How to control music from the menu bar on a Mac
Add Now Playing to the menu bar in System Settings. Open Menu Bar, select Now Playing in the Menu Bar Controls list, and choose Show When Active or Always Show. Click the icon whenever music or video plays, and use the controls for the app that is playing.
Steps
- Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Menu Bar in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down.
- In the Menu Bar Controls list, select Now Playing.
- Click the pop up menu next to Now Playing and choose:
- Show When Active: the icon appears only while something is playing.
- Always Show: the icon stays in the menu bar.
Apple lists the same two choices for Focus, Screen Mirroring, Display, Sound and Now Playing. To hide the item, deselect it in the Menu Bar Controls list.
Without the menu bar icon
You can also use Control Center. Click the Control Center icon in the menu bar, and you will find Now Playing among its controls. Apple’s page shows it in the Control Center screenshot but does not describe its buttons in text, so look at it on your own Mac. To rearrange Control Center, click Edit Controls, change the items, and click Done.
Why Show When Active
If Now Playing is always visible, it takes menu bar space even when nothing plays. Show When Active keeps the bar tidier, and the icon comes back when a player starts. If you cannot find the icon, nothing may be playing. See why Now Playing may not show.
Limits
The menu bar item works with apps that report to the system’s Now Playing. A player that does not report will not appear, whatever the setting. The menu bar item is also a small popup, so it shows less than a full player window.
A hover away in the notch
NotchStar’s Now Playing card sits on the Home tab. It shows the cover, the title and artist, and previous, play or pause and next buttons, which go to whichever app is playing. A progress bar and timestamps appear when the player gives a duration and elapsed time. It listens only while the card is on screen. It relies on a macOS interface that Apple does not document, and for Music and Spotify there is an AppleScript fallback. The technical guide explains how, and the music troubleshooting guide covers faults.
To stop music at a set time, use a Clock timer.
