "clientId": "your-client-id",
  "clientSecret": "your-client-secret",
  "redirectUri": "http://localhost:8888/callback"
}

Next, open up a terminal to the MCP’s root directory and run the command

npm run auth

This will open up a browser that will ask you to authenticate into your Spotify account. Once you’ve authenticated your Spotify account, the MCP will save your user tokens into the spotify-config.json. Now, the Spotify MCP has access to your Spotify account to take actions on your behalf. This is safe as the tokens are stored on your local device, not saved with someone else.

Configure the MCP in Claude Desktop

For this tutorial, we will be using Claude Desktop as the MCP client. Hit Settings → Developer → Edit Config. This will take you to the file called claude_desktop_config.json

Open up that file, and paste in the following:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "spotify": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["spotify-mcp-server/build/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Find the /build/index.js in the MCP code. Replace the "args": ["spotify-mcp-server/build/index.js"] with the file location of your build/index.js file in your MCP code. Once that is done, you should be all set to go to control your Spotify account with Claude! Make sure to refresh Claude Desktop after you finished configuring.

Follow ups

To learn more about MCPs, I highly recommend you read the official documentation on MCPs written by the Anthropic team. This short article by Waleed Kadous is also a great non-technical explanation on what they are, and why are a game changer in the AI space.

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