Control the macOS Music app from the VS Code status bar: previous, play/pause, next, the current track and a small animated equalizer. The sound keeps playing in Music itself, so there is no login, no streaming and nothing to configure.
Music-bar is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple. "Apple Music" and "Music" are trademarks of Apple Inc.
Features
Playback controls — previous, play/pause and next buttons in the status bar.
Now playing — track title and artist. Long titles scroll, pause, and scroll again.
Equalizer — a decorative animated bar equalizer next to the title. It moves while a track is playing and settles when you pause. It does not analyse the audio.
Launcher — when Music is not running, the status bar shows an Open Apple Music button that starts it.
Requirements
macOS. Music-bar talks to the Music app through AppleScript, so it does not work on Windows or Linux.
The Music app (included with macOS).
First run
The first time Music-bar reads the player state, macOS asks whether VS Code may control Music. Choose OK. If you dismissed the prompt, enable it in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation → Visual Studio Code → Music.
Commands
Command
Description
Music-bar: Play/Pause
Toggle playback
Music-bar: Next Track
Skip to the next track
Music-bar: Previous Track
Go back to the previous track
Music-bar: Open Apple Music
Launch the Music app
Settings
Setting
Default
Description
musicBar.pollIntervalSeconds
3
How often the player state is refreshed while the VS Code window is focused.
musicBar.titleWidth
28
Characters of the title shown before it starts scrolling.
musicBar.showEqualizer
true
Show the animated equalizer.
Performance and privacy
State is polled only while the VS Code window is focused. The animations run only while a track is playing (or for a moment after pausing) and the window is focused.
Music-bar makes no network requests and collects no data. Everything happens locally through osascript.
