Music MiniPlayer brings some 2007 iTunes nostalgia to your modern Mac
What you need to know
- The classic iTunes Mini Player was much loved, and now we can have it back.
- Music MiniPlayer is a free download and is a replica of that famous iTunes version.
- The new Music MiniPlayer can even handle playlists which is more than iTunes managed back in the day!
iTunes wasn't great, but the Mini Player was. Now it's back thanks to a free app.
It's fair to say that iTunes was the butt of many jokes by the time it met its demise, but one thing it got right was its famous mini player. We don't get quite the same thing with the newer Music app — but fear not. The iTunes mini player can ride again thanks to a free Mac app.
That Mac app is Music MiniPlayer and it's a replica of that classic iTunes app that we all knew and loved, except this one works on macOS Monterey. The app was created by Mario Guzman and it's a free download. That doesn't mean that it's lacking in features, though, because it very much isn't. Downloaders will enjoy the basic controls you'd expect from such a thing as well as support for playlists, something the iTunes version never quite managed.
Unlike the original MiniPlayer, Music MiniPlayer allows you to play another playlist without having to open the main Apple Music window. Just slide open the drawer to pick a different playlist or control Shuffle and Repeat modes.
I tried to stay as close as possible to the iTunes 10 MiniPlayer but there are slight differences. For example, Music MiniPlayer uses the white, glass playback buttons as found in Mac OS X "Tiger."
— Mario Guzman (@MarioGuzman) May 23, 2022
For reference, here is the original iTunes 10 MiniPlayer: pic.twitter.com/2wUSW7eZrt
It's all rather lovely and it tickles that nostalgia bone in a way nothing but a good bit of Mac history can. In fact, there's a good chance this could be the best Mac thing to happen since the Mac Studio — and you can get this much quicker than you can Apple's latest Mac!
You can download Music MiniPlayer for free right now and you absolutely need to do that. Do it now!