Hi. I am still a relatively new user of MacOS - definitely still got lots to learn, including how to use the inbuilt music app (i am using the latest version of Mac OS). I like to have music on while i'm messing around on the computer, and am becoming increasingly frustrated that i just can't for the life of me get my head around the thing. The fact grid view appears to be the only way to work with it doesn't help folks like me who rely totally on voiceover i don't think. I wonder if anyone could point me in the direction of any existing audio or written guides on using the music app on the Mac, ideally something geared towards helping voiceover users. If one hasn't been produced already (and i've not managed to find one) could it be a topic a member of the AppleVis team might consider producing a podcost and/or other learning guide about? I know such a resource would be much appreciated by myself ☺️ many thanks in adbance for any advice
By rachel, 1 June, 2023
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macOS and Mac Apps
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I'm not a heavy user of the…
I'm not a heavy user of the Music app, but I could try to give you a couple pointers. Are you using Apple Music or a local music library?
Apple msic
Hi tyler. I subscribe to Apple music.
Music App on Mac
Here's my constructive response to your message.
Using Music on Mac is easy, but there are some VoiceOver navigation speed bumps that slow things down.
There are two primary areas you'll interact with: The sidebar and the music table.
Navigate to the sidebar. This is what holds your music categories and playlists. Interact. You will need to VO up and down through this list, as just the arrows or first letter navigation won't work.
The second area is the song list or grid depending on which category you have selected in the sidebar. You can flip between with two with VO-J.
To start, select the Songs category in the sidebar. VO-J. This is a list of every song in the Music app. You can either:
• Interact and VO up and down through the list. VoiceOver will read the entire row. you can customize this view by pressing Command-J.
• Interact. Focus on the song title field so VoiceOver reads out only the song title. Arrow up and down or type the first few letters of the artist's name. Focus SHOULD move to the correct row where you can hit return to start playback. This doesn't always work because Music is still a hot mess with VoiceOver, but you can command-tab away and then back to see if this will work.
Option-space will turn on Genius Shuffle which is nice if you want songs from a particular genre to randomly be served to you.
Hope this is enough to get you started.
Thank you kevin
Thanks very much for this kevin, i'll definitely be keeping hold of it during my next attempts to navigate the music app ☺️ at the moment i agree it's just one big mess to someone who isn't used to it. Why it can't be set up in some sort of simple list you arrow through or use first letter navigation i've no idea. Give me something like finder any day of the week lol ☺️
It's very frustrating
Apple music on Mac is really messy and quite difficult to use. I suggest writing to Apple Accessibility team and the more of us write, the chances for the better might be greater. Thank you Kevin for your hints.
Simple search of itunes store
I have my own music library. Occasionally, I'd like to add to my collection by making a purchase from the iTunes store.
How to do this with VoiceOver is not at all obvious. I expect to press Command+F, enter my search term, and be taken to a list of search results. But the search results seem to depend on a number of factors, and configuring these settings isn't at all intuitive. It seems like the search field is in the sidebar, and after I perform the search and navigate out, I end up selecting something else in the sidebar instead, such as a playlist. I get so frustrated by one failed attempt after another, I simply give up.
I don't like buying MP3s from Amazon for a similar reason. After my purchase, they make it nearly impossible to download the MP3 files. But if the MacOS Music app is unusable, then I have to consider alternatives. I can't help but wonder if both Apple and Amazon make it difficult to find and buy individual albums simply because they'd rather sell their more profitable subscription service. But I'm starting to rant now. Time to shut it down. LOL.
If someone could provide some guidance on how to use the MacOS Music app to search the iTunes store using VoiceOver, I'd appreciate it. Or, if there's a more intuitive interface, let me know.
Steps for searching
I might have a solution on how to search. Here's what I've got.
At this point, I can browse the Web Content. And since I searched for Brian Eno, I am likely to find several albums. Unfortunately, they aren't arranged as a list, so I can't jump to them with VO+Command+X. Instead, I use VO+Right until I eventually find the albums.
