It is based on this observation, and on pieces of scripts from here and here.
The following AppleScript operates Spotify's pause/play command, then mute/unmute, and then pause/play again. Oddly enough, it does the trick, as long as they don't fix it.
--
on spotifypp()
tell application "System Events"
set MyList to (name of every process)
end tell
tell application "System Events" to set appList to ¬
name of application processes whose frontmost is true
set activeApp to item 1 of appList
if (MyList contains "Spotify") is true then
tell application "Spotify" to activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Spotify"
click menu item 1 of menu 1 of menu bar item 5 of menu bar 1
end tell
end tell
end if
end spotifypp
spotifypp()
set isMuted to output muted of (get volume settings)
set newMuted to not isMuted
set volume output muted newMuted
spotifypp()
--
Copy-paste in AppleScript editor. Hit the Compile button to check. Save it as a script under ~/Library/Scripts/.
To trigger the script with a keystroke, I use Quicksilver. Once Quicksilver is installed on your computer, open QuickSiver Preference, click Triggers, then + in the bottom. In the first box, pick your script. In the second box, pick Run.
To choose the key combination, click on the right side of your trigger bar. It will open a new pane for this.
This is it. Make sure Quicksilver is running when you listen to Spotify. I also recommend to use Growl. Growl displays a notification when a new song is playing. This tells you when to unmute.