How to Install Fastpotify on Ubuntu: A Fast, Native Spotify Client

Fastpotify is what a Spotify desktop app looks like without a web browser inside it. Built in Rust on the egui toolkit, with librespot handling the audio, it opens in well under a second and usually needs somewhere between 100 and 250 MB of RAM, compared with the 600 MB to 1 GB and more the official client tends to claim. Nothing important is missing for it: library, search, playlist editing, queue, Spotify Connect and native media key support are all there.

Fastpotify is a fast-moving young project and is not carried in the Ubuntu archive. Upstream hands Linux users a tarball or a cargo install, which means placing the binary, desktop file and icon yourself and doing it all again whenever a release lands.

The unofficial deb.griffo.io repository offers a cleaner path: Fastpotify packaged as a proper Ubuntu .deb, desktop entry and icon included, and delivered over APT, so you install it and keep it current with the same commands you already use.

Install the Latest Fastpotify on Ubuntu: The Short Version

If you only came for the commands, this adds the repository and installs the latest Fastpotify .deb package on Ubuntu:

sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://deb.griffo.io/EA0F721D231FDD3A0A17B9AC7808B4DD62C41256.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg] https://deb.griffo.io/apt $(lsb_release -sc 2>/dev/null) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deb.griffo.io.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install fastpotify

The rest of this guide walks through each command, checking the install, signing in and getting music playing, staying up to date, and fixing the problems you are most likely to hit.

What Makes Fastpotify Special?

⚡ Native and light - No bundled browser engine; a Rust and egui app that launches almost instantly and stays small while it runs.
🔊 A real Spotify Connect device - Your Ubuntu machine appears in every Spotify app on your account, with gapless playback at up to 320 kbps.
📱 Remote control for everything else - Hand playback to a speaker, phone or another computer and carry on controlling it from Fastpotify.
📚 The full library - Playlists, Liked Songs, saved albums, followed artists, podcasts and episodes, alongside a Home page with Made for you and recommendations.
✏️ Playlist editing - Create, rename, reorder and delete playlists, or drag songs onto one in the sidebar.
🔗 Spotify link handler - spotify: links shared from other apps open straight in Fastpotify, whether or not it is already running.
🎛️ MPRIS support - Media keys, the GNOME media controls and playerctl all recognise it.
🧺 Lives in the tray - Close the window and the music carries on; bring it back from the tray icon.
📼 Winamp mini player and MilkDrop - Classic .wsz skins with a ten-band equaliser, plus a MilkDrop visualiser window.
⌨️ Keyboard-first - Shortcuts cover every common action.

Why Use the deb.griffo.io Repository?

Easy installation and updates through APT rather than unpacking release archives.
Proper desktop integration - the desktop entry and icon are installed for you, so Fastpotify shows up in Activities and claims spotify: links.
Automatic dependency management - the audio, OpenGL, X11 and Wayland libraries loaded at run time are declared by the Ubuntu packaging.
Always tracks upstream releases so you stay near the latest Fastpotify.
No compiling from source and no Rust toolchain, CMake or libclang to look after.

Prerequisites

Before starting, confirm you have:

An Ubuntu system running Noble 24.04 LTS, Questing 25.10, or Resolute 26.04 LTS
An amd64 or arm64 machine
sudo privileges
curl installed (sudo apt install curl if needed)
A graphical desktop session, X11 or Wayland
Spotify Premium if you want to play music through Fastpotify

Jammy 22.04 LTS is not supported. Fastpotify’s upstream binaries are built on Ubuntu 24.04 and require glibc 2.39, while Jammy has glibc 2.35, so no package exists for it. Free Spotify accounts can still sign in, browse and search; playback itself is a Premium feature for clients like this.

Step 1: Add the deb.griffo.io Repository

# Create the keyrings directory
sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings

# Download and install the repository GPG key
curl -fsSL https://deb.griffo.io/EA0F721D231FDD3A0A17B9AC7808B4DD62C41256.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg

# Add the repository (auto-detects your distro codename)
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg] https://deb.griffo.io/apt $(lsb_release -sc 2>/dev/null) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deb.griffo.io.list > /dev/null

# Update the package list
sudo apt update

Breaking it down:

Create the keyrings directory - makes sure /etc/apt/keyrings exists with the right permissions.
Install the GPG key - downloads and de-armours the repository key into its own keyring so APT can verify signatures.
Add the repository - writes a signed-by source line, letting lsb_release -sc fill in your Ubuntu codename.
Update the package list - refreshes APT’s view of available packages.

