How to Make a Photo Slideshow With Music on a Mac (and Play One Live Beside Apple Music)

There are two different jobs hiding in "slideshow with music on a Mac." One is making a slideshow video you can save, share or upload. The other is playing a slideshow live on a screen, at a party, on a TV, or at your desk, while music plays. Apple's free apps cover the first job well. This guide walks through both, with the real steps from Apple's own guides, and shows how to run a folder of photos beside Apple Music in Plush.

Make a slideshow video or play one live?

If you want a video to send, upload or play on another device, make and export one. If you want photos and music running on a screen right now, play one, because exporting only gets in the way.

The rest of the guide goes through these in order, starting with the way to make a video file.

Make a slideshow with music in Photos

To make a slideshow with music in Photos, create a slideshow project from your selected photos, pick a theme and a song, then export it as a video. Photos is free and already on your Mac, and for most people it is the right answer. These steps follow Apple's guide to creating slideshows in Photos.

1. Select your photos. In Photos, go to Library > All Photos (or open an album) and select the photos you want.
2. Create the project. Choose File > Create > Slideshow > Photos, choose New Slideshow, name it, and click OK.
3. Pick a theme. Click the Themes button. A theme sets the position of text, the fonts and the transitions.
4. Add music. Click the Music button, then the down arrow next to Music Library. Theme Songs are built into Photos. Music is your own library. You can add several songs and drag them to reorder.
5. Set the timing. Click the Duration button and choose Fit to Music or Custom. There is also a Transition checkbox and a "Scale photos to fit screen" option.
6. Export it. Select the project under Projects, then click Export or choose File > Export > Export Slideshow. You can export at 480p, 720p or 1080p (Apple's export guide).

Memories: a slideshow Photos makes for you

Photos Memories builds a highlight video for you, and you can change its music. Go to Collections > Memories, play a memory, and click the Music button to choose a song or soundtrack from your music library. Apple says Apple Music subscribers can click Browse to search for songs in the Apple Music library. The Filters button changes the look (Apple's Memories guide).

To save one, choose File > Export > Export Memory Video. You pick an orientation (Landscape, Portrait or Square) and an aspect (16:9, 4:3 or Original).

Play an instant slideshow in Photos

To play a quick slideshow without making a project, select photos or videos in Photos and choose File > Play Slideshow. You can also Control-click an album in the sidebar and choose Start Slideshow. Nothing is saved, and nothing is exported.

While it plays, Customize lets you change the song with Music > Choose Song, pick a Transition & Duration, and turn on Loop. Esc stops the slideshow, the arrow keys skip, and Space pauses (Apple Support).

This is fastest when your photos are already in Photos. For a folder of pictures elsewhere, see Quick Look and Plush below.

Make a slideshow in iMovie with a Ken Burns zoom

To get more control than Photos gives you, build the slideshow in iMovie, Apple's free video editor on the Mac App Store. You add the photos to a movie, drop a song under them, and choose how each photo is framed.

• Add music. Above the browser, click Audio & Video, then Music in the sidebar. Drag a song to the background music well below the timeline (Apple's iMovie music guide).
• Pick a photo placement. The options are Fit, Crop to Fill, and Ken Burns, which Apple describes as a zoom effect for photos. Adjust it with Cropping > Ken Burns and set a Start and an End frame (Apple's Ken Burns guide).

One catch with songs. Apple notes that if your Music library includes protected files, they are unavailable and do not appear in the browser (Apple Support). If a song you expect is missing, that is the likely reason.

Keynote can also carry a soundtrack. Open the Document button, then the Audio tab, click the Media Library button, and choose songs or playlists. The soundtrack can be Off, Play Once or Loop. Apple says DRM-protected music can't be added to the presentation soundtrack (Apple's Keynote guide).

Quick Look: a slideshow in ten seconds

To flip through a folder of images right now, select several of them in Finder and press Space. In the Quick Look window, click the Full Screen button at the top left, then click Play, and the images play as a slideshow (Apple's Quick Look guide).

Quick Look has no music of its own. A simple tip: start a playlist in the Music app first, then run the Quick Look slideshow while it plays. It works for a few minutes at a desk. For a party, use the Plush setup below.

Play a slideshow beside Apple Music in Plush

To play a folder of photos as a live slideshow with Apple Music beside it, use Plush, the multi-screen video player for Mac. One tile runs the folder, another plays your music, and both share one window you can send to a TV. Plush plays slideshows. It doesn't export them, so if you need a video file, use Photos or iMovie above.

1. Open Plush and set two tiles. Plush opens with empty tiles. Use the sidebar (⌘\) to set the tile count to 2.
2. Start the slideshow. On the first empty tile, choose Local Files, then Folder, and pick your photo folder. Plush plays jpg, jpeg, png, heic, heif, gif, tiff, webp and bmp files, including those in subfolders, up to 5,000 files. Choosing a folder is a Plush Pro feature.
3. Start the music. On the second empty tile, choose Apple Music and allow access when macOS asks the first time. You can browse Recently Played, For You, your library playlists, Top Charts and New Releases, or search songs, albums and artists. Playlists and albums can start shuffled.
4. Choose Split. In the sidebar's Layout control, pick Split. With two tiles, the slideshow is the big tile on the left and the music tile sits beside it. Drag the seam to size them: Split runs from 25 to 75 percent, and 50 percent is the default. For a big photo frame, drag it to about 75 percent. Double-click the seam to reset it. Our Split layout guide covers the seams in detail.
5. Keep the music playing. In Focus sound mode, the sound follows your pointer, and an Apple Music tile pauses when you hover another tile or move off the tiles. To keep the song going over the slideshow, double-click the music tile so it stays selected for sound (double-click again to release it), or turn on the music tile's "Keep playing" button in its toolbar.
6. Go full screen. Press ⌃⌘F. To keep the window above other apps, ⇧⌘P turns on Pin on Top, which is free.

