Yet Another App To Control iTunes From The Mac’s Menubar (and this one does Spotify, too)

Mac app developers need to get together and call a truce. If they don’t, my Mac’s Menubar is going to explode because it’s so full of apps, tools, and utilities.

Take iTunes. Please. While there is no shortage of Menubar apps to control iTunes, there is a shortage of space in the Menubar. My proposal is that all Menubar apps also have a Dock counterpart. I’m afraid SmashTunes might smash my Menubar.

The iTunes Conundrum

Without taking a scientific survey, or even checking with my wife, I suspect that most Mac users have a love hate relationship with Apple’s behemoth app, iTunes.

Behemoth? Oh, yeah. It was a great music player back in the day, then it became a store for music, and that was pretty much OK.

Since then, iTunes has evolved into a palace of media selections– music, music videos, TV shows, movies, internet radio, applications for iPhone and iPad, album art for music.

There’s a good chance I’m overlooking a few new features Apple dropped into the latest version. For all I know, there might be options buy concert tickets order Chinese food.

When it comes to controlling iTunes’ original purpose– the playing of music– Mac users have plenty of choices. SmashTunes is another that does the deed of controlling iTunes from the Menubar. And, it controls your Spotify account, too.

There’s no magic being performed by SmashTunes.

It’s a controller that lives in the Menubar. Click it, and down pops a menu of options which range from Pause, Next, Previous, Rating, Shuffle, Show Artwork and more.

SmashTunes features keyboard shortcuts to control most functions, and song information is displayed in the Menubar.

You can rate songs from within SmashTunes and pull up specific iTunes playlists.

The claim to fame here, because SmashTunes does what a dozen other Menubar-driven iTunes controllers do, is Spotify, the latest in subscription music that goes wherever you and your devices go for a monthly fee.

If you get Spotify, SmashTunes can play your music from the Menubar, toggling control back and forth with iTunes. SmashTunes doesn’t cost much, and it doesn’t do much that’s not done by other apps (also similarly priced), but it clutters up the already overcrowded living conditions in the Menubar.

The Apple Villagers

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