The audio section of the touch bar can automatically detect which app is playing audio, and adds media controls to play/pause, skip, and seek through any audio. As an example, this works for Quicktime, Spotify, and even YouTube audio from browsers like Google Chrome. How can I use AppleScript to mimic these functions? I want to get the name of the song, be able to play/pause, skip, and even seeking if that is possible.
MacOS – Use AppleScript to find the currently playing song (and other metadata)
applescriptaudiocommand linemacosmusic
Related Solutions
How about this: It's not exactly what you want, but achieves roughly the same thing.
I seem to remember pre-OS X you could activate an app and keep it from being frontmost, but that appears not to be possible these days (or I imagined it.)
to replaceFrontQTPlayerWithFile(aFile)
tell application "QuickTime Player"
activate
try
set frontDoc to front document
close front document
on error err number errNum
if errNum is -1719 then
-- There is no open document
else if errNum is -10000 then
-- Front doc exists, but does not really...
else
log err
end if
end try
open aFile
play front document
-- Hide QTP
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "h" using command down
end tell
end tell
end replaceFrontQTPlayerWithFile
on run
set unixFile to "/Users/diggory/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Music/Underworld/Oblivion With Bells/01 Crocodile.m4a"
set macFile to POSIX file unixFile
set fileRef to (macFile as alias)
my replaceFrontQTPlayerWithFile(fileRef)
end run
The currently playing song shows up in a horizontal now playing bar.
Click the three dots on the right hand side of the bar.
Click on the album name at the top of the pop up menu.
Best Answer
This is a very useful tool and I have a recommendation on the best place to learn how to use AppleScript to interact with media.
This is 100% possible and you might even find the exact script you need, already written. Worst case, you can see the code and hopefully adapt one to your needs.