Music in Teams

The Quick Fix:

1. Open Teams and click the three dots (...) next to your profile picture.
2. Go to Settings > Devices.
3. Find Noise Suppression and change it to Off.

Other simple things to check:

• Volume drop: If your music gets quiet when you join a call, go to your computer's Control Panel > Sound > Communications tab and select "Do nothing."
• Headphone check: If you use Bluetooth headphones, make sure your computer is set to "Stereo" mode, not "Hands-Free" mode, which sounds much worse.

Regards Saad.

Hello @Thad Ryan

As you described,

When you join a Microsoft Teams call and play your own music in the background (for example from Spotify, YouTube, or a local music player), the audio quality changes significantly. The music sounds muffled, hollow, or like it’s coming through a tunnel.

In this case, the issue possibly occurs because Microsoft Teams is optimized primarily for voice communication, not high‑fidelity music. When a call starts, Teams applies noise suppression, echo cancellation, and voice enhancement filters. These filters are very effective for speech but can dramatically alter music, making it sound compressed, distant, or “tunnel-like.”

To narrow this down, might i confirm:

• Are you using Bluetooth headphones, wired headphones, or built-in laptop speakers?
• Does this happen only with a specific music app (like Spotify or YouTube), or does it affect all background audio?
• Are you using the Teams Desktop App or the Web version?

Besides, you can try these steps in order to isolate and fix the "tunnel" sound:

1/ Disable Windows Communication Ducking

• Open the Control Panel > Sound.
• Go to the Communications tab.
• Select "Do nothing" and click Apply.

This prevents Windows from intentionally lowering the volume or muffled-filtering background audio when it detects an active call.

2/ Adjust Teams Noise Suppression

• In Teams, click the three dots (...) next to your profile picture > Settings.
• Go to "Devices".
• Under "Noise Suppression", change the setting to "Off".

3/ Disable "Allow applications to take exclusive control" 

Back in the "Sound" in "Control Panel", go to the "Playback" tab. 

Right-click your active output device > "Properties". 

Go to the "Advanced" tab. 

Uncheck "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device." 

If you still need my assistance, please come back with screenshots or any additional details so I can review it again and see if there’s anything more I can help you with.  

Have a nice day!  

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Teams is processing the background music as unwanted noise and aggressively suppressing or filtering it, which causes the “tunnel” or distorted sound.

To reduce this effect:

1. Turn off (or lower) noise suppression
   • In the Teams desktop app main window:
     1. Select Settings and more > Settings.
     2. Select Devices.
     3. Turn Noise suppression off (or set it to Low if using iOS).
   • From within a meeting:
     1. Select More actions > Audio settings.
     2. Turn the Noise suppression toggle off.
2. Use high-fidelity music mode when sharing music with others
   • In a meeting, select the dropdown next to Mic in the meeting controls.
   • Select More audio settings.
   • Turn on High fidelity music mode.
   • This mode is designed for music (online lessons, performances) and uses higher bitrate audio. It is not recommended for regular speech-only calls because it uses more bandwidth and does not suppress background noise.
3. Use suitable audio devices
   • For best results with music, use high‑quality external audio devices and avoid Bluetooth devices where possible.

If the goal is only to listen to music privately (not for others to hear), the distortion is mostly what others hear through the mic. Turning off noise suppression (and not enabling music mode) will usually make the background music sound more natural to other participants, but may also let more room noise through.

References:

• Reduce background noise in Microsoft Teams meetings
• Use high-fidelity music mode to play music in Microsoft Teams
• Play music with high fidelity mode in Microsoft Teams Free