Is there a VERY simple application or widget that will show me the currently playing track up in the Menu Bar, next to my Bluetooth, WiFi and iChat icons? I know there are very advanced ones that do more than that, but now that the Apple Keyboards have full iTunes transport controls, all I want in the Menu Bar is the name of the currently playing track.
17" iMac 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive,
Mac OS X (10.5.1)
Use "itunes menu bar" (no quotes) as your search terms. A couple of the results look promising. The only one I've used is Synergy but I don't remember that it puts the song name in the menu bar.
I looked through all of those apps, but couldn't find a 100% free one that simply shows the currently playing iTunes track in the menubar. That's all I want to do. I don't want/need all the other features. Any suggestions?
Thanks, but I still think You Control Tunes is far more complex than I need. I literally just want the current track displayed in my Menu Bar. Seems that no-one makes an app THIS simple.
Ok, fine, I installed you control: tunes. But, having turned on and off every single preference, I can't get it to do the one thing I wanted, that is, display the current track/song name in the menu bar. Where do I go to turn this on?
Hmmm, a horizontal banner which scrolls in a distracting way and disappears as soon as it stops moving. Not exactly what I was looking for. I just want a completely static display that shows the song title in full.
I tried iTunes Current Song Menu, which sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. However, it displays complete garbage and is impossible to read/use. Maybe it's not compatible with Leopard? Certainly doesn't work properly on my iMac.
Hi,
I've struggled with this very thing for several years. Geek Tool used to have something but it stopped being developed. Then there was Barquee, which doesn't work in Leopard and was last updated in 2005. There are numerous iTunes support apps that put all kinds of controls in the menu bar, yet none of them provide passive information. If you have at least a 20" or larger monitor, chances are you have the space in the menubar, yet it isn't used. I don't want a bezel, I don't want an overlay called up with a hot key, and tickers are ridiculous. I just want to have a static display of the current track. As convenient as the host of apps that add to iTunes are, nothing is as convenient as just looking at the menu bar.
To that end I have created a flash based standalone app using Flash and mprojector to do this. I built it for myself, so it's certainly not slick, it just shows up on top of the menu bar, clicking and dragging it allows you to move it wherever you want, it displays artist, track, and length of the track.
If you want it let me know and I can email it to you.
do you think you could e-mail me the application? assuming it is transparent like the leopard menu bar.. currently using dockblock and not entirely happy (stupid blue icon). thanks in advance. rangers553 at hotmail.com