Are there commands to control the Spotify for Linux preview? (e.g. Pause)?

The Spotify client has supported the MPRIS2 DBUS specification for ~4 years. Simply put this means most media remote controls should be able to control it.

If you need command-line access, you can talk to it directly over DBUS. Here's an example I stole from Fran Diéguez:

dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Pause

For more commands, see the MPRIS2 Player specifications.

The following command works for me (Play or Pause):

qdbus org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.PlayPause

SP is a simple and effective command line tool to control spotify. It uses DBUS internally.

To install:

curl https://gist.githubusercontent.com/wandernauta/6800547/raw/db881a9100eb9b1e684c99962bde086a47ebcf08/sp | sudo tee /usr/local/bin/sp
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/sp