Night Bus HomeLumen Field
Night Bus HomeLumen Field
1:08-2:14
62
Search for a song
Up Next10
Playlists
Night driveFocusKyiv morningsLiked musicLate
Night Bus HomeLumen Field
1:08-2:14
62
Search for a song
Up Next
Paper MoonsOrla Vey
Kyiv, 5 a.m.Teo Brann
GlasshouseMira Sol
Late TramsOrla Vey
Orange HourLumen Field
Harbour LightsTeo Brann
Playlists
Night driveFocusKyiv morningsLiked musicLate
Night drive128 songsPlay
  1. 1Night Bus HomeLumen Field3:22
  2. 2Paper MoonsOrla Vey3:48
  3. 3Kyiv, 5 a.m.Teo Brann3:07
  4. 4GlasshouseMira Sol4:01
  5. 5Late TramsOrla Vey2:54
  6. 100Orange HourLumen Field3:30
24:59
In 5 minutesDesign review Join
ConnectedAirPods Pro 82

Free for macOS 14 or later

Your notch, playing along.

Brimtune turns the notch on your Mac into a small stage for whatever you're listening to. Cover, controls and lyrics, right where your eyes already are.

Free, no account. Apple silicon and Intel.

Hover the island at the top to try it.

01 Lock screen

A better lock screen.

Music, lyrics and your playlists, before you even sign in.

02 Quiet by design

Quiet by design.

No Dock icon, no window, no fan noise. Brimtune waits for something to happen instead of constantly checking, so your Mac barely notices it's there.

1.5%of one core, with music paused

36MBof memory

0accounts, ads or trackers

03 It keeps going

  1. It lives in the notch.

    A slim strip around the notch: the cover on one side, a live waveform on the other. On a Mac without a notch it floats at the top as a small pill. Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music or Spotify in Safari and Chrome.

  2. Hover, and it opens up.

    Cover, progress, play and skip, and a volume slider for the music itself. Move away and it tucks back in.

  3. Find any song.

    The search field sits right under the player. Type, press Return, and it plays in YouTube Music.

  4. Up Next, at a glance.

    See what’s coming and flip through it with the arrows, three songs at a time. Click one to jump straight there.

  5. Every playlist, every song.

    Open any playlist from your YouTube Music account and play the song you want, however long the playlist is.

  6. Lyrics, word by word.

    In the full-screen player and on the lock screen. Running early or late? Click the line being sung and it catches up.

  7. Timers and a stopwatch.

    Start one from the menu bar. It counts down next to the cover, and tells you when it’s done.

  8. Meetings, five minutes ahead.

    From your calendar, with a button that joins the call.

  9. AirPods, the moment they connect.

    With their battery, so you know before the call starts.

04 Full-screen player

A player that breathes.

Click the cover and your whole screen fills with its colours, slowly moving, with the lyrics beside it. Keep scrolling to sing along.

Night Bus HomeLumen Field
1:08-2:14
LyricsUp NextPlaylists

We took the long way home

with the windows down

and the city humming

a song we didn't know

every light turned green

like it knew the words

so we sang it anyway

The waveform follows what your Mac plays. It listens in memory and never records.

05 And the little things

Small, and everywhere you need it.

Everything you played.

Your listening history, grouped by day. Click a song to hear it again.

  • Kyiv, 5 a.m.Teo Brann, YouTube Music09:12
  • Paper MoonsOrla Vey, Spotify08:58
  • Night Bus HomeLumen Field, Apple Music08:41
  • GlasshouseMira Sol, SpotifyYesterday

Every display.

Around the notch on your MacBook. On an external display, a small island floats at the top.

Out of the way, in the menu bar.

A tiny island icon holds the rest: timers, the stopwatch, history and the full-screen player.

Updates arrive on their own.

New versions download quietly and keep your permissions. You'll see what changed.

Free. Really.

No account, no ads, no trial, no tracking.

06 The idea

Good luck going back.

It sits in the notch doing nothing at all, until there's something worth seeing. Then it shows you, and gets out of the way.

07 Install

Install in a minute.

  1. Download Brimtune and open the file.
  2. Drag Brimtune into Applications in the window that appears.
  3. Open it. The first time, macOS may say it can't verify the developer: Brimtune is free and signed by its maker rather than through Apple's paid programme. Open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway. You do this once.
  4. Follow the setup guide. It asks for each permission and explains what it's for. Listening in Safari or Chrome? Turn on Allow JavaScript from Apple Events in that browser when the guide asks: it's the one step not to skip, and the guide checks it for you. Every other extra is optional.
Privacy & Security

Security

Allow applications fromApp Store & Known Developers

“Brimtune” was blocked to protect your Mac.

Open Anyway

FileVault

Lockdown Mode

08 Questions

Before you ask.

Will it slow down my Mac or drain the battery?

No. It waits for something to happen instead of constantly checking. With music paused it uses around 1.5% of one processor core and 36 MB of memory.

Does my Mac need a notch?

No. On Macs and external displays without one, Brimtune shows a small floating island at the top centre of the screen, and only when something's playing.

Which music apps work?

The Apple Music and Spotify apps, and YouTube Music or Spotify in Safari or Chrome. For covers, progress, Up Next and your playlists from the browser, turn on Allow JavaScript from Apple Events in that browser: in Safari it's under Settings, Advanced, "Show features for web developers", then the Developer tab; in Chrome it's View, Developer. The setup guide shows you where and checks it's on.

Why does macOS warn me the first time I open it?

Apple only skips that warning for developers in its paid programme. Brimtune is signed by its maker, so macOS asks you to confirm once in Privacy & Security. After that it opens like any other app, and updates keep your permissions.

What does it do with my data?

Nothing leaves your Mac except the song details needed to find lyrics and covers. There's no account and no tracking. The privacy policy lists exactly what goes where.

Is Brimtune open source?

Yes. The code is on GitHub under the GPL-3.0 licence: read it, build it yourself, report a bug or send a fix.

How do I remove it?

Choose Quit Brimtune from its menu bar icon, then drag Brimtune from Applications to the Bin. To remove its history too, delete the folder Library/Application Support/Brimtune in your home folder.

09 What's new

Fresh off the bench.

Brimtune gets a little better every few days, and updates itself in the background.

Software Update

A new version of Brimtune is available!

Brimtune 1.1.2 is now available.

What's new
  • Song numbers in long playlists (100 and up) stay on one line instead of breaking in two.
Skip This VersionRemind Me LaterInstall Update
  1. 1.1.1

    • The volume slider now changes only the music's volume (in Music, Spotify, YouTube Music or Spotify on the web), not your whole Mac's.
  2. 1.1.0

    • A volume slider in the open island: drag it to set your Mac's volume, tap the speaker to mute. It grows under your pointer, shows the level as you drag, and follows the volume keys.
  3. 1.0.9

    • Long playlists now show every song, not just the first 100.
    • Up Next arrows moved to the left and right of the songs.
    • A wide cover can no longer spill over the title next to it.
  4. 1.0.8

    • The search field now sits right under the player, and it opens with a single click.
    • Up Next has arrows: page through the next songs, three at a time.
    • Covers in Up Next no longer run into the song titles.
    • On the lock screen, the open island now covers the full-screen player behind it instead of showing it through.
Every update, since the first

Give your notch something to do.

Download for Mac

Free. For macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.

Brimtune

Pay what you want

€0.00

Brimtune is free.

Made by one person in Ukraine, in the evenings. If it makes your days a little better, a coffee keeps it going. If not, it's yours anyway.

Buy me a coffee & download

or

Download for free