Lyrics, written
in starlight.
Verse draws the words of whatever you're playing as a constellation — each one a star that lights the moment it's sung, joined to the last by a single thread.
macOS 14 or later · Spotify and Apple Music · Apple silicon and Intel
A song, mapped
like a night sky.
Most lyrics scroll past like subtitles. Verse slows them into something you'd look up at: a few words at a time, placed by hand-tuned chance, connected in the order they're sung — then cleared away for the next verse.
Word by word, on the beat
Real per-word timings light each star exactly as it's sung. Lines that only have line timing are spread naturally across their words.
Lock screen, or any display
Lock your Mac and the constellation takes the screen. Or give it a second monitor to keep it beside you while you work.
Starlight, or the record's colours
Warm cream on black by default. Switch to colours pulled from the album art, or choose your own.
Quiet by design
Lives in the menu bar — no dock icon, no account. Keeps the display awake while music plays, and lets it sleep when it stops.
Every word is
a star.
- A word is sung.
Its star appears, bright and large, with the word beside it.
- A thread is drawn.
A line reaches from the last star, arriving exactly as the next word begins.
- The word settles.
Over a breath it shrinks into a quiet label, leaving room for what comes next.
- The sky clears.
When the verse ends, the constellation fades and a new one begins.
Ready in a minute.
Open it once
Verse isn't notarised by Apple yet, so the first time, right-click Verse → Open, then Open. Or run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Verse.app
Press play
Play something in Spotify or Apple Music and allow Verse to read it when asked. Then lock your Mac — or pick a display for the full-screen stage from the menu bar.
Fine print.
Is it really free?
Yes. Verse is free and open source under the MIT licence. No account, no tracking.
Where do the lyrics come from?
Verse looks up synced lyrics from public sources — NetEase Cloud Music for word-level timing, and LRCLIB as a fallback. Most popular songs are covered; very obscure releases may have none, in which case nothing is drawn.
Why does macOS warn me when I open it?
Verse is signed but not notarised by Apple, which requires a paid developer account. Right-click → Open once and macOS remembers your choice.
The words are slightly early or late.
Use the Sync offset in the menu bar to nudge them. It's saved for next time.
Does it work on the lock screen in every macOS version?
Drawing over the lock screen relies on parts of macOS that Apple can change. If an update breaks it, the full-screen stage on any display still works.