Quick answer:Level 1 — click the speaker icon in OBS's Audio Mixer. Level 2 — bind a mute hotkey so you can kill music without alt-tabbing. Level 3 — separate music onto its own source so muting it never touches the game, then automate the whole thingso copyrighted tracks mute themselves. Here's each level, step by step.
Level 1: the mixer click (panic button)
OBS's Audio Mixer dock shows every audio source with a speaker icon — click it and that source is muted for the stream. Honest limitation: you have to notice the song, find the window, and click — typically 15–60 seconds of copyrighted audio already broadcast, which is plenty for VOD scanners.
Level 2: the hotkey (faster panic button)
Settings → Hotkeys → scroll to your music/desktop audio source → bind Mute(and Unmute, or a push-to-mute). Now the kill switch works mid-game. Still you-dependent — great for known moments, useless for the song that starts while you're in a team fight.
Level 3: separation (mute music, keep the game)
- Windows: add an Application Audio Capture source for the music app (Spotify, browser). It gets its own fader, mute, and hotkey — independent from game audio.
- macOS: add a macOS Audio Capture source for the music path.
- Hear it yourself while the stream doesn't: Advanced Audio Properties → Audio Monitoring → Monitor Only (mute output).
- While you're in there, set up the clean VOD track too — full OBS DMCA configuration.
Level 4: automatic (the reason this site exists)
Every manual level shares one flaw: it needs you to react, live, every time, faster than a fingerprint matcher. StreamHush removes the reflex test — it listens to your stream audio, recognizes copyrighted music, and mutes the music source in OBS in about two seconds, then un-mutes when the track ends. Mic untouched, game audio untouched, log of everything it did. You still hear the song; the VOD scanner hears nothing.
Manual muting is a good habit. Automatic muting is a good system — and channels survive on systems.