4 Playing Music and Video
In this chapter, you learn how to use the Music and Video apps to play music and watch video. You also learn how to use Apple Music.
→ Playing a Song
→ Building a Playlist
→ Making iTunes Purchases
→ Sharing Purchases with Your Family
→ Having It All with Apple Music
→ Listening to Podcasts
→ Playing Video
→ Using AirPlay to Play Music and Video on Other Devices
The iPad handles playing music as well as any iPod or iPhone ever has, plus it has a large, beautiful screen for you to use to browse your collection. Chapter 3, “Networking and Syncing,” explains how to sync music to your iPad from your computer. That’s one way to get music onto your iPad. You can also use the iTunes app to purchase music. Families can share purchases using the Family Sharing feature. Apple’s streaming music service, Apple Music, gives you unlimited access to nearly all the songs on iTunes.
No matter how you put music on your iPad, you play your music using the Music app. You can also listen to podcasts with the Podcasts app, and you can watch movies and TV shows with the Videos app.
Playing a Song
So let’s start by simply selecting and playing a song synced to your iPad from your computer or purchased from iTunes. Skip ahead to the “Having It All with Apple Music” section if you are using Apple Music.
1. Tap the Music icon. It is located along the bottom of your Home screen, unless you’ve customized your toolbar and moved it elsewhere.
2. Tap the Library icon at the bottom of the screen, if it isn’t already selected.
3. At the top of the screen, tap the Library menu and then choose how you want to view the songs in your library. You can view a list of recently added songs, your custom playlists, songs by artist or album, a full list of all songs, or just your downloaded music.
4. Choose Artists.
5. Tap an artist on the left. A list of albums by that artist displays on the right. It doesn’t matter if you own all of the songs from that album, or just some of the songs, you’ll see the album artwork listed on the right.
6. Tap the album to view the songs in that album.
7. Some information about the album (such as the genre and the year it was published) is displayed.
8. The songs on the album are listed. Tap any song to play it. Or, tap the Play button to play them all in order.
9. At the bottom of the screen the currently playing song is shown. The Play button changes to a Pause button. You can tap this button to pause the song. If you let the song play out, the Music app continues with the next song.
10. Use the Shuffle button to play the songs in a random order. That probably isn’t what you want to do when listening to an album. But this interface is the same for playlists, which are often nice to shuffle.
11. Tap the song artwork to see a more detailed set of controls.
12. Tap and drag the dot along the slider to jump to a specific part of the song.
13. Adjust the volume by dragging the dot along the volume slider.
14. The list of songs shows you what song will play next. You can drag the three-line handles on the right side of each item up or down to change the order. You can swipe left to remove a song.
15. You can also tap here to set the whole list to repeat once, or repeat over and over.
16. Tap the left side of the screen to return to the album view.
17. Tap and hold any song to see a small menu on the left.
18. Tap to add a song to the top of the playlist so the song plays next. This allows you to browse through your artists and albums and decide what you want to listen to, song by song. (Instead of tapping once to start playing back the album as described in step 8, you can add a variety of songs.)
19. Tap to add a song to the end of the list.
20. Tap the Love button to indicate that this is one of your favorite songs. iTunes and Apple Music use this information to make suggestions for new music you might like.
21. Tap Artists to return to the screen showing your artists. You can also tap and drag anywhere on the screen from left to right.
22. At any time, tap the Search button to search for songs, albums, or artists in your library.
Siri: Playing Music
You can use Siri to play music. Here are some examples:
“Play The Beatles.”
“Play ‘Georgia On My Mind.’”
“Play some blues.”
“Play my driving music” (plays the playlist named “driving music”).
“Shuffle all songs.”
“Skip.”
“Pause.”
Building a Playlist
Playlists are a way to take the songs you have on your iPad and arrange them in ordered groups. For instance, you can create one to listen to while working, while working out, while trying to go to sleep, or you can make a party mix for your next get-together.
