July 5, 2025/294 words/1 min read

The Play Button Is Not Yours

macOS pretends to be flexible while holding your music hostage.

Dramatic title, sorry.

I sometimes can't stop thinking about the play button on my MacBook. macOS lets me customise nearly everything, but I can't choose which app that key opens.

I've turned keyboard shortcuts into my own private language and plastered the menu bar with whatever I want. macOS encourages that sort of tinkering until the computer feels like my computer. Then I press play, and macOS makes the choice for me.

When a music app is already open, the media keys usually talk to it. With no music app running, tap play and macOS launches Apple Music, even if you normally live in Spotify or YouTube Music.

The annoying part is that I actually like Apple Music. I think it's good! I'm happy with how it sounds, and I'm deep enough into Apple's ecosystem that it has already paved the path of least resistance for me.

I got lucky. Everything mostly works the way Apple expects because my preference happens to match its predetermined answer. If I used Spotify or YouTube Music, I'd have a small fight every time I tapped play on a quiet system. This feels like the intended design.

The funny thing is that Apple already handles this choice elsewhere. You can pick a default browser or mail client across its devices. Music never got the same setting.

All I really want is one dropdown in System Settings labelled "Default Music Player." Pick an app, and that's what the play button wakes up. Without that setting, people install a helper app and hope it survives the next major macOS update. I avoid that churn only because I picked the option Apple already chose for me.

I use Apple Music, so this remains a small annoyance. I still want the dropdown.