HAZMAT  This utility is so great that I registered it without even needing the pro features, just to support the developer.  
(Version 3.2.6)

FREDERICO  SizzlingKeys 3.3.1 is darn near perfect. It doesn't cram in all the features that other iTunes managers do (and don't believe for a moment it doesn't have plenty!) but that's part of what makes it great. Its Floater is the prettiest, most elegant, most reliable, responsive and CPU-friendly one of them all.

The ease in which you can set nearly all the useful keystrokes most users ever need to control iTunes (and more!) and stay productive in their primary tasks is a tribute to the developer's sense of what makes for a good Mac product. The newer features, such as Select Playlist and Find Song were welcome surprises to a longtime user; I don't know how long they were hiding in there while I have been using my own clunky AppleScripts with Growl an GeekTool to do the same.

Perhaps to the developer's discredit, is that he gives away for free far more than he should. The result, I would guess, is thousands of super-satisfied users who never cough up the measly five bucks for this gem of a program, and perhaps keeps the developer from adding more features, some of them desperately overdue, such as support for half-star ratings.

The developer might argue that one can get free or paid support for at least assigning half-stars from a plethora of other sources, but that the Floater still doesn't display them is baffling to me; we've had them available in iTunes (via hack only since iTunes 8?) for more than a couple of years now. iTunes has always supported numerical rating values (0-100), and it's time for SK to catch up.

I'd also like to see support for display of Lyrics, and support to display more song tags, such as Composer (for classical and Jazz listening), Year, Genre (and a hot key to correct on the fly), BPM, Duration, Time Elapsed/Remaining, Comments, and more for the Floater.

It would also be nice if you could toggle the Floater size (and position) and Album Artwork display on the fly, as well.

But don't let these feature requests make you think that there isn't plenty of power already in SK. If you haven't already downloaded and started using it for free, you're missing out on the party for no good reason.

I have no use for the few features Yellow Mug reserves for its SK Pro users. But anyone who makes use of more than just the basic play/pause/next/etc. controls, especially if you use the Floater or the ratings, and doesn't kick out the fiver YM asks for to unlock the six out of more than thirty available controls, should be ashamed of themselves.

I am ashamed of myself, honestly; I haven't purchased a license in a few years, and I just got around to ordering a Family Pack (only because it gave a couple more bucks to Yellow Mug), for the ridiculously low price of $6.95 for five seats; and I plan to buy another family pack for home when I return. I use it on more than one machine, and I probably should buy a Pro license for at least my two primary machines, that's for sure, in spite of the fact I don't and won't use the Pro features.

Frankly, I wouldn't mind at all paying an annual subscription fee to make sure it at least stays functional and bug free as Mac OS X evolves, and I would gladly pay more if it keeps giving me new and useful tools.

I'd like to give SK 3.3.1 five stars, but as much as I rely on it, I have to penalize its own lack of support for the same feature by at least a half star. So, like SK, even though I am granting 4.5 stars, this review will only display 4.

Frederico 2009.06.24  
(Version 3.3.3)

BUSHBABYWAS  Extremely clear and simple to set up through a pane in System Preferences, and highly customisable. Displays album art reliably and It does everything all the many myriad other iTunes controllers do, but seems to be more reliable and stable. Let's you rate the currently playing song using a keyboard shortcut - without this I doubt I would ever rate my tracks.

The closest competitor for ease of use, features and stability seems to be the excellent GimmeSomeTune (http://www.macupdate.com/reviews.php?id=20412), but I think Sizzling Key's elegant pop-up notification looks a lot better than GimmeSomeTune's more cluttered, bezelled one. And Sizzling Keys has very slick playlist and search pop-ups, though to be honest I find switching to iTunes using the provided keyboard shortcut easier.

I would like to request, however, two features, one small, one a bit more ambitious. GimmeSomeTune has both.

a) the ability to only start when iTunes does, rather than upon system startup would be a boon. I realise this would require a small watcher daemon, but I still think it would be worth it. It's annoying to accidentally start iTunes by unintentionally pressing one of Sizzling Keys' keyboard shortcuts.

b) The killer feature, which would stop me switching to GimmeSomeTune, would be the ability to fetch lyrics for the playing song and display in a similar transparent window.

GimmeSomeTune's automatic search seems to work far more quickly and fetch many more lyrics than other similar applications, so implementation would v. good to top it. But it would make Sizzling Keys by far the best iTunes controller available.

Here's hoping.

Anyway, excellent app. This and GimmeSomeTune are the ones to get if you want an unobtrusive, powerful but easy to use iTunes controller.  
(Version 3.2.7)

STR1F3  This is an unbelievable app! It is by far the best iTunes controller. It gives you control over every imaginable shortcut to iTunes and system shortcuts like screen lock, system volume and others. The only flaw that I see is a shortcut to show lyrics and if possible, a shortcut to iTunes visualizations. Otherwise it would be perfect.

For those that want lyrics fetched go here: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/

iI is an AppleScript that uses lyricswiki just like gimmesometune and you don't have to play the song to get the lyrics. You can also do a batch of songs at once.

Please add show lyrics support.   
(Version 3.3.3)

YULETIDE  Nice piece of software, but it lacks the one thing I really needed it for... assigning half-star ratings! Seems I'll have to stick with Quicksilver for now (since Synergy Advance died)   
(Version 3.3.1)

CAFEINE  Sizzling Keys functionality should come with mac os x natively... I am designing webpages and handle multiple programs such Dreamweaver, photoshop, safari, firefox all open the same time. When designing I like to hear music from iTunes in random. It's so annoying having to switch to iTunes everytime in order to skip a song etc. Sizzlingkeys rocks!!!!  
(Version 3.3)

STEVEN GOODHEART  Yet another terrific app from Yellow Mug Software. My Microsoft Intellitype keyboard just went on the fritz, and I really missed being able to hit a button on the keyboard to control iTunes, or switch to it, but with SizzlingKeys, I'm doing things just as fast, plus I have even more control over what happens in iTunes, from anywhere. The Yellow Mug Software Bundle was such a good deal I couldn't pass it up, and the extra Pro features for SizzlingKeys are just icing on the cake. Highly recommended!  
(Version 3.3.5)

STEPHEN WASHBURN  Excellent application... it has a relatively straightforward purpose... to bring keyboard controls to iTunes for those of us that don't have one of the new aluminum keyboards and this application does it very well. Additionally the display boxes showing the album artwork and information of the playing track is very nicely done, and the free version (which I have used extensively until recently when I upgraded to the paid version to support the develoepr) works very well. I have been impressed by the level of updates done to the application and the level of functionality provided in the free version.

Top notch developer, top notch application... keep it up!  
(Version 3.3.4)

JAZZADDICT  I just went to search around to see what other itunes controllers are out there. There were a lot. Some were well acclaimed. Some of them were pretty good. Despite the fact that some of them cost more than twice as much as SizzilingKeys and had some cool fancy features, I hurried back to Sizzling Keys real quick. It's a nice app for a fair price. Not to to mention I think it's the only .app I saw where you can move the floater with the mouse. That's killer.   
(Version 3.2.5)

SMOOSHIPANTZ  SizzlingKeys is awesome! Being able to search for songs/play from a playlist by pressing a couple of keys is just too convenient! I just upgraded to Pro to be able to scan through a song with a key press, and to support its development. Very good app.  
(Version 3.2.5)