How to display Apple Music or Spotify now playing on a MacBook TouchBar

Matthew James Oxlade
Updated on

Photography editing can be super boring but instantly made better by listening to music. That’s a no brainer, but when I got my 2016 MacBook Pro with the shiny new TouchBar, I was looking forward to seeing the name of the song playing display on the strip. But it didn’t! So here’s how to display your Apple Music or Spotify now playing on your MacBook’s Touch Bar.

Spotify now playing on MacBook TouchBar

How to get Apple Music or Spotify now playing on your MacBook Touch Bar

Thankfully, LucaTNT, has done a bit of work to get it appearing. It will work on iTunes and Spotify, so regardless of your music subscription, you can get it working.

  1. Download the Better Touch Tool app and go to the TouchBar section inside the app
  2. Click ‘Add a widget’ and then ‘Run Apple Script and Show Return Value’
  3. Click the ‘Advanced Configuration’ option and paste in the Apple Script for either iTunes or Spotify (see the script code below)
  4. Set the Predefined Action to ‘Open Application / File / Apple Script’ and choose the app you use (either iTunes or Spotify)
  5. Open a new Finder window and navigate to your Applications folder. Hold the control button on your keyboard and click on the application, and select ‘Show package contents’. Navigate to /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources and find the iTunes.icns file. Drag this onto the ‘Add Icon button’

iTunes script

Spotify script

Now you’re done, you’ll see your currently playing Spotify or Apple Music song in your Touch Bar while you’re doing concert photography editing or whatever else it is you’re doing!