Prevent iTunes opening on Play/Pause button in macOS

Question

I'm trying to prevent the iTunes app opening every time I press the Play/Pause key on my Mac's keyboard.

If I'm using Spotify or another music app, that key should control the active audio being played.

I've installed a lot of apps but none are working.

Answer 1

1. From the Apple menu, choose “Restart…” > “Restart“.
2. Simultaneously press and hold the “Command” and “R” buttons. (This will start you in Recovery Mode)
3. Type the following to disable the System Integrity Protection and press enter:

csrutil disable

4. Then restart and let the login proceed as normal. Once you’re in, run the following command to disable the f#?! iTunes. This will prevent you opening iTunes

sudo chmod -x /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes

5. Reenable the System Integrity Protection to the previous status (enabled):

csrutil enable

To disable the 3 music keys is this command:

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

Bye bye iTunes :)