Stop the Apple Music app from launching • Hacker News Board

Re: Stop the Apple Music app from launching

#181

Post by hadlock » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 8:14 PM UTC

SauntSolaire wrote: post #122

Terr_ wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A similar scourge is encroaching on Google-branded android phones, as they add mandatory apps to cover stuff like supporting earbuds you don't own.

Are you talking about the pixel buds app? They ask you on setup if you want it installed, and you can uninstall it anytime. Seems pretty far from "mandatory".

Apps I can't uninstall on my Pixel 9 or 10 (I forget): Gemini, Google TV, My Pixel, Now Playing, Screenshots, Wallet, Weather, YT Music

Some of those might be system level stuff, but I don't know what the heck Google TV is, and I certainly am not signing up for whtever "YT Music" is. Probably some spotify subscription thing they will cancel like they did google play music and whatever came before that. But I can't uninstall any of these, or even delete the icons. They're just visual trash I can't hide from the launcher.

I don't trust the digital music stores anymore, cumulatively I have probably $100 worth of music I've bought across 3-4 music stores in the last 25 years and I can't access any of it anymore. Meanwhile my MP3 collection and WinAmp from high school continue to work without issue.

Re: Stop the Apple Music app from launching

#182

Post by hedora » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 8:14 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #70

titzer wrote: post #66

I still can't believe they killed iTunes. I used to have my entire digital music library in iTunes. Most of that was music I had ripped myself from CD, but I had a handful of albums I bought of iTunes and even some TV shows. When they wholesale abandoned iTunes and deleted from Mac OS in favor of...whatever Apple Music is, I knew I'd never trust them again. I searched for some decent mp3 players for a while, and even…

Why vibe code anything? VLC would fit the bill. Even quicktime.

I constantly have trouble with VLC (long standing bugs, where it gets confused and fails to play audio after dvd menu clicks, etc).

I’ve had mixed luck getting llm’s to configure mpv (which involved writing lua or something for basic functionality!), but there are audio sync issues with it.

I miss the days when something like totem would just work and default to playing with deinterlacing and audio set correctly.

Configuring VLC is like solving a 200 variable boolean satisfiability problem or something. Also, the workarounds for core bugs come and go over time, so Reddit suggests toggling removed settings.

Re: Stop the Apple Music app from launching

#183

Post by talon8635 » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 8:15 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #70

titzer wrote: post #66

I still can't believe they killed iTunes. I used to have my entire digital music library in iTunes. Most of that was music I had ripped myself from CD, but I had a handful of albums I bought of iTunes and even some TV shows. When they wholesale abandoned iTunes and deleted from Mac OS in favor of...whatever Apple Music is, I knew I'd never trust them again. I searched for some decent mp3 players for a while, and even…

Why vibe code anything? VLC would fit the bill. Even quicktime.

I absolutely love vlc

The iOS app is such a permanently buggy mess that I eventually had to bail after years of use with persistent issues that wouldn’t get fixed, and new bugs popping up. It can play hyper obscure formats, but the basic UI functions are very unstable

Re: Stop the Apple Music app from launching

#184

Post by MetaWhirledPeas » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 8:15 PM UTC

riazrizvi wrote: post #28

It's very sad to see Apple using these lowbrow Microsoft tactics. Press ganging your users into launching your other shit product is brand cannibalism.

> lowbrow Microsoft tactics

It's funny you say this because when I read the solution my first thought was that's such an Apple thing.

Re: Stop the Apple Music app from launching

#185

Post by dylan604 » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 8:16 PM UTC

thesuitonym wrote: post #168

dylan604 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turning off the cloud service just does the syncing thing right? What about turning off the Apple Music service so that the only thing visible is your local content? That's what pisses me off the most.

I've only ever used Apple Music with local content. On iOS the only indication to me that non-local content is even possible is the radio tab at the bottom of the screen. On MacOS I think it opens to the online home page, but I use it so infrequently I'm not sure. I pretty much only use it to buy music from iTunes.

