FireJams

Title
Your own desktop pet
Player

Inspiration

I don't have spotify premium. At 12:00 am the founder told me "if you want to go against big tech then do it" something along the lines of that in the discord. And then the idea clicked - why not make a jam thats much more indie, much more personalized, so much calm, relaxing, and detached from the grasps of big coorperations like spotify collecting all your data.

Imagine a desktop app that you can hop on when you want to chill with friends. Right now there is nothing remoately as chill as FireJams. You just sit down, relax, jam to some music together, anywhere, yes, ANYWHERE in the world, and even know wassup with each other (the opening and closing mouths are voice detection triggered 🤩)

What it does

You create a room and get a code, and then you can jam to the same music as your friends, from anywhere!

It's like a desktop pet - you let it sit there and enjoy the company of your friends as you listen to music with them, around a camp fire, slowly enjoying your day. 😊.

How we built it

Firejams is a cross-platform, real-time collaborative music listening and queueing app built with Python. Here’s how we put it together:

Oh, and also, an all nighter debugging a bug caused by base64 😔.

We implemented everything in native python (crazy, right?!).

A lot of personalizaiton and beautiful UI. Little things that go a long way. E.g. there's the talking thing you guys can use when yall in a vc or just vibing

Architecture

Client-Server Model:
The app uses a custom server (jams/server.py) built with Python, Eventlet, and Socket.IO to manage real-time communication, room management, and music queue synchronization between users.
Tkinter GUI:
The user interface is built with Tkinter (screens/), providing a desktop app experience on both Windows and Mac. We use custom window transparency and styling for a modern look.
Audio Streaming:
Audio playback and streaming are handled with PyAudio and Pydub, allowing synchronized music playback for all users in a room. The server streams audio in chunks to clients.
Spotify Integration:
Songs are added to the queue via Spotify track URLs. The server uses spotdl to download tracks and extract metadata and cover art.

Key Components

main.py:
Entry point for the app. Initializes the Tkinter root window, client, and landing screen.
jams/client.py:
Handles the client-side logic, including socket communication, queue management, and audio playback.
jams/server.py:
Manages rooms, users, queue synchronization, and audio streaming. Uses Eventlet’s WSGI server for async networking.
screens/:
Contains all the Tkinter UI screens:
- landing.py: Landing page and navigation.
- character.py: Character/color selection.
- audio_player_screen.py: Main music player and fire animation.
- queue_screen.py: Queue management and song addition.
- joinhostcode.py, loading.py: Room join/host flows.
custom_classes/:
Custom color and utility classes for player avatars and UI theming.
utils/:
Helper modules for audio processing, cropping, and Tkinter compatibility.
assets/:
All images, icons, and sound effects (fire animation, player avatars, backgrounds, etc.).

Cross-Platform Support

Run Scripts:
- run.sh for Mac/Linux (activates .venv if present).
- run.bat for Windows.
Tkinter Compatibility:
Platform-specific tweaks (e.g., window transparency, overrideredirect logic) ensure the app looks and feels native on both Mac and Windows.

Real-Time Features

Socket.IO:
Real-time events keep all clients in sync for queue updates, song changes, and user actions.
Voice Detection:
The app uses a simple voice detector to animate avatars when users are talking.

How it works

Start the app and join or create a room.
Add songs by pasting Spotify track URLs.
Listen together: The server streams the audio to all clients in sync.
Interact: See who’s in the room, who’s talking, and manage the queue collaboratively.