This is a simple program that emits a json with metadata info you can use in f.e. Waybar. Additionally you can let it auto-pause media players you provide, f.e. starting a video in your browser will pause spotify.

Arch: yay -S pww-bin

Simply download a pre-built binary from the release page

Regular GOBIN folder (make sure it's in your PATH): go install github.com/abenz1267/pww@latest

Install to custom location: GOBIN=<custom location> go install github.com/abenz1267/pww@latest

f.e. sudo GOBIN=/usr/bin/ go install github.com/abenz1267/pww@latest

Additionally a -p flag can be provided to specify a placeholder for empty text. F.e. when the player isn't running.

You can also provide -f flag to specify the format of the text output. F.e. pww -w spotify -f '{{title}} - {{artist}}' will emit {"class": "Playing", "text": "Song Title - Artist Name"}. You can find more information about supported formats here.

This is how you'd use it as a custom module in Waybar.

//config
"custom/spotifytitle": {
    "format": "{}",
    "max-length": 40,
    "return-type": "json",
    "exec": "pww -w spotify:title -p None 2> /dev/null",
    "on-click": "playerctl --player=spotify play-pause 2> /dev/null",
    "on-scroll-up": "playerctl --player=spotify next 2> /dev/null",
    "on-scroll-down": "playerctl --player=spotify previous 2> /dev/null"
}

//style
#custom-spotifytitle {
  background: #98bb6c;
  color: #1f1f28;
  padding: 0 10px;
  margin-right: 10px;
  opacity: 1;
  transition-property: opacity;
  transition-duration: 0.25s;
}

#custom-spotifytitle.Paused,
#custom-spotifytitle.Inactive {
  opacity: 0.5;
}