[watersb]

From TFA, via StackExchange:

    launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.rcd.plist

will quit the process responsible for the madness (rcd, the "remote control daemon").

You'll have to remember to re-load this thing if you want the default behavior. Or if you encounter other unexpected situations, to restore the default insanity.

It might be easier to run this app instead; then you have an icon in your GUI desktop environment and an app you can simply quit to restore defaults. Plus this app allows you to assign any app to the "Play" media event.

[linsomniac]

Wow, thank you! I use and "like" youtube music, but it seems like every time I'd start a google meet call (IIRC) or otherwise interact with audio on my MacBook it would bring up Apple Music. If I quit it, it would pop back up the next time I had audio playing, but if I just left it running it would be fine. So I'd always have this Apple Music in my list of running apps. Kind of annoying.

I ran the above and then quit Apple Music and tried a few different things and so far it hasn't come back up.

[Terretta]

> you have an icon ... simply quit

FTA:

Uh.. how do I quit this app?

The app has no Dock icon and no menubar icon so to quit it you'd need to do one of the following:

Launch Activity Monitor, find Music Decoy and press the button at the top

Run the following command in the Terminal:

  killall 'Music Decoy'