How can I play an MP3 from my desktop w/o opening an app?

Thanks, Bob. That certainly is better than having to open an app.

But still would like to know if there is some global setting that would give me back the ability to simply hover over an MP3 icon on my desktop and click the PLAY arrow that reveals itself. That shortcut makes it easy to audition lots of music cuts quickly.

Was that a feature of Snow Leopard that got wiped out in later OS versions?

Thanks, Axeman. Yep, that's exactly the icon I'm after... but - Show Preview was already checked. My view options looks just as yours does, but MP3's are not displayed as Previews.

The problem seems to be with file associations?/ All my MP3 icons now show the aqua iTunes emblem. I've tried changing the default Open With... (right click on MP3 file, choose Open With... select app association). Changing this is global. So, I've tried making the default app QuickTime and Adobe Audition, but neither let's me PREVIEW audio with a simple hover & click on the icon.

What is your default app set to? (right-click on an MP3 file, Open With...)

Axe, yes. I've tried making the change both directly at the Desktop and by opening the Desktop folder (as you detail above). In all cases, I am in icon mode. Toggling the Preview box changes the other icons (my Pages docs, for example, go from inkwell to a miniature version of the actual document)... but leaves the MP3 icons unchanged... still showing the Quicktime emblem (Open With... set to default for Quicktime at the moment).

Don't know what I'm missing... but I appreciate your help!

Unfortunately, I can't go to Mavericks because my ProTools is not qualified with that version of the OS.

This matter has gotten even more interesting. I use 2 different login accounts on this machine... both set as ADMIN. But when I logged into account 2 this morning, I saw the black/gray Preview icons for all my MP3s. Perfect!

But, account 1 still has the iTunes or Quicktime icons. Boo.

All the settings for default app to open with... and Preview icon in Desktop.. are the same for both accounts. User privileges are the same on my test MP3, as well. Right now, the only thing I can think of different is that I disabled Spotlight (using sudo in the Terminal) on account 1 - which I subsequently reenabled today. Didn't change the icons, though.

I wonder if I can migrate everything in account 1 to a new account. Maybe that would restore things to normal for account 1?