How to Display Song Information on Twitch Stream

Music is important for Twitch streamers. It provides suitable background sound for your game and stream. Because most people liked to hear music, it’s common for streamers to get the question of what is the name of the song on their stream

If your viewers are asking the name of the song you use, instead of answering it every time someone asks the question, just display the song information on your stream.

Showcase the song metadata on your stream can help the artist that creates the song

It’s common for Twitch streamers to create a “Now Playing …” overlay that displays what track they’re currently played on their stream.

There are three applications you can use to replicate it: Twitch Soundtrack, Snip, and SMG Music Display. Most people used Snip

What Application do Streamers use to display the Song Name?

Twitch Soundtrack has a widget that will automatically display the song name. If you don’t use Twitch Soundtrack, you can use Snip, a free application that can display the song name. Snip is compatible with most streaming software, from OBS, XSPLIT, etc. Besides Snip, you can use SMG Music Display which has more features than Snip

Twitch Soundtrack vs. Snip

I recommend you to use Twitch Soundtrack because it’s an official application released by Twitch that provides a library of the music you can use for streaming without fearing any DMCA issue. Not only that, it has integration with many popular streaming software (OBS, Streamlabs OBS, and Twitch Studio)

The disadvantage of using Twitch Soundtrack compared to using Snip is, it only has a limited library of music that came along with Twitch Soundtrack.

With Snip, you can easily display the song tracks, lyrics, artist name and others album information of various music from Spotify and iTunes.

So if you want to play the music that is unavailable on Twitch Soundtrack, then you must use Snip to show what music you played on your stream

Snip vs. SMG Music Display

Both applications can display a “Now Playing” overlay on your Twitch stream. The benefit of using Snip is that Snip is a free software, compared to SMG Music Display, a premium software.

But SMG Music only cost you a one-time payment of $10, so it’s cheap and worth the cost

SMG Music Display offers the integration of more music players than Snip, so if you plan to choose a media player besides Spotify and iTunes, like Winamp and VLC, to play your music, then SMG Music Display is a better choice Snip.

The main problem with Snip is there are many bugs on the program, even 9 years after the release. So you need to be prepared when you face any issue on Snip.

How to Display Song Information on Twitch Stream Using Snip

Step 1:  Download Snip on GitHub at: https://github.com/dlrudie/Snip/releases

Step 2:  Extract the Zip file and install Snip on your computer.

Step 3: Snip will open Spotify login page on your web browser, login to your Spotify account to connect Snip to Spotify

Step 4: A .txt file will be generated after you run Snip for the first time (snip.txt). Use this .txt file to integrate with your streaming software

Step 5: On the Snip setting, you can adjust the window, font, color, style, and scroll speed of the song information that Snip displayed.

Note:

If you want to change the format of song metadata that showed on Snip, you can change the setting on “Set Output Format”.

How to Integrate Snip With XSplit

1. Open XSplit application
2. Enable the “title (legacy)” option on XSplit
3. On Source List Section, Click the “Add” button
4. Click “Widget”, and choose the “title (legacy)” option
5. On the file location, paste the file location of snip.txt
6. Enable the option for “Remote File Upload” and Click “OK” to confirm the change on XSplit
7. Open the Spotify application and try to play a track. Make sure you’re online when you play the track

How to Integrate Snip With OBS

1. Open OBS Application
2. Click the + button on the sources section at the bottom left of the application
3. Choose Text (GDI+)
4. A popup window will appear. Click “browse” on the text file section
5. Open the Snip.txt file location
6. Modify the text font and color. I don’t recommend using the default Arial font because it will be too bold for your stream.
7. Click “OK”
8. Open the Spotify application and test the “Playing now” widget result on OBS.

Best Position for Snip “Playing Now” Widget

The best position for Snip is on the bottom left or right corner of the stream. I recommend positioning it besides the Twitch chat overlay (if you show it) to make it easier to be seen by your viewer

After the widget was added, resize the Snip box and position it on the corner of the screen so it doesn’t disturb your live streaming experience. Now your viewers can see the “Now Playing” overlay on your stream

Conclusion

Displaying your song track on your Twitch channel is easy to do with Snip. If you’re using the Twitch soundtrack to play your stream music, you can use the “Now Playing Track” widget to display the song information.