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Apple Music is more than a basic streaming service, so make sure you’re making the most of everything included with your subscription. Here are some of the features you may have missed.
Lossless and Hi-Res Audio
If having the highest possible sound quality is important to you and you have the bandwidth to spare, you canincrease the quality of your Apple Music library. Choose between “High Quality” lossy 256kbps,“Lossless” 24-bit recordings at 48KHz, and “Hi-Res Lossless” 24-bit recordings at 192KHz.
You’ll find these options under your Apple Music settings. On an iPhone head to Settings > Music or on a Mac launch the Music app then click Music > Settings > Playback. You’ll find this option on other supported devices too, just dig through the settings menu on your chosen device.
While you’re there you can choose between the same quality settings for downloads. Be aware that higher-quality streams will consume more bandwidth, while higher-quality downloads will take up more space on whichever device you’re downloading to. Be aware thatBluetooth headphones including AirPodsaren’t lossless, so this setting may not be worth enabling if you’re listening via wireless headphones.
Spatial Audio
Apple Music features a growing library of music that takes advantage of spatial audio. This is possible thanks to the use ofDolby Atmos recordingswhich use up to 128 tracks, combined with metadata to create an immersive surround-sound listening experience.
Listen to Dolby Atmos audio with your AirPodsor other supported surround-sound device (including sound bars and surround-sound setups).Spatial audio head trackingmakes the experience even more immersive. You can toggle spatial audio on or off using Control Center on an iPhone or iPad (tap and hold the Volume slider) orusing Control Center on a Macby clicking on your AirPods or other Atmos-capable devices under the Sound menu.
Apple Music Classical
On top of the standard Music app, Apple now offersApple Music Classicalas a separate download for iPhone. Apple has announced it is working on an Android version but it’s not ready at the time of writing. The new classical app isbetter-suited to the classical music genre, where tracks are organized by composer first.
The app is available at no extra charge and is arguably the best way of discovering and streaming classical music. Browse by metrics like composers, periods, genres, and individual instruments, or pick from existing playlists. It’s the Apple Music experience you’re used to from the core app (with recommendations, trending artists, and editor picks) designed with classical music in mind.
Lyrics and Karaoke Mode
Tap on the “Lyrics” icon while a song is playing to see the current lyrics. In most cases, the lyrics will update as the song plays, and tapping or clicking on a line will jump the song to that particular lyric. Some songs will simply show a static page of lyrics, and some won’t have lyric support at all.
Many of these songs includeApple Music Sing functionality, a karaoke mode of sorts that allows you to remove the lyrics. This currently works on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV versions of Apple Music. To access it, first tap on the lyrics icon to show the lyrics, then look for the microphone icon.
Tap on it to reveal a volume slider, which allows you to adjust the volume of the vocals on a track.
Thousands of Music Videos
Apple Music has a rich library of music videos to accompany standard songs. You can create playlists that consist only of music videos, then play them back on your Apple TV or similar app. You can also filter your library by music videos, perform searches, and filter by videos, and you’ll even find music video suggestions in the “Browse” and “Listen Now” sections.
Be aware that music videos can vary in quality both in terms of video and audio. If you’re primarily concerned with sound quality then standard audio will provide a higher fidelity listening experience.
A Huge Database of Playlists
Music discovery in Apple Music is a bit hit-and-miss. We’ve found that the streaming service makes some good suggestions but these can be limited. Autoplay, which is designed to match the last thing you listened to with other music, tends to lose its way after a couple of songs for many genres. Fortunately, that’s where playlists come in.
In addition to the curated playlists visible on the “Browse” and “Listen Now” tabs, and the “Made for You” radio stations, Apple Music allows you to search through a huge database of playlists shared by other users. Simply search, verify you’re searching “Apple Music” then tap on “Playlists” or scroll down to the playlist section.
You can add your own playlists to the searchable database by making them available to others. Find your playlist, tap “Edit” then make sure “Show on my profile and in search” is enabled and your playlist will be discoverable. This works best if you name your playlist something relevant since there’s no way to search by playlists that feature specific genres or artists.
Radio and TuneIn Integration
Apple Music includes three main “live” stations: Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits, and Apple Music Country. These take the form of standard radio stations in that they are audio streams, rather than custom “radio” stations created with tracks that you can skip. On top of this, you can turn any song or album into a “radio” station by long-pressing or right-clicking on it and then using the “Create Station” option.
On top of this, your Apple Music subscription includes access to TuneIn radio. This is a premium service that you’re able to effectively use for free within Apple Music. It includes streams of many real-world and online radio stations. Use the “Radio” section to browse through the available stations, or search for something you like and filter by “Stations” in the results.
Apps for Android, Smart TVs, and More
Apple Music now works on a huge variety of devices, not just Apple gadgets. The service includes the usual iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, CarPlay, and HomePod integration you’d expect. On top of this you may also listen via dedicated apps for Samsung and LG smart TVs, consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox, Roku devices,Android, Windows (iTunes),Amazon Echo,Sonos, andGoogle Nest.
On top of this you may listen to Apple Music in a web browser atmusic.apple.comon compatible devices.
Apple Music Replay
Spotify’s “Wrapped” annual look back dominates social media at the end of each year, as people reflect on the music that defined the last 12 months. Apple Musicincludes such a feature called Apple Music Replay, which puts your most-listened songs into a playlist that you can access at any time.
Use Apple Music Tracks as Alarms and Alerts
If you use an iPhone or iPad you can spice up your alarms or timer alerts by using music. You can set any Apple Music song as your alert. To do this select “Sound” under an alarm or Timer then choose “Pick a song” and find the song you want to use.
For this to work you’ll need to download the song to your device. To do this tap and hold the song in Music and select “Download” from the menu that appears.
Save Money with Apple One and Family Plans
While not strictly an Apple Music feature, the ability to save some money or spread the load by opting for anApple OneorFamilysubscription is worth considering. Apple One bundles iCloud+ (50GB), tv+, Music, and Arcade into a single $16.95 monthly payment. There’s also a $22.95 Family plan that can be shared with up to five people (for 200GB iCloud space) and a $32.95 Premier plan with up to 2TB of space.
If you’re paying for Apple services like iCloud, tv+, Arcade, and (in the case of Premier) Fitness+ and News+ separately, an Apple One subscription could work out cheaper. Even if it works out roughly the same you may get access to more storage or services for the same money.
If all you’re interested in is Apple Music, a Family Sharing plan might be worth consideration. While an individual plan costs $10.99 per month, a Family plan which can be shared with up to six other people with a separate music library for each will only set you back an extra $6.
Apple Music Alternatives
If you don’t use a ton of Apple devices, a rival streaming servicemight be a better fit than Apple Music. We’ve come up with a list of thecheapest streaming servicesand thehighest quality streaming services. We’ve also answered the question of whichservice has the most songs available for streaming(and it’s not Apple Music or Spotify).