Creating Playlists
You can create playlists in iTunes on your Mac or PC, but you can also build playlists on your iPad.
1. In the Music app, tap the Library button.
2. Tap the Library menu.
3. Tap Playlists.
4. You see a list of current playlists.
5. Tap New to create a new playlist.
6. Give the new playlist a name, such as My Playlist, by tapping here and typing a name.
7. Tap here and type a description for this playlist.
8. After you start to add songs, the Music app creates a piece of art for this playlist based on the art for those songs. But you can tap here and take a picture or use a photo from your Photos library instead.
9. Tap Add Music.
10. Search for music by artist, album, or song by typing the term you’re looking for.
11. Tap Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, and so on to dig into your library to find songs to add.
12. Tap the + button next to a song to add it to the playlist. The + button then changes to a check mark.
13. Tap Library to go back up a level to continue to search for songs.
14. Tap Done when you are done adding songs to the playlist.
15. Tap and drag the three-line handles to the right of a song to move it up and down in the list.
16. Tap the red – buttons to remove a song from the list.
17. Tap Add Music to add more songs.
18. Tap Done when you are finished editing the playlist. You see the same list from step 4, but your new playlist is included. Tap it to view the playlist.
19. The playlist is now just like an album. You can tap a song in the list to start playing it.
20. Tap Edit to remove, add, or reorder the songs in the playlist.
21. Tap the Play button to play the whole playlist in order.
22. Tap to shuffle the playlist to listen to it in a random order.
Making iTunes Purchases
You have lots of options when it comes to adding more music to your iPad. You can simply add more music to your iTunes collection on your computer and then sync those songs to your iPad. In that case, you can buy them from iTunes or another online source, or you can import them from music CDs.
How Else Can I Get Music?
You can purchase music on your iPad only through the iTunes app. But through your computer you can sync music that you get from any source that doesn’t use special copy protection, like CDs you import into iTunes. You can buy online from places such as Amazon.com, eMusic.com, cdbaby.com, or even directly from the websites of some artists.
Buying on Your iPad
In addition to syncing music to your iPad from your computer, you can purchase music, movies, TV shows, and audio books directly on your iPad using the iTunes app and using the same account that you use in iTunes on your computer.
1. Tap the iTunes Store app icon on your Home screen to go to the iTunes store. If this is the first time you have used the iTunes Store, you might be asked about setting up Family Sharing. See the next task for more information about this.
2. Tap Music at the bottom of the screen.
3. Initially, you see a screen showing featured albums and songs from all genres. But you can select a specific genre of music instead.
4. Swipe left and right to browse more featured albums.
5. Drag the screen up to reveal more lists, such as top albums, top songs, and music videos.
6. Use the Search field to search for an artist, album, or song by name.
7. Select a suggestion from the list, or tap the Search button on the keyboard to complete the search.
8. Find a song or album you want to buy, and tap its artwork to view more information.
9. Swipe up to move down the page and see ringtones, music videos, movies, and even books that match your search.
10. Tap a song name to listen to a sample of the song.
11. Tap outside the album window to close it and return to the previous view.
12. To buy a song, album, or any item in the iTunes music store, tap the price of that item, and then tap again on the Buy button.
Syncing Devices
You can also set iTunes on your computer and your other devices to automatically download new purchases. So when you buy on your iPad, you get the new music everywhere. On your iPad, that setting is in Settings, iTunes & App Store, Automatic Downloads. In iTunes on your computer, the setting is in iTunes, Preferences, Store, Automatic Downloads.
Apple Music—No Purchase Required
If you use Apple Music, you don’t need to use the iTunes app to purchase music. There’s no need to use the iTunes Music store except for rare cases where some music may be available for purchase in iTunes, but it isn’t available for streaming in Apple Music.
Sharing Purchases with Your Family
Family Sharing lets you share items you purchase from iTunes with other members of your household. One family member is set up as the organizer, and his or her iTunes account is the one that will be charged for all purchases.
