Apple Music is at full volume. Your Mac is at full volume. A song you know should be loud is barely audible. Meanwhile, switching to Spotify — same song, same volume — it's noticeably louder. What's going on?
Apple Music has several settings that can reduce playback volume, and they're not obvious. Let's go through each one.
1. Check Sound Check
Apple Music has a feature called Sound Check that normalizes the volume of all tracks so they play at roughly the same perceived loudness. This prevents jarring volume jumps between songs, but it does so by reducing the volume of louder tracks — making everything quieter overall.
To check: Open the Music app → Settings (⌘,) → Playback → Sound Check.
If Sound Check is enabled, try disabling it. Songs that were being reduced to match quieter tracks will now play at their original mastered level — which is often significantly louder.
2. Check the EQ setting
Apple Music has a built-in equalizer. Some EQ presets reduce overall volume to prevent clipping when boosting specific frequencies.
Check: Music app → Settings → Playback → EQ. If an EQ preset is selected (especially "Spoken Word," "Late Night," or "Small Speakers"), try setting it to "Off" and see if volume improves.
The "Late Night" EQ in particular compresses dynamic range — making quiet parts louder but loud parts quieter. This can make everything feel "flatter" and lower in volume.
3. Check Lossless Audio settings
If you have Apple Music Lossless enabled (Settings → Audio Quality), the higher-quality stream may actually be at a lower perceived volume than the standard AAC stream for some tracks. This is because lossless doesn't have the same mastering adjustments that Apple applies to the AAC versions.
Try temporarily switching to AAC quality to see if the volume difference is noticeable.
4. Headphone Safety
System Settings → Sound → Headphone Safety. If "Reduce Loud Audio" is on, macOS is capping your headphone volume globally — affecting Apple Music along with everything else.
5. Boost Apple Music past 100%
If you've checked everything and Apple Music is still too quiet — whether it's Sound Check being aggressive, a quiet album, or your MacBook speakers simply not being loud enough — a per-app volume boost solves it.
SoundDial lets you boost Apple Music to 200%. The audio signal is amplified at the system level before it reaches your speakers or headphones. Only Apple Music gets louder — Zoom, Slack, and your browser stay at their current levels.
This is also useful for the opposite problem: if Apple Music is too loud relative to your Zoom call, lower Apple Music to 25% in SoundDial while keeping Zoom at 100%. Per-app control means you never have to compromise one app's volume for another's.
Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store — €14.99 one-time purchase, no subscription, macOS 14.2+.