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When preparing a slideshow of photos last week, using the Photos app on the Mac, we were wanting to play a particular music track with that slideshow.  This slideshow was just going to be shown to family as part of the celebration of the life of a loved one.

It seemed that this should be an easy thing to do.  We had completed the selection of photos for the slideshow and it was time to add the finishing touch - the music, a beautiful song by Ed Sheeran.

Frustratingly, we found that when we tried choosing the iTunes track that we wanted to use, it was 'greyed' and not able to be selected.

I thought that because I had subscribed to Apple Music, I would be able to choose any track from my music library to use with my Photos slideshow. I thought all I needed to do was download the required track using iTunes, so that it was stored on my computer.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the case.  Apple Music tracks are protected by DRM (digital rights management), and (apparently) can only be streamed using iTunes - they cannot be used in Photos slideshows.  

I am not sure if this will change some time in future, but in the meantime we needed to find a way around this this limitation, as it was essential that we be able to play the chosen track with our slideshow.

Luckily,  we found a solution.

My daughter had recently purchased the CD version of the artist's album, and we were able to import the track from the CD to iTunes as an MP3 track.

Magically, the track then became available for selection in the Photos app, and we were able to play that beautiful track with our beautiful slideshow.

If you would like to find out more about how we imported the music as MP3 or how we were able to select the song as backing for the Photos slideshow, why not come along to our "Photos on the Mac" class which will be running again soon.  

Find out more about this class here ››

This weekend, my second daughter will be celebrating her 21st birthday.  

As the 'tech-wizz' of the household, it falls to me to prepare the slideshow of photos of her life to date, for presenting on the TV screen during the party.

This is something that is SO easy to do in the Photos app on the Mac.  

Included below is a brief snippet of the start of this slideshow, which took no time to create - so that you can see the sort of slideshow that can be prepared with virtually no effort.  (PS. I did not choose the first photo - my daughter did!)

The most time-consuming part was scanning in old photos (which I did really quickly using the Scannable app on my iPhone), then selecting which digital photos to include from the thousands that have been accumulated over the years.

​If you are interested coming along to a class about the Photos app on the Mac, please register your interest by filling in the below form.

We will then be in touch to discuss what date/s and time/s suit you.

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