These Are the Best Apple Music Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac and PC

You wouldn’t normally think about using a keyboard with Apple Music, but like Spotify , Apple Music supports a lot of handy keyboard shortcuts , even some on Windows . From basic playback controls to managing playlists, you can do almost everything in Apple Music without touching your trackpad or mouse.

Apple Music keyboard shortcuts for playback and navigation

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These are the best keyboard shortcuts for playing music, searching for items in your music library, and controlling playback.

  • Spacebar (Mac) or Ctrl-Spacebar (Windows) : Play or pause the selected song.

  • Option-Command-U (Mac) or Alt-LQ (Windows) : View or hide the play queue.

  • Command-Up Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Up Arrow (Windows) : Increase volume.

  • Command-Down Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Down Arrow (Windows) : Decrease volume.

  • Return (Mac) or Alt-LR (Windows) : Play the song from the beginning.

  • Right Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Right Arrow (Windows) : Play next song. Only works while a song is playing.

  • Left Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Left Arrow (Windows) : Play the previous song.

  • Option-Command-Left Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Alt-Left Arrow (Windows) : Return to the currently playing song.

  • Option-Command-Right Arrow (Mac) or Ctrl-Alt-Right Arrow (Windows) : Skip forward through the currently playing song.

  • Command-F (Mac) or Alt-LF (Windows) : Open the Apple Music search page.

  • Command-T (Mac) or Ctrl-T (Windows) : Show or hide the visualizer.

  • Option-Command-E (Mac) or Ctrl-Shift-E (Windows) : Opens the equalizer.

Manage your Apple Music windows

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Use these shortcuts to quickly manage Apple Music windows on your Mac.

  • Option-Command-M or Shift-Command-M (Mac) / Shift-Ctrl-M (Windows) : Open or close the mini player.

  • Shift-Command-F (Mac) : Open or close the full-screen player in Apple Music.

  • Option-click the green button (Mac) : Lets you toggle between a custom and maximum app window size. The green button is located in the upper left corner of the window.

  • Command-/ (Mac) : Shows or hides the status bar, which displays information about songs on the screen. This includes the number of songs in the playlist, the total length, and how much space the playlist will take up if you download it.

  • Command-M (Mac) : Send the Music window to the Dock.

  • Command-H (Mac) : Hide the Music window.

  • Option-Command-H (Mac) : Hide all apps except Music.

  • Command-0 (Mac) : Show the Music window.

  • Command-W (Mac) : Close music.

  • Command-Q (Mac) or Alt-F4 (Windows) : Quit the Music app.

Quickly manage your playlists

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If you like creating playlists in Apple Music on your Mac, you need these shortcuts.

  • Command-N (Mac) or Ctrl-N (Windows) : Create a new playlist.

  • Option-Command-N (Mac) or Ctrl-Alt-N (Windows) : Create a new smart playlist . Allows you to define multiple requirements and automatically create playlists with songs that suit your needs.

  • Shift-Command-N (Mac) or Ctrl-Shift-N (Windows) : Create a new playlist from the songs you select. Use this shortcut after selecting a group of songs and it will instantly create a new playlist.

  • Command-L (Mac) or Ctrl-L (Windows) : Select the song currently playing.

  • Command-I (Mac) or Ctrl-I (Windows) : Open the information window for the selected song.

  • Shift-F10 (Windows) : Right-click any selected song and open the context menu.

  • Command-] (Mac) : When the information window is open, this shortcut displays information about the next song.

  • Command-[ (Mac) : When the Info window is open, you’ll see information about the previous song.

  • Shift-Command-[ (Mac) : Go to the previous tab in the information window.

  • Shift-Command-] (Mac) : Move to the next tab in the information window.

  • Command-C (Mac) or Ctrl-C (Windows) : Copies information about the current song, such as title, duration, cover art, etc.

  • Command-V (Mac) or Ctrl-V (Windows) : Pastes the copied information.

  • Command-A (Mac) or Ctrl-A (Windows) : Select all songs in a playlist.

  • Shift-Command-A (Mac) or Shift-Ctrl-A (Windows) : Deselect all songs.

  • Delete (Mac) or Backspace (Windows) : Removes the selected song from the playlist (prompts for confirmation before deleting).

  • Command-Delete : Deletes the selected song from the library without any confirmation.

  • Option-Delete : Deletes the selected song from all your playlists and library.

Other useful Apple Music keyboard shortcuts

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  • Command-U (Mac) or Ctrl-U (Windows) : Stream an audio file to a URL using the Music app on your Mac.

  • Shift-Command-Right Arrow (Mac) or Shift-Ctrl-Right Arrow (Windows) : Skip to the next chapter of the audio file (if it has chapter markers).

  • Shift-Command-Left Arrow (Mac) or Shift-Ctrl-Left Arrow (Windows) : Go to the previous chapter in an audio file.

  • Command-O (letter, not number) (Mac) or Ctrl-O (Windows) : Import an audio file into your library.

  • Shift-Command-R (Mac) or Ctrl-R (Windows) : Shows where the audio file is located.

  • Command-, (comma) (Mac) or Ctrl-, (Windows) : Open music settings.

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