A Bootiful Podcast Java Champion and hilarious friend, Richard Fichtner
Feb 12, 2026
Richard Fichtner, who runs Java consultancy XDev and builds Java tooling like the music-maven-plugin, chats about his path from game tinkering to tooling. He shares stories about the music-maven-plugin, Spotify integration and prank uses. He also talks about running J-Con and creating Java educational software for Bavarian schools.
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Make Conferences Accessible
- Promote community attendance by offering discounts and accessible information for conferences.
- Richard Fichtner provided a 20% discount code and jcon.one as the registration site.
Music Plugin Born From A Conference Joke
- Richard Fichtner's team built the music-maven-plugin during an XDev Christmas party after Josh's plea for music during GraalVM native-image builds.
- The plugin started as a joke but became widely used and extended to support Spotify playlists.
Customize Build Music Intentionally
- Try parameterizing the music-maven-plugin to avoid boredom and enable pranks or sensible playlists for builds.
- Use Spotify track or playlist support to customize builds and keep the audio appropriate for the audience.