I like iTunes on my iBook, but I often forget the name of a track (I just listen to the album[s] whilst programming) so thanks to the hotkey ability of Keyboard Maestro, I’ve got an AppleScript solution (my first !) that takes up no screen space at all. I also threw in a pause and play pair of scripts too, so other people can interrupt me and I don’t need to hunt for the right app and button.

I bind these to F9 (speak), F10 (pause) and F11 (play) because it suits me although I’m not brave enough to take a magic marker to my iBook’s keyboard. Yet.Pause:

tell application "iTunes"
 if player state is playing then
  pause
  say "Paused"
 else
  say "Not playing"
 end if
end tell

Play:

tell application "iTunes"
 say "Play"
 play
end tell

Current tune:

tell application "iTunes"
  if player state is playing then
    say artist of current track as string
    say name of current track as string
  else
    say "Not playing"
  end if
end tell

Enjoy !