Your music, alive in the notch
What's playing, the line being sung, and the controls, without leaving what you're doing.
NOW PLAYING: THE ALBUM, THE CONTROLS, AND THE LYRICS WITH THE LINE BEING SUNG HIGHLIGHTED.
01 · The problem
Skipping a song means leaving your work, digging out Spotify, finding the button, and finding your way back. And the lyric you half-heard is gone.
02 · How Music works
While music plays, in Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube in a browser, a podcast or any app, the notch shows the album art and bars that move in the album's colour, and peeks the title and artist when the song changes.
The line being sung shows right under the notch and fills with the album's colour as it's sung, karaoke-style. Open the notch for the whole song with the current line highlighted, and click any line to jump there. Songs with untimed lyrics follow along with estimated timing.
Hover the notch for the song and ⏮ ⏯ ⏭, right there; stay a moment, or click the art, to open the full panel with a progress bar you can drag. A soft glow in the album's colour sits around the notch, and never over full-screen video.
History keeps the songs you played in the last 30 days, on this Mac. Copy one, or find it again in Spotify, Music or YouTube.
03 · Tips
- Each part, lyrics in the notch, the glow, hover controls, history, has its own switch in Now Playing › Settings.
- Space, ← and → work in the open panel: play-pause, previous, next.
04 · Questions
Where do the lyrics come from?
From lrclib.net, an open lyrics library. Only the song's title, artist, album and length are sent, and lyrics are kept on your Mac.
Which players does it work with?
Anything that reports what's playing to macOS: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and other sites in your browser, podcast apps and more.
Does it get in the way?
No. Dictation, recordings and reminders always come first, the glow ignores clicks, and you can hide any app's music.
Goes well with
Music is one of nineteen tools in notchman. One-time purchase, everything stays on your Mac.
Updated 2026-10-01