Background Music

Background Music is a cool open-source app for macOS that takes care of your music while you're doing other things on your Mac. It automatically pauses whatever music you’re listening to when something else starts playing, like a video or a game.

How It Works

This app works great with popular music players like iTunes, Spotify, VLC, and more! So, if you're jamming out and suddenly need to hear something else, it won't blast over everything else.

Volume Controls Made Easy

Another awesome feature is the status bar menu. With this, you can control the volume of each app running on your Mac. Need to crank up the sound for an app? Or maybe quiet one down because it's too loud? No problem! Just adjust it right from there!

Tweak Your Audio Balance

If you want to balance out the sound between apps, you can do that too! Just click the down arrow next to any app in Background Music's interface and make your adjustments.

Preferences That Fit You

You can also choose which music player you want Background Music to pause or select which audio device it uses through the Preferences menu. Super handy!

The Catch: Quitting the App

A little heads-up: when you quit Background Music, all those volume levels go back to normal. So if you've got an app set at max volume and forget about it, be prepared for a surprise!

Recording System Audio

If you need to record what’s happening on your Mac's system audio, you can do that with QuickTime Player.

A Few Drawbacks

While we found Background Music pretty stellar during our tests, one downside was its manual uninstall process—it could be simpler. If you're comfortable using Terminal, it's not too bad; however, adding an uninstall option within the app itself would definitely help beginners.

The Bottom Line

If you're looking for a way to manage system audio better on your Mac without hassle, Background Music might just be what you need! It's user-friendly and does its job well!