I have a rich and broad collection of music in iTunes and am often inspired by individual tracks. Is there an easy way to share those tracks with my friends when inspiration does hit?
Last time I checked, my own iTunes library contains almost 60GB of music, tens of thousands of tracks, and like you I also have a diverse collection of jazz, rock, movie soundtracks and classical music. Trusting the digital Gods, I usually let it all play in a big shuffle so that it’s always a surprise what comes up next when I’m listening.
On first consideration, you might consider simply texting your friends when you hear a track that you’re sure they’d particularly appreciate, but a moment’s thought reveals the problem: having the name of a song doesn’t mean they have an easy way to actually hear that song!
That’s why it’s handy that iTunes not only has access to your personal library of music, but also has access to the huge library of the iTunes Music Store too. Which means that when you do share it from within the iOS Music app (aka iTunes!) it includes a clickable link that lets your friend listen to the song.
To demonstrate, I’ll share with a friend the current track I’m listening to, from Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. In the Music app, here’s what I see:
How do I share Hollow Attack with my friend? By tapping on the “•••” button just below the volume control.
That pops up a menu of choices — and the specific options on the menu depend on whether the song is local on the device, downloaded, purchased or streamed. For this track, here’s what I see:
You can see what to tap, right? Tap on “Share Song” and another menu pops up:
Ah, look at all those options! Rather than just send the track info via email or a text message, let’s share it with a larger audience on Twitter! To do that, I tap on the Twitter icon and a pre-filled message (including link to the iTunes version of the track) appears:
It doesn’t look like there’s a link, but it’ll show up soon enough, once posted. Meanwhile, the tweet itself can be fine tuned as desired. Ready? Tap on “Post” on the top right and it’ll be shared with your Twitter followers, as mine is with people who follow me — @DaveTaylor — on Twitter:
If you’re curious, the Web version of Twitter has a slick presentation too:
Click on the image to listen to the track. Surprisingly easy, isn’t it? Same goes for email or text message shares too.
Oh, and do give a listen to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. It’s quite good!