MPMusicPlayerController applicationMusicPlayer - Resume when application launches

Question

The MPMusicPlayerController applicationMusicPlayer runs independent of the iPod (or Music) app, which is what I want. It stops playing when the application goes into the background which is again what I want.

However, I would like it to resume playing when the application resumes. Currently I do this by calling the play method again, however this causes the audio to start from the beginning. Is there a way I can actually resume playing from where the audio left off? I can't seem to find anything about it.

Answer 1

Inside the App Delegate's applicationWillResignActive: method, read the musicPlayer.currentPlaybackTime property (declared in the MPMediaPlayback protocol) and store that value somewhere. You could set up a property such as:

@property (assign, nonatomic) NSTimeInterval playbackTime;

and assign it with:

- (void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
    MPMusicPlayerController *myPlayer =
    [MPMusicPlayerController applicationMusicPlayer];

    self.playbackTime = myPlayer.currentPlaybackTime;
    [myPlayer pause];
}

When the app is about to become active again, the App Delegate's applicationDidBecomeActive: method will be called. Inside that method, set the currentPlaybackTime property.

- (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
    MPMusicPlayerController *myPlayer =
    [MPMusicPlayerController applicationMusicPlayer];
    myPlayer.currentPlaybackTime = self.playbackTime;
    [myPlayer play];
}