Stop Spotify from hogging your CPU and memory

Spotify is my music streaming platform of choice and I love that they have a Linux client that comes bundled with Omarchy.

Unfortunately, that client is an Electron app and it’s a memory and process hog, even when minimized to the system tray. So much so that it’s the main reason my computer fan kicks in. Listening to music with the background noise of a fan, when I’m not wearing headphones, is not what I would call the best audiophile experience.

After trying different optimizations and alternative clients, I settled on spotifyd, which is a small Spotify Connect daemon that runs in the background.

Now I can open the Spotify app on my computer or my phone, select a playlist, close the app completely, and let the daemon play the music. Playback controls like play/pause and previous/next track work with the daemon, so I only open Spotify when I want to change the playlist.

Here’s how you can set this up.

1. Install spotifyd

Install spotifyd with your package manager:

sudo pacman -S spotifyd

2. Configure it

Next, configure spotifyd with the options you want. Here’s my configuration file:

[global]
backend = "pulseaudio"
device_name = "Laptop"
device_type = "computer"
bitrate = 320
initial_volume = 100~/.config/spotifyd/spotifyd.conf

You can find all the available options on the spotifyd documentation page.

I set pulseaudio as the backend. The device name will show up as Laptop in Spotify Connect with a computer icon. I set the bitrate to the maximum value. I also keep Spotify’s volume at 100% and control the volume at the system level instead.

3. Enable the service and test it

Next, enable and start the service so it always runs in the background:

systemctl --user enable --now spotifyd.service

If you tweak the configuration after starting the service, restart it for the changes to apply:

systemctl --user restart spotifyd.service

Now open the Spotify app on your computer or phone, click the Connect to a device icon, and you should see Laptop, or whatever name you gave it. Select it, start some music, and close the app.

Turn up the volume and turn down the fan noise!