Take Control of macOS Media Apps

Discover Apple’s Music, TV, Podcasts, and Books apps

Version 1.3, updated April 30, 2021

Are you bewildered with the apps that replaced iTunes in Catalina and later? Befuddled by Apple Music? Do you want to customize the Music app sidebar? Wish you could organize your podcasts? Wondering what the difference is between loves and stars? In this book, Kirk McElhearn explains not only how Apple’s media apps work, but also how normal people can make the Music, TV, Podcasts, and Books apps do what they want.

Take Control of macOS Media Apps is your guide to the post-iTunes world. Whether you just want to play your media, or you want to go deeper with special features like Genius, Shuffle, Playing Next, Apple Music, and iTunes Match, this comprehensive guide has the answers you need.

Kirk also looks at various ways of bringing audio and video into Apple’s media apps, tagging songs and videos so you can find them more easily later, creating playlists, sharing your library over a home network, and syncing media with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod.

The book covers how to:

• Play Music: Learn the basics of playing audio (and even music videos) in the Music app.
• Stream Music: Use Apple Music, a paid service, to listen to any of 60 million tracks. Or listen to live broadcasts from Apple Music Radio (including Apple Music 1).
• View Your Music and Other Content: Learn how to use the sidebar, view your music library, and work with contextual menus in the Music app.
• Store Your Music Library in the Cloud: What are the pros and cons of using the Sync Library setting to store your music in the cloud? How do Music and iTunes Match figure out whether to upload your music when that setting is enabled? You’ll get answers to these questions and more.
• Use the iTunes Store: iTunes may be gone, but the iTunes Store is still open for business! Find tips on shopping in the iTunes Store, and get advice on sharing your purchases with family members and among your various Apple devices.
• Tag Your Music: Tags are bits of information (also known as “metadata”) that can describe your media. Learn which tags to bother changing, the best ways to add lyrics and album art, how to rate songs with stars, loves, or both, and more.
• Organize Your Music: Make a simple playlist of romantic songs, workout songs, or whatever theme you like.
• Manage and Share Media Files: Whether you want to casually share a playlist from your laptop when visiting a friend or you want to make all your media available on all your home’s computers, you’ll find out how Media Sharing and Home Sharing make sharing possible.
• Listen to Audiobooks: Discover how to download and play audiobooks in the Books app, and how to manage your audiobook library.
• View Movies and TV Shows: Use the TV app (with or without the forthcoming Apple TV+ service) to watch videos, including those purchased or rented from the iTunes Store and those you add yourself.
• Listen to and Watch Podcasts: You’ll be sampling and subscribing to podcasts in no time with Kirk’s advice, plus you’ll pick a method of syncing podcast episodes to your iPhone or iPad and even learn about creating your own podcast station.
• Sync Media: You’ve put all your media on your Mac…now, how do you transfer it to a mobile Apple device? And how do you use an Apple TV to enjoy the media on your Mac? Learn the best approach for your situation.

Note: This book covers Apple’s media apps in macOS Catalina and Big Sur exclusively. It does not cover iTunes for Windows, the Music/TV/Podcasts/Books apps for iOS and iPadOS, or iTunes running in earlier versions of macOS.