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

Settings → Playback (Mac Settings window, or the Settings hub on iPhone and iPad):

• Gapless (on by default) — the next song starts with no silence between tracks
• Crossfade — overlap the end of one song with the start of the next; a duration slider appears when it is on. Turning Crossfade on turns Gapless off.

Live Queue

The Live Queue is the queue of the selected destination — this device when playing here, that device’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.

Those edits can be undone, including ones you send to another device. On Mac, use Edit → Undo. On iPhone, shake. On iPad, use the undo and redo buttons.

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. Preview on the phone (headphones), then send the playing track to the iPad on the speakers. 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.