SpotMenu

Minimalist Now Playing for macOS menu bar — works with Spotify 🎵 and Apple Music 🍎

✨ Overview

SpotMenu is a macOS menu bar utility that shows your currently playing track with support for compact views, keyboard shortcuts, and rich visual controls. Built in Swift and SwiftUI, it supports Spotify and Apple Music through AppleScript integration — with advanced features using Spotify’s Web API.

🔧 Features

• 🖥️ Menu Bar Integration — View artist and song title directly in your menu bar.
• 🎛️ Compact/Custom Views — Toggle between full and compact visual modes.
• 🖼️ Playback Controls — Overlay with play/pause/skip buttons and album art.
• ⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts — Global hotkeys to control playback.
• ❤️ Track Liking (Spotify only) — Like and unlike tracks via Spotify’s Web API.
• ⚙️ User Preferences — Configure visuals, shortcuts, and music player via Preferences window.
• 🪄 Live Updates — Automatically syncs with playback changes.
• 🔁 Multi-Player Support — Automatically detect or manually select between Spotify and Apple Music.
• 🍎 macOS native look and feel with SwiftUI.

📦 Installation

Easy Install

Download the latest release and open SpotMenu.app.zip.

⚠️ You might need to allow the app in System Preferences → Security & Privacy as it’s not signed by an Apple developer. Click here for detailed instructions!

Advanced Install

via Homebrew Cask

brew install --cask spotmenu

Build from Source

Requirements

• macOS 11+
• Xcode 14+

Steps

git clone https://github.com/kmikiy/SpotMenu.git
cd SpotMenu
open SpotMenu.xcodeproj

🔑 Spotify Setup (Required for Liking Tracks)

SpotMenu uses the Spotify Web API to enable liking and unliking tracks. This requires creating your own Spotify Developer App with a Client ID and setting up a redirect URI.

🛠️ This is required only if you want to use the like/unlike functionality in Spotify.

Step-by-Step:

1. Visit developer.spotify.com/dashboard

2. Log in and click “Create an App”

3. Enter a name (e.g. SpotMenu) and description — any text will work.

4. In the app settings, click “Edit Settings”

5. Under Redirect URIs, add the following:

   com.github.kmikiy.spotmenu://callback
   

6. Click Save

7. Enable Track Liking in SpotMenu Preferences → Music Player tab

8. Copy your Client ID into SpotMenu and complete the login flow

Once you’re logged in, the like/unlike icons will appear and work as expected.

🎨 Preferences

Accessible via right-clicking the menu bar icon → Preferences…

Music Player Tab

Choose which music player SpotMenu should control:

• Automatic — Detects and uses whichever player is active.
• Spotify
• Apple Music

Enable or disable liking tracks in Spotify.

⚠️ Liking requires setting up a Spotify Client ID and logging in (see section above).

Playback Appearance Tab

Tweak player appearance:

• Hover Tint Color
• Foreground Color
• Blur Intensity
• Hover Tint Opacity

Menu Bar Tab

Adjust text:

• Display Artist

  • Hide When Paused

• Display Song Title

  • Hide When Paused

Adjust icons:

• Show Playing Icon
• Show Liked Icon (Spotify only)
• Display App Icon

Adjust layout:

• Compact View Mode
• Max Width of the Status Item (40–300 pt)

Shortcuts Tab

Assign keys for:

• Play / Pause
• Next Track
• Previous Track
• Like Track (Spotify only)
• Unlike Track (Spotify only)
• Toggle Like (Spotify only)

🧠 Usage Tips

• Menu Toggle: Left-click to show/hide the playback panel.
• Right Click: Access Preferences and Quit.
• Playback Panel: Hover to reveal play/pause, skip, and album art.