A photo slideshow without music feels like a film with the sound turned off. A good music track sets the pace, ties your photos together, and turns a sequence of images into a story your family and friends actually want to watch to the end.
With SlideFlow, you can create photo slideshows with music on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It comes with a whole library of built-in music, so every slideshow you create already has a soundtrack—you don’t have to do anything. And when you want a specific song, you can add your own music too. This guide explains how music works in SlideFlow on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and how to make it yours.
How SlideFlow plays music in your slideshow
Two things are worth knowing before you start picking tracks.
Music plays while your photos are on screen. A slideshow can freely mix photos and videos, and your videos usually bring their own sound with them. So the background music accompanies the photos, and steps aside for the videos—you hear what was actually recorded in the moment, not a song playing over it. Once the video ends and your photos return, the music comes back with a new track rather than resuming the interrupted one. The same can happen when you seek within a playing slideshow and jump to another photo or video.
Tracks play shuffled, or in order. Every slideshow has a list of music tracks, and by default Shuffle music tracks is on, so SlideFlow picks the order randomly every time you play. That is deliberate: combined with the random track selection, it means every viewing feels like a new slideshow instead of a rerun of the same one. Watch it again next month, or leave it looping at a family gathering, and it won’t sound the way it did last time. Turn the setting off in the slideshow settings, and the tracks play one after another, in the order you see them.
Built-in music: nothing to set up
SlideFlow includes a wide selection of built-in tracks across various genres, and new slideshows come with music already selected. Create a slideshow and press play—it already has a soundtrack, with no need to find music files or add tracks yourself.
Better still, that soundtrack isn’t the same every time. Each new slideshow gets a handful of built-in tracks picked at random, so your slideshows don’t all open with the same song—which would get boring fast if you make many slideshows.
That is the fastest path to a good result: add your photos and videos, and let SlideFlow’s default settings and music do the rest. Everything below is for when you want more control.
Adding your own music
You can replace or supplement the built-in tracks with your own music from two sources.
Audio files
Common audio files can be added on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. This is the most flexible option, and the one to use if you want the same music available everywhere: audio files you add are part of the slideshow, so they sync with your other devices over iCloud.
Your Music library (iPhone and iPad)
On iPhone and iPad you can also pull songs straight from your Music library. It’s convenient, but there are three limitations to know about up front:
- It’s iPhone and iPad only. On Mac, only audio files can be used. This is the one real functional difference between the Mac and mobile versions of SlideFlow.
- It doesn’t sync. Music imported from the Music library stays on the one iPhone or iPad you imported it on. It won’t reach your other devices through iCloud, even if the slideshow itself does.
- Streamed music won’t work. The Music app has copyright restrictions, so you can only import songs you actually own—songs you imported yourself or purchased. Tracks that only exist as an Apple Music stream aren’t available.
None of these are SlideFlow’s choices—they follow from how Apple’s Music library works. If you want a specific song on every device, add it as an audio file instead.
How to add music to a slideshow in SlideFlow
- Open a slideshow.
- Open the slideshow settings, for example using the Customize button.
- Click or tap Tracks in the Music section.
You now see the music tracks that play while this slideshow shows your photos. From this screen you can:
- Play tracks to preview them.
- Reorder them, which matters when Shuffle music tracks is off.
- Remove the ones you don’t want.
- Add more tracks, built-in or your own.
Turning the default music on or off
SlideFlow lets you define most settings at three levels—app default for all newly created slideshows, slideshow for one slideshow, and media for a single photo or video. Music works a little differently.
At the app default level there is a single switch: Play music with photos. Leave it on, and every new slideshow you create gets its own random handful of built-in tracks. Turn it off, and new slideshows start silent, ready for you to add exactly the tracks you want.
Everything else about music—which tracks play, in what order, and whether they shuffle—belongs to the individual slideshow, on the Tracks screen described above. That is by design: a default list of tracks would mean every slideshow sounds the same, which is exactly what the random selection avoids.
A few tips for better results
- Match the music to the pace. A slow, calm track suits landscapes and portraits held a little longer on screen; something more upbeat suits a quick recap of a trip or a party.
- Add several tracks for longer slideshows. One song rarely covers a long slideshow comfortably, and a varied list keeps the mood moving.
- Turn shuffle off when the order matters. Shuffle is on by default, which is what you want for a slideshow you come back to: each viewing feels like a new slideshow rather than a rerun. But if you have a particular opening track in mind, or you want the mood to build from calm to upbeat, switch it off and arrange the tracks yourself.
- Watch it before you share it. SlideFlow generates slideshows on the fly, so playback starts almost immediately—trying a different track costs you seconds, not a full video re-render.
When you’re happy with the result, play it on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, cast it to a compatible DLNA TV, or export it as a video in horizontal, vertical, or square format for YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok. Your music tracks are included in the exported video automatically.
(Note: New to SlideFlow? The step-by-step tutorials for Mac or iPhone and iPad walk you through your first slideshow in a few minutes—then come back here to customize the music. More questions about music are answered in the SlideFlow FAQ).
