How to hide Apple Music options in macOS Monterey Music app sidebar

Apple chose to remove the user preference to hide Apple Music options in the side bar. There is no longer any way to hide Apple Music options. You will see them whether you want to or not.

Apple also chose to position Apple Music options at the very top of the sidebar, even for non-subscribers. There is no way to move Apple Music options from the very top of the sidebar., whether you want them there or not, even if they are something you will never, ever, ever use.

In summary, you will see Apple Music option on the top of the sidebar no matter what you do, whether you want them there or not. Enjoy.

The following will remove all but "Listen Now" from Apple Music

Stop iTunes

defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Music.plist haveRadioState 0

sudo chflags schg ~<your_user_name>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Music.plist

chflags uchg ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Music.plist

What you are doing:

The 'defaults write...'command will disable everything but 'Listen Now' under Apple Music. The 'sudo chflags schg....' line enables the system immutable flag for the file. The next 'chflags uchg...' line stops iTunes from modifying the file. By default, when iTunes starts it will reset haveRadioState to 1 and the Radio service will return. This could be a double edged sword in that this may deny iTunes the ability to update changes to preferences. I consider it a small price to pay for the benefit of removing those annoying Apple Music options and besides, once preferences are set, how often do you really change them?

More work to do. I hope to figure out how to completely remove Apple Music from iTunes. If I figure it out or find a solution I'll update.

I found this sign out enough for me.

https://www.howtoisolve.com/how-to-hide-apple-music-itunes-store-on-mac-in-macos/

Ditto. I don't like it either, especially at the top of the sidebar with no way to edit show or hide. Prior to Monterey, one could turn it off in Music Preferences with Restrictions. Appears Restrictions was removed from Music settings altogether. Frankly I resent this move to force people onto Apple Music.

It was a good idea to look at the music preferences. I've figured out how to get rid of the Apple Music (but not the iTunes Store). See the script below.

#!/bin/sh

## This script hides the annoying apple music group on the left nav of
## Music.app that they intentionally force on the app.
#
# To use, open TextEdit (spotlight search), copy/paste to in to TextEdit, save
# to ~/Desktop/fix.sh, then double click it on your desktop.
#
# Two options: either use LittleSnitch to filter outgoing net traffic to Apple
# for the specific daemon used by Music.app (I don't know which that is yet),
# or create a script, use Alred/Keyboard Maestro etc to open Music.app with
# this script, and argument "open" to this script.
#
# If you use LittleSnitch, you must disable iCloud and macOS services rule
# groups in LittleSnitch, otherwise Music.app will use a proxy daemon to
# contact apple services to get (probably) the radio/itunes etc metadata and
# will restore the side bar group.

PLIST=~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Music.plist

if [ "$1" == "--help" ] ; then
    echo "usage: $0 [explore] [open]"
fi

if [ "$1" == "explore" ] ; then
    open $PLIST
    shift
else
    defaults write $PLIST haveRadioState 0

## other various settings I tried to get rid of the "Store" group, that didn't
## work
#
#    defaults write $PLIST storeSupportsUPP -bool false
#    defaults write $PLIST storeSupportsCloudPurchases -bool false
#    defaults write $PLIST doesStoreSupportCloudMusicLibrary -bool false
#    defaults write $PLIST storeSupportsPreviousPurchases -bool false
#    defaults write $PLIST storeSupportsPasswordSettings -bool false
fi

if [ "$1" == "open" ] ; then
    osascript -e 'tell application "Music" to activate'
fi

Hi,

Read this Restrict access to items in Music on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

Does this help?

Jim

This is not helpful at all, I understand that Apple Music is a subscription based service but there are people who are not interested in it and still buy digital music and forcing everyone to see that Apple Music tab is just atrocious.

Nope, something changed with Monterey. Restrictions in Music Preferences is gone unless they moved it somewhere unrelated to Music.

Not that I could find. More of Apple pushing their agenda.

Yes.

Apple keeps ruining itunes/music every new Os release. This is the last stupid thing. I want to be able to hide a service I do not intend to use ON MY MAC.

I just downloaded Fidelia to replace Apple's Music app. There's no trace of Apple's service anywhere in it. It's not perfect, but at least it isn't contemptuous of its users, and that's a big plus.

Unfortunately, Fidelia is available only on MacOS. If you choose to stop purchasing and using Apple products, you'll need to find another player.