Take Control of macOS Media Apps

Go beyond iTunes with Catalina's new media apps

In macOS 10.15 Catalina, Apple did away with iTunes. In its place are three new apps—Music, TV, and Podcasts—with audiobooks now handled by the Books app and syncing of mobile devices handled by the Finder. The new apps also add more features (while, sadly, removing a few things too).

Take Control of macOS Media Apps is your guide to this new, post-iTunes world. Kirk McElhearn, author of earlier books on iTunes 10, 11, and 12, is back with a new book that shows you how to manage your music, videos, podcasts, and audiobooks in Catalina.

The book covers how to:
• Play Music: Learn the basics of playing audio (and even music videos) in the Music app. You'll also find tips on making quick playlists with Genius and Up Next, learn the best ways to search for the music you want to hear, stream music to other devices in your home, and view lyrics while tunes play.
• Stream Music: Use Apple Music, a paid music subscription service, to listen to any of 50 million tracks. Or listen to live broadcasts from Apple Music Radio (including Beats 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 Apple's Cloud Music Library? How do Music and iTunes Match figure out whether to upload your music when setting up your Cloud Music Library? You'll get answers to these questions and more.
• Use the iTunes Store: 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 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. 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 the Apple Watch. You'll also find help with operational issues like eliminating duplicates from your music library.
• 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.
• 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 to watch videos, including those purchased or rented from the iTunes Store and those you add yourself.
• Listen to and Watch Podcasts: Sample and subscribe to podcasts, pick a method of syncing podcast episodes to your iPhone or iPad, and 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 such as an iPhone, an iPad, an old-school iPod, or an Apple Watch? And how do you use an Apple TV to enjoy the media on your Mac?
• Rip, Burn, and Print: Add content to your media apps with Kirk’s detailed steps for “ripping” music CDs and audiobooks. Also learn how to burn music from Music onto a CD, and get directions for printing a song list—for example, to include in the jewel case of said CD.
• Extend with AppleScript: Mac users can make the Music and TV apps do more with AppleScript. Learn about key AppleScripts that you can download to make your media apps jump through even more hoops.