Each member of the family sharing group can have their own Apple ID and iCloud account, which will be used for email, calendars, and other purposes. Purchases are made through the iTunes account of the organizer’s Apple ID.
In addition, those who are part of your Family Sharing group will also have a shared photo stream in the Photos app, a special shared calendar in the Calendar app, a shared Reminder list in the Reminders app, and they can see one another’s location with the Find My Friends app.
Setting Up Family Sharing
1. Tap Settings to open the Settings app, and then tap Apple ID and iCloud settings.
2. Tap Set Up Family Sharing.
3. Read through the screens telling you more about Family Sharing and asking you to read the legal agreement and confirm your Apple ID and payment information. Tap Get Started to begin working with Family Sharing.
4. The next screen shows you some of the different services you can share using Family Sharing. This example shows how to share iTunes purchases. Tap iTunes & App Store Purchases.
5. Check to make sure you are using the right Apple ID, in case you have more than one. Then tap Continue.
6. Confirm that the payment for your iTunes account looks right. Then tap Continue.
7. Invite a family member to share your purchases. Tap Invite Via iMessage to go to the Messages app where you can address a message to the family member’s Apple ID. The message will include a link that enables the person to complete the connection to your iTunes account.
>>>Go Further: Parental Guidance
If a family member younger than 13 years old is added to your group, every time they try to make a purchase, the Family Sharing organizer receives a notification and has to approve that purchase before it goes through. Also, children ages 13–17 can have this option turned on when they are added to Family Sharing.
The organizer can also tap any adult family member’s name in the Family Sharing settings and then flip the switch labeled Parent/Guardian to enable that adult to approve purchases made by children.
Having It All with Apple Music
A popular option for music lovers today is to subscribe to an unlimited music service. Apple offers such a service, called Apple Music, which is built into the Music app on your iPad.
For a monthly fee, you can play music from a huge collection of millions of songs—nearly everything that is available in iTunes, with only a few notable exceptions, like The Beatles. You can listen to what you want, when you want, on your iPad, iPhone, and Mac. For a modest increase in the monthly fee, you can also share your music access with your family members.
Signing up for Apple Music is fairly easy, and Apple even allows you to try it for a while before you start paying for your subscription. After you are signed up, you can browse Apple Music and pick songs or whole albums to add to your collection in the Music app, and then play those songs any time you want.
Apple Music also includes a For You section that offers specially curated playlists and listening ideas based on your listening preferences and history.
Signing Up for Apple Music
You sign up for Apple Music in the Settings app.
1. In the Settings app, tap Music.
2. Tap Join Apple Music.
3. Tap the button to begin your trial period.
4. Select your plan. The Individual plan is just for you and works on all of the devices and Macs you have set up with your Apple ID. The Family plan also includes others you have set up with Family Sharing. Continue to follow the prompt to complete setup.
Cancelling
Signing up for the trial is low risk because you can always cancel your subscription before the trial period ends. Just tap the ID button at the top of the Music app (it looks like a circle with a head in it), select View Apple ID, and then tap Manage under Subscriptions.
Playing Songs with Apple Music
Think of Apple Music as an all-you-can-eat music buffet. You can search the entire Apple Music library and play any song you like. Let’s start off by searching for and playing a song. You can also add songs to your library just as if you had purchased them.
1. In the Music app, tap the Browse button to go to the New Music page of Apple music.
2. You see featured new artists, albums, and songs. Tap a song to start listening to it.
3. Alternatively, tap the For You button to see music that you might like based on your previous behavior.
4. Another alternative is to tap the Search button to look for a specific song, artist, or album.
5. Tap the search field and start typing your search term.
6. Make sure that you select Apple Music as the search type. If you have Your Library selected instead, you get search results for only music that’s already in your library.
7. Tap a result that best matches what you are looking for. Alternatively, you can tap the Search key on the keyboard to get all search results that match what you are typing.
