Tuneful Alternative: Music in the Notch, Not the Menu Bar
Tuneful is a nice mini player — but it's only a mini player. Notchy collapses Spotify and Apple Music onto your MacBook notch with album art, scrubbing, an output switcher, and time-synced karaoke lyrics — then adds a clipboard manager, file shelf, timers, and 30+ other tools. All free.
Why use Notchy instead of Tuneful?
- Now Playing where your eyes already are
Album art, scrubbing, shuffle/repeat, app volume, and one-tap Favorite live on the notch itself — no menu-bar icon to hunt for, no popover to position.
- Synced lyrics built in
Time-synced karaoke lyrics scroll under the notch as your song plays — Apple Music, Spotify, anything with Now Playing. Free via LRCLIB, no account or API key.
- A whole utility suite, not just music
Tuneful stops at playback. Notchy adds clipboard history, a drop shelf with zip/unzip, Pomodoro focus timers, AirPods battery, system HUDs, and an AI usage tracker — for the same $0.
Everything Notchy does, for free
- Fluid Dynamic Island animations on the Mac notch
- Command palette (⌃⌥K) — every action one keystroke away
- Knock — double-tap a modifier key to open the notch
- AI usage tracker (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot)
- Detach any tab into a menu-bar popover
- Now Playing music controls (Apple Music & Spotify)
- Time-synced karaoke lyrics under the notch
- Mac clipboard history shelf (password-manager safe)
- Drag-and-drop file drop shelf — persists across relaunches
- Zip & unzip files right from the shelf
- Image converter (HEIC, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF) + video → GIF
- Run Apple Shortcuts with one tap
- Screenshots auto-staged on the shelf, ready to drag
- Download finished alerts with Reveal in Finder
- USB drive mount island with one-tap Eject
- Apple Reminders quick capture & due list
- macOS Pomodoro notch timer & stopwatch — streaks + 7-day chart
- Resizable expanded panel (width & height, live preview)
- System HUDs (volume, brightness, battery)
- Audio output switcher (speakers, AirPods, monitor)
- AirPods connection manager & battery
- Magic Mouse, Keyboard & Trackpad battery + low-battery alerts
- Quick notes & Calendar widgets
- Camera Mirror (check your appearance)
- Keep Awake (caffeine toggle)
- Teleprompter (Cuely) for Zoom calls
- Focus-aware alerts & native haptic feedback
- Lock screen widgets & hide-the-notch mode
- 133 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple Silicon