Making Mac media keys open app other than iTunes

Question

On a Mac, when one presses the Press/Play media key (F8), and no application intercepts that key, it opens iTunes and starts playing. Is there any way to get it to open another app? In my case, I want it to open Spotify. Bonus if it's possible to get it to start playing on launch (Maybe AppleScript is the way to go for this?)

Answer 1

To open Spotify and play a song on launch you could do this in AppleScript:

tell application "Spotify"
activate
    play track "spotify:track:trackURI
end tell

Export this script as an Application with the option "Save as executable script" (or something similar).

Then, to map your f8 key to this script, go to System Preferences, and then under "Keyboard" enable "Use All F1, F2, etc, keys as standard function keys". For the next step, you need to switch to the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab and add a new Keyboard Shorcut under Applications that will open the AppleScript. (If I remember correctly, you have to reboot your computer or log out for the changes to take place)

Answer 2

I would add a custom Keyboard Shortcut to your Function Keys F8-F12.

Normally you would access these function keys by holding fn and the associated Media Key. For example F8 = fn + (Play/Pause on newer Macbook Pros)

In order to make the function keys, rather than their media key functionality, default I would use Function Flip (Free)

Answer 3

You might find this useful, too. How to prevent iTunes from launching on media key press

Spotify should respond to F8 by default. How do you get the awesome key icon?