Step 2: Update the Package List

If you did not run the final command above, do it now:

sudo apt update

Step 3: Install Fastpotify

Install with APT:

sudo apt install fastpotify

APT fetches Fastpotify together with the libraries it loads at run time, places the binary at /usr/bin/fastpotify, and adds a desktop entry and icon. The package also recommends fonts-noto-core and fonts-noto-cjk, so song and artist names in CJK, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai and Indic scripts display properly. Recommended packages come along by default; if your system skips them, install the fonts yourself:

sudo apt install fonts-noto-core fonts-noto-cjk

Step 4: Verify the Installation

Check the version:

fastpotify --version

You should see something like:

fastpotify 0.7.1

fastpotify --help shows the few command-line options there are. Fastpotify is a desktop app first, so the proper check is opening it.

Getting Started with Fastpotify

Opening Fastpotify

Search for Fastpotify in Activities, or launch it from a terminal:

fastpotify

Only one copy ever runs. Starting it a second time just raises the window that is already open.

Connecting Your Spotify Account

Click Sign in with Spotify. Fastpotify sends you to Spotify’s consent page in your browser, so your password is only ever typed into Spotify itself. After you approve, the browser returns you to the app and the library appears. Expect to do this once per machine.

Turning On Local Playback

Spotify treats streaming as a separate permission from reading your library, so there is one more browser approval before music plays on this computer. Pick Set up playback here from the device menu in the player bar, or find the same option in Settings. Spotify Premium is required from this point.

Once approved, the machine is visible to Spotify Connect as Fastpotify. Change the name permanently in Settings, or override it for a single run:

fastpotify --device-name "Living Room PC"

Working with Spotify Connect

As a Connect device, Fastpotify can be selected from the Spotify app on your phone, which then plays through your Ubuntu machine’s speakers. Its own device picker works in the opposite direction, pushing playback to any other speaker, phone or computer on the account while you keep the controls. Receivers such as librespot, spotifyd and supported hardware are discovered on the local network over mDNS.

Media Keys and Scripting with playerctl

Fastpotify speaks MPRIS on Linux, so your keyboard’s media keys and the media controls in Ubuntu’s notification area pick it up automatically. For scripts, keybindings and status bars, use playerctl:

# Play or pause
playerctl --player=fastpotify play-pause

# Jump back a track
playerctl --player=fastpotify previous

# Print the current artist and title
playerctl --player=fastpotify metadata --format '{{ artist }} - {{ title }}'

Get playerctl with sudo apt install playerctl. Fastpotify does have fastpotify next-style subcommands, but those are for macOS and Windows, where MPRIS does not exist; on Ubuntu they reply by telling you to use playerctl instead.

Handling Spotify Links

The installed desktop entry registers Fastpotify for spotify: links, and you can pass one directly too:

# Hand a spotify: URI or open.spotify.com address to Fastpotify
fastpotify "https://open.spotify.com/playlist/..."

With the official Spotify client (or another one) also installed, choose Fastpotify as the default handler:

xdg-mime default fastpotify.desktop x-scheme-handler/spotify

Tray, Keyboard Shortcuts and the Mini Player

Closing the window keeps the music going; Fastpotify carries on from the system tray. Reopen it from the tray icon or the media controls, and quit through the tray menu or Ctrl+Q. Settings has an option to make the close button quit instead.

The shortcuts you will use most:

Shortcut	What it does
`Space`	Play or pause
`Ctrl+←` / `Ctrl+→`	Previous or next track
`Ctrl+F` or `/`	Search
`Q`	Queue panel
`B`	Like or unlike the current song
`Ctrl+M`	Winamp mini player
`Ctrl+Shift+K`	MilkDrop visualiser
`Ctrl+,`	Settings
`Ctrl+/` or `?`	Full shortcut list

For the mini player, grab a classic skin from the Winamp Skin Museum and drop the .wsz file onto either window.

Where Fastpotify Keeps Its Files

All preferences are stored as plain JSON in ~/.config/fastpotify/settings.json, covering the Connect device name, bitrate, normalisation, gapless playback, audio backend (PulseAudio/PipeWire or ALSA), cache size, theme and so on. Session data and logs go in ~/.local/state/fastpotify/, while audio, artwork and lyrics caches live in ~/.cache/fastpotify/ and can be cleared whenever you like without signing you out.

Keeping Fastpotify Updated

Fastpotify rides along with your normal Ubuntu upgrades:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

When a newer Fastpotify appears in deb.griffo.io, apt upgrade installs it alongside your other packages. Upstream leaves package-managed installs to their package manager, so the in-app updater stays out of the way; just restart Fastpotify to run the new release.

