Music Widget brings back the 2005 iTunes nostalgia we didn't know we needed

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Music Widget App Screenshot
Music Widget App Screenshot (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Music Widget is a macOS app that mimics the popular iTunes widget from Mac OS X of yesteryear.
  • The free download acts as a remote for the Music app on macOS Big Sur.

If you've been using a Mac for a while you might remember the iTunes widget that let us control our music from the Dashboard back in the day. Back in 2005, to be specific. Well, iTunes might be dead and buried on the Mac, but that widget lives on in the form of a free app called Music Widget.

Created by developer Mario Guzman, the app mimics that Max OS X Tiger widget and lets you control playback from the Music app just fine. It won't work with Spotify though, so that's something to keep in mind.

The app runs fine on macOS Big Sur — and the macOS Monterey beta, if you're so inclined — and can be downloaded in its beta form now. It's a great trip down memory lane for those of us who have been around a little longer than others. But it's also functional, letting you put the Music controls anywhere you want without taking up too much screen space.

Now that we have music control taken care of, it's time to find you some good headphones for listening with. These are the best AirPods Max deals we've come across, so why not treat yourself?

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.