iTunes not playing nice with Photos

Question

Level 1

9 points

iTunes not playing nice with Photos

I just created a slideshow in Photos Version 2.0 (3150.4.120) and would like to add a soundtrack from my iTunes library.

Here's the weird thing: Photos can see my iTunes library -- I can scroll through all the files -- but it won't let me select anything. Here's what I see -- you'll note that the individual songs in every album are greyed out:

What do I need to do to make the songs selectable?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

R.F. Hartzell

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.5)

Posted on Jun 28, 2017 10:30 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,645 points

Jun 28, 2017 1:54 PM in response to R_F_Hartzell

There are two possible reasons, why songs might be grayed out:

Music in the cloud: If the particular songs are only in iCloud and have not yet been downloaded to your iTunes Library, you cannot use them as a soundtrack. In that case, click the download arrow in the cloud symbol in iTunes for the songs you want to use as a sound track.
Digital rights assigned to the song: If your song has been downloaded from Apple Music or has been purchased with digital rights assigned (Song kind: Protected AAC Audio File), it cannot be used in a project that will convert the audio file to a format without the rights assigned. These songs cannot be used as a sound track for a slideshow or a a movie sound trackt. YOu cannot use them in garageBand or Logic either.

Does any of these apply to the songs you want to use?

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Answer 2

R_F_Hartzell Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 28, 2017 2:10 PM in response to léonie

OK: Here's what I've learned.

As far as the music being in the cloud is concerned, it makes no difference in Photos but *does* make a difference in iPhoto. That is, if I download the music to my MacBook Pro it will show up as playable in iPhoto but not in Photos. So iPhoto clearly knows nothing about music that's still in the cloud.

As far as the issue of digital rights assigned to the song, I guess you must be right. I found an audio file I'd recorded of my voice using Audacity (and saved as an unprotected MP3 file) and it showed up as usable in Photos. That nothing else is -- especially since the same ****** files appear to be usable (if downloaded from the cloud) in iPhoto -- I find incredible. I can't use my own iTunes music to accompany a slideshow I made for a family reunion?

To add insult to injury, I know at least *some* of my iTunes music is stuff I ripped years ago (and deliberately had iTunes convert to unprotected MP3 format) from CD. I can only conclude that thanks to the miracle of the cloud Apple doesn't bother backing up my locally ripped music. Instead, it must look at the file's digital fingerprint and assign its comparable, fully protected AAC version in the sky to my account.

And then not allow me to use that file in a slideshow at a family reunion.

I guess Apple's come a long way since Steve Jobs had to convince the record labels to allow him to sell their music as files on iTunes. Now Apple is diligently protecting the record labels from the copyright-infringing intentions of its customers. Even if copyright infringement means playing music for free in front of a small gathering of relatives.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,645 points

Jun 29, 2017 5:53 AM in response to R_F_Hartzell

Are you using Apple Music or iTunes Match, or both for your Music in the cloud?

I cancelled Apple Music after the three month trial, because it did not work well together with iTunes Match and continually changed the status of some of my own songs and changed previously matched songs to the status "Apple Music". But with iTunes Match only, all is working well.

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Answer 4

R_F_Hartzell Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 29, 2017 6:05 AM in response to léonie

I have no idea. In fact, until you asked I didn't even know Apple offered two different forms of music.

Unless Apple Music is Apple's all-you-can-eat paid music subscription service. If that's what it is, then the answer is no, I don't use Apple Music.

As far as iTunes "Match", I don't know what that is. I've been using iTunes -- both buying music on the service and ripping CDs -- via Windows machines in concert with a couple of generations of iPods for about as long as iTunes has been available on the Windows platform. In other words, for well over a decade.

Which means I'm generally not a Mac user -- I've become one since my daughter got a new MacBook Pro for college last fall and I inherited her old one. Last night, after my negative experience with iTunes music in Photos I decided to see if I could use my iTunes music in iMovie. Answer: apparently not.

I gotta say: I don't get it.

Anyway, thank you for your patience and input.

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

200,645 points

Jun 29, 2017 6:29 AM in response to R_F_Hartzell

Unless Apple Music is Apple's all-you-can-eat paid music subscription service. If that's what it is, then the answer is no, I don't use Apple Music.

Yes, Apple Music is the paid streaming service. It gives you the right to listen to all-you-can-eat paid music 😁, and you can save the songs for off-line listening, but you cannot do anything else with the music you download.

iTunes Match is a syncing service using iCloud, less expensive - 20 € per year,. It will upload all your music to iCloud, sync them to all devices, which makes it easy to use the same iTunes library on many devices, and it will match your music against the copies in the iTunes Store. If it finds your music in the iTunes Store, it will replace it by the store copies, which is great, if you ripped the CDs in low quality. You get them replaced by higher quality recordings. iTunes Match Kindly replaced many of my audio recordings I made from my old vinyl records and tapes by high quality recordings from the iTunes Store.

If you have not been using any of these services, just your own ripped songs and purchased songs from the iTunes Store, I see no reason at all for the problems with the sound track for your slide shows, unless the ripped CDs had digital rights embedded. Some of my older CDs have a Sony copy protection and are pretty useless.

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Answer 6

R_F_Hartzell Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 29, 2017 6:47 AM in response to léonie

Well, I'm not paying anything to Apple for using iTunes, so it seems unlikely I'm using iTunes Match. On the other hand, since the price you quote is in Euros and I live in the United States, I suppose it's possible Apple charges for iTunes Match only outside the U.S.

In any case it seems clear to me that my songs in the cloud -- as helpful as it might be to enjoy versions that are cleaner and higher resolution than those I might have ripped myself -- are unusable using two of Apple's signature products: Photos and iMovie.

I can only conclude that Apple has decided that the benefits of the cloud to music listeners using several different devices far outweighs the minority who might want to use their music for what the company has obviously decided are far less important audiovisual hobbies.

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