(Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Apple Music is one of largest music-streaming services, with over 100 million songs available in its catalog. It serves as an alternative to Spotify or YouTube Music, both of which also have vast libraries. Unlike Spotify, however, Apple Music doesn’t currently offer a free tier. The upside is that there are no ads to wade through and streaming music is unlimited, even for Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and high-resolution lossless tracks.
Apple offers free trials of varying length (get a three-month trial when purchasing certain Apple devices, for example), after which it's $10.99 a month. A family account for up to six people is $15.99, students can stream for $5.99 a month, and Apple Music is also available via Apple One.
Like Spotify, Apple Music has a wealth of features and capabilities. These tips and tricks should help you get the most out of your paid subscription.
1. Use Apple Music Everywhere
Most people will use the iOS Apple Music app on their iPhones. But that’s not the only way to stream songs. There are Apple Music apps available for the Mac (shown above), Apple TV, Vision Pro, Android, Windows, and in a web browser. Whether you're listening from a work computer or decide to swap in iPhone for a Samsung Galaxy phone, you should still be able to access your Apple Music library from nearly any device. Be aware that not all app versions have the same features, even though they're comparable across platforms.
2. You Can Get Classical, Too
Speaking of available apps, an Apple Music Subscription includes access to the company’s dedicated Classical app. You can stream the same classical music in both of Apple’s apps, but its Classical option offers better discovery and sorting options for a variety of renditions. Both music apps are intertwined enough that any classical titles you’ve saved in one will appear in your library on the other. You can download the Classical app from Apple's App Store.
3. Share Your Playlists
Want to share your favs (or keep some listening private)? From the Home tab in Apple Music, select the circle profile icon in the top-right corner. Select View Profile > Edit, scroll down, and determine whether everyone can see your activity or only people you allow. Scroll down even further, and you can decide which playlists are shown publicly and available in searches and which ones are private.
4. Collaborate on Playlists
If you want to expand your horizons or turn playlists into a communal experience, then you can let other people add songs, reorder, and edit them. Tap the icon with a person and a plus sign at the top of a playlist to get started. You can choose to either approve collaborators or open it to anyone who has the link.
5. Share With People Nearby
For an even more intimate way to share music, your music be discoverable by nearby contacts. This feature is meant for car rides or while you're in the same location. So, if you're listening to something through a speaker in your living room, others in the immediate vicinity can participate in the curation experience. Head to Settings > Apps > Music > Shared Listening and toggle Discoverable by Nearby Contacts to on.
6. Fine-Tune Your Library Organization
When you tap on the library section of Apple Music, you may find some sorting categories that don’t appeal to you. If so, these can be changed by tapping on the Edit text at the top. A full list of all the options will be shown and you can select (or unselect) any of the choices. On an iPad you can also customize the top menu bar after selecting Edit. You can drag any sidebar item over or drag something off of the menu bar to get rid of it.
7. Keep Listening, Infinitely
If you’ve ever wondered why music continues to play after your playlist ends, it’s because of a feature called Infinite Autoplay. You can toggle this endless stream of songs on or off from the now playing screen under the queue section—look for the infinity icon.
8. Listen in Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos (and Lossless)
Apple Music offers different qualities of audio streaming without charging extra. Its default tier streams songs in 256kbps AAC, but you can choose to go to 24-bit/48 kHz ALAC or 24-bit/192 kHz ALAC. The higher the audio resolution, the more data that’s consumed. The default 256kbps uses around 6MB per three-minute song while Hi-Res Lossless will use about 145MB of data in that same amount of time. You'll see either Dolby Atmos or Lossless on a now-playing screen to indicate a different quality format.
You can also select different audio formats depending on whether you’re streaming over cellular or Wi-Fi. To do that head to Settings > Apps > Music > Audio Quality and then turn on Lossless Audio. You can select different options for various connection methods.
