Music and radio

The Music window holds everything Nebula can listen to. Pick a source in the list on the left (iPad, Mac). On iPhone the sources are pages: swipe left or right to turn from Songs to Radio, Indie, Nebula, Mic and round again; the name and dots stay at the top, and a small moving bars mark shows the page that is playing. Tapping a source only shows it; nothing plays until you tap a song, station or track.

Songs

Songs are music files you add yourself. Tap Add songs and pick files from Files. Any audio file your device can play works; see Which file formats. Nebula keeps its own copy in its library, so a song still plays if you move or delete the original.

• Play. Tap a song. Tap the playing song to pause it. The arrows in the bar skip to the next or previous song.
• Pick several. Tap Select, tap the rows you want, then tap a playlist chip to add them all, or Done to leave.
• Order. Drag rows to change the order.
• Remove. Tap the trash on a row, then tap again when it turns red and says Delete?. Every delete in Nebula takes two taps, so a stray touch can't remove anything.
• Shuffle and repeat. The two buttons beside the list. Repeat has two settings: all (the list starts over) or off.
• Crossfade. One song blends into the next. Choose how long in Settings › Playback › Crossfade. Silence at the start and end is skipped, and songs that end abruptly blend quickly.

Nebula analyzes each song you add, in the background, on your device. When it is done the visuals know the beats, bars, chords, sections, builds and drops before they arrive. See How Nebula hears a song.

Playlists

The chips above the list pick what you see: All songs, one chip per playlist, and + New playlist.

• Make one. Tap + New playlist. It gets a name such as Playlist; type in the name box to rename it.
• Add songs. Tap the + on a song row. A row of chips opens under it: each playlist (lit if the song is already in it) and + New playlist. Tap one to add. You can also tap Select, pick several rows, then tap a playlist chip to add them all.
• Play a playlist. Tap an entry. It plays on from there, and keeps playing with the screen locked.
• Mix. A playlist can hold your songs and Indie tracks together.
• Remove or delete. The trash on an entry says Remove?; the trash beside the name says Delete playlist?. Both take two taps.
• A song you later delete from Songs stays in the playlist, grayed out and skipped.

Radio

Live stations from around the world, free. Nebula is made for music, so stations that are mainly talk, news or sport are left out of the lists.

• Find a station. Use the chips (Popular, Saved, Near you when your region is known, and genres such as Pop, Rock, Jazz, Ambient) or search by name. A chip and a search work together.
• Play. Tap a station. While it plays, the row shows LIVE in red where a song's length would be. Tap the row again to stop.
• Save. Tap the star on a row. Saved is your short list, and what the parental lock allows.

Why radio starts a few seconds late

Nebula plays radio slightly behind the station. That head start lets it hear what is coming, so it can get ready for builds and drops. Pick the wait in Settings › Playback › Radio buffer:

While the wait fills, a bar shows the progress. Tap Play now to skip it. The music starts at once, with less of a head start for the visuals.

For songs you have heard before on radio, Nebula can recognize the song from a short sound fingerprint and use what it remembers. See Song memory.

Indie

Free, full-length tracks from independent artists on Audius. Browse by chip (Trending, Saved, genres such as Electronic, House, Lo-fi, Ambient, Drum & bass) or search.

• Play. Tap a track. The tracks in the list play on one after another.
• More about it. Tap the i on a row for the album, release date, genre, mood, key, tempo, length, tags and a description. From there you can open more by the same artist, or the album.
• Browse an artist. Tap the artist's name on a row. Tap ‹ Indie to go back.
• Save and collect. The star saves it to Saved. The + adds it to a playlist.

Nebula downloads a track once to analyze it, then remembers the result, so the second play starts with the full map at once.

Nebula

Free music made for Nebula, with its beats and sections ready at once: there is nothing to analyze on your device, so the visuals are in full from the first second. It needs the internet to list and play.

• Play. Tap a song. Rows show the cover, title, artist and length.
• Keep it. Tap the star to keep a song on the device so it plays offline. Tap it again to remove it. The size of what you keep shows at the bottom, with a Remove all? trash (two taps).
• Its scene. Some songs have a scene made for them. Tap the scene button on the row to load it. It never loads by itself.
• If the list can't be reached, a bar says so with Try again. Songs you kept still list and play.

Microphone

The visuals follow the microphone, so singing, clapping or an instrument in the room moves them. Tap Start listening. Nothing is recorded. If nothing happens, check that Nebula has microphone access: on iPhone and iPad in Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone, on Mac in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone.

With the microphone, only the live music sources work. The ones that need to know the song's structure (sections, builds, drops) stay at 0. See Patches › Song structure.

This Mac

On a Mac only. The visuals follow whatever the Mac is playing, such as Spotify, a browser or Apple Music. Tap Listen to your Mac (on the start screen, or in Music › This Mac). The first time, macOS asks for permission to record system audio. Nothing is recorded or kept. See Nebula on a Mac.

How Nebula hears a song

• Your own songs are analyzed whole, once, in the background (songs up to 20 minutes). After that the visuals know the beats, bars, chords, melody and where each section, build and drop starts.
• Radio is analyzed live with a head start (the radio wait above), or recalled from song memory if you have heard the song before.
• Indie tracks are analyzed once when first played.
• Nebula songs come with their analysis, so they start in full.
• The microphone and This Mac are live only: beats and loudness, no song structure.

All of it happens on your device. See the Privacy page.

Song memory

When you hear a song for a minute or more, Nebula keeps a small summary of its rhythm and structure (no audio), so the next time it plays the visuals are ready from the first second. Radio songs are recognized from a short fingerprint of what is playing.

• Capped at 3 MB on your device. The oldest and least played go first.
• See what is kept, and erase it, in Settings › Playback › Song memory (Forget all).

Offline use

Your own songs work without a connection, and so do their visuals. So do songs you kept in Nebula. Radio and Indie need the internet.

Parental Lock

When the lock is on, Radio and Indie show and play only the stations and tracks that were saved with the star, and Nebula plays only the songs you kept. Search, browsing and saving are switched off.

• Turn it on in Settings › Parental Lock with Turn on lock.
• A grown-up turns it on and unlocks it with the device's own check: Face ID, Touch ID or the device passcode (on a Mac, the Touch ID or login password). A device with no passcode can't turn the lock on.
• In Radio and Indie a bar says the lock is on. Unlock opens it until you tap Lock again.

So save the stations and tracks you are happy with first, then turn the lock on. To stop a child deleting Nebula to get around the lock, use Screen Time: Settings › Screen Time › Content & Privacy Restrictions › App Store Purchases › Deleting Apps › Don't Allow.