iconrewind

Mac

Music lives on macOS's sealed system volume, so its icon cannot be changed.Changing the icon inside a signed app breaks its signature and is undone by every update. The script below makes a tiny wrapper app in your home folder that opens the real Music with your icon. You drag the wrapper to the Dock.

1. Pick your icon

2. Download and run the script

Downloaded files are quarantined by macOS, and Blob downloads lose the executable bit, so the reliable way is to run the file with zsh from Terminal (open Terminal from Spotlight, paste, press Return):

zsh ~/Downloads/iconrewind-music.command

Double-clicking works too, but Gatekeeper will block it as "from an unidentified developer": Control-click the file and choose Open. On recent macOS versions that is not enough; use System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway. The script is unsigned, plain text and shown in full below.

What the script does

  • Refuses to run as root, and uses no sudo. It checks that this is macOS and that the real Music app exists.
  • Creates ~/Applications/iconrewind/Music.app, whose Contents folder is a symlink to the real app. It aborts if something else is already there.
  • Sets your icon on that wrapper with macOS's own icon API (NSWorkspace via osascript), then opens the folder in Finder.
  • It does not edit the Dock. You drag the wrapper to the Dock yourself and remove the old Music tile.
  • It is safe to run again: it only updates the icon. It prints how to undo.
Full installer script 

  


  
3. Add it to the Dock

  
    
    
  1. Drag the wrapper
    In the Finder window that opens, drag Music onto the Dock.
    2. 
    
  2. Remove the old tile
    Control-click the old Music icon in the Dock > Options > Remove from Dock. This only removes the shortcut, not the app.
    3. 
  

  
Have dockutil installed? You can use it instead, but the script never does that for you.


  

    
Limits you should know about

    
    
      
  • While Music is running, the Dock and app switcher may still show the stock icon: the running app owns that icon and only the app itself can change it.
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  • Spotlight (and Launchpad) may list two Music entries.
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  • The system app itself cannot be changed (it sits on a sealed, read-only volume), and notifications and Now Playing keep the new icon.The real app is not changed, so notifications keep its current icon.
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  • macOS may frame the icon in a rounded tile on newer versions.
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  • It survives macOS updates: the wrapper and icon live in your home folder, and the link keeps pointing at the real app. We have not yet tested every macOS 27.x build, so please tell us what you see.
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Undo

  
Download the undo script and run it the same way. It removes only the wrapper folder, and only if it contains the marker file the installer created. Your real Music app is never touched.

  

  
zsh ~/Downloads/iconrewind-music-undo.command

  

    Full undo script
    

  

  
Then remove the wrapper's tile from the Dock if you added it.