How to Change Apple Music Playback Speed on Any Device

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Grace
March 6, 2024

Changing the play speed of a song can alter the emotional impact and overall aesthetic experience of it, providing a fresh perspective. Sometimes, you may need to change the playback speed of songs for educational and analytical purposes; to fit personal tastes, moods, and activities; or to create remixes, mashups, and entirely new works.

Apple Music provides a fast-forward feature but lacks a dedicated playback speed adjustment. However, you can still change the speed of songs on your iPhone and iPad with Apple Music speed changers. If you want to freely adjust the speed of Apple Music songs on any device, the most recommended option is to download the tracks to MP3. When you play them with media players supporting speed adjustment, you can set the playback speed to any desired tempo.

Contents

Can You Chang Play Speed on Apple Music?

Unfortunately, Apple Music doesn’t have a dedicated playback speed adjustment feature. You can only fast-forward songs by long pressing the forward button. However, this feature is limited to accelerating songs: slowing down tracks or adjusting the fast-forward speed is not supported.

Moreover, when using this fast-forward method on Apple Music, it may be challenging to hear the lyrics clearly, particularly on a mobile device.

fast forward apple music

How to Adjust Apple Music Playback Speed on iPhone?

To change the Apple Music playback speed on iPhone or iPad, you can use music speed changers. These tools allow you to either speed up or slow down the tempo of a song without affecting its pitch. Music speed changers are available for free or paid versions. Some of them integrate with your Apple Music library for seamless playback and speed adjustments within the changer.

Music Speed Changer is such an application offering both ad-support and paid versions. It also links to your Apple Music library directly. Here is how you can use Music Speed Changer to set the Apple Music playback speed on your iOS devices.

  1. Launch the App Store on your iPhone or iPad, search for “Music Speed Changer”, and tap the GET button to install the app.
  2. Open the app after the installation is complete. Go to Library and tap the Unlocked or Locked tabs at the top to access your Apple Music library.
    • The Unlocked section contains songs purchased from the iTunes Store or imported from your device.
    • The Locked section includes songs accessible with your Apple Music subscription.
dwonload and open music speed changer

  1. Choose the song you want to adjust the tempo. When it is playing, tap the song from the bottom of the screen.
  2. Drag the Tempo slider to the right to speed up the song, and the left to slow it down. You can change the speed within the range of 0.25x to 2.5x.
adjust the tempo

Additionally, you can find other similar music speed changers on the App Store, such as Speedic and Perfect Tempo. Speedic is available for free, while Perfect Tempo is priced at $4.99.

other music speed changers

How to Change Apple Music Playback Speed on Any Device

Although Apple Music doesn’t allow changing the play speed of songs, there are various media players that support tempo adjustment. Some of these players come pre-installed on your device, such as QuickTime Player on Mac and Windows Media Player on Windows. Additionally, for iOS and Android devices, you can use free players like VLC to adjust the tempo.

To achieve this, you can download Apple Music songs as MP3 files and play them offline with these media players. In this way, you can freely customize the playback speed according to your preferences.

1. Download Apple Music Songs to MP3

To download Apple Music songs as MP3 files, an effective method is through Pazu Apple Music Converter, a reliable and secure tool compatible with both Mac and Windows platforms. This converter allows you to download Apple Music playlists, albums, and songs to MP3, AAC, FLAC, and other popular formats without compromising on quality. Integrated with the Apple Music web player, Pazu Apple Music Converter allows you to batch convert any Apple Music playlist or album to your preferred format without the need for iTunes or the Music app.

Pazu Apple Music Converter not only downloads your favorite playlists and songs but also preserves the original audio quality, ID3 tags, and metadata, ensuring you won’t lose any important information. The converter has a remarkably fast download and conversion speed—almost 10 times faster than comparable software. After downloading, you can transfer the downloaded tracks to any other MP3-compatible device. This ensures that you can freely change the playback speed of Apple Music songs with different media players.

