Useful macOS defaults: Music

Music settings live under com.apple.Music on macOS Catalina and later. On older systems with iTunes, the domain is com.apple.iTunes.

After changing these, quit and reopen Music.

Stop Music from responding to media keys on Bluetooth devices

Some Bluetooth headphones and car systems send play commands that launch Music even when you want to use Spotify or another app. To stop Music from grabbing these:

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.rcd.plist 2>/dev/null

This turns off the Remote Control Daemon, which routes media keys. It affects all media key handling, not just Music. To turn it back on:

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.rcd.plist 2>/dev/null

Turn off Apple Music features

If you do not subscribe to Apple Music and want a cleaner interface:

defaults write com.apple.Music "prohibitAppleMusicSubscriptionOffers" -bool true

Lossless audio

Turn on lossless audio playback:

defaults write com.apple.Music "losslessEnabled" -bool true

Show star ratings instead of love/dislike

Bring back the five-star rating system:

defaults write com.apple.Music "show-star-ratings" -bool true

Library column browser

Show the column browser in the Songs view (the panel at the top that lets you filter by artist, album, and genre):

defaults write com.apple.Music "AlbumListColumnBrowserIsVisible" -bool true

Read all current Music settings

defaults read com.apple.Music

Notes

Many Music settings are tied to your Apple ID and sync across devices. Local defaults changes may not override synced preferences. For most settings, Music, then Settings is the best approach.

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