How to use Up Next in iTunes 11

If you want your listening to music experience to be better, then you might have heard of a new feature that iTunes 11 has – called Up Next. It provides you quick access to select the songs you want to listen to without having to put a stop to the track or playlist that is already playing at that stage. Basically, you have an additional queue where you can manage (by adding or removing) any songs you’d like to listen to –  these songs will be flawlessly added into the flow of your music. You can then do whatever you please with them in terms of editing, adding and deleting at any given point in time you find it necessary.

We will explain in the following lines how to add songs to Up Next, how to access the Up Next Playlist, edit or clear out songs in Up Next and even re-add tracks that have been previously played, so do stay tuned with us.

Adding songs to Up Next

Before getting into the steps that need to be taken to add the songs to Up Next, it is important to highlight that the songs that you add to it will be then played in the exact order you added them. Therefore, the first song you pick will be the first song to be later on played. The last song that you added will be the last song to be played in Up Next, and so on, you get the idea.  While you can not change this by default, you can however change the order, just check the article to see how.

The steps are as follows.

Firstly, you need to launch iTunes 11 on to your Mac or PC.

Then you need to look for the song you want to play next in iTunes and just do a right click on the song’s title.

To add it, just click on Add to Up Next and the song will instantly be added to your list, and then the process has been completed. Yes, it is that simple. The song will automatically disappear from the list (no need for you to remove it).

Accessing the Up Next playlist

Launching iTunes 11 on your computer is what you need to do first.

Secondly – you will see at the top section the Apple logo or the currently playing track’s title if you – just go with the mouse on it.

A list of icons will appear on to the right side so you need to click on it in order to have it dropped down to the Up Next playlist.

Editing or clearing out songs in Up Next

Yes, you can perform multiple tasks with Up Next, so if you want to edit, delete songs or manage them – just say so.

You know it – the first thing you need to do is to launch iTunes 11 on your PC or Mac.

Just like its previous function, the second step is to hover over the top section (the one where you can find the Apple logo or the title of the currently playing song – that’s the one).

If you’ve done this so far, then you have to click on the grey “x” sign to delete the tracks or also on the clearing button if you want to delete the whole Up playlist.

If you aren’t particularly pleased with the order in which they are displayed in your Up Next, simply change this order by dragging the titles around in whatever order suits you best.

Re-adding previously played tracks to Up Next

You have already listened to a song previously added to Up Next that has immediately afterwards disappeared, but you now want it back? Say no more – you can easily do this.

The routine is pretty much the same. Once you’ve launched iTunes 11, go over the Apple logo or over the title of the currently playing song, and a list icon shall appear to the right hand side. Just click on it and drop it down to your Up Next playlist without any difficulties.

A Clock icon will be displayed next to the Clear option.

It is here where you can see a fully displayed list of all the songs’ history you have added to Up Next up to that point. You can add the song on to the Up Next playlist once more – if you click on the + sign that appears to the left side of the title (once you have hovered over any of the songs in your playlist’s history I just mentioned above).

We think that Up Next is a great idea and will be of great use to any music fanatics, so just give it a go and let us know if you like it or not. There is no need to worry that it might be too complicated for you – it is totally aligned with Apple’s standard strategy of keeping it simple, but efficient, while bringing a note of interactivity and entertainment to its products and apps at the same time.