Multimedia keys do not work with Spotify

Even though Spotify shows up in the indicator-sound just fine (Controlling it works from there) using multimedia keys on your keyboard does nothing.

When I open up Rhythmbox they're able to control the music there, so the keyboard settings seem ok.

Solution 1:

Try out Spotify Gnome

Spotify-Gnome is a program that provides Gnome media key support for the Spotify Linux client. It supports the play/pause, stop, next, and previous signals, and is compatible with both Gnome 2 and Gnome 3.

Solution 2:

Disclaimer: I work for Spotify

This was a known missing feature of the linux client, but we added it in version 0.9.4. So while this thread is rather old, it's worth noting that it should now work. If you continue to experience problems with the media keys, then please post a message on the community forums.

Solution 3:

For people still having this problem: my issue was my Chrome caught all incoming media keys and so they did not reach the Spotify app. You can fix this by going to chrome://flags/#hardware-media-key-handling in the Chrome address bar and setting the Hardware Media Key Handling to Disabled

Based on https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/Play-Pause-keyboard-button-doesn-t-work-on-Spotify/m-p/4730810/highlight/true#M75206

Solution 4:

You can use spotify-notify. Not only does it provide notify-osd notifications, but it also has support for media keys.