THE ULTIMATE APPLE MEDIA GUIDE

Make the most of the Music app in Catalina — and master TV, Podcasts and Books too

- ADAM BANKS

WHETHER YOU SUBSCRIBE to Apple Music or keep it old– school with your own collection on your Mac, the Music app — introduced in macOS Catalina — is your go–to program for all your musical needs. Much like the old iTunes app, Music enables you to rip, play, sync, stream and download your tunes, watch music videos and buy items from the iTunes Store.

What the Music app doesn’t do is provide a home for your movies, home movies, TV shows, podcasts or audiobooks anymore — these have been hived off into separate apps named, unsurprisingly enough, TV, Podcasts, and Books. This guide will explain how to make the most of them too.

So, open your Mac, fire up the Music app and read our 14–page ultimate guide. There’s plenty here to entertain you.

Get started with the Music app

It’s not called iTunes anymore, but you shouldn’t have much trouble finding your way around

CATALINA MAY HAVE split media across separate apps, but for music little has changed. All songs and playlists from the iTunes library on your Mac are imported when you first run the new app. This might include tracks you ripped from CDs, bought as MP3s, or bounced from the masters that time you collaborated with Skepta. As before, you can use File > Import to add more files from any connected storage, or even import CDs if your Mac has access to a CD drive (see bit. ly/impfcds). Music > Prefs > Files > Import Settings affects new but not previous imports.