Other Tools from deb.griffo.io

The repository includes many tools that sit well next to Fastpotify:

cliamp - a Winamp-style music player for the terminal.
termusic - a terminal player for local music and podcasts.
lowfi - a minimal lofi player to keep in the background while you work.
Ulauncher - a quick keyboard launcher for starting Fastpotify.

Troubleshooting

GPG or Key Errors

If APT flags the repository as unsigned or the key as invalid, re-import it:

curl -fsSL https://deb.griffo.io/EA0F721D231FDD3A0A17B9AC7808B4DD62C41256.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg
sudo apt update

Package Not Found

If APT cannot locate fastpotify:

Re-run sudo apt update after adding the repository.
Verify your Ubuntu release is supported: Noble, Questing or Resolute. Jammy 22.04 has no Fastpotify package because its glibc is too old. lsb_release -sc prints your codename.
Check your architecture with dpkg --print-architecture; only amd64 and arm64 builds exist.
Check the source list: cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deb.griffo.io.list.

The Library Loads but Nothing Plays

If you can browse but hear nothing, work through these:

Make sure you finished Set up playback here; signing in only grants library access.
Confirm the account has Spotify Premium, which playback requires.
In Settings, try the other audio backend (PulseAudio/PipeWire or ALSA) and press Apply and restart playback.

Still stuck? Run it from a terminal with more logging, then read ~/.local/state/fastpotify/fastpotify.log:

fastpotify --verbose

Spotify grants are saved under ~/.local/state/fastpotify/, and newer Fastpotify releases store them in the desktop keyring over Secret Service instead. If every launch asks you to sign in again, confirm that directory is writable and, on newer releases, that GNOME Keyring (or KWallet on Kubuntu) is running and unlocked.

Song Titles Appear as Boxes

Fonts for that script are missing. Add the Noto fonts the package recommends:

sudo apt install fonts-noto-core fonts-noto-cjk

No Tray Icon After Closing the Window

The keep-playing-in-the-tray behaviour relies on a system tray. Stock Ubuntu desktops enable the AppIndicator extension, but minimal installs, other GNOME setups and some window managers may not. Either enable a tray, quit with Ctrl+Q, or tell Fastpotify in Settings to quit when the window closes.

Uninstalling

Remove Fastpotify with:

sudo apt remove fastpotify

Settings, session data and caches remain in your home directory. Sign out from Settings first, then clear them if you want a clean slate:

rm -rf ~/.config/fastpotify ~/.local/state/fastpotify ~/.cache/fastpotify

To also remove the repository and key:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deb.griffo.io.list
sudo rm /etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg
sudo apt update

Conclusion

Fastpotify proves a Spotify client does not need a browser engine to be complete: it launches almost instantly, stays lean, and still covers your library, Spotify Connect and native media controls. On Ubuntu, deb.griffo.io turns it into an ordinary APT package with its desktop entry and dependencies handled for you.

Add the repository, install fastpotify, sign in and approve playback once, and every future release is just part of your regular apt upgrade.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I install the latest Fastpotify on Ubuntu?

Add the deb.griffo.io APT repository and its signing key, then run sudo apt install fastpotify. The repository tracks upstream Fastpotify releases, so you get the latest packaged version without fetching tarballs manually.

Is there a `.deb` package for Fastpotify?

Yes. deb.griffo.io publishes Fastpotify as a signed .deb for Ubuntu on amd64 and arm64. You could download that .deb and install it by hand, but adding the repository is the better option: APT then resolves its runtime libraries and picks up new versions on its own.

Can I install Fastpotify on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy?

No. The upstream binary needs glibc 2.39, which first shipped in Ubuntu 24.04; Jammy only has 2.35. Use Noble 24.04 LTS or newer.

Does Fastpotify work with a free Spotify account?

Only partly. You can sign in, browse and search, but Spotify restricts playback through Fastpotify, locally or on other devices, to Premium accounts.

How do I update Fastpotify to the latest version?

Run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade. An APT-installed Fastpotify is updated by APT, so there is no separate update step to remember.

How do I install Fastpotify on Debian?

Exactly the same way; lsb_release -sc simply resolves to a different codename. There is a companion guide with the Debian specifics: How to install Fastpotify on Debian.

Which Ubuntu releases are supported?

Noble 24.04 LTS, Questing 25.10 and Resolute 26.04 LTS, on amd64 and arm64. Because the repository line is built from lsb_release -sc, the matching suite is selected for you.

Resources

Disclaimer: The deb.griffo.io repository is an unofficial community project and is not affiliated with the official Debian or Ubuntu projects, or with the upstream Fastpotify project. Fastpotify is an independent project and is not affiliated with Spotify; Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.