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How to Play Music in the Background with the Mac MiniPlayer

By: Edward C. Baig and

Updated: 08-25-2016

From The Book: Macs For Dummies

Macs For Dummies

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A lot of times, you listen to music in the background while working on other stuff on your Mac. But you still want to be able to control what you’re listening to — and see the Up Next list. The MiniPlayer lets you control and see what you’re listening to in a smaller window that doesn’t hog a lot of room on the screen.

Even so, the version of the MiniPlayer added with iTunes 11 includes the Up Next button. And if you want to listen to something specific, you can search your entire music collection via a search box that appears in the MiniPlayer when you mouse over the album cover art and click the magnifying glass. Click the MiniPlayer button to shrink iTunes.

In MiniPlayer itself, you can choose to show enlarged artwork (album cover) or go with a smaller thumbnail. And if you want to keep MiniPlayer in the foreground on your desktop, visit iTunes Preferences, click Advanced, and select Keep MiniPlayer on Top of All Other Windows.

Go in the opposite direction and make iTunes take over most if not the entire screen again by clicking the Mini Player button a second time.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

Macs For Dummies ,

About the book author:

Edward C. Baig is a veteran Mac authority and the technology columnist for USA Today. Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus is the technology columnist for the Houston Chronicle and has written the "Dr. Mac" column for many years. Together, these two experts have co-written all editions of iPhone For Dummies and iPad For Dummies.

This article can be found in the category:

General Macs ,