iTunes-RPC

Shows what's playing as a Discord activity: "Listening to <artist>", with live album art, track number, and a progress bar. Defaults to iTunes, also works with VLC, browsers, and any other app that reports now-playing info to Windows. Runs as a tray icon with a Settings window.

Built with the help of Claude Code (Anthropic's AI coding agent).

Install

1. Create a Discord application at discord.com/developers/applications and copy the Application ID.
2. Download iTunes-RPC.zip from the latest release and extract it.
3. Run install.bat. It asks whether to start at login, then installs.

Installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\iTunes-RPC. On first run, the tray icon opens Settings automatically so you can paste the Application ID.

Re-running install.bat from a newer release upgrades in place and keeps your settings.

Uninstall

Run uninstall.bat from the same folder, or uninstall it like any other app from Windows Settings > Apps > Installed apps. Either way, this stops the app, removes the autostart shortcut, and deletes the installed files.

Settings

Right-click or double-click the tray icon to open Settings:

• Discord Application ID (masked, with a hold-to-reveal Show button and a Paste button)
• Media source: iTunes, or any other app currently reporting now-playing info to Windows (Spotify excluded; it has its own Discord integration)
• Broadcast on/off
• Show track number on/off
• Album art: automatic lookup, a custom image URL, or a static logo only
• Poll interval
• Start at login

Changes apply immediately on Save; the window stays open.

Build from source

dotnet run --project src\iTunesRPC

Standalone exe:

dotnet publish src\iTunesRPC -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained false

Output: src\iTunesRPC\bin\Release\net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win-x64\publish\.

Requires Discord running, checked at runtime.

How it works

• iTunes: polls over COM every 2 seconds for the current track and position. Other apps: reads Windows' System Media Transport Controls.
• Sends the track to Discord as a "Listening to" Rich Presence activity.
• Looks up cover art via Apple's iTunes Search API (album, then track).
• Shows the artist in Discord's compact status tag next to your username.

Known limitations

• The "Listening to" wording isn't officially supported for third-party apps and could change in a future Discord update.
• Album art requires a match on Apple's catalog. Unreleased or mistagged tracks fall back to a static logo.
• Album art can still disappear intermittently on long sessions. See issue #1.
• Track number is only available from iTunes; other media sources don't report it.