# beardedspice/beardedspice

Mac Media Keys for the Masses

Repository: https://github.com/beardedspice/beardedspice
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/beardedspice
Homepage: http://beardedspice.github.io
Language: Objective-C
License Family: other
Last push: 2021-05-12T15:48:39+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4614, "days_push": 1939, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2843, forks 267 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:24.859754+00:00)

## What it is
BeardedSpice is a macOS menubar application that lets you control web-based media players (YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.) and native apps like Spotify using the media keys on Mac keyboards. It works with Chrome and Safari tabs via extensible per-site 'media strategies' and includes a Smart Mode that auto-detects which tab is playing.

## Use cases
- control youtube with mac media keys
- use media keys with soundcloud in browser
- control spotify web player from keyboard
- pause music playing in a safari tab
- control multiple browser media players from menubar
- make media keys work with pandora on mac

## When to choose
- you listen to web-based music services on a Mac and want hardware media key control
- you use Chrome or Safari and switch between multiple streaming tabs
- you want an extensible, community-supported set of site handlers

## When to avoid
- you need a maintained app - the latest release is from 2021 and the project points users to a successor discussion
- you are on Windows or Linux
- you need control over media players outside browsers and the small list of supported native apps

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: maintenance
- function: gui, developer-tools
- domain: media, desktop-applications, apple-ecosystem, developer-tools
- platform: -
- tags: media-keys, menubar-app, music-control, browser-tabs, objective-c, media-player-control, macos, desktop

## Member repositories
- beardedspice/beardedspice (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:24.859754+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:37:13.121982+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/beardedspice/beardedspice (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:24.859754+00:00, sha f0f04bb8d26b)
  - homepage: http://beardedspice.github.io (fetched 2026-08-29T09:52:42.721680+00:00, sha 0d261051a0d3)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.