Control playback of Amazon Music via command line.

amzn-music

#!/bin/bash
#
# The MIT License (MIT)
#
# Copyright (c) 2018 Mathias Leppich <mleppich@muhqu.de>
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
# of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
# in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
# to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
# copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
# furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
# AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
# LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
# OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
# THE SOFTWARE.
#

SELF="$(basename "$0")"

usage() {
    cat <<USAGE
$SELF { play | pause | next | prev | is_playing }
USAGE
}

main() {
    if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then
        usage;
        exit 1;
    fi
    local ACTION=(usage)
    while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
        case "$1" in
        play) shift; ACTION=(doAmazonMusicPlayback "Play"); ;;
        pause) shift; ACTION=(doAmazonMusicPlayback "Pause"); ;;
        next) shift; ACTION=(doAmazonMusicPlayback "Next"); ;;
        prev) shift; ACTION=(doAmazonMusicPlayback "Prev"); ;;
        is_playing) shift; ACTION=(isAmazonMusicPlaying); ;;
        *)
            fatal "unknown parameter: $1"
            ;;
        esac
    done

    "${ACTION[@]}"
}

isAmazonMusicPlaying() {
    local VALUE="$(/usr/bin/osascript 2>/dev/null <<'APPLESCRIPT'
set isplaying to false
tell application "System Events"
    -- set frontmostProcess to first process where it is frontmost
    tell process "Amazon Music"
        set pauseMenuItem to null
        try
            set pauseMenuItem to (menu item 1 where its name starts with "Pause") of menu 1 of menu bar item "Playback" of menu bar 1
        on error errorMsg
        end try
        set playMenuItem to null
        try
            set playMenuItem to (menu item 1 where its name starts with "Play") of menu 1 of menu bar item "Playback" of menu bar 1
        on error errorMsg
        end try
        set isplaying to (pauseMenuItem is not null and playMenuItem is null)
    end tell
    -- set frontmost of frontmostProcess to true
end tell
isplaying
APPLESCRIPT
)"
    if [[ $VALUE == "true" ]]; then
        log "Amazon Music is playing."
        exit 0;
    else
        log "Amazon Music is not playing."
        exit 1;
    fi
}

doAmazonMusicPlayback() {
    PREFIX="$1" /usr/bin/osascript 2>/dev/null >&2 -so <<'APPLESCRIPT'
    set PREFIX to system attribute "PREFIX"
    tell application "System Events"
        -- set frontmostProcess to first process where it is frontmost
        tell process "Amazon Music"
            -- set frontmost to true
            click (menu item 1 where its name starts with PREFIX) of menu 1 of menu bar item "Playback" of menu bar 1
        end tell
        -- set frontmost of frontmostProcess to true
    end tell
APPLESCRIPT
}

fatal() {
    error "$@"
    exit 1
}
error() {
    log "Error:" "$@"
}
log() {
    echo >&2 "$@"
}

main "$@"

This is great! I have the following diff that adds support to toggle playback (i.e. start playing if paused or pause playing if not paused).

It may be slightly more "brittle" than your solution since it depends on the order of menu items instead of the name, but it shouldn't be too hard to adapt if menu items get rearranged.

You could do something with first testing to see if it was currently playing, but I liked this better 😄

30c30
< $SELF { play | pause | next | prev | is_playing }
---
> $SELF { play | pause | playpause | next | prev | is_playing }
43a44
>         playpause) shift; ACTION=(playPauseAmazonMusic); ;;
101a103,112
> playPauseAmazonMusic() {
>     /usr/bin/osascript 2>/dev/null >&2 -so <<'APPLESCRIPT'
>     tell application "System Events"
>         tell process "Amazon Music"
>             click menu item 1 of menu 1 of menu bar item "Playback" of menu bar 1
>         end tell
>     end tell
> APPLESCRIPT
> }
>