The new M1 Macs bring a lot of great features, including the ability to run touchscreen apps and more. However, one feature still missing on new computers is the ability to individually control app volumes in macOS. So, if you’re looking for a way to get your Netflix volume loud but notifications not that loud, we have a solution. Here’s how to control the volume of individual apps on the M1 Mac.
Control Volume of Individual Apps on M1 Mac
There are many reasons why you would want such a feature on your M1 MacBook or Mac Mini. Personally, I use it when I’m at work to increase the sound output from Microsoft Edge while keeping the System Sounds low. That way I can watch YouTube videos but not be constantly bothered by notification sounds on my Mac.
If you want, you can also use this application to increase the volumes above their maximum values. However, this may adversely affect your Mac speakers, so do so at your own risk.
Moreover, the application I will tell you about also allows you to record internal audio on the M1 MacBook and M1 Mac Mini. So, if it’s something you’re interested in, read on. As always, you can use the table of contents to jump to the relevant section.
Check Individual App Units on M1 MacBook / Mac Mini
There is a really useful FOSS (free and open source) application that we can use to achieve this functionality on the M1 Mac.
- Download Background Music (Free). This is snapshot version 0.4.0 of the software, which is an alpha build. There is also an older version 0.3.2 which is more stable, but it doesn’t work with macOS Big Sur.
- After installing the application, you will see its icon in the menu bar.
- You can click this icon to see and change the volume of your MacBook and control individual application sounds on your Mac.
As you can see, the app shows all the apps running on your Mac, so you can adjust the volume levels to your liking.
Auto Pause Music in Supported Apps
Background Music also has another nice feature called ‘auto pause’. With this feature, your Mac will automatically pause any audio currently playing on your Mac when it detects another app that is starting to play music or audio.
By default, this is set to iTunes and you can replace it with Apple Music, Spotify, VLC and more. This way, you can have your music pause automatically when you start playing music or video in another app.
List of Supported Apps for Auto Pause:
- iTunes
- Spotify
- VLC
- VOX
- Decibel
- Hermes
- Swiss
- GPMDP
How to Record Internal Audio on M1 Mac
If you are like me, you may find yourself in a situation where you want to screen record with built-in audio on Mac. Although this feature is not natively available on macOS, you can do it with Background Music. Here’s how to do it.
- Launch QuickTime player on your Mac and go to File -> New Screen Recording. Or use the ‘command + shift + 5’ keyboard shortcut and select screen recording.
- Click on Options and select ‘Background Music’ under microphone settings.
You can now start screen recording and it will also record the internal audio on your MacBook or Mac Mini.
How to Remove Background Music
If for some reason you want to remove the Background Music app from your Mac, here’s how to do it.
- Start Terminal and type the following command
cd /Applications/Background\ Music.app/Contents/Resources/
- Now use the following command
bash uninstall.sh
Note: Check out our article on the best Terminal commands to get the most out of your Mac.
Easily Control Individual App Volumes and Record Internal Audio on M1 Mac
So you can control individual application sounds on your M1 Mac and even record internal audio on your Mac. It’s great that the developer offers this app for free. Plus, it’s open source, so if you’re interested, you can fork the repository and customize or make improvements to the app.
While using Background Music app on Mac is really easy, if you run into any issues, you can comment below and we will definitely try to help you.
