I knew that it had a standalone component, but I’d never really paid that much attention to it. Way back I had occasionally used a terrific visualizer plug-in for iTunes called G-Force.

A few years ago Spotify had its own visualizer built in as a hidden Easter Egg, but that no longer exists. I scoured the web, I looked at the App Store, and I looked in Spotify’s user forums. Since I was particularly interested in Spotify, I Googled around to see if I could find a good visualizer and I was truly surprised that I turned up almost nothing. These directions would also work for any Mac laptop hooked up to a flat-screen. The thought of running some cool visual effects on this TV was motivating, so I went to the trouble of figuring out some solid solutions, and I’m sharing it with the community so others can have the same fun I’ve had. The display is amazing and since I use a Mac Mini as a music server in my setup, anything I can show on the Mac I can show on the TV. I recently upgraded the TV attached to my home audio system to a brilliant Sony 4K 65” unit. iTunes itself provides some built-in ones that have gotten better and better over time. A visualizer provides animated visual effects based on the music being played. But, ever since the days of Winamp, I’ve liked running a music visualizer for some eye candy while I’m working.

I love the exploration, I like the daily mixes. Like many people, I find myself using Spotify more and more. If you’re interested in setting up something similar for yourself that will work with Spotify, iTunes, or streaming web services like Pandora or Soundcloud, read on! (Mac only, sorry.) It’s great for entertaining, listening to music, or just sitting back and enjoying the show.

This video shows Spotify driving a music visualizer on a 65” Sony 4K TV.

Animated visualizer for spotify