Now Playing

Chris AbraUtilities
Get it for macOS

Play, pause, and skip tracks from a small player in the bb sidebar footer. The player shows the current track with album art, a seek bar, shuffle, repeat, and volume, in one of seven styles: Default, Minimal, Cover, Hi-Fi, Terminal, Pocket, and the bb-amp skin. The styles follow your bb theme in light and dark mode, and four of them take an accent color. It controls the music player on the computer that runs the bb server: Spotify or Apple Music on macOS, and any MPRIS player on Linux (needs playerctl) or any app in the media overlay on Windows (no volume control there). By default the player follows the app that is playing, and a setting locks it to Spotify or Apple Music. The bb music command gives terminals and agents the same controls. On macOS, Spotify needs its desktop app, and macOS asks once for permission to control each app. Covers for streamed Apple Music tracks come from Apple's iTunes Search API, which receives the artist and title; a setting turns this off.

Overview

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Control your music without leaving bb.

What you get

  • A Now Playing button in the sidebar footer. It opens a small player with the track, album art, a seek bar, play and pause, previous and next, shuffle, repeat, and volume.
  • Seven player styles: Default, Minimal, Cover, Hi-Fi, Terminal, Pocket, and bb-amp, a skin in the style of the desktop MP3 players of around 2000. Pick one on the plugin's settings page or with bb music style. Hi-Fi, Terminal, Pocket, and bb-amp take an accent color.
  • Styles that follow your bb theme. They take their colors from the active palette in light and dark mode. If an accent is hard to read on a theme, the player adjusts it.
  • Support for Spotify and Apple Music on macOS. On Linux and Windows it also controls other players, such as browsers and VLC. By default the player follows the app that is playing. A setting can lock it to Spotify or Apple Music.
  • A bb music command that does the same from a terminal or an agent.

How it works

The plugin drives the music app on the computer that runs the bb server. It needs no account link or API key.

  • On macOS it uses Automation. The first time the plugin controls an app, macOS asks if bb can control it.
  • On Linux it uses MPRIS through playerctl.
  • On Windows it uses the Windows media controls, the same ones as the media overlay.

Streamed Apple Music tracks do not share their album art with other apps. To show it, the server asks Apple's public iTunes Search API for the cover. It sends only the artist and the track title. A setting turns this lookup off. Library tracks use their own art, with no lookup.

The player works from any bb client, but it always controls the server's computer.

Limits

  • Spotify needs its desktop app.
  • Linux needs playerctl, and the bb server must run in the desktop session.
  • Windows media controls have no volume, so the panel shows no volume control there. Some players do not report shuffle or repeat.
  • The plugin cannot search for music or start a playlist. Pick music in the app.
  • Spotify has no "repeat one" mode, so repeat turns on or off there.
  • When the iTunes Search API has no match by the same artist, a streamed Apple Music track shows a music note.

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