Blog · SoundPost ·
Stop ▶︎ from opening Apple Music
You use Spotify. You press ▶︎ on your keyboard or AirPods. Apple Music opens.
Why it happens
macOS sends media keys to whichever app it thinks is the current player. When no app has claimed them recently, for example after a restart, or after the app you were using quit, the key goes to Apple Music, which launches to handle it.
The same thing happens with the play gesture on AirPods, since it arrives as the same media key.
The usual workarounds
Keep your player open all the time, press play inside the app once after every restart, or disable Apple Music from launching with Terminal commands that tend to stop working after a macOS update. None of them make the key do what you meant.
How SoundPost handles it
SoundPost sends media keys to the app that last played, Spotify included. If nothing is open, ▶︎ does what you chose once in settings.
Play, pause, next and previous all follow the same rule, from the keyboard or your headphones.
More about SoundPost
- SoundPost: headphones that behave
- Get your AirPods back from the iPhone in one click
- Why your AirPods suddenly sound bad on a Mac
- Volume per app on a Mac
OOndřej Romancov · engineer, Prague