{"id":56639,"date":"2025-04-10T09:23:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T12:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/?p=56639"},"modified":"2025-04-10T09:23:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T12:23:48","slug":"musica-ambiente-ios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/en\/musica-ambiente-ios\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambient music on iOS 18.4 and the return to the Apple’s Music app"},"content":{"rendered":"

With all eyes on the launch of Apple Intelligence in Brazil<\/a> and other markets, an almost overlooked feature in iOS 18.4 emerged: ambient music buttons right in the Control Center.<\/p>\n

There are four options: Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing. They join the background sounds introduced in iOS 15<\/a> back in 2021, bolstering the arsenal for those overwhelmed by the noise of modern life. Thank you, Apple! \ud83d\ude4f<\/p>\n

\"Four
Image: Manual do Usu\u00e1rio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My excitement soon turned to frustration when I discovered that the Music app had to be installed for the iOS 18.4 ambient music feature to work. At first, I assumed this meant you needed an active Apple Music subscription\u2014which, for me, is not the case.<\/p>\n

I set that thought aside until I read this post<\/a> showcasing the feature without any reference to Apple Music. Could it be that you don\u2019t need a paid subscription for it? I downloaded the Music app and\u2026 indeed, you don\u2019t need a subscription to enjoy the ambient music on iOS 18.4.<\/p>\n

This discovery led me to another \u201cissue\u201d: having duplicate apps. I listen to music from *.mp3<\/code> files using the Doppi<\/a> app. When I first embraced this lifestyle (believe me, it\u2019s a lifestyle), I did check out the Music app, but I dismissed it for various reasons I can\u2019t fully recall, aside from the fact that it won\u2019t play *.flac<\/code> files.<\/p>\n

Returning to that point, the Music app still can\u2019t handle *.flac<\/code> files, though it does support ALAC, Apple\u2019s lossless music format. I only have a few albums in *.flac<\/code>\u2014and you can probably guess where this is going.<\/p>\n

I discovered two apps that can convert these files: XLD<\/a> (macOS only) and Audio Converter<\/a> (available for both macOS and Windows). Before resorting to a new app, I checked if ffmpeg\u2014a command-line tool for converting media formats\u2014could do the trick. Naturally, it could.<\/p>\n

Further research led me to this script<\/a> that converts files to *.m4a<\/code> (the ALAC file format), preserving all metadata and even embedding an album cover image in the newly generated files.<\/p>\n

Simply download the flac-to-alac.sh<\/code> file, then run it like so:<\/p>\n

$ .\/flac-to-alac.sh \/path\/to\/original\/album \/path\/to\/output<\/pre>\n
The script\u2019s creator warns not to add a trailing slash (\/<\/code>) at the end of any path. \u201cThis is a primitive script so treat it so.\u201d In its simplicity and quirks, it works beautifully.<\/p>\n
Once the conversion is complete, just drag the songs into the macOS Music app, connect your iPhone via cable, and sync your library through Finder.<\/p>\n
One extra step I took was logging out and disabling everything related to Apple Music and the iTunes Store. I may have sacrificed some conveniences, like wireless syncing (although I suspect that depends on having an Apple Music subscription), but given all the horror stories about Apple messing with users\u2019 music files, I think using a cable to transfer music is totally worth the extra effort \u2014 it\u2019s a rare occurrence for me, anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With all eyes on the launch of Apple Intelligence in Brazil and other markets, an almost overlooked feature in iOS 18.4 emerged: ambient music buttons right in the Control Center. There are four options: Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing. They join the background sounds introduced in iOS 15 back in 2021, bolstering the arsenal for those overwhelmed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_locale":"en_US","_original_post":""},"categories":[1575],"tags":[1818,1848],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56639"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56639"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56644,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56639\/revisions\/56644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}