8. If you see the song you want to hear, tap it and it starts playing.
9. Tap the + button next to any song to add the song to your library, which makes it easier to play the song again later. Adding songs to your library mimics “purchasing” the music, and the song is listed in your library next to others you have imported or purchased from iTunes. You don’t pay anything extra for the song, though, because it is part of your Apple Music subscription.
10. If you find an album rather than a single song, you can tap it to go to that album.
11. Tap + Add to add the entire album to your library. When you do, you’re asked if you want to have this album downloaded to your iPad. Doing so means that you can play the album even if you are not connected to the Internet at that moment.
12. You can also add a single song with the + button next to it, or tap the song name to simply play that song.
13. Tap Play to listen to the whole album.
Playing Offline
The problem with streaming music services like Apple Music is that you need to be connected to the Internet to use them. However, you can decide to keep some of your music library on your iPad for offline listening. Step 11 explains how the Music app sometimes does this for you automatically. You can also tap the three-dot (…) button in Apple Music when viewing albums or playlists and tap Download to indicate that you want that album or playlist to be available offline.
>>>Go Further: Try New Things
One big advantage to a subscription service like Apple Music is you can try new songs as much as you like. If you hear of a new artist, or catch a song on the radio, or hear something in a TV show, you can go to Apple Music and play the album just to see if you like it. That’s not easy to do otherwise, as you would end up buying lots of albums that you only listen to once.
Discovering New Music with Apple Music
Because you have so much music available to you with Apple Music, you might not want to just listen to specific songs. Instead, you might want to explore new artists or entire genres of music. Apple creates special playlists for this. You can also create a custom streaming radio station based on an artist or song.
1. In the Music app, tap the Search icon.
2. Make sure you are searching Apple Music, not Your Library.
3. Type a search term and tap the Search key to get results. You can type an artist name, a genre of music, a mood, decade, or anything that can be used to describe music.
4. Tap and drag to scroll down to see playlists.
5. Tap a playlist to go to it.
6. Tap a song to listen to it, or tap + to add the song to your library.
7. Tap Shuffle to play the playlist in a random order.
8. Tap Play to play the list in order.
9. Tap the More (…) button to download the playlist for offline listening, add it to your library, and other functions.
Discovering Music with Apple Music Radio Stations
Another way to explore is to listen to Apple Music radio stations. Apple has a professionally run streaming radio station called Beats 1 that has programming 24 hours a day. In addition, Apple curates special genre-based stations that are simply infinite playlists of music. You can also create your own streaming station based on a song or artist.
1. In the Music app, tap the Radio button.
2. Tap the Beats 1 logo to listen to the radio station. Beats 1 is usually the first item in the main list on this screen.
3. Other stations are listed on the front page of the Radio section. Browse this page and tap any one to go to it.
4. Tap Radio Stations to see even more featured stations.
5. Tap the search button to search for stations by title or keyword.
6. Type a search term, just as if you were searching for a song or album, and tap the Search button on the keyboard when done.
7. If necessary, scroll down the page to get to the Radio Stations section.
8. Sometimes there are more stations that meet your search criteria. Look for the See All button to go to a complete list.
9. Tap a radio station.
10. That station starts playing.
11. Tap the More (…) button to bring up more options while a song is playing.
12. Use the Love and Dislike buttons to tell Apple Music whether you’d like more or less of this kind of song on this station, which continues to customize itself for you this way.
13. You can add a song to your library so it appears in your Library section on the Music app, similar to if you had purchased the song.
14. The Create Station button starts a new station based on this one song. This button is also present when playing any song in Apple Music in any way. For instance, if you are listening to an album from your favorite artist, you can start a station based on a song in that album. Then you can continue to adjust the music on that station with the Love and Dislike buttons.
15. You can share a radio station with a friend who is also on Apple Music using Messages, Email, Facebook, and other methods.
