How to Play Spotify on VLC Media Player
"I am a fan of Spotify music, but honestly I don't really like the Spotify app. Every time it takes a long time to load up and the playback features are limited. Besides, I feel like my privacy is violated when Spotify posts my listening songs on Facebook. Is there a way to play Spotify through VLC instead? Thanks for any help. " - From Jeremy Torres.
As an incredible media player, VLC is one of the best Spotify alternatives. But as it doesn't support streaming music service, it's not able to directly stream Spotify to VLC. Fortunately, there is still an effective solution to make VLC and Spotify work together. If you are eager to do that, please follow the steps in this article.
Part 1. Why You Can't Play Spotify through VLC Directly
VLC media player is one of the all-mighty free media players in the market. Compared to the Spotify app, it makes music playback more simple yet gives users more tools they want. This player works well on all kinds of mobile devices, computers, Linux servers, and much more. In general, you can enjoy different kinds of media files including videos, podcasts, audiobooks, music in the VLC player. As for audio playback in VLC, it usually supports MP3, AAC, Vorbis, FLAC, ALAC, etc.
It's well-known that Spotify is the most popular streaming platform. It has changed the way people enjoy music today. It offers various audios, including podcasts, audiobooks, playlists, music, and more. By paying a $10/month subscription, you can enjoy high-quality songs, and cache songs offline. But all Spotify songs are saved as Ogg Vorbis format under copyright protection. This unique technology limits the tracks within Spotify's ecosystem.
Now, the reason why you can’t get Spotify on VLC is obvious. One is the format compatibility, the other is the DRM protection. So, When VLC wants access to control Spotify, it will be rejected.
Part 2. Best Tool to Get Spotify Music on VLC Player
To get Spotify music on VLC, what you need to do is to convert protected Spotify songs to VLC compatible files. So is there a tool to do that like magic?
DRmare Spotify Music Converter for Mac/Spotify Music Converter for Windows is the most qualified software. DRmare software supports downloading all kinds of Spotify tracks, playlists, albums, artists. And it can remove DRM from Spotify music. Of course, it's able to convert Spotify tracks to multiple kinds of formats for VLC player with ease. With the help of this tool, you can not only use Spotify on VLC but also other third-party players, including iTunes, QuickTime, and etc.
DRmare Spotify to VLC Converter
- Extremely easy to use, even if you are new to computers, you can use it at first glance
- Batch convert Spotify songs at a 5X faster speed, much better than any rivals
- Export protected OGG songs to FLAC, MP3, AAC, M4A, M4B for VLC player
- Automatically keep the ID3 tag info, metadata, and archive music by artist/album
How to Download Spotify Music for VLC Media Player
VLC supports all kinds of video and audio files such as WAV, AAC, MP3, OGG, AIFF, Raw audio, CD. If you'd like stream Spotify to VLC, please choose one of them in DRmare Spotify Music Converter to convert Spotify songs. Now, let's do that on your computer.
- Step 1Launch DRmare and add Spotify songs
- You can double click DRmare software to launch it, Spotify app will be opened together. Then you can copy the link of the songs and then press the "+" button on the DRmare software. Or you can drag and drop the songs, playlists, artists to the DRmare software main interface.
- Step 2Pick up the output format for VLC
- VLC Media Player supports almost any format, so it doesn't matter what kind of format you selected. If you'd like to play Spotify on other players besides VLC, it is highly recommended to choose "MP3". If you'd like to convert Spotify songs losslessly, it is better to choose "FLAC". In a word, it totally depends on your requirement.
- Step 3Convert Spotify for VLC media Player
- In the end, you can press the "Convert" button to get rid of protection. At the same time, it will download your OGG Vorbis songs to new common formats on your computer at 5X speed. Note: Please don't use any proxy settings on your network else it may prevent the software from downloading Spotify songs smoothly.
- Video DemoDownload Spotify songs for VLC Media Player
Part 3. How to Stream Spotify to VLC Media Player
Congratulations! Now you are ready to stream Spotify to VLC without having to use the VLC Spotify plugin. This is actually easy, but it is still worth mentioning here as some users may be a newbie to VLC. The instruction is similar for all versions of VLC media players. Let's see how to send audio output from Spotify to the VLC player.
Step 1. Launch the VLC player, you will see the main screen of it.
Step 2. You can click the top menu "File" > "Open File" or "Open Folder" to select the converted Spotify songs. And then they can be imported to VLC to play offline automatically.
Step 3. VLC can control Spotify playback. It's able to control songs, like shuffle, fast forward, backward, increase/reduce volume, show audio waves, set mono/stereo mode, and so on.
Do you still have any questions when playing Spotify through VLC? Just tell us in the comment section below, I will help you out personally.
