Using MPMediaItems with AVAudioPlayer

Is it possible to pick media items using MPMediaPickerController and then load them into an AVAudioPlayer object?

If MPMusicPlayerController doesn't meet your needs, you can copy the audio to your local bundle so you can use AVAudioPlayer.

EDIT

You basically have three options for playing audio from the user's iPod library: MPMediaPlayer, AVPlayer and AVAudioPlayer.

Here are examples for MPMediaPlayer and AVPlayer:

- (void) mediaPicker: (MPMediaPickerController *) mediaPicker
   didPickMediaItems: (MPMediaItemCollection *) collection {


    MPMediaItem *item = [[collection items] objectAtIndex:0];
    NSURL *url = [item valueForProperty:MPMediaItemPropertyAssetURL];

    [self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated: YES];

    // Play the item using MPMusicPlayer

    MPMusicPlayerController* appMusicPlayer = [MPMusicPlayerController applicationMusicPlayer];

    [appMusicPlayer setQueueWithItemCollection:collection];
    [appMusicPlayer play];


    // Play the item using AVPlayer

    AVPlayerItem *playerItem = [[AVPlayerItem alloc] initWithURL:url];
    AVPlayer *player = [[AVPlayer alloc] initWithPlayerItem:playerItem];
    [player play];  

}

If you need to use AVAudioPlayer for some reason, or you need access to the audio file's actual audio data, you have to first copy the audio file to your app's directory and then work with it there. The AVAsset + AVPlayer stuff is the closest analogy to ALAsset if you're used to working with photos and videos.

Just wanted to say that it appears that in iOS 6 and 7, AVAudioPlayer can play file URLs directly from the iPod without having to copy the audio data into your app directory as Art suggested.

- (void) mediaPicker: (MPMediaPickerController *) mediaPicker didPickMediaItems: (MPMediaItemCollection *) collection {


    MPMediaItem *item = [[collection items] objectAtIndex:0];
    NSURL *url = [item valueForProperty:MPMediaItemPropertyAssetURL];

    // Play the item using AVPlayer
    self.avAudioPlayer = [[AVAudioPlayer alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:url error:nil];
    [self.avAudioPlayer play];
}

I wanted to add (and I can't comment on SO yet) that it seems like in iOS 8, and perhaps before, songs that are stored on iCloud do not have a value for the property assetURL and return null for [npItem valueForProperty:MPMediaItemPropertyAssetURL].

Here is a sample output:

MPMediaItem *npItem = self.musicPlayerController.nowPlayingItem;
NSLog(@"Song Title: %@\n assetURL: %@\n Cloud Item: %d", npItem.title, [npItem valueForProperty:MPMediaItemPropertyAssetURL], npItem.cloudItem)


// Log Output
Song Title: Time We Had
assetURL: (null)
Cloud Item: 1

Song Title: The Quiet
assetURL: ipod-library://item/item.m4a?id=1529654720874100371
Cloud Item: 0