How to Get Music and Video on Your Mac Quickly Without iTunes or Third-Party Applications
To listen to music or watch videos on purpose, most s use specialized programs and services: iTunes, QuickTime Player, VLC, online resources, etc. However, sometimes it is necessary to play only one or a few files on your hard drive, and you can do this directly from the Finder.
For example, you need to find the audio track for a presentation you are preparing or you want to find a video clip from your last vacation. If these files have abstract names and / or are in different directories, searching through the built-in browser of the media player can be quite tedious. It will be somewhat more comfortable to use the tools built into the Finder. Audio and video files can be played without launching additional applications.
In the upper of the Finder there are buttons to change the display modes of the files: Columns, Icons, Cover Flow and List (other ways to change the parameters of the view), in our case all the variants except the last one will work.
Now you just have to highlight the desired media file and hover your mouse over the thumbnail, as shown in the screenshots below, to bring up the "Play / Pause" button.
Audio tracks and video clips played in this way cannot be switched between each other, but you can fast forward and rewind by swiping up and down on the trackpad or Magic Mouse.
In addition, you can quickly play audio or video content in Quick View mode by highlighting the file and pressing the key. Space bar on the keyboard.