Install
After installing, reload your studio tab and any music tabs - Chrome only connects the extension to pages opened after the install. If the desk still shows no tabs, check chrome://extensions → Staircase Radio Companion → Details and set Site access to On all sites (it needs to see every tab to find the one playing music).
Works in Chrome and Chromium-based browsers (Edge, Brave, Arc).
How it works
- A tiny script watches your open tabs for playing media and reads the browser's standard Media Session info - the title, artist and artwork the site itself reports to Chrome.
- The studio desk shows those tabs as music sources. Transport commands (play, pause, next) are delivered to the tab and pressed on the site's own player controls.
- It's dormant everywhere until a Staircase Radio studio console announces itself in another tab - it does nothing on its own.
Privacy
Nothing leaves your browser. The Companion:
- collects no personal data, no browsing history and no analytics - nothing at all;
- sends nothing to any server, ours included: every message travels only between your own open tabs, inside your browser;
- stores nothing: it keeps a list of currently-playing tabs in memory and forgets them the moment they stop or close;
- reads only media metadata (title, artist, artwork, play state) - never page content, never form fields, never anything else.
It requests access to all sites for one reason: music can play from any website, and the extension can't know in advance where you'll press play. Questions: hello@staircaseradio.co.