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Guide · Spotify · Mac

How to play Spotify through your mic on a Mac

You want the people in your call to hear the song you’re playing, with your voice on top. Spotify can’t send it there by itself, and its social features do something else. Here’s why, and the setup that works in Zoom, Discord, Google Meet and OBS.

The short version

  • Spotify plays to your Mac’s output. A call only hears your microphone, so Spotify alone can’t reach it.
  • Jam and Discord’s Listen Along play the same song on each friend’s own account. They don’t send sound into a call.
  • To play Spotify in a call, mix it into a virtual microphone with your voice, then choose that mic in the call app.

Why Spotify can’t do it alone

Spotify on a Mac plays to your sound output: your headphones or speakers. A call app, whether Zoom, Discord or Meet, listens to your microphone. Nothing in Spotify connects the two, so the song stays on your side of the call.

A screen share with sound can carry it, in the apps that support it, but it sends everything your Mac plays and only while you share. To make Spotify part of what your mic sends, you need a virtual microphone that mixes the two.

Jam and Listen Along: listening together, not in the call

Spotify has two ways to share music with friends, and neither sends sound into a call. Jam lets friends listen and add songs to one queue, in person or remotely; Spotify says you need Premium to host a Jam, and to join one remotely. Listen Along, in Discord, plays the song you’re playing on each friend’s own Spotify; Spotify lists it for Premium, and says you can’t Listen Along while voice chatting.

Both are good for a listening party. For a song under your voice in a meeting, a clip on a stream, or music in a voice channel, the music has to be in your mic.

Put Spotify in your microphone

Patch, which we make, mixes your mic and up to four Mac apps into a virtual mic called Patch Mix, with a level for each and a limiter so a loud track doesn’t clip. It captures the Spotify app, not your whole Mac, so notifications stay out of the call.

  1. Add your microphone and Spotify to Patch. Install Patch, add your microphone as a source, then add Spotify. Patch captures the Spotify app itself, so your other sounds stay out.
  2. Send both, and set the level. Turn on Send for your microphone and Spotify, and pull Spotify’s fader well under your voice. Turn on Hear locally for Spotify so you hear it too.
  3. Choose Patch Mix in the call app. In Zoom, Discord, Google Meet or OBS, choose Patch Mix as the microphone, and your headphones as the speaker.
  4. Turn off the call app’s noise filter. Turn off noise suppression, or choose Zoom’s Original sound for musicians, so the app doesn’t remove the music as noise.
  5. Go live and press play. Click Go live in Patch and play something in Spotify. The call hears your voice with Spotify underneath.

Keep headphones on, so your real microphone doesn’t pick the song up a second time, and always choose your headphones as the call app’s speaker, never Patch Pass-Thru.

Zoom, Discord and Google Meet

Each call app has its own filter that treats music as noise. The guides for each one:

  • Zoom: choose Original sound for musicians.
  • Discord: turn off Noise Suppression.
  • Google Meet: turn off Noise cancellation.

Questions

Can Spotify play through my microphone on its own?

No. Spotify’s Mac app plays to your Mac’s sound output, and a call app listens to a microphone. Something has to carry the sound from one to the other: a screen share with sound, or a virtual microphone such as Patch.

Can I play Spotify in a Discord voice channel?

Yes, through your mic. Add Spotify to Patch, choose Patch Mix as your Input Device in Discord, and turn Noise Suppression off. Discord’s Listen Along is different: it plays the song on each friend’s own Spotify, and Spotify says you can’t Listen Along while voice chatting.

Do my friends need Spotify Premium?

Not if the music is in your mic: they hear it as part of your voice, with no Spotify account. For Jam and Listen Along, Spotify’s help says Premium is needed to host a Jam or join one remotely, and Listen Along is for Premium.

Is it allowed to play Spotify on a stream?

Spotify’s Terms of Use give you personal, non-commercial use, and say you won’t redistribute the content. Playing music in a call with friends is one thing; a public stream is another. Check Spotify’s terms, and your streaming platform’s music rules, before you broadcast it.

Will the call hear my notifications too?

Not with Patch. It captures the apps you add, so only Spotify and your voice go into Patch Mix. A screen share with sound, or Zoom’s Computer Audio, sends everything your Mac plays.