Background Music 0.3

Background Music is intended to provide you with additional control over audio sources in your system.

One of its main features is that it can pause your music player automatically whenever another audio source is active. Likewise, it allows controlling the overall sound volume as well as those of individual applications that make use of the sound card.

The tool is extremely intuitive and unobtrusive. It runs from the Menu Bar, from where it is accessible as a menu. It lets you pick your preferred audio device and set its volume. Likewise, you can adjust the sound volume of the currently active apps, which does not mean you cannot control other applications that are not running at the moment. Luckily, it is possible to boost the volume of any app beyond its normal maximum level as well.

As to the automatic pausing of players, Background Music supports some of the most popular apps, such as iTunes, VOX and Spotify. In addition, if you know how to program, you can add code for other players, too. If you do not, the developer is kindly willing to help you add your favorite player to the supported list. Finally, Background Music serves as a mixer you can use as a source for other tools, which comes in handy when you need to record the sound output.

In general, Background Music puts you in control of your system sound well beyond what it is allowed with the built-in feature. Luckily, the product is open-source and available at no cost. It is a shame, though, that it does not seem to support the macOS latest version.