spotify-tui has had no release since 2021. spotatui is the maintained fork.
spotatui picked up where spotify-tui stopped and kept going: native playback with no spotifyd, synced lyrics, an audio visualizer, Lua plugin scripting — and music sources beyond Spotify (YouTube, Navidrome/Subsonic, internet radio, local files), so it even works without a Premium subscription. It runs on macOS, Linux and Windows, and your old config migrates in one copy.
Playback without extra glue
Many setups can skip the old spotifyd-or-desktop dependency chain thanks to native streaming.
More than playback
Lyrics, visualizer, multiple sources, Lua scripting, local history and recap export are part of the product now.
Active maintenance
The fork keeps shipping rather than freezing at compatibility alone. New features land in every release.
spotatui vs spotify-tui
| spotatui | spotify-tui | |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance | Active — new features in every release | Unmaintained, no release since 2021 |
| Spotify playback | Native, no daemon needed | Requires spotifyd or another Connect device |
| Works without Spotify Premium | Yes — YouTube, Navidrome/Subsonic, internet radio, local files | No |
| Synced lyrics | Yes | No |
| Audio visualizer | Yes — real-time FFT | No |
| Plugins | Lua plugin API | No |
Switch the binary, then review the new capabilities.
Install the maintained fork from Homebrew, Winget, Cargo, the AUR or Nix.
Update shell aliases or scripts to use spotatui instead of spt or the old fork path.
Review the new feature surface: native playback, multiple sources, Lua scripting, lyrics, local history and the optional web companion.
Most of the work is shell-level.
Expect the main migration work to be the package-manager command, the binary name references, and any old automation that still points at the legacy setup. Config paths move from ~/.config/spotify-tui/ to ~/.config/spotatui/.
Common questions
Is spotify-tui still maintained?
No. The original spotify-tui has had no release since v0.25.0 in August 2021. spotatui is an actively maintained fork that keeps shipping new features, including native playback, synced lyrics and multiple music sources.
Do I need Spotify Premium to use spotatui?
Only for the Spotify source. YouTube, Navidrome and other Subsonic servers, live internet radio and local files all work with no Spotify account at all.
Does spotatui work on Windows?
Yes. There are prebuilt Windows binaries and a winget package, alongside Homebrew, Cargo, AUR and Nix on the other platforms.
Can I keep my spotify-tui config?
Yes. Copy ~/.config/spotify-tui/ to ~/.config/spotatui/ and you are done — you may just be asked to re-authenticate with Spotify once. The binary is spotatui instead of spt.