How to use Up Next in iTunes and the Music app

Way back when, in the good ol' days, if you wanted to listen to a particular song after your current banger, you could either forget about it and keep going, or play the serendipitous song and kill your killer mix.  Thanks to Apple's Up Next queue, it's easier than ever to check what tune is a'coming! Even if you're in the middle of playlist or album, you can quickly stack other tracks—even another playlist or album—to listen to immediately, and then seamlessly merge back right back into your playlist or album when you're done. You can even adjust and move them without interrupting your jams!

Up Next also keeps track of your play history, whether you're listening to songs from your music collection, Apple Music, Beats 1, or Apple Music radio stations. Here's how you can use it!

How the Up Next queue works

When you launch iTunes or the Music app and begin playing a song, Up Next creates a queue of songs to follow.

It creates a queue of upcoming music based on the source of the original track:

• If you randomly picked a song on shuffle from your library, your Up Next queue will pull from My Music.
• If you're jamming out to an album, Up Next will add the remainder of that album.
• If you're listening to an entire artist's collection, Up Next will pull other songs from that artist.
• If you searched for a specific song, Up Next will repeat that song forever until you tell it otherwise.
• If you're listening to Beats 1 or Apple Music radio, you won't see anything in the Up Next queue.

Your queue can hold hundreds of songs, so don't worry about overloading it, and it will automatically pause if you switch to a non-queue part of Music (Beats 1 or Apple Music radio), to resume when you return to My Music or the Apple Music catalog.

How to view your Up Next queue

You can see what's queued in Up Next at any time by tapping the Up Next button in the Music app (from the Now Playing screen) or iTunes (from the Now Playing display).

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod

1. Locate the Mini Player at the bottom of the screen, just above the tab bar.
2. Swipe up to see the Up Next list.

3. Swipe down to return to the song you're listening to.

   

On your Mac

1. In iTunes, click on the Up Next button next to the Now Playing display.

2. To return, click anywhere outside the Up Next screen.

   

How to add music to Up Next

When you add a song to Up Next, you have the choice of either adding it to the top of the queue (it will play after the currently-playing track) or bottom (it will play after everything else in your queue). From there, you can pop into the Up Next queue to adjust further (say, if you want your new song to play after a particular track in your queue).

Add to Up Next from the More Button

1. Browse to the track, album, or playlist you want to add to Up Next.
2. Tap or click the More button (looks like •••).

3. Tap or click Play Next to add the music to the front of your Up Next queue, or Add to Up Next to add the music to the end of the queue.

   

Add to Up Next from your queue on your Mac

1. Choose the track you want to add to Up Next from your library.
2. Click and drag it to the Now Playing window. The Up Next button will light up.

3. Release your mouse button, and the track will add to the top of your Up Next queue.

   

iPhone, iPad, and iPod-only: Add while preserving your queue

If you find a track, album, or playlist you want to listen to immediately, you can start playing it right away without losing your existing Up Next queue.

1. Find the item you want to listen to immediately.
2. Tap the item to start playing it.

3. Tap Keep Up Next to preserve your existing queue.

   

How to rearrange your Up Next queue

Whether you added tracks to Up Next as fast as you could find them, or your mood has changed since you added them, you can easily rearrange their order so you hear exactly what you want, when you want.

1. Go to the Up Next screen.
2. On the Mac, click and hold to select a track; on iPhone, iPad, or iPod, touch and hold the grabber button to the right of the track you want to move.

3. Drag the track to the desired position.

   

You can reorder tracks as often as you want, and any time the mood strikes you.

How to quickly clear Up Next

If you want to remove everything from your Up Next list all at once, you can easily do that too.

Clear Up Next from your queue

If you add a track to Up Next and later change your mind about that song, it's easy to delete it.

1. Go to the Up Next screen.
2. On your Mac, hover over a track to reveal the Remove button. On iPhone, iPad, or iPod, swipe left on the track to reveal the red Remove button.

3. Click or tap on the Remove button.

   

   

If you want to clear your queue entirely, you can do that directly from the Up Next screen, too.

iPhone, iPad, And iPod-only: Clear Up Next by playing another track

1. Find an item—anything will do.
2. Tap the item to start playing it.

3. Tap Clear Up Next from the menu.

   

The track, album, or playlist will start and your Up Next list will be completely cleared at the same time.

How do you jam out?!

Are you a big fan of features like Up Next? Are you more of a random song-shuffler? Let us know about your listening habits in the comments down below, and let us know if you have any other questions!