iPad For Seniors For Dummies, 8th Edition (2016)

Part III. Having Fun and Consuming Media

Chapter 11. Playing Music on the iPad

Get ready to …

· View the Library Contents

· Create Playlists

· Search for Audio

· Play Music

· Shuffle Music

· Adjust the Volume

· Use AirPlay

· Play Music with iTunes Radio

· Explore Categories of Radio Stations

iPad includes an app called Music that allows you to take advantage of the iPad’s amazing little sound system to play your favorite music.

In this chapter, you get acquainted with the Music app and its features that allow you to sort and find music and control playback. You also get an overview of AirPlay, which you can use to access and play your music over a home network or any connected device. Finally, I introduce you to iTunes Radio for your listening pleasure.

View the Library Contents

1. Tap the Music app icon, located on the Dock on the Home screen. The Music library appears. Figure 11-1 shows the library in Albums view.

2. Tap the Categories drop-down list at the top of the library (refer to Figure 11-1) to view your music according to criteria such as Songs or Genres.

tip You can tap the New button at the bottom of the page to go to the iTunes Store to buy additional music.

3. Tap a category (see Figure 11-2) to view music by album, genre, or computer.

Figure 11-1

Figure 11-2

tip iTunes has several free items you can download and use to play around with the features in Music. You can also sync content stored on your computer or other Apple devices to your iPad and play that content using the Music app. (See Chapter 3 for more about syncing andChapter 8 for more about getting content from iTunes.)

tip Apple offers a service called iTunes Match (www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-match). You pay $24.99 per year for the capability to match the music you’ve bought from other providers or recorded yourself (and stored on your computer) with what’s in the iTunes catalog. If iTunes Match finds a match (and it usually does), that content is added to your iTunes library (up to 25,000 tracks). Then, using iCloud, you can sync the content among all your Apple devices.

Create Playlists

1. You can create your own playlists to put tracks from various sources in collections of your choosing. In the Music app, tap the Playlists button at the bottom of the screen.

2. Tap New.

3. In the dialog that appears, enter a name for the playlist and tap Add Songs.

4. In the list that appears, tap a category such as Songs or Artists and then, in the list of selections that appears (see Figure 11-3), tap the plus (+) sign next to each item you want to include.

5. Tap the Done button to save added songs and, on the next screen, tap Done again to save the playlist.

6. Your playlist appears in the All Playlists list, and you can play it by tapping the list’s name and then the Play button.

Figure 11-3

Search for Audio

1. You can search for an item in your Music library by using the Search feature. With Music open, tap the Search button (see Figure 11-4) to open the onscreen keyboard.

2. Enter a search term in the Search field, or tap the Dictation key on the onscreen keyboard (see Figure 11-5) and speak the search term. Then tap the Search button on the onscreen keyboard. Results display, narrowing as you type.

3. Tap an item to play it.

Figure 11-4

Figure 11-5

tip You can enter (or speak) an artist’s name, an author’s or a composer’s name, or a word from the item’s title in the Search field to find what you’re looking for.

Play Music

1. Locate the song you want to play, using the methods described in previous tasks in this chapter.

2. Tap the item, such as an album that contains the song you want to hear. Note: If you’re displaying the Songs tab, you don’t have to tap an album to open a song; you need only tap a song to play it. If you’re using any other category, you have to tap items such as albums or multiple songs from one artist to find the song you want to hear.

3. Tap the item you want to play in the list that appears and then tap the Play button (see Figure 11-6). If the item is stored on iCloud, you may have to tap the iCloud symbol next to it to download it. The item begins to play. Tap the bar with the playback controls at the bottom of the screen to display the album cover full-screen (see Figure 11-7).

4. Use the Previous and Next buttons shown in Figure 11-7 to navigate the audio file that’s playing. The Previous button takes you back to the beginning of the item that’s playing or the previous track if you’re at the beginning; the Next button takes you to the next item.

5. Tap the Pause button to pause playback. Note that you can also use music controls for music that’s playing from the lock screen.

6. Tap and drag the line just below the album cover that indicates the current playback location on the Progress bar to the left or right to “scrub” to another location in the song.

