Play Sounds is a lightweight, faceless background application for playing sound samples, ringtones and other types of audio files, including classic System 7 sounds. It requires macOS 10.9 or later and is a 64-bit Universal Binary, built with Apple’s Hardened Runtime, sandboxed, signed and notarized.

Drag files onto the application icon and they will be queued for playing. You can also right-click files in the Finder and select Open With → Play Sounds; or add the application to your Dock and drag files to the application’s Dock icon; or use the Finder’s Get Info panel to assign Play Sounds as the application to be used to open specific files (or all files of specific types) when they are double-clicked.

Play Sounds is not intended to be an iTunes replacement, so it has no user interface to allow pause/resume, volume adjustment, and so on. You can, however, stop it from playing: simply double-click on the application icon, or click the icon in the Dock if you have it there.

What types of System 7 sound files can be played?

Resource files containing one or more format 1 or 2 sound resources, with single or multi-channel uncompressed PCM sampled audio, any sampling rate.

What other types of audio files can be played?

Wave, MP3, AIFF, ringtones, and most other types of audio file typically used in current macOS, with the exception of protected/encrypted audio.

Is Play Sounds related to the application called (singular) Play Sound?

Play Sounds was inspired by an application from David Blache called Play Sound, which unfortunately was left behind when macOS abandoned 32-bit apps as of macOS Catalina. If you are still using macOS Mojave or earlier, we commend Play Sound to your attention for its capabilities and polish.

Is Play Sounds AppleScriptable?

Play Sounds has only the most rudimentary support for AppleScript. You can say tell application "Play Sounds" to play file or list of files, and it will play the specified files in the order supplied. You can also say tell application "Play Sounds" to quit and it will stop immediately.

Does Play Sounds remain running in the background at all times?

No, Play Sounds will quit automatically if it is left idle for 5 minutes or so.

Version 1.0, 30 April 2021

• First public release.
• Built to run natively on Intel or Apple Silicon, but as of yet has been tested only on Intel-based machines. Should you experience any problems when running on Apple Silicon, try using Rosetta.