KEXP Spotify Sync

Turn any KEXP radio show into a Spotify playlist. Browse programs, pick an episode, and sync the tracklist — or automate it with CLI flags.

What it does

1. Fetches the tracklist from a KEXP show episode via the public KEXP API
2. Searches for each track on Spotify using a multi-strategy search (exact match, quoted search, fuzzy artist matching)
3. Creates a Spotify playlist and adds the found tracks, skipping duplicates

Setup

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13+
• A Spotify Developer application

Install

git clone https://github.com/johnmmdavidson/kexp-spotify-sync.git
cd kexp-spotify-sync
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Configure Spotify credentials

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env with your Spotify app credentials:

SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
SPOTIFY_REDIRECT_URI=http://127.0.0.1:8080/callback

Your Spotify app must have http://127.0.0.1:8080/callback as a redirect URI in its settings.

On first run, a browser window will open for Spotify OAuth. The token is cached locally in .spotify_cache for subsequent runs.

Usage

Interactive mode

Browse all active KEXP programs, pick an episode, and sync:

python main.py

Direct mode

Sync a specific show and date:

python main.py --show "Astral Plane" --date 2026-02-19

Sync the latest episode of a show:

python main.py --show "Audioasis" --latest

Sync into an existing playlist instead of creating a new one:

python main.py --show "Audioasis" --latest --playlist PLAYLIST_ID

Other options

# List all active KEXP programs
python main.py --list

# Preview what would sync without touching Spotify
python main.py --show "Midnight in a Perfect World" --latest --dry-run

How search works

Spotify search uses three strategies in order:

1. Exact field search — track:"Song Name" artist:"Artist Name" album:"Album"
2. Quoted search — "Artist Name" "Song Name" as a combined query
3. Title-only with artist similarity — searches by song title, then filters results by how closely the artist name matches

This catches most tracks, including ones with slight naming differences between KEXP metadata and Spotify's catalog.

Project structure

main.py            # CLI entrypoint and orchestrator
config.py          # Loads Spotify credentials from .env
kexp_client.py     # Fetches songs from a KEXP show episode
kexp_shows.py      # Lists KEXP programs and episodes
spotify_client.py  # Spotify OAuth, search, and playlist management

License

MIT