Show a “Now Playing” iTunes Notification in the OS X Dock
Using a defaults write command, the iTunes Dock icon can be set to display a “Now Playing” song and artist pop-up that transitions in and out and music starts. It’s a nice addition, particularly if you’re playing songs from a shared network playlist and have iTunes hidden in the background.
Enable the iTunes song & artist Dock icon popups
Open the Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/ and type the following:
defaults write com.apple.dock itunes-notifications -bool TRUE
Now kill the Dock to relaunch it:
killall Dock
Start playing a song in iTunes to see the notification appear, it’ll disappear automatically and then reappear briefly anytime a new song starts.
If you decide you don’t like the notification, disabling the iTunes song popup is just as easy:
defaults delete com.apple.dock itunes-notifications
You won’t need to relaunch iTunes, but you will need to kill the Dock again.
This only works in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, if you try it in prior versions nothing happens. The tip comes from Keir Thomas, author of Mac Kung Fu, we found it by way of TheNextWeb.
This hint wasn’t found by TheNextWeb, it was found by a user named Keir-thomas at MacOSXHints. they even say that in their article.
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20111118041933798
Good catch, although I came across it from the TNW feed.
sure, but I think you should at least give credit to the person who originally found the tip as well. #justsaying
I’m the author of this tip and I discovered it while writing my book Mac Kung Fu, which contains over 300 other tips. I shared this tip with OS X Hints and it looks like its gained a life of its own since!
Take a look at the book: http://mackungfubook.com
Does this only work on lion?
does this trick work with other applications?
You can add the iTunes icon to the pop-up too, if you want
Just type in terminal:
defaults write com.apple.dock notification-always-show-image -bool TRUE;killall Dock
To revert to the normal situation type:
defaults delete com.apple.dock itunes-notifications
and then
defaults delete com.apple.dock notification-always-show-image;killall Dock
Thanks for nice advice! Is it possible to display album art instead of iTunes icon?
It would be so sweet if this was possible.
I don’t think. Btw I don’t know how to do it
Possible solution for this is plugin DockArt which replaces iTunes icon with album art. In combination with enabled notifications look great!
http://www.splook.com/Software/DockArt.html
I have DockArt installed and until GimmeSomeTunes is Lion-compatible, this tip makes for a nice replacement.
However, the art shown is the one of the previously played track, not the current one!
Any idea if this is fixable ?
That sounds like a bug or a fluke with caching, try relaunching iTunes? It’s also possible that the currently playing song has no album art, and so the prior songs cover is appearing.
I tried the relaunch and even the DockArt update before posting. Doesn’t help. Songs do have artwork and the behavior is consistent. It does sound like a bug.
To be completely clear: the correct artwork is shown in the Dock via DockArt, but not in the notification pop-up described in this tip.
Does it require one to log in as Admin? It doesn’t work if I do it as simply a user.
[...] (via) Ähnliche Beiträge:- Menüleisten Icons entfernen/neusortieren (Mac OS X)- Aufkleber fürs MacBook- Nützliche Querverweise rund um das Thema MacOS Lion- Zeitraffer: Die Blüten der “Dionaea muscipula”- iPhone – Weckerlautstärke einfach verändern (iOS5) [...]
This is awesome!
[...] killall Dock Via | OSX Daily [...]
[...] killall Dock Via | OSX Daily [...]
[...] the music lovers out there, DockArt takes the “Now Playing” notification concept a step further and actually replaces the iTunes Dock icon with the currently playing albums [...]
[...] sent in by Keir Thomas, the author of a new book called Mac Kung Fu and the guy who discovered the cool iTunes “Now Playing” notification that has since become popular on the Mac web. Without further ado, here’s the trick directly [...]
[...] source : osxdaily [...]
@ ro1960, I noticed that bug too. To fix it, try to make “clean” now-playing notification as described in this article, not notification with iTunes icon as optioned in comments by Alberto. Then you’ll come out with notification displaying only Artist – Song and correct album art dock icon. ))
[...] which contains over 300 tips and tricks for OS X Lion. He’s the same guy who discovered the iTunes “Now Playing” notification tip and the Quick Look select text tip. Here’s the tip direct from [...]
Hello friends! You can not activate these notifications even Twitter application?