I think the change track feature only works with Windows Media Player which is why VLC is popping up when you switch tracks. I'm using a Roccat Pyra but use Windows Media Player when playing music on my office computer since we're not allowed to installed any 3rd party software and it works perfectly. Not sure if you can tweak anything on VLC preference to prevent it from popping up, might wanna take a look there and see how it goes.
Hope this helps. Cheers.
Hope this helps. Cheers.