In this case, listen to Spotify online! If you didn’t know about Spotify online player, we’re happy to break the news for you. Especially if you’re new to the service and want to try it out before you decide whether it’s worth it. Sometimes, installing an app feels like too big of a commitment.
SPOTIFY MAC APP MENU BAR HOW TO
In this article, we explain how to use Spotify web player and lay out the pros and cons of web Spotify versus Spotify desktop app.
SPOTIFY MAC APP MENU BAR INSTALL
You can either install a desktop app or access your music collection in a browser. There are two major ways to do Spotify on Mac. For a good reason! Its huge music catalogue, continuous UI improvements, and top-notch personalization make the service one of the best places where you can discover, play, and curate your music.
SPOTIFY MAC APP MENU BAR PRO
NepTunes is free with a $1.99 In-App Purchase to use its Pro features, while Looking Glass is $0.99.In the recent years, Spotify reaped lots of accolades. NepTunes and Looking Glass are available on the Mac App Store. Over the course of 2021, I’ve made a handful of meaningful changes to the way I use my Mac’s menu bar, but none have reduced distractions or improved my everyday work as much as adding artist and track information. However, both apps are substantial improvements over Apple’s Control Center widget if you’re someone who listens to a lot of music as you do other things on your Mac.
That drop-down menu also provides additional track information, playback controls, tools to rate songs or mark them as liked, and access to your Music library and playlists.īetween NepTunes and Looking Glass, I prefer NepTunes because of its Last.fm integration and the fact that all of its controls are global hotkeys. From the mini-player, other playback controls can be accessed with app-specific keyboard shortcuts that require the mini-player or the app’s drop-down menu to be active. The app also has a mini player that can be summoned with a global hotkey combination. Like NepTunes, the app sits in the menu bar, providing track (but not artist) information at a glance. If you don’t use Last.fm or Spotify, another option worth considering is Looking Glass. I no longer use star ratings, but I appreciate having a hotkey for liking tracks that I can tie to my Stream Deck too. Many of NepTunes’ controls are already available if you use a keyboard with media keys, but you can also mark tracks as liked and add star ratings. Instead, I rely on my keyboard’s media keys and NepTunes’ global hotkeys. I rarely use NepTunes’ mini-player widget, but it’s a nice way to quickly access common playback controls and enjoy album art. Album art can also be displayed in your Dock. There are two other simpler themes available too, and except for the Minimal theme, each comes in multiple sizes, can control volume by swiping vertically across the artwork, and opens the Music app with a double-click. The V1 widget theme offers the most functionality of the three that are available, with play/pause, forward and back, shuffle, loop, and like/dislike controls appearing when you hover over it. If you prefer, NepTunes offers a playback widget that can be set to float above your other windows. In a nice touch, clicking on the track information in the menu bar acts as a play/pause button too.
The Pro version of NepTunes allows you to add artist and track information to your menu bar, which completely eliminates the back and forth switching between whatever I’m doing and Music. NepTunes has been around longer than Looking Glass, recently being updated to version 2.0, followed by several updates in quick succession. Both apps live in your menu bar and offer different sets of features that will play a big part in which app will suit your needs best. The two third-party solutions I prefer are NepTunes and the recently-released Looking Glass music remote. That works well if you want simple playback controls and song information, but the functionality of Apple’s control is limited and requires a click to do anything. The simplest solution is to drag the Now Playing widget out of Control Center on your Mac and use it as a standalone menu bar item. Apple’s Control Center widget takes up limited space, but also doesn’t do much.įortunately, there are a lot of options depending on your needs.
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