There are two questions that often arise for iOS developers new to Apple’s audio frameworks: (1) How do I play tracks from the iPod Library using the low level Core Audio APIs (as opposed to using an AVAudioPlayer or MPMediaPlayer) and (2) How do I play those tracks without first loading them into memory?

Apple, of course, already provides us with a number of options for accessing and playing iPod Library files. And loading those files into memory before playing them is certainly the easy way to go.

But: sometimes it’s not enough.