Next, here's what I do to demo different albums and purchase one.
Well, that's my experience. I hope it helps someone, if nothing else, it will at least let others realize they are not hallucinating, the interface really is this klunky.
Still lost
Well, I thought I had something that worked. But, right after that post, I pressed Command+F to perform another search. I heard VoiceOver say "target search field," but I could not enter any text into it. I tried selecting, interacting, etc. But when I typed, I heard only thunks.
This interface remains an enigma.
Simpler Way to Purchase from iTunes
Hi Paul,
Your issues sound unique to the way you have VoiceOver set up or the way Music/Mac OS is configured.
If you're subscribed to Apple Music, you have a choice to download from Apple Music or purchase from the iTunes Store. There is a reason to do the latter if you're already an Apple Music subscriber—mainly to move your music off of your machine and onto something else that is not Apple's.
Hit Command-F to search. This may need to be done twice so you don't hear an error sound when searching.
Interact with the collection view that pops up for artists, songs or albums.
In each entry, you'll find a More button. Activate it and you'll see Show in iTunes Store.
From there, you can navigate to the table and preview as you could when iTunes was not broken.
Here, you can buy and preview to your heart's content.
As for the account issues, you may need to sign in from the Account menu and go through the 2SV process to ensure your Mac is registered for Music purchases. From there, you should be able to simply hit Touch ID to buy or type in your password if you have an older Mac. You will need to enter your password the first time. Subsequent purchases in the next 15 minutes won't require a password.
I've had a Mac since 2009 and I only recently reset VoiceOver to defaults and reset many of my system settings to their defaults after transferring between 3 different machines. It was a mess. This cleared up a bunch of issues I had with Music including VO-J jumping between sidebar and songs table.
There is a way to turn off Apple Music in the Preferences so you will only see iTunes. Hit Command-, (comma). It should be in the General tab.
Finally, Apple's Music team seems like they don't understand how VoiceOver is supposed to work. This makes me think that their dev squads are not following their own guidelines depending on which team you're on. As an example, up/down arrow should move your selection in the sidebar—it doesn't. First letter navigation should work in the sidebar—it doesn't. But it will in the songs table. Make it make sense, Apple!
Hope this is helpful.
Where is the collection view?
Take me through it a step at a time, Kevin, because I can't find the collection view you mentioned.
So let's start right after pressing Command+F.
Then let's say you type "David".
Do you press Enter?
If I type David, and if I don't press Enter, I have discovered that I can down arrow, and select from many Davids, including David Baldacci, David Byrne, and David Bowie. But this is just a list of autocompletions, so I still don't see how I get to any collection view.
Thanks for the tip about pressing Command+F twice. This seems to be required after performing my first search.
Is it just me, or does your VoiceOver focus seem to jump randomly? I think it's going to the first element or control in the app, but there's no way for me to know for certain, with everything so heavily nested.
Good call on turning off Apple Music in settings. I owe you a coffee for that one.
I just tried searching the…
I just tried searching the iTunes Store with Apple Music turned off, and I didn't get a collection, only the web content. Perhaps the collection only appears for Apple Music subscribers?
For me, searching the store worked as expected, where I pressed Command-F to jump to the search field, typed the name of an artist and pressed return, immediately stopped interacting with the sidebar table, and pressed VO-Right-Arrow to locate the web content. Once I interacted with the web content, it appeared largely like a webpage, with headings for result categories like albums, songs, etc.
Still a nightmare
Well i'm at least comforted by the fact that at least there are others out there who struggle with the Mac's inbuilt music app just as i still do - nearly a year after posting my original question here i'm still absolutely no more compitent using it than i was back then. In fact i have become that frustrated with it that i now only use the Mac to listen to music, initiating what i want to listen to using Siri. Any customising such as to playlists or searching for music i carry out solely using my iPhone. I am an Apple music subscriber so don't bother with iTunes at all.