If you have an iPod or other portable digital music player, you can put it aside because your iPad essentially duplicates all the features of an iPod (except for the smaller size). Besides listening to music, you can also listen to podcasts, audiobooks, or even iTunes University lectures.
Before you can play any audio files, you'll need to load them into your iPad, as explained in Chapter 16.
The Music app lets you choose one or more songs and play them on your iPad. To find a song to play, you have four options:
Playlists Displays lists of songs you've organized on iTunes either on your computer or on your iPad
Songs Displays all songs stored on your iPad, listed in alphabetical order
Artists Organizes songs according to the recording artist
Albums Organizes songs according to the album that they came from
To find a song to play, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Music. The Music screen appears.
Tap the Playlists tab at the bottom of the screen. If you have created any playlists, they appear in alphabetical order.
Tap the Songs tab at the bottom of the screen. A complete listing of your songs appears.
Tap the Artists tab at the bottom of the screen. A list of artists appears with a single album cover representing an artist, as shown in Figure 18-1.
Tap the Albums tab at the bottom of the screen. A list of all albums appears.
Tap an album cover. All songs from that particular album appear, as shown in Figure 18-2.
Tap a song to start playing it. While a song plays, you can tap the Home button and switch to another app while the song continues to play in the background.
Once you have found a song to play, you can control how it plays and even how it appears on the screen. When you play a song, you have several options for controlling playback, as shown in Figure 18-3.
To explore all the controls your iPad has for playing music, try the following:
From the Home screen, tap Music. The Music screen appears.
Choose a song to play through the Playlists, Songs, Artists, or Albums tab at the bottom of the screen.
Tap Play/Pause to start playing your chosen song.
Tap Back. Your song starts playing from the beginning again. If you tap the Back button a second time, you'll choose the previous song in the list.
Tap Forward. The Music app displays the next song in the list.
Tap Repeat. The first time you press the Repeat icon, it turns black and the current album or playlist will loop, as shown in Figure 18-4. Tap Repeat a second time, and a (1) appears in the icon. Now just the track repeats. Tap Repeat once more to disable repeat, and the loop appears white.
Tap Shuffle. When the Shuffle icon appears all white, your songs play in order. When the Shuffle icon appears all black, the Music app randomly plays a different song from the list you initially chose from, such as Artists or Albums.
Slide the Playhead slider left and right to select which part of a song to play.
Tap the Genius icon. The Music app will use the currently playing song to create a new playlist of similar songs stored on your iPad.
Tap Pause/Play. Each time you tap this button, the Music app either pauses your song or starts playing it.
Press the Home button to return to the Home screen.
Many people like playing a song, switching to a different app, and letting the music play in the background. However, if you like displaying album art while a song is playing, you can choose to have the album art fill the entire screen or just part of it so you can still see the controls for manipulating the currently playing song.
To see the different ways to view album art for a song, do the following:
Find a song or audio file you want to play and tap it, as discussed in “Finding a Song to Play” on page 146. The song's album art appears on screen. If you don't have the album art, a set of music notes appears.
Tap the album art image. The album art image fills the screen. Tap the album art image again. Each time you tap it, it toggles between filling the entire screen or filling most of the screen while displaying controls for playing the song, as shown in Figure 18-5.
Tap the Album List icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen. The album art image flips around to show all the songs in that album, as shown in Figure 18-6.
Tap the Album List icon again to see the album art image once again.
Tap the Album Art icon that appears to the right of the Forward button. The Music app displays another view of your album art with a list of available songs, as shown in Figure 18-7.
Another way to find a song is by genre (rock, country, jazz, etc.) or the composer's name. To search for a song by genre or composer, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Music. The Music screen appears.
Tap More at the bottom of the screen. A More menu appears, as shown in Figure 18-8.
Tap Genres. The Music app displays different genre icons that you can choose, as shown in Figure 18-9.
Tap More at the bottom of the screen again. The More menu appears.
Tap Composers. The Music app displays a list of album art organized by composers.
If you're looking for a particular audio file, searching through individual categories, such as the Albums or Playlists, can be tedious. To search for any audio file stored in your iPad, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Music. The Music screen appears.
Tap the Search field that appears in the bottom-right corner of the Music screen. A virtual keyboard appears, as shown in Figure 18-10.
Type a word or phrase. As you type, the Music app displays a list of matching items. Tap the one you want to play.
Tap the Hide Keyboard key in the bottom-right corner of the virtual keyboard.
With the iPad, you have your choice of blasting your audio files through the iPad's speakers or plugging in headphones and listening to your audio files in private. However you choose to enjoy your audio files, your iPad can help you take your audio files wherever you go and enjoy listening to them at any time.
If you suddenly need to access the Music app, don't forget you can press the Home button twice and swipe to the left to view the Music controls. Then you can just tap the orange Music icon and jump into the full app.