Music MiniPlayer brings some 2007 iTunes nostalgia to your modern Mac

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Music Miniplayer Screenshot
Music Miniplayer Screenshot (Image credit: Mario Guzman)

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!

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.

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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!

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.