NowPlaying measure

Measure=NowPlaying retrieves information about the currently playing track from a number of media players.

Note: NowPlaying was previously a plugin measure.

In many existing skins you might see the syntax:

[MeasureParent]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=NowPlaying
or
Plugin=NowPlaying.dll
or
Plugin=Plugins\NowPlaying.dll

NowPlaying still works with those forms, and changing existing skins to the new Measure=NowPlaying syntax is entirely optional. However, new skins created going forward should use the correct syntax for accuracy and clarity. NowPlaying is a measure, and not a plugin.

[MeasureParent]
Measure=NowPlaying

Options

General measure options
All general measure options are valid.
PlayerName
Can be either:
  • The player interface name (e.g. PlayerName=iTunes)
  • Or the name of another measure (e.g. PlayerName=[MainMeasure])
Important: If multiple measures use the same player, specify the player interface name on the first NowPlaying measure and specify the name of the first measure in subsequent measures. See example below for proper usage.
PlayerType
Type of the measure value. Valid values are:
  • Artist: Track artist.
  • Album: Current album.
  • Title: Track title.
  • Number: Track number.
  • Year: Track year.
  • Genre: Track genre.
  • Cover: Path to cover art.
  • File: Path to the playing media file.
  • Duration: Total length of track in seconds.
  • Lyrics: Lyrics for track, downloaded from Letras
  • Position: Current position in track in seconds.
  • Progress: Percentage of track completed.
  • Rating: Rating of current track (0 to 5).
  • Repeat: 0 if repeat/loop track is off, 1 if on.
  • Shuffle: 0 if shuffle/random tracks is off, 1 if on.
  • State: 0 for stopped, 1 for playing, and 2 for paused.
  • Status: 0 for inactive (player closed) and 1 for active (player open).
  • Volume: From 0 to 100.

Notes:
With measures of type Duration or Position, the string value is in the form MM:SS and the number value is the actual number of seconds.

The Lyrics type will detect and use both the Artist and Title values found for the .mp3 file in its ID3 tags, and will search https://www.letras.mus.br for the lyrics, returning the first match. No match is possible if both Artist and Title are not present in the ID3 tags for the .mp3 file.

The PlayerType=Genre option is currently supported with the AIMP, CAD, iTunes, WMP and WinAmp PlayerName values.

PlayerPath
If defined, used to launch the player with the OpenPlayer command. If not defined, the plugin will attempt to automatically detect the path.
TrackChangeAction
Action to execute when the track changes.
DisableLeadingZero Default: 0
If set to 1, the format of Duration and Position is M:SS instead of MM:SS. This option must be set on the main measure.

Bangs

NowPlaying measures can be controlled with the !CommandMeasure bang with the argument parameter being:

  • Pause: Pause current track.
  • Play: Play current track.
  • PlayPause: Play (if stopped/paused) or pause (if playing) current track.
  • Stop: Stop current track.
  • Next: Change to next track.
  • Previous: Change to previous track.
  • OpenPlayer: Opens the player. If already open, the player will be brought to the top.
  • ClosePlayer: Closes the player.
  • TogglePlayer: Opens/closes the player depending on current state.
  • SetPosition n: Where n is either an absolute value (SetPosition 50 to jump to 50% of the track) or a relative value (SetPosition +5 to jump 5% forward or SetPosition -10 to jump 10% backward).
  • SetRating n: Where n is a value between 0 (no rating) and 5 (maximum rating).
  • SetShuffle n: Where n is 1 (shuffle on), 0 (shuffle off), or -1 (toggle shuffle).
  • SetRepeat n: Where n is 1 (repeat on), 0 (repeat off), or -1 (toggle repeat).
  • SetVolume n: Where n is either an absolute value (SetVolume 50 to set volume to 50%) or a relative value (SetVolume +20 to increase volume by 20% orSetVolume -40 to decrease volume by 40%).

Note: On partially supported players, as well as players not listed here, the MediaKey measure can be used to substitute some of the bangs listed above.

Fully supported players

The following players are fully supported. All features should work unless stated otherwise.

  • AIMP: PlayerName=AIMP
    Fully supported. Tested with AIMP 5.00.
  • foobar2000: PlayerName=CAD
    Fully supported. The foo_cad plugin (download) needs to be installed.
  • iTunes: PlayerName=iTunes
    Fully supported. Tested with iTunes 10.2.
  • J. River Media Center and Media Jukebox: PlayerName=CAD
    Fully supported through the CAD interface with Media Center 19 and later. More information here.
  • MusicBee: PlayerName=CAD
    Fully supported. MusicBee 1.2 (or higher) is required.
  • Winamp: PlayerName=Winamp
    Fully supported.
  • WMP: PlayerName=WMP
    Fully supported, except for the Repeat / Shuffle types.

Partially supported players

The following players are partially supported. Only some features will work.

  • Spotify: PlayerName=Spotify
    Partially supported. Only the types Artist, Title and the bangs Play, PlayPause, Stop, Next, and Previous are available.
  • Last.fm Client, TTPlayer, OpenPandora, Zune: PlayerName=WLM
    Partially supported. Even in the best case, only the types Title, Artist, Album and the bangs Play, Pause, PlayPause, Next, Previous, Stop are supported.

Example

For a more complete example, check the Soita skin.

[Rainmeter]
Update=1000
BackgroundMode=2
SolidColor=0,0,0,255

; MeasurePlayer is the main measure.
; MeasureArtist and MeasureAlbum are secondary measures.

[MeasurePlayer]
Measure=NowPlaying
; The main measure specifies the media player on PlayerName.
PlayerName=iTunes
PlayerType=TITLE
; PlayerPath, TrackChangeAction, and DisableLeadingZero are valid here on
; the main measure only.

[MeasureArtist]
Measure=NowPlaying
; Secondary measures specify the name of the main measure on PlayerName.
PlayerName=[MeasurePlayer]
PlayerType=ARTIST

[MeasureAlbum]
Measure=NowPlaying
PlayerName=[MeasurePlayer]
PlayerType=ALBUM

[MeterPrev]
Meter=String
X=5
Y=5
FontColor=FFFF00
Text="Prev"
LeftMouseUpAction=[!CommandMeasure "MeasurePlayer" "Previous"]

[MeterNext]
Meter=String
X=20R
Y=5
FontColor=FFFF00
Text="Next"
LeftMouseUpAction=[!CommandMeasure "MeasurePlayer" "Next"]

[MeterTitle]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasurePlayer
X=5
Y=35
W=400
H=20
FontColor=255,255,255,255
Text="Title: %1"

[MeterArtist]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureArtist
X=5
Y=55
W=400
H=20
FontColor=255,255,255,255
Text="Artist: %1"

[MeterAlbum]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureAlbum
X=5
Y=75
W=400
H=20
FontColor=255,255,255,255
Text="Album: %1"