The three slideshow controls

Hover over the slideshow tile and its toolbar shows three controls that set how the photos play.

• Slide time. The timer button steps through 3, 7, 15, 30 or 60 seconds. The default is 7.
• Transition. Crossfade is the default. A second button switches to Slide. With Reduce Motion turned on in macOS, Slide becomes a crossfade.
• Order. A button toggles Shuffle and In Order. Shuffle plays every file once before any repeats and never shows the same file twice in a row. When the folder ends, it wraps around and keeps going.

Each photo also gets a slow pan-and-zoom drift, a little like the Ken Burns effect. It is on by default, and there is no setting to turn it off. Hovering over the slideshow holds the current slide, and the play/pause button pauses it.

If your folder holds videos (mov, mp4, m4v, avi) or songs, they play through to the end and then the slideshow moves on. For more on folders, see our guide to shuffling videos from a folder on a Mac.

Rearranging and restoring

Drag a tile's picture onto another tile to swap them; a music tile drags by its Now Playing album art. The music tile can show full-size album art, an animated visual in your accent color, or a minimal dark view with equalizer bars.

Next time you open Plush, Restore Last Session (free) brings back the folder tile with its slide time, transition and order. The Apple Music tile returns with its last song if the permission and subscription are still active. Named sessions are part of Plush Pro.

Three live slideshow setups

A birthday or reunion photo wall on a TV

To show it on an Apple TV, open Control Center, choose Screen Mirroring, pick the Apple TV, then mirror or extend the display (Apple's AirPlay guide). Put Plush in full screen and leave it.

A quiet desk photo frame

Use two tiles in Split with the seam near 75 percent: a folder of favorites at 60 seconds a slide with Crossfade, and a calm Apple Music playlist with "Keep playing" on. Turn on Pin on Top and shrink the window into a corner. It needs Plush Pro for the folder slideshow.

If you like this mood, our ambient video wall guide goes further.

Several folders side by side

Plush Pro runs up to 8 tiles, so each folder (one per decade or trip) can have its own slideshow beside one Apple Music tile. Give each folder a different slide time, such as 7, 15 and 30 seconds, so they change at different moments. Only one Apple Music tile plays at a time.

Which one should you use?

Use Photos or iMovie when you need a video file, and use Plush or Photos' instant slideshow when you want to play photos on a screen right now.

• Send it to someone, or upload it: a Photos slideshow project, exported at 1080p. It is free.
• Control every zoom and cut: iMovie.
• Photos are in your Photos library, and you want to play them now: File > Play Slideshow.
• Photos are in a folder, and music should keep going beside them: Plush, with a folder tile and an Apple Music tile. This part needs Plush Pro.

Plush is not a slideshow maker. If a friend needs the file, build it in Photos. If you want the screen itself to be the show, that is the job Plush does.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make a slideshow with music on a Mac?

In Photos, select your photos, choose File > Create > Slideshow > Photos, and name the project. Use the Music button to choose a Theme Song or a song from your library, then click Export to save a video at 480p, 720p or 1080p. Photos is free and built into macOS.

How do I play a slideshow on a Mac?

In Photos, select photos or videos and choose File > Play Slideshow. To play images from a folder, select them in Finder, press Space, click the Full Screen button, then click Play. Plush plays a whole folder as a slideshow, which needs Plush Pro.

How do I make a photo slideshow with music on a Mac for free?

Photos and iMovie are both free. In Photos, create a slideshow project, add a song with the Music button, and export it. iMovie, free on the Mac App Store, offers a Ken Burns zoom and lets you drag a song under the photos.

How do I make a slideshow on a Mac from files in a folder?

For a video file, import the photos into Photos or iMovie and build a project. For live playback, select the images in Finder and use Quick Look's Full Screen and Play, or point a Plush tile at the folder with Local Files > Folder. The Plush folder slideshow needs Plush Pro, a one-time $2.99.

Can I play a photo slideshow with Apple Music on a Mac?

Yes, in Plush. Run a folder of photos in one tile and an Apple Music tile beside it, then double-click the music tile or turn on its "Keep playing" button so the song keeps going. Apple Music needs your own subscription; the Plush music tile is free, and the folder slideshow needs Plush Pro.

Can Plush export a slideshow as a video?

No. Plush plays a slideshow live on your screen and doesn't save a video file. To make a file you can share, use a Photos slideshow project, Memories or iMovie.

What is the best slideshow maker with music for Mac?

For a video file, Photos is the best place to start because it is free, built in, and exports up to 1080p. iMovie is better when you want a Ken Burns zoom and finer control. For a live slideshow with music beside it, Plush with Plush Pro is built for that job.

How do I show a slideshow on my TV from a Mac?

Open Control Center, choose Screen Mirroring, select your Apple TV, then mirror or extend your display. Then play the slideshow on the Mac in full screen. Plush's full screen shortcut is ⌃⌘F.

Plush Media Player is free on the Mac App Store, and the Apple Music tile costs nothing beyond your own subscription. Plush Pro is a one-time $2.99, with no subscription, and unlocks the folder slideshow and up to 8 tiles. Point a tile at your photo folder and let the music run beside it.