Easiest ipad music player (for local files on ipad, not streaming)

October 24, 2018 6:08 AM

I want the easiest IOS music player to make a playlist ONLY using a few downloaded files, not connected to the internet or streaming any music.

I just paid to download Stezza and was extremely disappointed to find out this was not what the app was for. I have 6 files I need played on an ipad throughout a wedding, and I would prefer it was on the simplest interface for someone else to be able to easily see and press play.

(Bonus for a fade out feature on songs.) But really I just want something that will allow me to see and play the downloaded aiff files easily. Thanks!

posted by andruwjones26 to Technology (7 answers total)

i'm fairly certain that google play music works the same on iOS as it does on android- upload them to google music from a desktop, (free version lets you upload like 10k songs or something), make a playlist with your files and then download it offline on the iPad for playback during the wedding.
posted by noloveforned at 6:35 AM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you import them to your iTunes library you can play them with the music app on your iPad.
posted by rodlymight at 7:38 AM on October 24, 2018

Response by poster: So I tried both options- I imported them into my itunes library on my mac air, but that doesn't make it sync up on my ipad (unless I'm doing it wrong.) On the ipad I've tried exporting and opening the sound files in different ways, but I don't see a way to import saved files on the ipad into the default music app. It only seems to recognize my purchased music.

I've started setting up google play, and it appears that it will work for a few songs- but I have some large aiff files (60 mb) that are recorded music and won't upload to google (for format reasons I guess). If I have to go back and convert the files it's not the end of the world, but I wish there was a simpler way just to play the damn files already on the ipad.

(to get this far I had to do a lot of downloading and re-uploading between devices) Any further advice appreciated!
posted by andruwjones26 at 8:35 AM on October 24, 2018

VLC is available for iOS and should do what you need it to do. I don't think it can manage automatic fadeout/fadein, however.
posted by salt grass at 9:51 AM on October 24, 2018

Best answer: If the songs you want are now all in the iTunes library on your Air, you should be able to plug the iPad in over USB and sync the songs to it that way. Probably easiest if you set it to manually manage music and videos (here's the Apple Support note on that) and the drag the songs over.
posted by implied_otter at 12:16 PM on October 24, 2018

I'm failing to understand the problem. Your iPad needs to be recognized by your iTunes installation on you Air. This is a fundamental activity for both machines, about as basic as you can get in Appleland. Attach the iPad to the Air, start up iTunes, they should recognize each other. Put the songs in a playlist, sync to the iPad. Boom.

The Music app on the iPad is very intuitive. Find the playlist in the Playlists section of the library, press Play (or Shuffle).
posted by lhauser at 9:24 PM on October 24, 2018

I’ve found — and I’m no computer scientist, just a garden variety moron — that it’s well nigh impossible to use user-tailored playlists of non-streaming music IF the iDevice is using the Apple Music product.

I had to kill Apple Music on my iPad in order to regain the ability to manage my own curated playlists of downloaded audio.

If someone knows how to make these two play nicely on one device I think it would benefit the thread to hear it. Myself, I’ve checked out. New music is none of my business.

Also, I have an onion on my belt.
posted by Construction Concern at 7:29 PM on October 26, 2018