NowPlaying measure - Rainmeter Docs (2024)

Measure=NowPlaying retrieves information about the currently playing track from a number of media players.

Note: NowPlaying was previously a plugin measure.

In many existing skins you might see the syntax:

NowPlaying still works with those forms, and changing existing skins to the new Measure=NowPlaying syntax is entirely optional. However, new skins created going forward should use the correct syntax for accuracy and clarity. NowPlaying is a measure, and not a plugin.

[MeasureParent]
Measure=NowPlaying

Options

General measure options
All general measure options are valid.
PlayerName
Can be either:
  • The player interface name (e.g. PlayerName=iTunes)
  • Or the name of another measure (e.g. PlayerName=[MainMeasure])
Important: If multiple measures use the same player, specify the player interface name on the first NowPlaying measure and specify the name of the first measure in subsequent measures. See example below for proper usage.
PlayerType
Type of the measure value. Valid values are:
  • Artist: Track artist.
  • Album: Current album.
  • Title: Track title.
  • Number: Track number.
  • Year: Track year.
  • Genre: Track genre.
  • Cover: Path to cover art.
  • File: Path to the playing media file.
  • Duration: Total length of track in seconds.
  • Lyrics: Lyrics for track, downloaded from Letras
  • Position: Current position in track in seconds.
  • Progress: Percentage of track completed.
  • Rating: Rating of current track (0 to 5).
  • Repeat: 0 if repeat/loop track is off, 1 if on.
  • Shuffle: 0 if shuffle/random tracks is off, 1 if on.
  • State: 0 for stopped, 1 for playing, and 2 for paused.
  • Status: 0 for inactive (player closed) and 1 for active (player open).
  • Volume: From 0 to 100.

Notes:
With measures of type Duration or Position, the string value is in the form MM:SS and the number value is the actual number of seconds.

The Lyrics type will detect and use both the Artist and Title values found for the .mp3 file in its ID3 tags, and will search https://www.letras.mus.br for the lyrics, returning the first match. No match is possible if both Artist and Title are not present in the ID3 tags for the .mp3 file.

The PlayerType=Genre option is currently supported with the AIMP, CAD, iTunes, WMP and WinAmp PlayerName values.

PlayerPath
If defined, used to launch the player with the OpenPlayer command. If not defined, the plugin will attempt to automatically detect the path.
TrackChangeAction
Action to execute when the track changes.
DisableLeadingZero Default: 0
If set to 1, the format of Duration and Position is M:SS instead of MM:SS. This option must be set on the main measure.

Bangs

NowPlaying measures can be controlled with the !CommandMeasure bang with the argument parameter being:

  • Pause: Pause current track.
  • Play: Play current track.
  • PlayPause: Play (if stopped/paused) or pause (if playing) current track.
  • Stop: Stop current track.
  • Next: Change to next track.
  • Previous: Change to previous track.
  • OpenPlayer: Opens the player. If already open, the player will be brought to the top.
  • ClosePlayer: Closes the player.
  • TogglePlayer: Opens/closes the player depending on current state.
  • SetPosition n: Where n is either an absolute value (SetPosition 50 to jump to 50% of the track) or a relative value (SetPosition +5 to jump 5% forward or SetPosition -10 to jump 10% backward).
  • SetRating n: Where n is a value between 0 (no rating) and 5 (maximum rating).
  • SetShuffle n: Where n is 1 (shuffle on), 0 (shuffle off), or -1 (toggle shuffle).
  • SetRepeat n: Where n is 1 (repeat on), 0 (repeat off), or -1 (toggle repeat).
  • SetVolume n: Where n is either an absolute value (SetVolume 50 to set volume to 50%) or a relative value (SetVolume +20 to increase volume by 20% orSetVolume -40 to decrease volume by 40%).

Note: On partially supported players, as well as players not listed here, the MediaKey measure can be used to substitute some of the bangs listed above.

Fully supported players

The following players are fully supported. All features should work unless stated otherwise.

  • AIMP: PlayerName=AIMP
    Fully supported. Tested with AIMP 5.00.
  • foobar2000: PlayerName=CAD
    Fully supported. The foo_cad plugin (download) needs to be installed.
  • iTunes: PlayerName=iTunes
    Fully supported. Tested with iTunes 10.2.
  • J. River Media Center and Media Jukebox: PlayerName=CAD
    Fully supported through the CAD interface with Media Center 19 and later. More information here.
  • MusicBee: PlayerName=CAD
    Fully supported. MusicBee 1.2 (or higher) is required.
  • Winamp: PlayerName=Winamp
    Fully supported.
  • WMP: PlayerName=WMP
    Fully supported, except for the Repeat / Shuffle types.

Partially supported players

The following players are partially supported. Only some features will work.

  • Spotify: PlayerName=Spotify
    Partially supported. Only the types Artist, Title and the bangs Play, PlayPause, Stop, Next, and Previous are available.
  • Last.fm Client, TTPlayer, OpenPandora, Zune: PlayerName=WLM
    Partially supported. Even in the best case, only the types Title, Artist, Album and the bangs Play, Pause, PlayPause, Next, Previous, Stop are supported.

