Play Your Music in iTunes

iTunes has simple controls that allow you to choose which song you want to play, control a song’s volume, and skip ahead to another song. The display in iTunes will show you the name of the artist, the song title, and the length of the song.

And when you want to "see" your music instead of just listen to it, check out the Visualizer. You’ll be treated to a full-color light show that synchronizes with the rhythms of your music.

Tips

Listen to a song or playlist again and again

If you have a song that you want played over and over you can go to the Controls menu and choose Repeat One. If you just want to make sure that the music never stops, you can choose Repeat All and iTunes will play every song in the selected playlist and then start again from the beginning. You can also switch between repeat modes by clicking the Repeat button in the bottom left corner of the iTunes window.

Fast-forward and rewind songs

When listening to a song or audiobook you can use the Previous and Next Song buttons to go back to the start of a song, or to the previous or next song. You can also use these buttons to fast-forward and rewind within a song by clicking and holding the button. You can also click and drag the marker in the progress bar at the top of iTunes to quickly jump to any point within a song.

Keep all your songs at the same volume

Even with the most varied playlist, one that mixes new age and heavy metal, for example, you can easily set iTunes to automatically play every song at approximately the same volume. Open iTunes Preferences, click Playback, and then select the Sound Check option.

Using the iTunes equalizer

With an equalizer you can make adjustments to your music to make it sound better. In iTunes you’ll find many preset equalizer settings, or create your own to suit your favorite style of music or listening environment. To open the iTunes equalizer, click the equalizer button in the bottom right corner of the iTunes window.

Music Visualizer options

You can change the way the Music Visualizer appears on your screen. You can set it to play full-screen or, if you don’t want the Music Visualizer to take up too much room, you can set it to appear smaller. Then, you can simply resize the iTunes window and continue working in another application. To find more ways to customize how your music looks, press the H key while the Music Visualizer is on.

iTunes Mini Player

You can switch to a Mini Player view of iTunes that will display a smaller window with only the iTunes controls and currently playing song. On a PC, right-click the iTunes icon in the taskbar and then select Switch to Mini Player. On a Mac, click the green button in the upper left corner of the iTunes window.

Different ways to control iTunes

On a Windows computer, you can control iTunes by right-clicking the iTunes icon in the taskbar. If the iTunes icon doesn’t appear in your taskbar, open iTunes Preferences, click Advanced, and then click the General tab. Make sure the "Show iTunes icon in system tray" option is checked. Now right-click the icon in the taskbar and a menu will appear. This menu will let you pause or play a song, skip forward and backward in your playlist and more. Some handy keyboard shortcuts to use on your Windows computer are: spacebar to pause and play your song, Control-right arrow to skip to the next song, Control-left arrow to go back to the previous song, and Control-up or down arrow to raise or lower the volume.

If you have a Mac, Control-click the iTunes icon in the Dock to get a menu to control iTunes with. Some handy keyboard shortcuts to use on your Mac are: spacebar to pause and play your song, Command-right arrow to skip to the next song, Command-left arrow to go back to the previous song, and Command-up or down arrow to raise or lower the volume.

Create smooth transitions

Have you ever heard a really professional mix with perfect transitions from one song to the next? With iTunes, you can create the same smooth transitions, turning your music library into a professional-sounding mix. Simply open iTunes Preferences. Click Playback, make sure the Crossfade playback option is selected, and then adjust the number of seconds it takes to fade between songs.

Steps

Play a song from your iTunes Library

Select Library in the Source list to view all the music you have in iTunes.
Select any song in the list, and then click the Play button in the upper-left corner.
To change the volume, drag the volume slider to the right or left.
Click anywhere in the progress bar in the display area to skip to a different point in your song. The diamond playhead icon indicates where you are in the song.
Click and hold the Next Song button to fast-forward to a different point in your song, or click and hold the Previous Song button to skip back to a previous point in your song.
Click the Next Song button to skip to the next song in your library, or click the Previous Song button to go back to previous songs that you’ve listened to.