How to record video while playing music on your iPhone

By

Record video while playing music on iPhone
No third-party apps required.
Image: Apple/Cult of Mac

You’ve probably noticed that your iPhone stops playing music as soon as you switch to Video mode inside its Camera app, which prevents you from easily adding a soundtrack to your recordings. But there is a simple trick that lets you shoot video while your music continues to play.

The trick works in all versions of iOS 14 (including the latest iOS 14.5 betas) and requires no third-party apps. We’ll show you how to use it.

Apple likely pauses your music while you prepare to shoot video on iPhone for a number of reasons. Not only is it convenient for the user (in most cases you won’t want your music to continue playing while you’re recording), but it also avoids the inevitable copyright complications.

That doesn’t mean, however, that recording video while playing music simultaneously on iPhone isn’t completely impossible.

Shoot video while playing music on iPhone

You don’t need any special music or camera apps for this trick to work. Instead, you simply need to initiate video recording a little differently. Follow these steps:

  1. Start playing the track you want to hear while recording.
  2. Open the Camera app and stay in Photo mode.
  3. Start recording your video by holding down the shutter button at the bottom of the screen. Keep it held down while shooting, or slide the button to the right to lock it in video recording mode.
  4. Press the stop button when you’re done.

Your video will be saved to your Camera Roll as normal, and you’ll hear your music in the background when you play it back. For best results, you’ll want to ensure your iPhone’s speaker volume is turned up (and that you aren’t using headphones, obviously).

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.