Topline is a Spotify bar for Mac. It shows the song playing in the Spotify app, and it lets you skip, scrub, shuffle, repeat, and change the volume without opening Spotify's window.
A menu bar controller hides the song behind a click. Topline sits under the menu bar, about 44 points tall, full width, so the song, the scrubber, and the timer are already open. It stays there when you switch Spaces.
Drag any empty part of the bar. Drop it near the top of a display and it snaps in, square corners, edge to edge. Drop it anywhere else and it floats as a shorter rounded bar. The position is remembered, including on a second display.
When a window needs the top of the screen, the docked bar shrinks to a thin line so the window's close button stays reachable. The song, and the Pomodoro if one is running, move into the menu bar until you click them. Right-click the bar and turn on Always Show Bar if you want the full strip to stay put.
Topline talks to the Spotify app on your Mac, the same kind of control the keyboard media keys use. You do not sign in to Spotify inside Topline, and you do not make a Topline account.
Open Spotify and press play. The bar catches up within a second. If the bar says "Open Spotify or Apple Music," Spotify is not running or nothing is playing yet.
Liking a song and listing your Spotify playlists need a Spotify login. Spotify only allows a few users on an app it has not approved, so the Mac App Store version of Topline leaves that login out. Playback does not need it.
Favorites and playlists are on the bar for Apple Music. If you use both apps, Topline follows whichever one is actually playing.
The timer on the left is a Pomodoro timer. Click it and the whole bar colors in for the session, green to red, from 5 to 90 minutes. When it ends you get a chime and a 5-minute break, and whatever is playing keeps playing.
You can keep Spotify playing through the session and change tracks from the bar, which is the point: skipping a song no longer means opening Spotify and losing the work. On days the lyrics are the problem, Undertone (Deep, Drift, Rain, Glow) can take Spotify's place, from the waveform on the bar.
The first time you press play or skip, macOS asks to let Topline control Spotify. Allow it. If controls do nothing afterward, open System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Automation. Find Topline and turn Spotify on. The same switch exists for the Music app.
Hide or show the bar with Control-Option-Command-S. Quit from the right-click menu.
No. Topline controls the Spotify app already installed on your Mac. Play, pause, skip, shuffle, repeat, seek, and volume work without signing in to Spotify inside Topline, and without a Topline account.
It sits under the menu bar, across the width of the display, so the song is visible without a click. If a window needs that space, the bar shrinks to a thin line and the song moves into the menu bar until you click it. Right-click and choose Always Show Bar to keep the full strip up.
Topline follows those apps. Open Spotify and play a song. The bar picks it up within a second. If the message stays, Spotify is not running, or nothing is playing yet.
macOS asks the first time Topline controls Spotify. If you dismissed it, open System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Automation. Find Topline and turn on Spotify.
Not in the Mac App Store version. Spotify only allows a few users to log in to an unapproved app, so that login is left out of the store build. You still get full playback controls. Favorites and playlists are available for Apple Music.