The PrestoDeck is one of the sleekest Raspberry Pi Spotify players I've ever seen

I think a big selling point for a Raspberry Pi project is how cool it looks. A project could take very little effort to make and include very few parts, but if I can imagine it sitting on my table and looking really cool, then there’s a good chance I’ll fall in love with it.

So, you can imagine why I wanted to report on this really nice-looking Spotify player, which uses a Raspberry Pi-powered device to get the job done. I say “Raspberry Pi-powered” because it uses a Pimoroni Presto, which in turn has a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 within its shell.

The PrestoDeck is a great way to play your Spotify tunes

This cool project was created by AKZ Dev, who posted a video of their device on YouTube. They also made a GitHub page detailing how you can make your own, and the bill of materials is shockingly small:

PrestoDeck is a Spotify music controller for the Pimoroni Presto. It displays the album cover art, name, and artist of the currently playing track and provides basic controls for playback.

Most of the tricky work is on the software side; by the looks of the instructions, you need to make a custom Spotify app and use the code supplied on the GitHub page to flesh it out. Other than that, you need a Pimoroni Presto, and a right-angle USB C cable if you want. Personally, I’d go for it; it gives the project a really sleek look.

Once it’s built, you can place the Presto where you want it and have it play tunes. The Pimonori Presto comes with a touch screen, Wi-Fi, and speakers, so you don’t even need to add any additional hardware to it to get it working. And it’s small enough that you can put it on your computer desk and have it serenade you while you work.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen music and Pis mix. If you like e-ink displays (and why wouldn’t you) you can check out this gorgeous Raspberry Pi e-ink project, which shows you what’s playing on Spotify. Or you could check out that time our Ayush Pande built a Spotify alternative with a Raspberry Pi and Navidrome.