9. Check How Much Data Streaming Music Is Using
From that same screen under the Audio Quality section, you can see how much data the different song qualities will consume. If you want to save data on streaming music you can select the High Efficiency option to use about a quarter of the normal data.
10. Avoid Songs You Don't Like
If you don’t like a specific song, you can make sure it shows up less often in automated playlists and Infinite Autoplay. Tap on the three-dot menu next to a track and select the thumbs down Suggest Less button.
11. Explore Your Personal Stations
Apple Music will create personal music stations for you that are influenced by your listening. The station with your name will play songs you probably already know from your library, while the Discovery Station will try to find new songs that are adjacent to artists and tunes you like. There are also personalized mood stations for things like love, focus, energy, and feeling blue. You can find these under the Home tab and then Stations For You.
12. Create Your Own Radio Station
Any song can become a radio station if you find a track you want to live with for a while. Select the three-dot menu to the right of a song and tap Create Station. Artist profiles have a play button to the right of their name which will cycle through their songs. Or you can tap the same three dots in the top-right corner and select Create Station.
13. Get Personal Mixes Each Week
If you prefer a more limited automated listening experience, Apple Music creates several playlists for you each week. These personal mixes are on the Home screen under Made For You and consist of things like Friends Mix, Chill Mix, and Get Up! Mix.
14. Find the Latest Music Releases
It might be obvious from its name, but the New section of Apple Music highlights the latest releases across singles, albums, and mixes. As of iOS 18 and macOS 15, however, the section also prioritizes your listening preferences and shows personalized picks rather than the same new releases for each person. If you don't see a new album listed, there are other ways to find it.
15. Search Genres and See Albums Coming Soon
To uncover music from specific genres, scroll to the bottom of the New tab. This is great if you want to branch out from what the app is showing you. A "Coming Soon" section above the link to genres also gives you a preview of what's on tap for the months ahead.
16. Re-Play your Replay Year-Round
Some music services wait until the end of the year to wrap your stats in fun animations. Apple does the same, but it also makes its Replay playlists and stats available all year long. At the bottom of the Home section, you’ll find playlists populated with your most listened to songs for each year you’ve been a subscriber.
Next to the playlists you’ll also find a link to the Replay website, which provides more insights into your listening stats. This includes breaking down your top artists, albums, genres, and listening minutes, per month and for the year as a whole.
17. Feel the Rhythm With Music Haptics
For people who are hard of hearing, Apple has an accessibility setting to let them feel the music through their iPhones. Turning on Music Haptics will vibrate the phone for supported songs being played through Apple Music or Classical apps. If you’re just curious how this feature works (or feels), you can listen to a sample track when you turn it on in Settings > Accessibility > Music Haptics. This feature is not available on an iPad.
18. Find Lyrics and Song Credits
It’s easy to discover a song’s lyrics while it's playing; from the now playing screen, tap the quote bubble icon. But if you want to check in on the words to a song without playing it you can also tap the three-dot menu next to a track and select View Credits. A View Lyrics option will be right under the Play button if they’re available for a song.
A song’s credits—such as performing artists, composers, and producers and engineers—will show in the View Credits section. Underneath the credits, you’ll be able to see all the available audio formats for the song as well.
19. Perform Karaoke With Apple Music Sing
Apple Music Sing is a feature that allows you to adjust the volume of the vocals independent of the song’s music. Instead of searching for an instrumental version of a song, you can create your own. The vocal volume slider can be set anywhere from all the way in to all the way out. Be aware, while there are a lot of Sing-enable tracks, not every song in Apple’s catalog supports the feature. Look for the microphone icon with the sparkle.
20. Change Your Playlist Covers
When you create a new playlist from scratch, you’re given the option to add a photo as its cover art. If you don’t do that at the time, you can go back later and either add your own photo or select one of Apple Music’s automatically generated covers with a color gradient that is supposed to match the tone of the songs in the collection. To edit the cover at any point, tap on a playlist, select the three dots in the top-right corner, and then tap Edit.
Apple Fan?
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