7. If you don’t like what’s playing, here’s how to find another selection in the album: From the screen that shows all the songs in the album, tap the Back to Library arrow in the top-left corner to return to Library view, or tap the Up Next button near the bottom-right corner to show other songs in this album (it looks like a bulleted list). Tap another song to play it.

Figure 11-6

Figure 11-7

tip You can use Siri to play music hands-free. Just press and hold the Home button, and when Siri appears, say something like “Play ‘Take the A Train’” or “Play the White Album.”

tip The Home Sharing feature of iTunes allows you to share music among devices that have Home Sharing turned on. To use the feature, each device has to have the same Apple ID on your network. After you set up the feature via iTunes, you can retrieve music and videos from your iTunes shared library to any of the devices. For more about Home Sharing, visit www.apple.com/support/homesharing.

new Using Family Sharing, up to six members of your family can share purchased content even if they don’t share the same iTunes account. You can set up Family Sharing under Settings ⇒ iCloud ⇒ Family. See Chapter 8 for more about Family Sharing.

Shuffle Music

1. If you want to play a random selection of the music that you’ve purchased or synced to your iPad, you can use the Shuffle feature. With Music open, tap the Categories button at the top of the screen, tap Albums, and then tap an album. (This also works with Playlists.)

2. With a song in an album playing, tap the Shuffle button (see Figure 11-8). Your content plays in random order.

Figure 11-8

Adjust the Volume

1. Music offers its own volume control that you can adjust during playback. This volume is set relative to the system volume you control using iPad’s Settings. If you set it to 50%, it plays at 50 percent of the system’s volume setting. With Music open, tap a piece of music to play it.

2. In the controls that appear onscreen (see Figure 11-9), press and drag the button on the Volume slider to the right for more volume or to the left for less volume.

Figure 11-9

tip If the volume is set high, but you’re still having trouble hearing, consider getting a headset. It cuts out extraneous noises and may improve the sound quality of what you’re listening to, as well as adding stereo to the iPad’s mono speaker. I recommend that you use a 3.5mm stereo headphone; insert its plug into the headphone jack at the top of your iPad.

Use AirPlay

The AirPlay streaming technology is built into the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, as well as into the iTunes app on Macs and PCs. Streaming technology allows you to send media files from one device to play on another. You can send, say, a movie you’ve purchased on your iPad or a slide show of your photos to be played on your TV — and control the TV playback from your iPad. You can also send music to play over speakers.

You can take advantage of AirPlay in a few ways: Purchase Apple TV and stream video, photos, and music to the TV, or purchase AirPort Express and attach your speakers to it to play music. Finally, if you buy AirPort-enabled wireless speakers, you can stream audio directly to them.

Because this combination of equipment varies, my advice — if you’re interested in using AirPlay — is to visit your nearest Apple Store or certified Apple Reseller and find out which hardware combination will work best for you.

new iOS 9 supports peer-to-peer AirPlay support, which means that if you can make a direct connection to another device, you can share content such as music and photos without being on the same network.

tip If you get a bit antsy watching a long movie, one of the beauties of AirPlay is that you can still use your iPad to check email, browse photos or the Internet, or check your calendar while the media file is playing on the other device.

Play Music with iTunes Radio

1. You can access iTunes Radio with any Apple device that has iOS 7 or later, or a computer running iTunes 11 or later. Begin by tapping the Music icon on the Home screen.

2. Tap the Radio button at the bottom of the screen that appears.

3. Tap a Featured Station (see Figure 11-10). A featured radio station begins to play.

4. Use the tools at the bottom of the screen, shown in Figure 11-11, to control playback.

Figure 11-10

Figure 11-11

tip The more you use iTunes Radio, the better it gets at building stations that fit your taste.

Explore Categories of Radio Stations

1. You can find stations by category. To do so, first tap the Music button on the Dock.

2. Tap Radio.

3. On the iTunes Radio home page, scroll down to view stations organized by category and tap a station (see Figure 11-12). The station begins to play.

Figure 11-12

tip Shazam is a music recognition app that is integrated into Siri. Essentially, Siri can now “recognize” and identify music playing around you. Find out more about this feature in Chapter 19.