iTunification

iTunification is a simple application that lets you see what's playing on iTunes or Spotify. With either of this applications running, iTunification will grab the details of the track that is playing and display them on the menubar.

The information shown includes artist name, track name, album, duration and, if available, the album's artwork.

One of the main features of this application is its support for notifications. They can be delivered by either the Notification Center or Growl. You can change which service you want to use for notifications from the Preferences window. Here, you can also choose to load iTunification when your Mac starts, keep a history of notifications in Notification Center, and show notifications when the player is active. The rating, year and genre of the track can also be displayed in notifications if you check those in the Preferences window.

I tested this app with iTunes, and it worked as advertised. It immediately picked up new songs being played and it displayed notifications accordingly. The menubar menu allowed me to quickly see what song was playing even if I had missed the notification. From up there I could also set the application to "Silent Mode" which turned off any notifications.

In short, iTunification is a nice way of being always aware of what song is playing without having to open iTunes. However, in my opinion, it could use playback controls. I have seen other apps that also let you control iTunes from the Menubar and that is very useful.