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Guide · Discord · Mac

How to play music on Discord on a Mac

Discord can send an app’s sound with a screen share, but a voice channel only hears your microphone. Here’s what screen share covers, and how to put music in your mic so everyone in the channel hears it, without Discord filtering it out.

The short version

  • Screen share can send an app’s sound on a Mac, but only to people watching your stream.
  • To play music in the voice channel itself, it has to be in your microphone. Discord can’t do that on its own.
  • A virtual mic mixes your voice and the music. Then turn off Discord’s noise suppression, or it removes the music.

Option 1: screen share with sound

Discord supports sharing sound from apps and games on macOS 13 or later. Start a screen share in the voice channel from the Discord app, pick the app that plays the music, and people watching your stream hear it.

That has limits. Only people who open your stream hear it, you have to keep sharing, and the stream audio is separate from your voice, so you can’t set the music under it. For background music in the channel, the music has to be in your mic.

Option 2: put the music in your mic

Discord listens to one input device. A virtual microphone mixes your real mic with the apps you choose and hands Discord the result, so the whole channel hears your voice and the music together, at levels you set, with no screen share.

Patch, which we make, does this on a Mac. It mixes your mic and up to four apps into a virtual mic called Patch Mix, with a limiter so a loud track doesn’t clip.

  1. Add your microphone and the music app to Patch. Install Patch, add your microphone as a source, then add the app that plays the music: Spotify, Music, a browser, or a game.
  2. Send both, and set the level. Turn on Send for your microphone and the music, and pull the music’s fader well under your voice. Turn on Hear locally for the music so you hear it too.
  3. Choose Patch Mix in Discord. Open User Settings, then Voice & Video. Under Input Device, choose Patch Mix. Under Output Device, choose your headphones.
  4. Stop Discord cutting the music. Use Voice Activity with automatic sensitivity off and the threshold at its lowest, or Push to Talk. Turn off Noise Suppression, Echo Cancellation and Automatic Gain Control.
  5. Go live. Click Go live in Patch. Everyone in the voice channel hears your voice and the music, with no screen share.

Always choose your headphones as Discord’s Output Device, never Patch Pass-Thru, or the channel hears itself. The same mic works in Zoom, Google Meet and OBS; see play music through your mic.

Discord’s voice settings for music

Discord’s voice processing is tuned for speech. For music, change these in User Settings › Voice & Video:

  • Input Mode: Voice Activity with automatic sensitivity off and the threshold at its lowest, or Push to Talk. A high threshold cuts quiet parts of a song.
  • Noise Suppression: off. It removes anything that isn’t speech, which includes music.
  • Echo Cancellation: off, with headphones on. It can mistake music for echo.
  • Automatic Gain Control: off, so Discord doesn’t pump the level up and down.
  • Noise Reduction: off too, if your Discord shows it.

Questions

Can I play music on Discord without screen sharing?

Yes, by putting it in your microphone. Mix your mic and the music app into a virtual mic such as Patch, choose it as your Input Device in Discord, and turn Noise Suppression off.

Why does Discord cut out my music?

Two settings do it. Noise Suppression removes sounds that aren’t speech, and Voice Activity cuts your mic when the level drops below the threshold. Turn Noise Suppression off, and set the threshold to its lowest or use Push to Talk.

Why can’t my friends hear the sound when I screen share?

Discord shares app sound on macOS 13 or later, from the desktop app or Chrome. Check your macOS version, share the app that’s playing, and make sure it isn’t muted. If it still fails, putting the sound in your mic sidesteps screen share altogether.

What about Discord’s Soundboard?

The Soundboard plays short clips that everyone in the voice channel hears, and you don’t need Nitro to use your own server’s sounds. It’s made for quick sound effects, not a song or a stream of music.

Can I play Spotify through my mic on Discord?

Yes. Add Spotify as a source in Patch, turn on Send, and choose Patch Mix as your Input Device. Spotify’s own Listen Along lets friends play the same song on their own account, which is a different thing.

Will I hear the music too?

Discord doesn’t play your own mic back to you, so turn on Hear locally for the music in Patch. Wear headphones, so your real mic doesn’t pick the music up a second time.