How Do I Get Back to This Station?
After you listen to or create a radio station, you can find it again by tapping the radio station button at the bottom of the Music app, and looking under Recently Played.
Listening to Podcasts
Podcasts are episodic shows, either audio or video, produced by major networks, small companies, and individuals. You’ll find news, information, tutorials, music, comedy, drama, talk shows, and more. There is something covering almost any topic you can think of.
Subscribing to Podcasts
To subscribe to and listen to or watch podcasts, you use the Podcasts app from Apple.
1. Tap the Podcasts app icon on your Home screen.
2. Tap the Library button to look at the podcasts you’ve already downloaded.
3. Tap Browse to go to a screen with Apple’s currently featured podcasts. Alternatively, if you know what you are looking for, you can tap the Search button at the bottom of the screen to search for a podcast by name or topic.
4. Tap Featured to see more featured podcasts.
5. Tap Top Charts to see the most popular podcasts.
6. Tap All Categories to see a list of categories and featured podcasts in each category.
7. From any of the screens you see in steps 3 through 6, tap a podcast to view more information and episodes.
8. Scroll up to view more episode descriptions, reviews, and other similar podcasts.
9. Tap Subscribe to add this podcast to your library. New episodes of this podcast automatically appear in your library.
10. Tap any episode to listen to it or view it.
11. Tap More (…) to access more settings, such as the order in which episodes are played.
12. Tap Library to view the podcasts you have added to your library.
13. On the Library screen, tap Episodes to see the most recent episodes from all the shows you have added to your library.
14. Tap any episode for more information and to play it.
15. Use the Edit button for additional functions, such as the ability to add a podcast that is not listed in iTunes by using the show’s podcast URL address.
Playing Video New!
After you have movies, TV shows, and home videos on your iPad, you need to play them using the TV app.
The TV app enables you to play video from a variety of sources, such as movies and TV shows you have purchased in the iTunes app, shows from your cable or satellite provider, and shows directly from television networks.
Adding Your TV Networks to the TV App
If you are paying for a subscription to a TV network, either through a cable or satellite vendor, or directly to that network, you can see those shows listed in the TV app. But first you need to add the app for that network.
1. Launch the TV app.
2. Tap Store to see a list of apps that connect to the TV app.
3. Some apps are stand-alone services like HBO Now, where you use an in-app purchase to access all of that network’s shows.
4. Online networks like Hulu and Netflix charge a monthly subscription fee and offer a variety of shows.
5. You might already be paying for some networks through your cable or satellite TV provider. In these apps, you’re asked to log on using your cable or satellite TV user ID and password, and then you have access to the shows in the network-specific app and in the TV app.
6. In the Settings app, you can go to the TV app screen to see more settings.
7. You can see which TV networks and apps you have added that will show up in the TV app. You can turn off networks that you do not want to see in the TV app.
8. While here, you can adjust the video playback quality settings for iTunes-purchased and rented videos.
How About My Home Videos?
If you shoot a home video with a video camera, or iPod touch or iPhone, you can bring that into iTunes on your Mac or PC and sync it to your iPad. They appear as Home Movies in the menu along the top of the Videos app.
Changing the Orientation
For most video content, you can rotate your iPad to view in a horizontal orientation and use the Zoom button at the upper right to crop the left and right sides of the video so that it fits vertically on the screen. This is similar to watching a movie on a standard TV.
What About My DVDs?
If you can import CD music content into iTunes, you’d think you’d be able to import video content from your DVDs. Well, technically it is possible (although not necessarily legal) by using programs like Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr/) for your Mac or PC to import DVD content and then drag the resulting file into iTunes. You can then sync it with your iPad. These might also show up as Home Movies because your iPad doesn’t recognize them as official movie content.
Watch Videos on Your iPad
When you play video from the TV app, one of two things can happen. In most cases, you are taken to the appropriate app to watch the video, and the video automatically starts. So if you choose a Hulu video, you go to the Hulu app and the video plays. But some videos play inside the TV app. Video playback controls vary depending on which app is playing the video.
