discussion of the Creative Commons Metadata work

["Nathan R. Yergler" <nathan AT yergler.net>]

Winter break is coming up for me, so naturally I'm looking for something 
to entertain me (besides fixing mozCC bugs, of course).  As some of you 
might know, I am a Mac user, and really enjoy the bundled applications.  
Especially iTunes. 

I've been toying with ways to display some metadata indication in iTunes 
when the song I'm listening to has a license URL embedded.  I have two 
ideas, and I'm looking for some feedback.  I've done some *very* basic 
looking online, so I think both of these are possible.  I have not found 
anyway to actually modify the iTunes GUI or display (to display metadata 
in the "now playing" area, etc); if anyone has an example or can point 
me in the right direction, I'd definitly be interested in that.  As 
such, here are my two ideas; I'm not in love with either, but absent a 
"full" GUI integration, they're what I've come up with.

First (and possibly easier): place a (CC) menu on the menubar; when the 
currently playing song is licensed, attribute icons would (optionally) 
be displayed, so some other indication made.  For example, the menu icon 
might have a glow or underline added when metadata is available.  I like 
this because I think I can build on some sample code I found, and I 
think it'd be easier overall to have a separate "helper" app which just 
looked to iTunes for signals.  There's a small mock-up attached, and a 
larger, full-screen one at 
http://yergler.net/projects/images/itunes-mockup-1.jpg .

Second: Add licensing attributes to the album artwork for a song when a 
licensed song is played.  The composite artwork could be shown in the 
"Selected Song" area of iTunes.  I like this because it's integrated 
within iTunes, but it's not perfect because it is only visible in 
full-window mode (not in the collapsed mode).  Again, a small mock-up is 
attached with a full-screen version at 
http://yergler.net/projects/images/itunes-mockup-2.jpg .

So I'd like to get some feedback about which approach seems better.  I'd 
especially like feedback from Mac users and iTunes users, but any 
feedback is welcome.  Thanks in advance for all your help.

Nathan