What it is
A music player that lives in the bezel.
- Hover
- Glide onto the notch and it expands: artwork, title, scrub bar, controls. Move away and it melts back into the screen.
- Lyrics
- Synced lyrics, timed to the beat: the current line floats in the peek strip, and the expanded player shows a three-line window with the past and next lines dimmed. Toggle it off any time from the menu.
- Color
- Cornice has no colors of its own. The glow, the visualizer, the scrubber are sampled live from your album art. This page borrows them too — skip a track in the demo above.
- Sources
- Spotify, Apple Music, Apple TV, and VLC. YouTube, YouTube Music, SoundCloud, and Plex playing in a tab — Safari, Chrome, Brave, or Edge.
- Extras
- Scroll over the notch to change volume. Plug in the charger and it flashes your battery level. A keep-awake toggle lives in the expanded player. The glow steps aside when you watch anything fullscreen.
The real thing
Recorded on a MacBook Pro, not mocked up.
Price
- Try free for 3 days first, no card, no account
- One license covers 2 Macs
- Free updates, no subscription
- Signed and notarized by Apple
Questions
Which players does it work with?
Spotify, Apple Music, Apple TV, and VLC natively. YouTube, YouTube Music, SoundCloud, and Plex work when they're playing in a browser tab (Safari, Chrome, Brave, or Edge). If your player is missing, ask — sources are cheap to add.
Why isn't it in the Mac App Store?
The App Store sandbox forbids controlling other apps, which is the whole point of Cornice. So it's a direct download instead, signed and notarized through Apple's own security review for apps distributed outside the store.
What does it send over the network?
Four things: a license check, a daily update check, album-art lookups, and synced-lyrics lookups (lrclib.net, only the track title and artist). No analytics, no account, no tracking.
What Macs does it run on?
macOS 14 or later. It's built for MacBooks with a notch; on other Macs there's nothing for it to live in, so it stays hidden.
What permissions does it ask for?
One: Automation. macOS asks once per player (Spotify, Music, your browser) so Cornice can read and control playback — that's the entire app, so it can't work without it. For YouTube or Plex in a browser, you'll also flip one setting in the browser's own menu ("Allow JavaScript from Apple Events"). Everything is revocable any time in System Settings › Privacy & Security.
What if I want a refund?
Reply to your purchase receipt within 14 days and you'll get one, no questions asked.