Support

Product: Now Playing & Album Art (Stream Deck plugin for Windows) · Provider: GRAMSHIFT (Tokyo, Japan)

Contact

Email contact@gramshift.com in English or Japanese. Ideas for new features and bug reports are welcome, and every message is read. We reply within 7 business days, usually sooner. Please include your Windows version (Settings > System > About), your Stream Deck app version, the music app or web site you play from, and a screenshot of the key's settings page (its Status line says what the plugin sees).

Get started

Install Now Playing & Album Art from the Elgato Marketplace.
Play music in Spotify, a browser tab (YouTube and other sites), Media Player or another music app.
In the Stream Deck app, find Now Playing & Album Art in the action list and drag Now Playing onto a key. It shows the album art, title and artist right away. Press it to play or pause.
Add Play / Pause, Next Track, Previous Track, Skip Back / Forward, Switch Player and, on Stream Deck +, the Media Dial where you want them.

The plugin works with apps that show their song in the Windows media controls, such as Spotify and web browsers: the small box that appears next to the volume when you press a media key on your keyboard. If an app shows there, the keys can show and control it. When one app plays two things at the same time, the keys show and control the first one.

It needs Windows 10 version 1809 or later, or Windows 11, and the Stream Deck app 6.9 or later. It uses Windows PowerShell, which is part of Windows, so there is no other app to install.

The actions

Now Playing: the cover with the title, artist and a time bar (Cover), the app, title and artist as text (Text), or the album art alone (Cover only). Press sets what a press does: play / pause, next song, previous song or nothing.
Big cover: put four Now Playing keys in a square, set Look to Cover only, and give each key its corner in Big cover (Top left of 4, Top right of 4, Bottom left of 4, Bottom right of 4).
Play / Pause, Next Track, Previous Track: with the cover behind the symbol or a dark look. A key turns grey when the app does not allow that step now.
Skip Back / Forward: choose Direction and Step (5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 seconds). The key shows where the song is.
Switch Player: when two or more apps have a song, each press picks the next one. Every key set to Follow the chosen player (the default) shows and controls that app.
Media Dial (Stream Deck +): the cover, title, artist and time on the touch screen. Turn to move in the song (5, 10, 15 or 30 seconds per notch) or set Turn to next / previous song. Push to play or pause, touch for the next song, touch and hold to switch player.
App (every key): keep Follow the chosen player, or pick one app so the key always shows and controls that app, whatever Switch Player chose.

What the keys show

On the key	What it means	What to do
Nothing / playing	No app shows a song in the Windows media controls now.	Start music or a video in an app that shows in the Windows media controls.
(app name) / not playing	The key is set to one app, and that app has no song now.	Play something in that app, or set App back to Follow the chosen player.
No player	Switch Player has no app to choose from.	Start music in an app; the key shows it at once.
Unknown title	The app sent no song title (common for some web sites and live streams).	Nothing to fix: the keys still control the app.
A colored background with a music note	The app sent no cover for this song.	Nothing to fix: the keys still control the app.
No time bar, or Live on Skip Back / Forward	The app sent no song length (a live stream, or the app does not share it).	Moving in the song is not possible then; the other keys work.
A grey key	The app does not allow that step now (for example moving in a live stream).	Use the app's own button, or wait until the app allows it again.
Can't read / see settings	The plugin could not read what plays on this PC. It tries again every few seconds.	Open the key's settings and read the Status line. If it stays, restart the Stream Deck app; if it still stays, email us that line.

Show the song in OBS

Open the settings of any key of this plugin. Under OBS, turn on Write the song to text files. The setting is shared by every key.
The files go to Documents\Now Playing, or to the full path you type in Folder. The Files line shows where they are written.
nowplaying.txt holds the Text pattern (by default {artist} - {title}; you can also use {album} and {app}). title.txt, artist.txt and cover.jpg hold the title, the artist and the cover.
In OBS, add a Text source, tick Read from file and choose nowplaying.txt. For the cover, add an Image source with cover.jpg.
When nothing plays, the files are emptied, so the overlay disappears. Turn on Empty the files while paused to hide it while paused too.

Questions

Spotify plays but the key says Nothing playing. Check that Spotify shows in the Windows media controls (press a media key on your keyboard, or open the volume flyout). If it does not, turn on Show desktop overlay when using media keys in Spotify's settings, then play a song again.

A browser tab does not show. A browser shares a tab with the Windows media controls while it plays media. Play the tab again; if several tabs play, pause the ones you do not want.

Previous Track starts the song again. Many apps go back to the start of the song first, as their own button does. Press twice to reach the previous song.

Does it change the volume? No. Volume stays with Windows and your apps.

Does it work on Mac? No, it is for Windows 10 version 1809 or later, and Windows 11.

Privacy

The plugin runs on your PC. It has no account and no telemetry and sends nothing online. Files are written only when you turn on the OBS setting, to the folder shown in the settings. See the privacy policy.