How to tell iTunes to start playing?

Maybe you could provide your code so that we can have a look at what you've done so far.

 

The short answer to your question, iirc, is no. The link redirects from Safari to iTunes, i.e. telling Safari to quit before redirecting you would result in not hearing any music. If you try something like this though:

Code:

tell application "Safari"
    activate
    tell window 1
        make new tab with properties {URL:"https://itunes.apple.com/ca/station/smooth-jazz/idra.985496511"}
    end tell
    delay 5
    quit
end tell

EDIT: Typo

 

Try Daypart....

http://dougscripts.com/apps/daypartapp.php

Put the Radio url in a playlist, then get Daypart to play that playlist.

Maybe that will work.

 

I'm sure this is 'dirty' in some way and there's a more straightforward way to handle this, but if you're on a recent version of OS X, AppleScriptObjC and WebKit would do the job for you:

Code:

use framework "WebKit"
property urlString : "https://itunes.apple.com/ca/station/smooth-jazz/idra.985496511"
if (current application's NSThread's isMainThread) then
    webView()
else
    its performSelectorOnMainThread:"webView" withObject:(missing value) waitUntilDone:true
end if

on webView()
    tell (current application's |WebView|'s alloc()'s initWithFrame:(current application's NSMakeRect(0, 0, 0, 0)) frameName:"WebKit Frame" groupName:"WebKit Group")
        its (mainFrame's loadRequest:(current application's NSURLRequest's requestWithURL:(current application's NSURL's URLWithString:urlString)))
        delay 5
        its |close|()
    end tell
end webView

 

Try this instead in an Applescript:

Code:

open location "itmss://itunes.apple.com/ca/station/smooth-jazz/idra.985496511?cmd=AddStation"

 

I would imagine so. I don't have Apple Music so I can't test it, but if you can open it, then adding

Code:

tell app "iTunes" to play

After the open location may do it. Or maybe

Code:

tell app "iTunes" play the playlist named "Todays Hits"

If it doesn't work I can look it up.

 

The following works for me.

After executing the "open location" command, this will continually (once every second, for a maximum of 30 seconds) ask iTunes to resolve the reference to the playlist and attempt to play it .

Code:

use application "iTunes"

property playlistURL : "itmss://itunes.apple.com/ca/playlist/todays-hits/idpl.f4d106fed2bd41149aaacabb233eb5eb"
property playlistName : "Today's Hits"

tell application "iTunes" to stop

set playlistToPlay to a reference to subscription playlist playlistName of source "iTunes Store"
open location playlistURL

set i to 0
repeat while i < 30
    delay 1
    try
        tell playlistToPlay to if it exists then
            play it
            if player state is playing then return
        end if
    end try
    set i to i + 1
end repeat

 

Sure thing. Just add the following to the script, after the property declarations. You may also want to make sure iTunes is stopped for the script to work correctly in all cases.

Code:

tell application "iTunes" to stop
set shuffle enabled to true

 

I'm using iTunes 12.4.1.6 and it certainly works here. The only thing that should have changed (I think) is that shuffling is set as a global property of the application now, and not on individual playlists anymore.

 

Did you make sure to include "use application "iTunes" on the first line" ?

 

Great – you're welcome!

 

Hi - sorry, this is due to a change in the latest versions of iTunes that appears to make it even more difficult if not impossible to use AppleScript to refer to subscription playlists that haven't been added to your library. After using 'open location' to open the playlist, it now doesn't ever turn up as a child element of the "iTunes Store" source anymore as it did before, so the condition in the loop that checks for its existence will never become true.

 

If you've added them to your library then you don't need the script in the first place. In that case it is trivial to play them:

Code:

tell application "iTunes" to play playlist "Name of your playlist"