diff --git a/custom_components/spotcast/__init__.py b/custom_components/spotcast/__init__.py
index f0b9a8c6..71d5273f 100644
--- a/custom_components/spotcast/__init__.py
+++ b/custom_components/spotcast/__init__.py
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@
     get_spotify_media_player,
     is_empty_str,
     is_valid_uri,
+    url_to_spotify_uri,
 )
 from .spotcast_controller import SpotcastController
 
@@ -243,6 +244,14 @@ def start_casting(call: ha_core.ServiceCall):
             # remove ? from badly formatted URI
             uri = uri.split("?")[0]
 
+            if uri.startswith("http"):
+                try:
+                    u = url_to_spotify_uri(uri)
+                    _LOGGER.debug("converted web URL %s to spotify URI %s", uri, u)
+                    uri = u
+                except ValueError:
+                    _LOGGER.error("invalid web URL provided, could not convert to spotify URI: %s", uri)
+
             if not is_valid_uri(uri):
                 _LOGGER.error("Invalid URI provided, aborting casting")
                 return
diff --git a/custom_components/spotcast/helpers.py b/custom_components/spotcast/helpers.py
index e9e4ca0e..42aee5fb 100644
--- a/custom_components/spotcast/helpers.py
+++ b/custom_components/spotcast/helpers.py
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 
 import asyncio
 import logging
+import requests
+import urllib.parse
+import difflib
 import random
 import time
 from functools import partial, wraps
@@ -434,6 +437,26 @@ def get_random_playlist_from_category(
     return chosen["uri"]
 
 
+
+def url_to_spotify_uri(url: str) -> str:
+    """
+    Convert a spotify web url (e.g. https://open.spotify.com/track/XXXX) to
+    a spotify-style URI (spotify:track:XXXX). Returns None on error.
+    """
+
+    o: urllib.parse.ParseResult
+    # will raise ValueError if URL is invalid
+    o = urllib.parse.urlparse(url)
+
+    if o.hostname != "open.spotify.com":
+        raise ValueError('Spotify URLs must have a hostname of "open.spotify.com"')
+
+    path = o.path.split("/")
+    if len(path) != 3:
+        raise ValueError('Spotify URLs must be of the form "https://open.spotify.com/<kind>/<target>"')
+
+    return f'spotify:{path[1]}:{path[2]}'
+
 def is_valid_uri(uri: str) -> bool:
 
     # list of possible types