How to remote-control Spotify with your iPhone or Android

Control Spotify on a Mac from iOS

We'll use the same program we used on the Windows side here, Remoteless ($3). Another option is Spot Remote (also $3).

1. The first order of business is to install the "helper" app on your Mac that can control Spotify, which we recommend you already have running. (The Remoteless mobile app actually controls this helper software.) You can download it here (or if a new version has come out since we wrote this tutorial, check for that here). Once you install the app, it will start running in the background automatically and invisibly, and should automatically start every time you fire up your Mac.

2. Next, you'll have to drop three bucks on the Remoteless iOS app. There is currently no Spotify remote control that is available for free on iOS (please let us know if you find one), so there's really no way around this at the moment. However, if you listen to a lot of Spotify on your computer this is easily worth it -- especially considering the cost of traditional hardware remote controls.

3. Run the app and select 'New Connection.' (In this example, I have already connected the app to my Windows machine, eliotvb@PHEEDOT -- yes, Remoteless works with multiple computers on the same Wi-Fi network.)

4. Select your Spotify username and the name of your Mac.

5. Boom, you should see your currently-playing song, with the option to skip, pause, rewind, or adjust the volume.

6. When it comes time to play something else, tap the Browse button at the upper right, where you can see your playlists and favorites, as well as searching for any other artist, album, or track on Spotify. (Unlike with the Windows version, we encountered no hiccups here -- score another win for Apple.)

7. Check out all the other options by scrolling up and down. See why we like Remoteless so much? It lets you:

• Post your currently playing track to Facebook, Twitter, or email;
  

• Browse the current track, album, or artist in Spotify;
  

• Toggle Shuffle and Repeat;
  

• Find out more about what you're listening to on Last.fm, Wikipedia or Lyrics.com
  

• Find similar tracks on MoreTracksLikeThis.com;
  

• Activate radio based on the track via Echofiapp;
  

• And find new stuff to listen to on Topsify's popularity charts or Spotifylist's categorized playlists.

8. You can keep the Remoteless app running on your iPhone, so that you don't need to start it up from scratch every time you want to control the music. To do this, simply start the app once, then go about your business in your other apps. To access Remoteless in a flash, double tap the Home button on your iOS device and choose Remoteless from the sidescrolling list at the bottom of the screen:

(Credit: Screenshot by Eliot Van Buskirk/Evolver.fm)