Key Features of Pazu Apple Music Converter

  • User-friendly interface
  • 10x Fast Music download speed
  • Advanced DRM removal
  • Lossless audio quality
  • Keep original ID3 tags & metadata
  • Download Apple Music songs, albums and playlists
  • Unlimited downloads
  • Adjustable output options

Follow the tutorial below on how to download Apple Music to MP3 and playback offline. 

Step 1. Launch Pazu Apple Music Converter

Download, install and run Pazu Apple Music Converter on your Mac or Windows.

Apple Music Converter

Step 2. Choose the output format

The default format is M4A in 256kbps. Apple Music Converter also supports MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, and AIFF. Click the gear icon if you want to change the output format or output folder.

Apple Music Converter settings

Step 3. Choose a playlist, artist, or album you want to download

Follow the on-screen instructions to choose a playlist, artist, or album that you want to download.

add Apple Music songs

Step 4. Start to download Apple Music songs

Click the “Convert” button to start downloading Apple Music songs, albums, and playlists to MP3, so you can play them anywhere you want, even after canceling your Apple Music subscription.

convert Apple Music to MP3

Step 5. Locate the Converted Songs

After the conversion process is complete, click on the clock icon in the upper right corner to access the converted Apple Music songs. To locate the converted Apple Music songs:

  • You can either click the folder icon to open the output folder where the songs are saved;
    or
  • Directly go to the output folder you customized in the previous step.
find downloads

Step 6. Change Apple Music Play Speed with Media Players on Any Device

Now that you’ve successfully converted your Apple Music songs to MP3, you can easily play them with the QuickTime Player on your Mac or the Windows Media Player on Windows, and change the playback speed of the songs freely.

If you want to change the play speed of the downloaded MP3 songs on your iPhone, iPad, or Android, you can transfer them to the device and play them with the VLC media player, which can be easily downloaded from the App Store or Google Play Store for free.

2. Adjust Playback Speed with QuickTime Player on Mac

  1. To play a downloaded Apple Music song with the QuickTime Player on your Mac, from the top menu bar, choose File > Open File, then select a song and click Open.
play a song with QuickTime Player

  1. Click View from the top menu, hover over Playback Speed, and select a certain speed ranging from 0.5x to 2x.
choose playback speed

  1. You can also click the Forward button from the player to choose from 2x, 5x, 10x, 30x, and 60x.
the forward button

3. Change Play Speed with Windows Media Player

  1. Drag and drop the downloaded Apple Music song to Windows Media Player to play it.
  2. Right-click on the player at the bottom and select Play > Play Speed. Then you can set the playback speed to Fast, Normal, and Slow.
windows media player

4. Customize Play Speed with VLC on iOS

  1. Go to the App Store on your iPhone or iPad, search for “VLC Media Player”, and tap the GET button to install the app.
get vlc

  1. Launch VLC once installed. Tap Network from the bottom and select Local Files. From there you can find the downloaded Apple Music songs if you have transferred them to your iPhone or iPad. Tap the song to play it with VLC Media Player.
  2. Tap the three dots of the playing song and select Playback Speed from the pop-up menu.
  3. Drag the slider to speed up or slow down the song. You can change the playback speed within the range of 0.25x to 8.0x.
vlc ios

5. Change Playback Speed with VLC Android

  1. Open Google Play on your Android, search for “VLC Media Player”, and install the app on your device.
  2. When the installation is completed, launch VLC and select Browse from the bottom. Tap PICK A FILE and select the download Apple Music song to play it.
  3. Tap the playing song from the bottom. Then tap the three dots at the right top corner and select Playback Speed.
  4. Drag the slider or use the direction button to speed up or slow down the song. The playback speed can be changed within a range of 0.25x to 4.0x.
vlc android

Conclusion

While Apple Music doesn’t support changing the playback speed with its app, you can still speed up or slow down a song with Apple Music speed changers on your iOS devices. To have the flexibility to change Apple Music play speed on any device, we recommend the Pazu Apple Music Converter. With its help, you can download Apple Music songs and playlists to MP3 and other popular audio formats. Then you can freely change the playback speed of the downloaded songs with the media players on any of your devices including Mac, Windows computers, iPhone and iPad, Android devices, etc.

To get started, download and install Pazu Apple Music Converter now.