AXE Tools for Maya · v1.0 — PySide2 / PySide6
AXE
Spotify
Spotify playback controls docked inside Maya. Play, pause, skip, and browse your playlists without leaving the viewport — with automatic pause when Maya's timeline rolls.
01 / WHAT IT DOES
Your music.
Inside Maya.
Full Playback Controls
Play, pause, skip forward and back. Volume slider. All from a compact dockable panel that lives inside Maya's workspace alongside your other tools.
Playlist Browser
Your Spotify playlists load into a scrollable list inside the panel. Click any playlist to start it immediately — no alt-tabbing to the Spotify app required.
Auto-Pause on Playback
Toggle-switchable. When Maya's timeline starts rolling, AXE Spotify pauses your track. When playback stops, the music resumes. Stays out of your way while you scrub.
One-Time Auth
A three-step first-run wizard walks you through installing spotipy, entering your Spotify developer credentials, and authorizing via browser. After that it reconnects silently on every launch.
Dockable or Floating
Uses Maya's workspaceControl API so it docks cleanly into your layout. Prefers floating by default — your call either way.
Completely Free
No license token, no purchase required. Part of the Long Winter character subscription. Download it, use it, keep it.
02 / AUTO-PAUSE
Maya plays.
Spotify waits.
AXE Spotify hooks into Maya's playingBack condition callback — the same signal Maya uses internally to track timeline state. It fires the instant playback starts or stops, with no polling overhead.
When Maya begins playing, AXE Spotify checks whether Spotify was already playing and saves that state. If it was, Spotify gets paused. When Maya stops, the saved state is checked and Spotify resumes — but only if it was playing before you hit play.
The Auto-Pause toggle in the panel lets you disable this behavior instantly for when you want to scrub to music, not silence.
03 / SETUP
Three steps.
Then done.
Install the plugin
Drag AXESpotify_Installer.py into your Maya viewport. The installer copies files, writes userSetup, and adds AXE Spotify to the Long Winter menu.
Install spotipy
On first launch, the setup wizard checks for spotipy in Maya's Python environment. If it's missing, one click runs pip install spotipy via mayapy automatically.
Create a Spotify app
Head to developer.spotify.com/dashboard, create a free app, and add http://127.0.0.1:8888/callback as a redirect URI. Paste your Client ID and Secret into the wizard.
Authorize and connect
Click Open Browser — a tab opens, you approve access, AXE Spotify catches the OAuth callback automatically and connects. From here on it reconnects silently on every launch.
[AXE Spotify] Files copied ✓
[AXE Spotify] Menu entry added ✓
// step 2 — check spotipy
[Setup] spotipy not found → installing...
[pip] spotipy 2.24.0 installed ✓
// step 3 — enter credentials + authorize
[OAuth] Listening on 127.0.0.1:8888...
[OAuth] Code received ✓
[Spotify] Connected as andrew@longwinterstudios.com
// reconnects silently from here on
Now playing: Awaken, My Love!
04 / SPECS
What you
actually need.
● Free · No license token · No purchase
Your workflow.
Your music.
AXE Spotify is free with the Long Winter character subscription. Drop it in your Maya, connect your Spotify, and forget it's even there.
Character subscription · Windows & macOS · Maya 2022–2026 · Requires Spotify Premium