Silk - Now Playing for OBS

A lightweight app that captures currently playing music metadata and saves it for use in OBS or other streaming software.

Features

• ✅ Auto-updates - Monitors track changes every 2 seconds
• ✅ Album artwork - Fetches cover art from Last.fm
• ✅ Clean web UI - View what's currently playing in your browser
• ✅ OBS-ready files - Outputs to nowplaying.txt and artwork.jpg
• ✅ Multiple players - Supports Spotify, Foobar2000, YouTube, and VLC
• ✅ Multiple modes - Console, system tray, or background operation
• ⌚ Linux Support - Coming soon

Download & Install

Three versions available:

Version	Description	Use Case
silk.exe	Console + Browser	Debugging, seeing what's happening
silk-tray.exe	System Tray + Browser	Clean UI, auto-opens browser
silk-tray-only.exe	System Tray only	Background operation, no browser

Requirements:

• The web/ folder must be in the same directory as the executable
• Your icon.ico should be in the same directory (for tray versions)

Quick Start

1. Download your preferred version
2. Run the executable
3. Files are saved to the output/ folder

For tray versions:

• Right-click the tray icon for options
• "Open in Browser" to view the web UI at http://localhost:5555
• "Open Output Folder" to see generated files
• "Quit" to stop the app

Using in OBS

Add a Text (GDI+) source:

• Check "Read from file"
• Browse to: output/nowplaying.txt

Add an Image source:

• Browse to: output/artwork.jpg

Both will update automatically as songs change!

Supported Players

Player	Setup Required
Spotify	✅ Works out of the box
Foobar2000	✅ Works out of the box
YouTube (Browser)	✅ Works out of the box
VLC	⚠️ Requires plugin (see VLC_SETUP.md)

Configuration

Port:
Default port is 5555. Change it in the source code (main.go, main_tray.go, main_tray_only.go) and rebuild.

Last.fm API Key:
A Last.fm API key is included for convenience. The app works out of the box!
If you want to use your own key (optional), edit artwork.go and replace the LASTFM_API_KEY constant.

Files & Folders

silk/
├── silk.exe               # Console version
├── silk-tray.exe          # Tray + browser version
├── silk-tray-only.exe     # Tray only version
├── icon.ico               # Tray icon (required for tray versions)
├── web/                   # Web UI files (required)
│   ├── index.html
│   └── placeholder.svg
├── output/                # Generated files (auto-created)
│   ├── nowplaying.txt     # "Artist - Title"
│   └── artwork.jpg        # Album cover
├── VLC_SETUP.md           # VLC setup instructions
└── README.md              # This file

Building from Source

Requirements: Go 1.21+

Build all versions:

.\build.bat

Or build individually:

# Console version
go build -o silk.exe

# Tray + browser version
go build -tags tray -ldflags -H=windowsgui -o silk-tray.exe

# Tray only version
go build -tags trayonly -ldflags -H=windowsgui -o silk-tray-only.exe

To add a custom icon (Windows):

go install github.com/akavel/rsrc@latest
rsrc -ico icon.ico -o rsrc.syso
# Then build normally

Troubleshooting

No track detected:

• Make sure music is actually playing
• Check if your player is in the supported list
• For VLC, see VLC_SETUP.md

No artwork:

• Artwork is fetched from Last.fm
• May not be available for all tracks
• A placeholder will be shown if artwork isn't found

Connection issues:

• Check the connection indicator (top-right of web UI)
• Make sure no other app is using port 5555
• For tray versions, right-click icon and select "Open in Browser"

Tray icon not showing:

• Make sure icon.ico is in the same folder as the executable
• Check Windows system tray settings (hidden icons)

License

MIT License - feel free to use and modify!

Credits

Built with Go and powered by:

• Last.fm API for artwork
• Windows Media Control API for metadata
• systray for system tray functionality