iTunes is a media player application developed by Apple. It allows users to manage and play their digital music, video, audiobook, and podcast files. iTunes was first released in January 2001 and has become the world’s most popular music player, with over 800 million songs downloaded as of 2013 (Source). Its main purpose is to provide a convenient way for people to purchase, organize, and play their personal media libraries across various devices.
Why Play Albums in Order?
Many albums are carefully crafted by artists and producers to tell a story or convey an overall theme when listened to in order. The track list and sequence are often an intentional artistic choice, not just a random collection of songs. As this academic paper discusses, the rise of albums in popular music brought an emphasis on track order and a cohesive listening experience. Artists started treating albums as holistic works of art rather than just compilations of singles.
By playing an album in its given order, you can appreciate the narrative, emotion, and vision the artist wanted to convey. Songs flow together purposefully to create a certain mood and atmosphere. Details and themes in one track are often referenced or expanded upon in later tracks. Playing songs out of order disrupts this carefully constructed experience.
While shuffling can be fun, taking the time to listen to an album as intended allows you to fully immerse yourself in the artistry and creative expression of the musicians. You gain insight into their inspirations, processes, and goals. Album order highlights the relationships between songs and creates a deeper connection to the music.
iTunes Default Settings
By default, iTunes does not play songs or albums in the track order they appear on the original album. Instead, iTunes organizes music alphabetically by artist and then album name. So when listening to an album, the songs will not play in their original order unless you change the settings.
For example, if you play an album by The Beatles in iTunes with the default settings, the songs would play alphabetically by track name rather than the intended track order. This can disrupt the flow and narrative of concept albums intended to be heard in order.
As this Apple Support thread explains, many iTunes users are surprised albums don’t play in order by default. But iTunes focuses more on organizing large libraries rather than playing albums as intended. The good news is you can change this in your settings.
Turn on Play in Order
To enable iTunes to play songs in order, you need to adjust the preferences in the iTunes app. Here are the steps:
- Open iTunes on your Windows PC.
- Click Edit in the menu bar at the top of the iTunes window, then select Preferences.
- In the Preferences window, click the “Playback” tab.
- Under “Play songs”, check the box next to “Play songs in order.”
- You can also check “Play albums in order” if you want entire albums to play sequentially.
- Click OK to save the changes.
With this setting enabled, any playlist or library view in iTunes will now play songs sequentially based on the order displayed. This ensures you hear albums from start to finish without being randomized by shuffle mode. To toggle shuffle on or off at any time, use the Shuffle button at the top of the iTunes window.
Source: https://support.apple.com/guide/itunes/play-songs-itns2989/windows
Play an Album
Once you have enabled Play in Order in iTunes, playing albums straight through from the beginning is simple. To play an entire album start to finish, go to your music library and click on the album you want to play. This will bring up the tracklist for that album. Rather than clicking on a specific song, click on the small play button icon next to the album’s name at the top of the tracklist. iTunes will then start playing the album from the first track and continue sequentially through each song until it reaches the end of the album.
For example, if you want to hear Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” straight through, find the album in your library, click on it to view the tracklist, and then click the play button icon next to the “Dark Side of the Moon” album name at the top. iTunes will start with “Speak to Me” and play each track in order all the way through “Eclipse.” This ensures you hear the album the way the artist intended, from start to finish.[1]
[1] “New iTunes – how do I play an entire albu…” Apple Discussions, 7 Dec. 2012, https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4582174.
Shuffle and Play in Order
The Shuffle and Play in Order settings in iTunes and Apple Music interact in an important way. When you turn on both options, iTunes will first play the songs from the album or playlist in order, and then shuffle the songs once it reaches the end. This allows you to hear the natural progression of an album while still mixing things up on repeated listens.
To enable this, first turn on Play in Order for the album or playlist you want. Then turn on Shuffle for your entire music library. iTunes will now go through that album track by track, and then randomly pick another album or playlist to play next. This gives you the best of both worlds.
However, one caveat is that the Repeat option takes priority over Shuffle. So if you have a single song set to repeat, iTunes will just keep playing that song over and over, rather than shuffling the rest of the library.
In summary, Play in Order and Shuffle work well together to balance album continuity with unpredictability. Just be aware of how Repeat affects this mix.
Playlists and Play in Order
By default, playlists in iTunes will play songs in the order they are listed in the playlist. This allows you to customize the order of songs by arranging them within the playlist.
To change the play order of songs in a playlist, simply drag and drop the songs into your preferred sequence. On desktop, you can click and drag songs up or down in the playlist. On iOS devices, tap the 3 dots next to a song and select “Play Next” or “Play Later” to reorder.
One tip when reordering playlists is to use the song list view rather than album grid view, as this will let you precisely position each song.
Keep in mind that the Play in Order setting must be enabled for playlists. If Shuffle is turned on, your carefully arranged playlist order will be ignored.
You can verify Play in Order is activated by right clicking the playlist name and making sure the checkbox is selected. This will ensure your playlists always follow your custom song sequence.
So with the Play in Order setting turned on, iTunes will follow the exact arrangement of songs as seen in each playlist. This allows full control over the order albums, artists, or songs are played.
Play in Order on iOS
The Play in Order functionality works a bit differently on iOS devices like iPhones and iPads compared to iTunes on desktop computers. On iOS, there is no specific “Play in Order” setting that can be turned on or off.
By default, albums and playlists will play in order on iOS. However, there is also a Shuffle option that can be turned on to play songs randomly instead of in order.
To play an album in order on iOS, simply tap on the first song in the album and it will continue playing sequentially. You can also add an entire album to the Up Next queue which will add all of the songs in order. The Up Next queue persists between app sessions so your album queue will remain intact.
In contrast, iTunes on desktop does not have an Up Next queue and the Play in Order setting needs to be manually enabled. So on iOS, playing albums in order is more seamless whereas iTunes requires adjusting settings first.
On iOS, turning on Shuffle will override Play in Order. The Shuffle setting accessible by tapping the Shuffle button at the bottom of the screen when viewing an album or playlist. Tap it again to turn Shuffle off and resume Play in Order.
So in summary, iOS by default will play sequential albums and playlists in order. But the Shuffle option can disable that. iTunes on desktop requires Play in Order to be deliberately enabled before albums will play sequentially.
Summary
In summary, here are the main steps to play albums in order in iTunes:
Go to iTunes Preferences > Playback and check the box for “Play songs in album order when shuffling.” This will enable albums to play sequentially rather than be shuffled when you select “Shuffle” mode.
Right click on an album and select “Play in Album Order” to play the album from start to finish in the correct track order.
Create playlists for albums you want to always play sequentially. Add the album tracks to the playlist in the correct order.
On iOS devices, go to Settings > Music and turn on “Play in Album Order” to have albums play sequentially rather than shuffled.
Following these steps will ensure albums play in the proper track order in iTunes and override any default shuffling. Let iTunes know you want albums played start to finish!
Appendix
Here are some additional Apple resources for learning how to play albums in order in iTunes:
Apple Support: Play songs in order in iTunes on Mac
Apple Discussions Forum: How to make iTunes to play music in order I see in playlist
Apple Discussions Forum: How can I change the play order in an iTunes playlist?
For more help with using iTunes and playing albums in order, check the official iTunes user guide and support site from Apple.