Mac music guide

How to control music on your Mac

Start a song, open Control Center in your Mac’s menu bar, and choose Now Playing. If your music app shares its playback controls with macOS, you’ll see the current track and the controls it provides.

Check what your music app shares with macOS

Play an ordinary song in the Mac app you use for music, such as Music or Spotify. A regular song is a better test than a live stream or a track playing on another device.
Open Control Center → Now Playing. Check whether the track title matches what you hear. Try pausing and resuming from there.
Check for a progress bar or seek control. If your player only exposes play and pause, a mini player can use those commands but can’t add seeking on its own.

See Apple’s guide to Control Center for where to find these controls.

What to do if the wrong song shows up

A browser tab or another media app may also publish a Now Playing session. Pause the other source, switch to the app you want, and start the song again. Check Control Center before troubleshooting Decky. If the right track is in Control Center but Decky hasn’t picked it up, open the desktop player’s options and choose Reconnect Now Playing.

If a song’s title appears but you can’t jump to a different time, try a different track in the same app. Live radio and some other sources don’t expose a seek command. Decky’s timeline and record follow the controls available for the current track.

Keep the controls on your desktop or in the notch

Decky for macOS 26 or later uses the active Now Playing session. It can show album art on a vinyl sleeve, or tuck the controls into a small player at the top of your screen. If seeking is available, one turn of the record moves 30 seconds through the song.

The notch player guide explains how to switch modes and use the expanded controls. You can try both with the sample tracks in the browser playground.