1. In the TV app, on the Watch Now screen, you can tap any video to start it. In many cases the related app launches, and you start watching the video in that app.
2. Tap Library to view purchased and rented videos you have already downloaded and are ready to watch.
3. Tap the Library button at the top to see a list of categories, which includes Home Videos and any Macs on your network that are using Home Sharing to allow other devices on the network to view iTunes Library content.
4. Tap a video to play it.
5. Tap the middle of the screen to bring up playback controls.
6. Use the Play/Pause button to pause.
7. Drag the dot along the line to jump to another part of the video.
8. Tap to switch to a picture-in-picture mode to keep watching the video while you go to other apps. This enables you to check your email or look up something online while watching.
9. Tap Done to exit the video and return to the previous screen.
>>>Go Further: Buying and Renting Video
Although buying video is similar to buying music, some significant details are different and worth taking a look at.
Copy Protection: Although music in the iTunes store is copy-protection free, videos are a different story altogether. Purchased videos can be played back only on the Apple devices you own that use your iTunes account. You can’t burn videos to a DVD, for instance, or watch them on a TV unless it is hooked up to an Apple device. Rentals are even more strict because you can watch them only on the device you rent them on.
Collecting Movies: Thinking of starting a collection of videos by purchasing them from Apple? These videos take up a lot of space on your hard drive. An iPad, even a 128GB version, quickly fills up if you start adding dozens of movies. Fortunately, once you purchase a movie with iTunes, you can download it again later. So you can purchase many movies over time, but only put the ones you want to watch on your iPad. Movies you own will appear in your Videos app as well, even if they are not actually on your iPad. You will see a little iCloud download button appear next to them. You can tap that icon to start downloading that movie to your iPad from Apple’s servers.
Time-Delayed Rentals: Rentals have some strict playback restrictions. After you download a rental, you have 30 days to watch it. After you start watching it, you have only 24 hours to finish it. This means you can load up your iPad in advance with a few movies to watch on an airplane flight or while on vacation.
TV Show Season Passes: You can purchase seasons of TV shows that aren’t complete yet. When you do this, you are basically pre-ordering each episode. You get the existing episodes immediately but have to wait for the future episodes. They usually appear the next day after airing on network television.
Multi-Pass: In addition to season passes, you can also get a Multi-Pass, which is for TV shows that broadcast daily. When you purchase a Multi-Pass, you get the most recent episode plus the next 15 episodes when they become available.
Using AirPlay to Play Music and Video on Other Devices
In iTunes, with the TV app and many other apps that play music or video, you have the option to send the audio or video stream from your iPad to another device that is connected to the same Wi-Fi network, such as an Apple TV.
You need to enable AirPlay on those devices first. For instance, using the Apple TV (2nd generation models or newer), you need to go into settings on the device and turn on AirPlay. You also need to make sure that the device is using the same Wi-Fi network as your iPad.
Accessing AirPlay
AirPlay is an option in many cases when you are viewing video in an app.
1. Look for the AirPlay button and tap it.
2. A control appears in the middle of the screen, and any AirPlay-compatible devices, such as Apple TVs, are listed. Tap any device to stream the video to that device.
3. You can tap Done to exit, or just tap outside of the control.
Mirror Your Screen with AirPlay
You can also use AirPlay to show whatever is on your iPad’s screen at almost any time. The iPad screen is simply shown on both your iPad and the AirPlay device at the same time. This is called “mirroring” and is accessed from the Control Center.
1. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and continue up to bring up the Control Center.
2. Tap and hold the Screen Mirroring button.
3. You see a control with a list of AirPlay devices, such as Apple TVs. Tap one to start mirroring your screen to that device.
4. After mirroring has started, you can return to this control by repeating steps 1 and 2 and then tapping Stop Mirroring.
