THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO APPLE MUSIC

Take back control of your music collection, with our in-depth guide to the Music app for Mac and beyond...

- ROB MEAD-GREEN

When Apple finally did away with iTunes with the release of macOS Catalina in 2019, it replaced it instead with Music - which was iTunes, but with the movie, podcasting and syncing bits hived off into TV, Podcasts and Finder instead. While that's certainly been great news in some ways - iTunes became an increasingly bloated mess it's sown confusion in others, especially since Apple has shifted its focus away from simply enabling you to manage your personal music collection (including purchases bought from the built-in iTunes Store), and towards subscription-based streaming, with the launch of Apple Music.

This can mean that despite the removal of the movie and podcasting elements from the old iTunes, the Music app for Mac still feels, at times, like it's trying to do too much.

So, we've compiled an in-depth guide to pull the Music app apart and talk you through all its constituent pieces, and help you achieve a greater understanding of what the app does, including what it does well and what it does occasionally very badly.

We'll also explore some other great ways to enjoy your music, and we'll take into account your other devices too. So sit back, pour yourself another drink and stick some tunes on the Apple Music party is about to begin...

Your music library 

Import and manage your personal audio collection

With vinyl records often outselling CDs, and streaming services thrashing both, your optical disc-based music collection might feel like its time has come and gone. Apple is partly to blame, of course. While it didn't invent the digital audio player (DAP), it certainly popularized it, with various flavors of iPod selling in their millions since the very first model promised to enable "1,000 songs in your pocket" when it launched in 2001.