Apple Music Companion – Create Stations & Favorite Songs from the Menu Bar

It’s hard for me to even imagine coding without music.

In fact, for years I had my carefully curated iTunes library with a playlist for every occasion.  Yep, back when music was bought as CDs and ripped. 

JWulen on X: "@elcanalrandom https://t.co/GsUyPRGEe9" / X

I still have my library, of course,  but I’ve been using Apple Music as my daily driver for years now. I love how easy it is to discover new music, mostly by using “Favorite” and “Create Station” when I find songs I like.

Here’s the thing though… It’s slightly distracting & unnecessarily complicated to do (i.e. go to the dock, open Apple Music, right click on the three small dots, and then create the station).

And I know it looks nitpicky, but when you’re in the middle of solving a complex coding problem, the last thing you want is to context switch. As illustrated by Jason Heeris:

r/ProgrammerHumor - Why developers hate being interrupted.

So how do I fix it? Well, for the longest time I would just ‘deal with it’ – but this past weekend, after having worked on PowerVoice for a while, I wanted to tackle a fun little project. And, a couple hours later, a lightweight & distraction-free way to interact with Apple Music was born. 

It’s been so much fun to build. I improvised a quick icon and named it with the groundbreaking ‘Apple Music Controller’ name.

Once tested enough, it’ll be available as a free download – stay tuned. 

And if you’re an Apple Music subscriber and would like an early copy, hit me up

Comments / Feedback? Find me on Mastodon, X, or Bsky

Marc