If ScreenSleeves doesn't appear to work

If ScreenSleeves Standalone doesn't appear to realise that there's music playing, then the answer is almost certainly linked to permissions.

With each release, MacOS has become more secure. As a general rule it won't do anything unless you've given permission. 

Since Catalina, ScreenSleeves won't be able to find out what music is playing without you allowing it to access 'System Events' as well as whatever app(s) you use to play music. When you first run SS, you should see a dialog, and it's important to agree to these things. 

Regardless of whether you remember the dialog(s) and what your answer was, you can always grant the necessary permission with a checkbox or two.

You need to go to System Preferences > Security and Privacy > Privacy > Automation

Album art lookup using MusicBrainz - experimental free app

ScreenSleeves generally receives the album cover  art from whatever music player you're using (Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes and many others).

There are cases where it doesn't. For example when listening to an internet radio stream using certain apps, often only the artist and track name are provided. 

ScreenSleeves has traditionally had the option to look up album art online where necessary. (In fact, it had the option to *always* look up art online when using Snowtape, because the method SS used was more likely to produce the correct art than Snowtape itself.)

ScreensSleeves has used Gracenote for a few years. GN is a firmly commercial operation but they allowed me (with the actual number of requests capped) to use the service for free.  At some point recently that lookup service seems to have unceremoniously stopped. My account doesn't exist any more and there's no longer any information about the lookup / API. (Often the way when you make use of 3rd-party services.) A quick Google shows that software and even hardware that made use of CDDB for CD information no longer works since a certain date. 

MusicBrainz is a much more open music database. They allow free non-commercial use. I have discussed Screensleeves with them and come to an arrangement which allows SS to perform the necessary lookups when necessary. 

This is a good solution. I have some old and obscure albums that it doesn't have artwork for, and even the odd album that it doesn't even have in the database (I must learn how to contribute to the database). However, the search works beautifully and when the artwork is available it's very good quality. 

With this up and running in the development version of Screensleeves,  I was impressed with the quality of the artwork and wanted a way to simply perform a lookup and save the cover for my own use in iTunes.  (My personal media server uses an old version of MacOS and iTunes, because when something works I like it to remain the way it is, rather than changing at the whim of the maker.)

I've built an interface around the MusicBrainz cover art lookup that I'd written for ScreenSleeves and this is the result. 

The download is here (well done for finding it. At this point I won't publish it on the peacockmedia.software main site or anywhere else). 

If this interests you, please let me know in the comments or by email. Other apps are available but they do tend to integrate with your iTunes/Music library rather than simply allowing you to save the artwork and do what you like with it.

ScreenSleeves ready to go as a standalone app

In the last post I gave a preview of a new direction for ScreenSleeves and now it's ready to go.

Changes in MacOS Mojave have made it impossible to continue with ScreenSleeves as a true screensaver. Apple have not made it possible (as far as I know at the time of writing) to grant a screensaver plugin the necessary permission to communicate with or control other apps.

Making ScreenSleeves run as a full app (in its own window) has several benefits:

• Resize the window from tiny to large, and put it into full-screen mode.
• Choose to keep the window on top of others when it's small, or allow others to move on top of it
• The new version gives you the option to automate certain things, emulating a screensaver:
• Switch to full-screen mode with a keypress (cmd-ctrl-F) or after a configurable period of inactivity
• Switch back from full-screen to the floating window with a wiggle of the mouse or keypress
• Block system screensaver, screen sleep or computer sleep while in full-screen mode and as long as music is playing

As mentioned, Mojave has much tighter security. The first time you run this app, you'll be asked to allow ScreenSleeves access to several other things. It won't ask for permission for anything which isn't necessary for it to function as intended. You should only be troubled once for each thing that Screensleeves needs to communicate with.

The new standalone version (6.0.0) is available for download, it runs for free for a trial period, then a small price to continue using it. (Previously, the screensaver came in a free and 'pro' versions with extras in the paid version).

Screensleeves album art screensaver as a standalone app

Screensleeves has been a popular screensaver for a number of years, but the security changes in the new Mojave OS may make its functionality impossible.

Over the years people have suggested that it could be a free-standing app rather than a screensaver. This comes with some advantages - eg you can keep it minimised and floating above other windows in the corner of the screen when it's not in full screen mode.

This may be the only way to keep the screensaver alive. I've been experimenting with the idea, ironing out some issues related to the change, and using it. I have to say that I like it very much.

Here's a very quick peek at what all this means.

routine update for Screensleeves

Yesterday Screensleeves (free and pro versions) received a maintenance update; some small updates, improvements and the odd little glitch fixed.

It's the first update in a while. But then if something's working pretty well, should it be important to do some work and release a new version? There are definite marketing advantages (exposure).

Over the weekend I had an app pulled from the App Store, on the grounds that it hadn't been updated for a while. I hate the Store and haven't supported it for a long while, and this is a minor app that I haven't sold a copy of for a long time and have been wondering whether to stop supporting anyway. When uploading apps is such a headache anyway, the obligation to do it regularly in order to avoid them dropping an app just seems like another hoop to jump through. But it did make me feel a little offended.

On the positive side, the Apple's policy does keep their store free of abandoned apps. I've seen users refer to apps as 'abandonware' if they haven't been updated in a couple of years.