Give your music a spin
Get back into a retro turntable vibe with the Vinyls app
REQUIRES
Apple Music, Vinyls app ($4.99, macOS 11 or later/ iPadOS 14.1 or later)
YOU WILL LEARN
How to give Apple Music a retro makeover
IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes
APPLE MUSIC IS a wonderful service. It’s the ultimate jukebox, the greatest ever music collection, an always– on, always–updated compendium of the most exciting artists of all time.
But sometimes we can’t help feeling that it’s maybe a little too modern, a little too shiny, a little too digital. Remember the feeling when you pressed play on a tape deck or dropped the needle onto a vinyl record?
For some Apple Music users, the answer is no: physical music formats are historical artefacts, just like floppy disks, monocles, and unicycles. But there’s something magical about music on vinyl, and Vinyls attempts to transfer that magic to the world of digital music. It’s a great interface for your Apple Music albums and playlists.
Vinyls looks like a record player emulator, and it is: it takes the Apple Music interface and adds a spinning record, complete with tone arm. But it makes good use of hardware too. You can AirPlay to your wireless speakers, or run the app on your Apple TV, iPhone, iPad or Mac (where it works with the Touch Bar), and on mobile there’s a fun AR mode that enables you to spin a disc on the sofa. The app settings give you lots of control over how it looks and over gesture and touch controls, and there are good accessibility options too. CARRIE MARSHALL