Playback & Queue

Playback uses AVAudioEngine, so MP3, FLAC, and AAC share one queue.

Basics

• Play an album, a selection, or a single track
• Pause, seek, skip, repeat
• Shuffle from the play bar or per album
• Background audio continues when you leave the app

Live Queue

The Live Queue is the queue of the selected destination — this device when playing here, that player’s queue when pointed elsewhere. Reorder, remove, or jump to upcoming tracks; drag albums or playlists in; clear Up Next without stopping the current song.

Play on another device

Pick a destination from the play-bar Playing on… chip, or click a device row in the sidebar, and playback happens there. Add with Play Next and Play Last, or swipe a song into the queue on the phone. Pointing at a single song — a double tap in the phone’s main lists, a row’s Play — slots that one song into that player’s queue and plays it; it doesn’t wipe what that player had lined up.

This device keeps playing when you switch this window to another destination.

A song already on this device’s Live Queue can be copied onto another device without switching destination — this device keeps the row and keeps playing. On Mac and iPad, drag the row onto that device’s sidebar row; it lands at the end of that queue. On iPhone, swipe the row right — including the one playing — tap Send, and pick the device.

See Devices & Networks.

System integration

Icoustic supports lock-screen and Control Center controls, and AirPlay — the same muscle memory as other Apple audio apps, without a streaming subscription.

Play counts

A listen counts after 50% of the track or 4 minutes, whichever comes first, on the library that owns the file. Local listening updates this device; listening from a shared library reports the play back to that library so counts stay shared. See Playlists & Ratings.