SongBar

A minimal macOS menu bar now-playing app for Spotify.

SongBar puts the current artist and song title in your menu bar. Click it for a compact panel with album art, a progress slider, playback controls, quick actions, and an optional Liked Songs button.

Features

• Album art + artist – song title visible in your menu bar
• Animated equalizer indicator while music plays
• Native popover panel: artwork, progress slider, prev / play / next, share actions
• Optional Spotify login for connected features such as saving the current track to Liked Songs
• Adaptive polling — 1 s while playing, 3 s otherwise — so it stays light on battery
• No Dock icon, no analytics, no telemetry
• Base playback features talk to the local Spotify desktop app via Apple Events and do not require Spotify login

Install

1. Download the latest SongBar-x.y.z.dmg from the Releases page.
2. Open the dmg and drag SongBar into your Applications folder.
3. Open Applications, right-click SongBar and choose Open. macOS will warn that the developer can't be verified — that's expected for an unsigned open-source app. Click Open to confirm.
4. Look for SongBar in your menu bar — top-right of the screen, near the clock.

Right-click → Open is only needed once. After that you can launch it normally. This is unsigned because we don't yet have an Apple Developer ID; once we do, the warning will go away.

First-run permission

The first time SongBar tries to read or control Spotify, macOS will prompt you to grant Automation permission so SongBar can talk to the Spotify app. Click Allow.

If you accidentally deny, re-enable it in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation, find SongBar in the list, and toggle Spotify on.

See docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md if anything goes sideways.

Requirements

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
• The Spotify desktop app installed and signed in

SongBar does not work with the web player or Spotify Connect playback on a remote device — it reads the local desktop app.

Optional Spotify Login

SongBar's base features work without Spotify login. To save or remove tracks from Liked Songs, connect Spotify in SongBar Settings with a Spotify Developer Client ID:

1. Open the Spotify Developer Dashboard and create an app.
2. Use any app name and description you want. Select Web API.
3. Add this exact redirect URI: http://127.0.0.1:17654/callback
4. Save the app, then copy its Client ID. You do not need the Client Secret.
5. In SongBar, open Settings, paste the Client ID, and click Connect Spotify.

Use 127.0.0.1 exactly. Spotify allows HTTP for loopback redirect URIs, but localhost is not accepted.

Spotify apps in development mode support up to 5 allowlisted users. Add your Spotify account in the app's User Management page before connecting. If you distribute SongBar to other people, they can either use the base features without login or connect with their own Spotify Developer app and Client ID.

Privacy

• SongBar doesn't ask for your Spotify password. It never sees one.
• SongBar doesn't send your listening history anywhere. There is no server, no analytics, no telemetry.
• Optional Spotify login uses OAuth PKCE in your browser. SongBar stores the returned tokens in your macOS Keychain.
• Album artwork is downloaded directly from Spotify's CDN to render the panel.
• If you connect Spotify, SongBar also talks directly to Spotify's Web API for connected features such as Liked Songs.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/TthBnc/SongBar.git
cd SongBar
open SongBar.xcodeproj

Build and run the SongBar scheme in Xcode 16 or later.

To run unit tests from the command line:

xcodebuild -scheme SongBar -configuration Debug -destination 'platform=macOS' test

For details on packaging a .dmg (signed or unsigned), see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Contributing

Bug reports, ideas, and PRs welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Trademark

SongBar is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.