A high-performance Millennium plugin that integrates Spotify and Windows System Media Transport Controls (SMTC) with Steam, showing gorgeous notifications whenever a new song starts playing.
Tip
New in Version 2.0: The plugin now features a native C# background daemon that listens directly to Windows media events with zero lag, zero annoying popup console windows, <12MB RAM consumption, and absolutely no Spotify developer account or authentication required!
- 🖥️ Universal Windows Media Support (New!): Natively integrates with Windows 10/11 System Media Transport Controls (SMTC). Works instantly with Spotify (Desktop/Web), YouTube, VLC, and any media player that integrates with Windows.
- ⚡ Lightweight & Silent: The event-driven C# background daemon uses WinRT events, consuming
< 12MB RAMand0% CPUat rest. Starts 100% windowlessly and silently via LuaJIT FFICreateProcessA(no annoying command prompt flash). - 🔌 Dual Mode Support:
- Windows Media Mode (Recommended): Plug-and-play. Grabs active media details directly from Windows with base64 album artwork.
- Spotify Playback & Web API Modes: Legacy modes that support connecting directly to Spotify's APIs (with automatic token refreshing and OAuth).
- 🎨 Rich Notifications: Displays album artwork, artist names, song titles, and playback status directly in Steam's native notification system.
- 🌐 Multilingual Support (New!): Dynamically localizes all settings panels, tooltips, playback control labels, and notifications in English, Spanish, and Portuguese depending on the Steam Client's active language.
- ⚙️ Steam Native Control Panel: Access the settings interface directly via the Millennium settings inside Steam to select your preferred media source and adjust notification preferences.
- Millennium - Steam client modification framework.
- Windows 10 or 11
- .NET 9 Runtime (Required to run the high-performance media daemon).
- (Optional - Legacy) Python 3.7+ (Only if you intend to run the legacy Spotify Playback API local server).
Clone this repository directly into your Millennium plugins directory:
# Navigate to your Millennium plugins folder (e.g., C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\plugins)
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/spotify-notifications-steam.git
# Install dependencies and build the plugin frontend
cd spotify-notifications-steam
pnpm install
pnpm run build- Start Steam with Millennium active.
- Go to Millennium settings -> Plugins and enable Spotify & Windows Media Notifications.
- Click the settings/configuration button next to the plugin in Millennium to open the control panel.
- Select Windows Media as your source mode to enjoy instant, configuration-free notifications for Spotify and any other media player!
If you prefer to connect directly to the Spotify Web API instead of using the local Windows Media daemon:
This method connects to a local playback API server running on your machine. You can use either:
- 🐍 Python Version: The spotify-playback-http (less-compat-version) server. You can automatically configure and run it with:
python setup_playback_server.py
- 🦀 Rust Version (Highly Recommended Reimplementation): The ultra-fast, lightweight spotify-server reimplementation, which runs natively with minimal footprint.
- Go to the Spotify Developer Dashboard and create an app.
- Set the Redirect URI to
http://localhost:8888/callback. - Open the plugin Control Panel via the Millennium settings in Steam.
- Select Spotify Web API as your connection mode.
- Enter your Client ID and Client Secret directly into the settings fields, click Authenticate, and paste the callback URL/code to exchange it.
- Click Save Settings! (For detailed step-by-step instructions, see SPOTIFY_SETUP.md).
graph TD
Steam[Steam Client / Millennium] <--> |FFI IPC| Lua[backend/main.lua]
Lua <--> |CreateProcessA Silent| Daemon[backend/MediaDaemon.exe]
Daemon <--> |WinRT SMTC API| OS[Windows Media Controls]
Lua <--> |Callable RPCs| React[frontend/index.tsx]
- Millennium Frontend (
frontend/): Renders the Steam UI Control Panel, polls track information, and invokes native Steam notifications. - Millennium Backend (
backend/main.lua): Launches theMediaDaemon.execompletely silently (using LuaJIT FFICreateProcessAwithCREATE_NO_WINDOW) and acts as the bridge for frontend RPC calls. - Media Daemon (
backend/MediaDaemon.exe): A high-efficiency .NET 9 executable that registers native event listeners on Windows GlobalSystemMediaTransportControlsSessionManager, saving active track state updates tomedia_state.jsonand taking playback commands frommedia_command.txt.
get_windows_media(): Readsmedia_state.jsonand returns the active track metadata (title, artist, album, progress, duration, and base64-encoded thumbnail).control_windows_media(command): Writes a playback control action (e.g.play,pause,next,previous, orstop) tomedia_command.txtfor the C# daemon to execute.
If you wish to make changes to the C# daemon or build from source:
# Open backend/MediaDaemon subproject
cd backend/MediaDaemon
# Build release binary
dotnet build -c ReleaseThe compiled binary will be placed inside the backend/ directory as MediaDaemon.exe.
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more details.
- Built for the Millennium homebrew Steam framework.
- Inspired by the need for a modern, battery-efficient, and elegant media companion inside Steam.
If you love this plugin and want to support its active development, performance improvements, and new features, consider supporting me on Patreon!
Your support helps keep this and other Steam/Millennium open-source projects actively maintained and updated!
