Play Music from the iTunes Artwork Screen Saver in Mac OS X Lion

Did you know the iTunes Artwork screensaver in Mac OS X Lion is interactive? By hovering over an album when the screen saver is active, a pop-up play button will appear similar to what is found by hovering over music in the Finder, click it and that album or song will begin to play.

Here’s how to get this working yourself:

• Enable the iTunes Artwork screensaver, found in  Apple menu > System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver
• Click on “Options” and slide ‘Rows’ to at least 5, the more rows the more albums appear
• Open iTunes and fill in as much album art as possible, it’s easy to get album art with iTunes if you are missing some
• Start the screen saver, hover over an album cover, and enjoy

Because the screen saver is interactive, once you are playing songs you need to hit the Escape key or click the little icon in the lower right corner to exit.