Back in 2019, Apple replaced iTunes for Mac, iOS, and iPadOS with three apps—Music, TV, and Podcasts—with audiobooks handled by the Books app. Take Control of Apple Media Apps is your guide to this post-iTunes world. Covers macOS 15 Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18 or later (including macOS 26 Tahoe, iOS 26, and iPadOS 26), plus Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod.
Expanding on his earlier title Take Control of macOS Media Apps, Kirk McElhearn shows you how to manage your music, videos, podcasts, and audiobooks on all your Apple devices. Whether you just want to play your media, or you want to go deeper with special features like Apple Music, Genius, Shuffle, Playing Next, 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 music and videos so you can find them more easily later, creating playlists, sharing your library over a home network, and accessing your media libraries on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, or HomePod.
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Here’s just a taste of what the book covers.
Music
- Play Music: Learn the basics of playing audio (and even music videos) in the Music app. You’ll also learn about making quick playlists with Genius and Playing Next, the best ways to search for the music you want to hear, how to stream music to other devices in your home, and how to view lyrics while tunes play.
- Stream Music: Use Apple Music, a paid service, to listen to any of 100 million tracks. Or listen to live broadcasts from Apple Music Radio (including Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits, Apple Music Country, and other live radio stations).
- View Your Music: Learn how to view your music library and work with contextual menus in the Music app.
- Organize Your Music: Make a simple playlist of romantic songs, workout songs, or whatever theme you like. You’ll learn how to create smart playlists that, for example, comprise only your 5-star faves or only tunes you haven’t heard recently, and how to transfer playlists to your Apple Watch. You’ll also find help with operational issues like eliminating duplicates from your music library.
- 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? How can I make sure I have all the media I want on each of my Apple devices? You’ll get answers to these questions and more.
- 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, favorites, or both, and what other types of metadata you can use.
- Meet Apple Music Classical: Apple Music Classical is a special app for iPhone that helps lovers of classical music enjoy their favorite composers, performers, and pieces without the limitations of the standard Music app.
TV, Podcasts, and Books
- View Movies and TV Shows: Use the TV app to watch videos, including those purchased, rented, or streamed from Apple 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.
- Listen to Audiobooks: Discover how to download and play audiobooks in the Books app, and how to manage your audiobook library. (Note: This book does not cover using ebooks in Books.)
All Media Apps
- Buy or Rent Media from Apple: You can buy music, TV shows, movies, books, and audiobooks directly from Apple—and rent movies—from within the various media apps. Find tips on shopping for media, and get advice on sharing your purchases with family members and among your various Apple devices.
- 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. You’ll also learn how to manage massive media libraries and store media files on external drives.
- Put It on Your Wrist… Enjoy your favorite music, podcasts, and audiobooks using your Apple Watch.
- …or on a Big Screen: Use your Apple TV not only for TV shows and movies but also for music, and work with a shared library.
About Kirk McElhearn
Kirk McElhearn writes about Apple hardware and software, books, music, and more. As a Senior Contributor to Macworld for more than 15 years, he wrote hundreds of articles, including the Ask the iTunes Guy column. He is a regular contributor to The Mac Security Blog, the Literature & Latte blog, where he writes about their writing app Scrivener, and TidBITS, as well as several other websites and magazines. He is co-host of several podcasts, including The Next Track, a podcast about how people listen to music today, and Write Now with Scrivener. Visit his website Kirkville.
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