The iTunes Mini Player is a handy, mouse-free way to control your music collection. From playing your favourite albums and rating them to letting Alfred surprise you with a random album, there's much fun to be had with the Mini Player.

Launching the Mini Player

To call up the iTunes Mini Player, type "itunes" within Alfred (or use the Alt + Cmd + Return key combination from your desktop). Now you can start typing the name of a song, album or artist, or navigate through the options underneath. Within this list, you can operate using arrow keys or command + number.

Tip: You can customise the Alt + Cmd + Return key combination or the "itunes" keyword under Features > iTunes preferences.

Navigating and playing your music

Use "return" to view the contents of an artist or album result. To go back up one level, type in "alt + return".

To pause or play a song, type "Alt + Cmd + down arrow", use "Alt + Cmd + Left/right arrow" to select previous or next song on your playlist. Typing in "Alt + Cmd + up arrow" will play a random album.

Rating your music

You can rate your music collection, using stars and half stars. This rating will then be visible also within iTunes itself. You can either use the mouse to set a star rating or type in "Alt + Cmd + number from 1 to 5".

Beta note: This key combination does not yet work when you press numbers on your numerical pad. Hold tight, we're working on it.

Tweaking your iTunes settings

Alfred offers a few options to tweak your musical experience.

• Play only longer random albums by checking the "when randomising, only play longer albums" where only albums with 5+ tracks will be played.
• When using "play all tracks by artist", check the box to shuffle them.
• By default, the Mini Player remains visible after you start playing a song, giving you the opportunity to keep browsing. Check the "hide Mini Player" box if you'd prefer for the window to close when you select a song.

Related items in the Knowledge Base: