Sonant is a native macOS menu bar controller for Spotify and Apple Music, displaying a glass-style pill with album art, track information, playback controls, and a live audio visualizer. ($4.99, one-time)
Play, pause, skip, and seek controls are accessible directly from the pill. Global keyboard shortcuts — ⌘⇧Space for play/pause, ⌘⇧→ to skip forward, ⌘⇧← to go back — work from any application without switching focus. Sonant automatically detects which player is active in real time, switching between Apple Music and Spotify as needed without manual configuration.
The live visualizer renders four bars that react to actual audio output via a CoreAudio process tap, providing real-time visual feedback tied to what is actually playing rather than synthetic animation. The right-click menu exposes audio output switching — switching between speakers, AirPods, or other connected devices without opening System Settings. A sleep timer offers durations of 15, 30, 45, 60, or 90 minutes, pausing music automatically when time runs out. Sonant also records daily and weekly listening time, current streak, and top five most-played artists, all stored locally.
The app is built in Swift and SwiftUI with no Electron or web view components, runs as a menu-bar-only app with no Dock icon, and sends no telemetry.
System requirements: macOS 14.2 or later. Universal binary (Apple Silicon and Intel). Not available on the Mac App Store.
Pricing: ($4.99, one-time) with a 7-day free trial.
Limitations: Requires macOS 14.2 or later, excluding users on older systems. Currently supports only Spotify and Apple Music — other streaming services are not supported. No iOS companion app for remote control. The 7-day trial requires visiting the developer site directly.
Alternatives: SpotMenu (free, open-source on GitHub; simpler controls, no visualizer), Tuneful (free, open-source; supports notch and menu bar display with Apple Music and Spotify), Skip Tunes (long-running Spotify/iTunes controller, more basic interface).
Suitable for users who frequently control Spotify or Apple Music from the keyboard and want a native, lightweight controller with visual audio feedback.
