What's playing, in the MacBook notch.
Ledge is a free notch app for Mac. While something plays, the notch shows it. Move the pointer there and a card opens with the cover art, the title, a scrub bar and the buttons. It works with Music, Spotify and anything playing in a browser tab.
Free and open source. You need a MacBook with a notch and macOS 26 or later.
Skip a track without
losing your place.
From the card you can skip, scrub through the track or switch the output to your AirPods. When you change the volume, the level shows up beside the notch instead of in the middle of the screen.
How it works.
What it reads
Ledge picks up what's playing in Music, in Spotify and in browser tabs. Cover art is fetched from the address the playing app reports. That's one of only four things Ledge sends over the network.
The card
Cover art, the title, the scrub bar and the buttons sit in one card under the notch. From the same card you can move the sound to your AirPods with AirPlay.
Volume and brightness
With Accessibility allowed, the volume and brightness keys show Ledge's readout beside the notch in place of the macOS pop-up. Hover over the bar and you can drag it. Without that permission you see both, stacked.
The equalizer
The bars that move next to the song are an animation generated from the track. Ledge doesn't listen to your audio or record it.
Permissions
Cover art and scrubbing in Music and Spotify use Automation permission. If you say no, the music still shows up without the artwork. You can also turn Now Playing off completely. Anything you turn off stops running and won't ask for permissions.
What it won't do.
- Run on other Macs. Ledge needs a MacBook with a notch and macOS 26. External monitors get nothing.
- Listen. Nothing is recorded. The equalizer is an animation.
- Survive every macOS update for certain. Reading what's playing uses MediaRemote, a private Apple framework. Ledge checks each private symbol before using it, so if Apple removes one the feature stops instead of the app crashing. The README lists what Ledge reaches for and why.
- Show other apps' notifications.
Questions.
Can the MacBook notch show what's playing on Spotify?
Yes. Ledge shows Spotify, Music and anything playing in a browser tab in the notch. Point at it and a card opens with the cover art, a scrub bar and the buttons.
Does Ledge show music playing in a browser?
Yes. Anything playing in a browser tab shows up in the notch the same way Music and Spotify do.
Can the sound move to AirPods from the notch?
Yes. From the Now Playing card you can switch the output to your AirPods.
Does the macOS volume pop-up still appear?
Not once Accessibility is allowed. Ledge catches the volume and brightness keys and shows its own readout beside the notch instead. Without that permission you see both, stacked.
Does Ledge listen to the music?
No. The equalizer next to the song is an animation generated from the track. Ledge doesn't capture your audio or your screen.
The rest of Ledge.
Now Playing is one card. The notch can also show a timer, your next meeting, the weather, notes and Keep Awake. See everything Ledge does, or what a Dynamic Island for the Mac looks like.