How to Install Spotify on Fedora 36 Linux

Spotify is a digital music streaming service with both free and paid features. It is the world’s largest music streaming service provider, with over 381 million monthly active users, including 172 million paying subscribers, as of September 2021. Spotify can give you instant access to a vast online library of music and podcasts, which is very popular as you can listen to the content of your choice whenever you feel like it.

In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Spotify on Fedora 36 Linux workstation desktop using two different methods with the natively installed Flatpak package manager or for users that seek an alternative option using Snapcraft using the command line terminal.

Update Fedora

First, before you begin the installation, you should update your system to make sure all existing packages are up to date to avoid any conflicts.

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh -y

Install Spotify – Flatpak Method

The first option is to use the Flatpak package manager. Flatpak is installed by default on Fedora systems and is well respected as an alternative option to the DNF package manager on its systems compared to Snapcraft, which is more popular on Debian/Ubuntu-based systems.

First, reinstall the Flatpak package if you have removed it previously.

sudo dnf install flatpak -y

Next, you need to enable Flatpack for Fedora using the following command in your terminal:

sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Now install Spotify using the following flatpak command.

flatpak install flathub com.spotify.Client -y

If the above command does not work and you receive the “error: Unable to load summary from remote flathub: Can’t fetch summary from disabled remote ‘flathub’‘ use the following command.

flatpak remote-modify --enable flathub

This will fix the issue.

Install Spotify – Snapcraft Method

The second option is to use the Snap package manager. Fedora users may be familiar with Snap as it is created and maintained by Ubuntu; however, it is not natively installed on your system. However, this can be installed relatively quickly.

By default, the snap package manager is not installed, so you will need to run the following command.

sudo dnf install snapd -y

Next, some packages come in classic, so you need to create a symlink to enable classic snap support, which some packages still require off the Snapcraft repository.

sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap

Next, to make sure the Snap paths have been generated correctly, you should reboot your PC now, or else you may have issues during your current session installing packages from Snapcraft.

reboot

Next, you need to install the “snap core files” for everything to work correctly. Failure to do this may result in issues down the track.

sudo snap install core

Next, install the Spotify package using snap:

sudo snap install spotify

Troubleshooting SELinux

Snapcraft works mainly without touching SELinux, but you may find errors occurring. To generate a local policy module to allow access, use the following command if you find the Selinux error snap-update-ns.

ausearch -c 'snap-update-ns' --raw | audit2allow -M my-snapupdatens
semodule -X 300 -i my-snapupdatens.pp

Secondly, for any errors around user lnk_file, use the following in your terminal.

ausearch -c 'snapd' --raw | audit2allow -M my-snapd
semodule -X 300 -i my-snapd.pp

How to Launch Spotify

Now that you have the Spotify client installed, launching can be done in the terminal straight away.

Flatpak users will need to launch using the command below from a terminal instance:

flatpak run com.spotify.Client

Alternatively, Snap installations need to use the following.

sudo snap run spotify

However, this isn’t practical, and you would use the following path on your desktop to open the course.

Activities > Show Applications > Spotify.

Example:

Once you open Spotify, you will see the first default landing screen. From here, you can sign or create an account.

Example:

Congratulations, you have successfully installed and launched Spotify.

How to Update/Upgrade Spotify

Updates should appear in notifications, but if these fail to show sometimes, it is recommended to check using the terminal regardless use one of the following commands to check for updates.

Flatpak Method

flatpak update

Snap Method

sudo snap refresh

How to Remove (Uninstall) Spotify

Use one of the following commands to suit the original installation method for users who no longer require the application.

Flatpak Remove Method

flatpak remove  --delete-data com.spotify.Client -y

Next, run the following command for any leftover clean-ups required.

flatpak remove --unused

Snap Method

sudo snap remove spotify

Comments and Conclusion

In the tutorial, you have learned how to install Spotify on your Fedora 36 Workstation using two different methods, which you can change in the future if you prefer using one package manager over another.

Overall, it is worth installing the Spotify desktop player as it’s far superior to the web player in both operating and looks, not accidentally closing your browser and losing Spotify.