mb_NowPlayingTags

A MusicBee plugin that writes information about the currently playing track to a plain text file every second, and optionally exports the cover art to an image file. Both files can be read by any external program or overlay tool (e.g. a streaming overlay, a Stream Deck plugin, or a custom display).

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Features

• Writes track metadata to a plain text file every second
• Immediately updates the file when the track changes or playback starts, pauses or stops
• Exports cover art to an image file (JPEG, PNG, BMP or GIF)
• Automatically converts cover art to the format matching your chosen file extension
• Reports shuffle, Auto DJ and repeat state
• Configurable output paths via a settings dialog inside MusicBee

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Output

Text file

The text file (NowPlaying.txt by default) contains one key=value pair per line:

artist=Daft Punk
title=Something About Us
album=Discovery
love=1
duration=4:38
position=1:22
shuffle=0
autodj=0
repeat=none

Key	Description
artist	Artist name
title	Track title
album	Album name
love	1 = loved, 0` = not loved
duration	Total track length (m:ss or h:mm:ss)
position	Current playback position (m:ss or h:mm:ss)
shuffle	1 = on, 0 = off
autodj	1 = on, 0 = off
repeat	none, all or one

When nothing is playing, all track fields (artist, title, album, love, duration, position) are empty. Shuffle, Auto DJ and repeat always reflect the current player state.

The file is encoded in UTF-8 without BOM and uses Windows line endings (\r\n).

Cover art file

The cover art file (cover.jpg by default) contains the album art of the currently playing track. When the track changes, the file is replaced. When playback stops, the file is deleted.

The image is saved in the format matching the extension you choose (.jpg, .png, .bmp or .gif). If the source art is in a different format it is converted automatically. Transparent backgrounds are filled with white when converting to JPEG.

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Requirements

To use the plugin

• MusicBee 3.x or later (Windows)

Installation

1. Close MusicBee completely.
2. Copy mb_NowPlayingTags.dll to the MusicBee Plugins folder:
   • Standard install: C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicBee\Plugins\
   • Microsoft Store install: %AppData%\MusicBee\Plugins\
3. Start MusicBee.
4. Go to Edit → Preferences → Plugins and make sure Now Playing Tags is enabled.

After updating the plugin, always close MusicBee first before replacing the DLL, as MusicBee keeps the file locked while running.

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Configuration

1. Open Edit → Preferences → Plugins.

2. Select Now Playing Tags and click Configure....

3. The settings dialog has two fields:

   Field	Description
   Text file	Full path to the output text file, e.g. C:\Stream\NowPlaying.txt
   Cover image	Full path to the cover art image, e.g. C:\Stream\cover.jpg. Leave empty to disable cover art export.

4. Use Browse... to pick a location, or type the path directly.

5. Click OK to save. The new paths take effect immediately — no restart needed.

Default paths

If you have not configured any paths, the plugin uses:

File	Default location
Text file	%AppData%\MusicBee\NowPlaying.txt
Cover image	%AppData%\MusicBee\cover.jpg

Settings are stored in %AppData%\MusicBee\mb_NowPlayingTags.settings.txt.