Example

For a more complete example, check the Soita skin.

[Rainmeter]
Update=1000
BackgroundMode=2
SolidColor=0,0,0,255

; MeasurePlayer is the main measure.
; MeasureArtist and MeasureAlbum are secondary measures.

[MeasurePlayer]
Measure=NowPlaying
; The main measure specifies the media player on PlayerName.
PlayerName=iTunes
PlayerType=TITLE
; PlayerPath, TrackChangeAction, and DisableLeadingZero are valid here on
; the main measure only.

[MeasureArtist]
Measure=NowPlaying
; Secondary measures specify the name of the main measure on PlayerName.
PlayerName=[MeasurePlayer]
PlayerType=ARTIST

[MeasureAlbum]
Measure=NowPlaying
PlayerName=[MeasurePlayer]
PlayerType=ALBUM

[MeterPrev]
Meter=String
X=5
Y=5
FontColor=FFFF00
Text="Prev"
LeftMouseUpAction=[!CommandMeasure "MeasurePlayer" "Previous"]

[MeterNext]
Meter=String
X=20R
Y=5
FontColor=FFFF00
Text="Next"
LeftMouseUpAction=[!CommandMeasure "MeasurePlayer" "Next"]

[MeterTitle]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasurePlayer
X=5
Y=35
W=400
H=20
FontColor=255,255,255,255
Text="Title: %1"

[MeterArtist]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureArtist
X=5
Y=55
W=400
H=20
FontColor=255,255,255,255
Text="Artist: %1"

[MeterAlbum]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureAlbum
X=5
Y=75
W=400
H=20
FontColor=255,255,255,255
Text="Album: %1"
NowPlaying measure - Rainmeter Docs (2024)

FAQs

What is the media player in Rainmeter? ›

Media Player Rainmeter plugin

This plugin implements NowPlaying measure functionality for all media players that show up in Windows 10 volume change notification (including web based ones, Spotify). Any skin that works with the NowPlaying measure can be modified to work with this plugin.

Where are Rainmeter images stored? ›

The @Resources folder in the root folder of a skin is the recommended location to store and access images, fonts, sounds, include files, addons or other additional files used by the skin.

How do I change my Rainmeter skin size? ›

Re: How can I make this skin bigger ?
  1. A Scale variable into the [Variables] section. Obviously this variable will control the scale of the skin. ...
  2. Add a TransformationMatrix=#Scale#;0;0;#Scale#;0;0 option to all meters of the skin. ...
  3. Finally, if you added the above TransformationMatrix options, you get the skin cut off.
May 3, 2023

Does Rainmeter take a lot of RAM? ›

It will use about 35 MB of RAM and about 5% of your CPU, because of all the animations. Most rainmeter themes use a LOT less than that, and even that would use less if you turned off the animations.

Is Rainmeter virus free? ›

As long as you get Rainmeter from https://www.rainmeter.net, it is 100% safe.

How do I optimize Rainmeter? ›

Bottom line, if you toggle off the media and the visualizer (less important) and don't open the settings skin too much (more important), the usage / power consumption should be acceptable, if you want to avoid editing the code.

How do you flip Rainmeter Skins? ›

You can rotate each meter with for example Angle=1.57079632679, this will flip it 90degrees clockwise. Angle is defined in radians. You'd have to put this on every meter and change X and Y to make it a perfect mirrorimage.

Are Rainmeter skins safe? ›

I've used various themes with Rainmeter and never had any issues with malware. Same here without any issues. Most themes you can edit the content through text files so if you want you can see all the coding before applying it. Yeah I've been using them for years without problem.

Does Rainmeter affect gaming performance? ›

If you are using a powerful gaming PC it is unlikely that Rainmeter will cause lag or frame rate drops when you play a game. But if your PC isn't ultra-powerful, and if you regularly have to lower in-game settings to get a game to run smoothly, temporarily disabling Rainmeter could help.

What are Rainmeter skins coded in? ›

The Rainmeter project was originally founded by Kimmo 'Rainy' Pekkola, the developer of Rainlendar, in 2001. The project is primarily written in C++, while plugins can be written in either C++ or C#.

What does window Media Player do? ›

Windows Media Player supports playback of audio, video and pictures, along with fast forward, reverse, file markers (if present) and variable playback speed (seek & time compression/dilation introduced in WMP 9 Series). It supports local playback, streaming playback with multicast streams and progressive downloads.

What is Media Player on my computer? ›

A media player is a software or a hardware device that is used to play audio and video files. It can play digital media files from a storage device, a disc, or streamed from the internet.

What is Media Player controller? ›

A media controller interacts with a media session to query and control a media app's playback. In Media3, the MediaController API implements the Player interface. Examples of client apps that use a media controller include: Android system media controls. Android Wear OS companion app.

Does Rainmeter reduce FPS? ›

If you are using a powerful gaming PC it is unlikely that Rainmeter will cause lag or frame rate drops when you play a game. But if your PC isn't ultra-powerful, and if you regularly have to lower in-game settings to get a game to run smoothly, temporarily disabling Rainmeter could help.

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