I've recently tried syncing local content to my phone, but to find that content on the phone is difficult. The phone really wants to show me Apple Music stuff. I have to Library->Downloaded->Songs. Going to Artists or Albums just shows me "Download Music to Listen Offline". I really just don't want to spend the time I previously spent on my iTunes library all over again. I was really just trying to quick&dirty add content. They've made this unnecessarily difficult and I despise them for it.

Re: Stop the Apple Music app from launching

#186

Post by Rebelgecko » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 8:16 PM UTC

mritun wrote: post #59

jacobsenscott wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It cannot be uninstalled

^ How can you make such an obviously wrong statement? Drag Music app to Trash, and that it! Like you do with any other app.

That doesn't work on my machine. Maybe it worked back in the snow leopard days.

Now the app doesn't even have the "move to trash" item in the contextual menu like non-system apps do

Re: Stop the Apple Music app from launching

#187

Post by kmfrk » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 8:17 PM UTC

titzer wrote: post #66

I still can't believe they killed iTunes. I used to have my entire digital music library in iTunes. Most of that was music I had ripped myself from CD, but I had a handful of albums I bought of iTunes and even some TV shows. When they wholesale abandoned iTunes and deleted from Mac OS in favor of...whatever Apple Music is, I knew I'd never trust them again. I searched for some decent mp3 players for a while, and even…

Even worse when you're on Windows. What's the point of the cloud if it only works halfway decently on Mac.

Makes me feel like an idiot for doing something as outlandish as paying artists for their music.

Re: Stop the Apple Music app from launching

#188

Post by autoexec » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 8:21 PM UTC

imglorp wrote: post #11

bigyabai wrote: post #7

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why this is the default behavior for a supposedly premium operating system.

It seems the fans are willing to put up with absolutely unlimited grief and inconvenience to drink the koolaid they're given. Some Apple PM made a edict 11 years ago that Music shalt be thine only audio experience on the platform. Lock it down, boys! The rest of us ask for a customizable experience.

If you get a Mac it means you're paying a premium for the carefully curated Apple Experience and if you don't like it you just need to Think Different and do only what Apple allows you to do and only in the way that Apple tells you to do it. Once you surrender to Apple there is no more grief and inconvenience, only joy because then It Just Works.

Re: Stop the Apple Music app from launching

#189

Post by dkga » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 8:22 PM UTC

I signed up for Apple’s subscription which includes Apple Music. We are a Spotify family, but I then cancelled our premium subscription to avoid duplicate spending. I embraced Apple Music with an open heart in spite of the reservation from my family members. I liked that DJ feature that joined songs. But everything else felt subpar to Spotify. In particular, with AM I feel that they were always pushing US pop/rap music to me, even as I was listening everything from old Tunisian singers to Denmark’s Magtens Korridorer. But overall it just felt that Spotify folks really liked music as an Art form, whereas AM really wanted you to listen to whatever they were featuring/pedalling. Like that song lyrics translation feature introduced by Spotify - only if you enjoy songs in languages you might not yet understand you would think of such a nice feature!

Re: Stop the Apple Music app from launching

#190

Post by dijit » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 8:25 PM UTC

al_borland wrote: post #79

titzer wrote: post #66

I still can't believe they killed iTunes. I used to have my entire digital music library in iTunes. Most of that was music I had ripped myself from CD, but I had a handful of albums I bought of iTunes and even some TV shows. When they wholesale abandoned iTunes and deleted from Mac OS in favor of...whatever Apple Music is, I knew I'd never trust them again. I searched for some decent mp3 players for a while, and even…

You can turn off the cloud service in Apple Music and still use it with your local tracks and music downloaded from the iTunes Music Store (which still exists). I did this for most of last year. I had all local music in Apple Music, disabled the cloud stuff, and synced it all to my iPhone by plugging it in with a cable, as if it was an old iPod. It all still worked.

You can, but basically every menu assumes Apple Music as a service, and its worse with each version.

You can technically still buy albums, but you can really tell its only there because it was forgotten about.