When your computer starts playing music out of the blue and for no apparent reason, it can cause a great deal of confusion for the user. Some people may think that their computers are in danger, while others think it’s caused by themselves.
Regardless, it’s something that’s out of the ordinary and it should be fixed.
Music playing randomly on a computer is commonly caused by a random music playing virus, background applications, accidentally clicking the media buttons on the keyboard, or by music playing unknowingly in your browser. Running a virus scan and closing your applications one by one until the problem stops should help you identify it.
But there’s more to it. We’ve outlined the most common reasons and fixes to this problem in this article. If your computer is dealing with this issue, you’ll want to keep reading to learn more about it and how to fix it.
Why Does My Computer Play Music By Itself?
So, while we’re aware of some of the most common causes, there are a few other things that could be causing your computer to go haywire and start playing music out of nowhere.
Let’s take a look at the different causes one by one, then continue with the solutions to each cause.
1. Your Computer Is Infected With a Virus
The Random Music Playing virus is not a severely malicious piece of code, but more so a symptom of a deeper issue. Virus researchers have found that the Random Music Playing virus isn’t actually a true virus at all because it doesn’t fit the scope of what a computer virus is.
A real virus is when an infection begins to mess up executable files and is able to spread onto other files by itself. A virus means any type of file that can damage or pose a threat to other software on a computer.
The Random Music Playing Virus is typically caused by other threats on a computer but in most cases, it’s usually just advertisements that are playing in the background on a website.
When the cause of the Random Music Playing Virus is due to unregulated ads on websites, you don’t necessarily have to jump the gun and go ahead and start running full virus scans on your system.
The best course of action is just to stay away from the websites with ads that are causing the Random Music Playing virus in the first place.
A general rule of thumb is that when you visit a website that starts playing music, that commonly means that a potentially unwanted program is affecting the computer that is running the website. Unless it’s an intended video ad that’s playing on the website.
The Random Music Playing Virus can lead to performance issues and random connectivity issues with the internet. In many cases, the Random Music Playing Virus also includes a number of advertisements popping up all over the place.
2. You’re Accidentally Pressing Media Buttons
For a good while now, keyboards have received a set of media buttons that allows the user to start, stop, or change tracks on the computer from the keyboard. Oftentimes, the media buttons are located on the top close to the F-keys.
However, for someone who’s unfamiliar with them, accidentally clicking them can happen. Inspect your keyboard to see if you can find a set of buttons with the Start/Pause/Stop symbol. If you can, then that’s most likely your media buttons.
If you have an application running in the background, the media buttons will take control of that application and start or stop music with the click of a button.
If your computer is playing music randomly because you’re pressing these buttons without meaning to, then that should stop now that you’ve grown aware of them.
3. You’ve Installed Unwanted Adware
Another cause of music playing on your computer is that you may have downloaded music from a website that begins playing automatically whenever you visit there. Perhaps you’ve unintentionally installed adware that is playing music in the background on your computer.
4. The Program You’re Using Has Built-In Music
Users may also utilize applications to play their own audio files without having to launch an application. If you’re using one of these programs, the music might be coming from inside the software rather than from somewhere else.
5. Background Applications Start Playing Music
Automatic updates operate in the background and might occasionally create performance issues. You may discover this issue if an update is creating problems by hearing sounds from your speakers even when no application is running (such as iTunes).
Even while you’re not using it, certain apps can play music without your notice. If you have iTunes installed and aren’t actively listening to anything in iTunes, but iTunes is still open on your desktop, iTunes will launch and play some music when it detects that there isn’t any other audio playing on your system (such as Spotify).
Even if the level is turned down very low or the volume slider is set to 0 percent, this can happen. Apart from iTunes, this behavior can also occur with other types of applications.
6. Tasks Continue Playing Music After Being Shutdown
Some background applications may continue to run after the user has dismissed them, which might cause problems if they aren’t built to function in the background effectively.
Some programs, for example, may continue to play music after being dismissed by clicking on their icon; this might be caused by an ad-blocking tool like AdBlock Plus or uBlock Origin that has been configured wrongly.
How to Stop a Computer From Randomly Playing Music
Stopping a computer from randomly playing music on its own depends on the cause of the issue.
1. Remove the Random Music Playing Virus
If the cause of your background music is the Random Music Playing virus, you need to be a little more careful in terms of what websites you visit and what type of downloads you install on your computer.
There are many free programs offered on the internet that are tempting to download but are also plagued with viruses and other malicious threats. Freeware programs are typically the worst culprits that could lead to the Random Music Playing Virus.
Toolbars are also commonly loaded with issues that could redirect you to where you don’t want your computer to be going. When you’re installing programs, always choose the custom installation option in order to prevent these threats from occurring in the first place.
To get rid of the Random Music Playing Virus that has infected your computer, you’ll want to use Microsoft Defender or a third-party anti-virus tool. This virus is tricky to detect and commonly won’t be able to be removed by simply uninstalling a certain program.
Run a full virus scan and start from there.
2. Stop Music Playing In Your Browser
The solution for stopping the music whenever you visit certain websites is much easier and more straightforward. All you have to do is simply exit the websites that are causing the background music in the first place.
If you have 20 tabs open in your internet browser and aren’t sure which one is causing the background noise, you might want to just exit the entire browser altogether, which will close all of the tabs.
Many times, multiple ads with background music can pop up if you visit websites and it can become quite frustrating to figure out which tab is causing the music. While this can be annoying, it’s usually harmless and doesn’t mean you have a virus.
Also, you can take a look at each tab individually to see if any of them have a speaker icon positioned next to them. If the tab has a speaker icon on it, then that’s where the audio is being sourced from.
You can also opt to mute your web browser completely, but remember to unmute it when you visit websites where you want audio to play.
3. Close Applications
The method for dealing with the background sounds and music from reason 3 is also another easy fix in the majority of cases. Sometimes software that’s installed on your computer can cause music and other sound effects to play in the background.
This can also become quite annoying, especially if they are constant and repetitive. The fix for this issue will all depend on what type of software is causing the sounds in the first place.
With so many different types of software available, you’ll want to check your taskbar and open each program one by one. After opening each program, try exiting the program and seeing if that halts the background music. If it does, then you’ll know which program is causing the background music in the future.
If you’ve closed all your applications but your computer continues to play music randomly. Go to the Task Manager (ctrl + alt + del) to see which tasks/applications are running. Note that you’ll find plenty of background applications running here.
Try closing down the ones you’re familiar with, one by one. See if this solves the issue.
4. Adjust iTunes
If the cause of your background music is from iTunes, you’ll want to follow these instructions:
1. Open your iTunes application and click iTunes on the menu bar. After that, click on preferences, then click advanced. You’ll see an area that shows ‘playback selection’. Uncheck the ‘enable automatic song selection’, and then click ‘save.
2. For those that want to stop background music from playing automatically in the background due to automatic downloads, auto-play should be disabled. This can be done by clicking file>library>options>general> and then unchecking ‘automatic downloads’.
5. Mute The Computer
If the cause of your background music persists after you’ve exited the application, you’ll want to check the configurations inside of your ad-blocking tool.
You have an additional option for getting rid of background music on your computer: turn off the sound completely.
- In Windows 10, you may disable background music.
- To turn off background music on a Windows 10 PC, do the following:
- Click or press Start > Settings to open the Settings app. Turn off the toggle for “Play audio when Windows begins” under Personalization > Background.
- If this option isn’t available, go to “Change account settings,” choose “Sounds,” and uncheck the box next to “Play Windows Startup sound.” Settings may now be closed.