Apple Music is a popular streaming service that offers subscribers access to a vast library of over 100 million songs, curated playlists, radio stations, and exclusive content, competing directly with platforms like Spotify and Tidal.
Although available on a wide range of devices — including iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, Apple TVs, Windows PCs, and Android devices — the streaming service also integrates seamlessly with Apple’s ecosystem, leveraging features like Siri voice control and iCloud Music Library to sync users’ personal collections across devices.
The service operates on a subscription model, with plans including an individual tier at $10.99 per month, a family plan for up to six users at $16.99 per month, and a student plan at $5.99 per month, alongside a limited free tier that includes access to purchased music and Beats 1 radio.
One of the standout features is its emphasis on human curation, setting it apart from algorithm-heavy competitors. The platform offers expertly crafted playlists tailored to genres, moods, or activities, alongside personalized recommendations driven by listening habits. It also includes 24/7 global radio stations, such as Apple Music 1 (formerly Beats 1), hosted by prominent DJs like Zane Lowe, as well as genre-specific stations like Apple Music Hits and Apple Music Country. Exclusive releases from major artists, live performances, and original content — like music documentaries and artist interviews — further enhance its appeal.
Additionally, Apple Music supports high-quality audio, including lossless streaming and Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, providing an immersive listening experience for audiophiles.
The service also integrates with HomePod and CarPlay, making it a versatile choice for Apple-centric households. While it lacks a robust free ad-supported tier compared to Spotify, deep integration with Apple’s hardware, focus on premium audio, and commitment to artist-driven content make it a compelling option for music lovers seeking a polished, all-in-one streaming experience.
Apple revealed its versions of eight upcoming new emoji in iOS 26.4 beta 4, which it pushed to developers Monday. Standouts include Distorted Face — sure to become a hit when it arrives to the general public — and Hairy Creature, which looks an awful lot like Bigfoot.
See Apple’s versions of all the new emoji, and all the other changes in the beta, below.
If you’re tired of your kids’ or partner’s music polluting your music recommendations and history, there’s a solution. While Apple Music does not offer a built-in private mode, you can make your own using a Focus mode.
Turn on a special Focus mode, and Apple Music will ignore all the songs, artists and albums that play next.
It’s even possible to enable your private mode when you connect to a specific Bluetooth speaker, like a living room sound system. Or when you enter a specific location, like work. Here’s how to set it up — keep reading or watch our quick video.
Upcoming iOS 26 feature Apple Music Concerts solves one of music lovers’ biggest heartbreaks — finding out too late that your favorite artist already passed through your neighborhood on tour, unbeknownst to you.
The feature lets you see shows coming soon to your city, with convenient details on venues, ticketing, set lists and more. You can also look up an artist’s tour and see all their upcoming shows.
Supposedly, Apple Music Concerts will even notify you when a tour is coming nearby. The feature, available now in iOS 26.4 beta 2, hasn’t been out long enough for me to test. But if it works like the Apple Music notifications that alert you about new tracks, it could be a lifesaver.
Unfortunately, though, there’s one serious drawback. Here’s an overview of Apple Music Concerts.
Major League Soccer’s 31st season gets underway Saturday, with all 30 clubs taking the pitch for MLS is Back weekend. And Apple TV subscribers will have a front-row seat to all of it, with all 13 matches available and no blackouts across more than 100 countries and regions, Apple said.
“All eyes are on North America this year as the MLS season kicks off this week and the World Cup approaches,” said Thomas Müller, Vancouver Whitecaps FC attacking midfielder and 2014 FIFA World Cup champion. I’m excited to begin my first full season in MLS, help the team build on what we started, and give fans everywhere the chance to follow our journey on Apple TV.”
All the tiny signs, symbols and icons on the Apple Music app’s Now Playing screen lack labels — and it’s not obvious at all what they do. Do you know what tapping the infinity symbol does? How about the two wavy lines?
This quick guide runs through all the Apple Music buttons and controls, so you can get acclimated to its interface. Keep reading or watch our short video.
Apple Music rolled out the red carpet Monday for Bad Bunny as the Puerto Rican superstar prepares to headline the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show on February 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. So here’s your chance to get to know Bad Bunny before the Super Bowl with a variety of special programming.
This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: The second-gen AirTag finally arrives, and it packs some pretty awesome upgrades — although you’d never know by looking at it!
We discuss all the reasons we love AirTags in general, and Cult of Mac writer Ed Hardy joins us for his review of Apple’s upgraded tracking tag.
Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:
Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
Apple just gave new subscribers an extended opportunity to try its music streaming service, offering three months of Apple Music completely free. The promotion to get three months of Apple Music free — which runs through February 24 — greatly expands the standard one-month trial period.
The new offer coincides with Apple’s sponsorship of the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show with musical act Bad Bunny.
If you come across a live concert recording, a demo track or an indie song that’s not already in Apple Music, you can add it to your Apple Music library really easily. It’s simple to upload music to Apple Music and, in fact, you don’t even need an Apple Music subscription — just a computer and your iPhone.
Adding music to your library manually used to be the only way to listen to music on your computer, way back before the iTunes Music Store made paid downloads popular and Apple Music entered the streaming area. Even after 25-plus years, Apple still supports the feature — and thankfully so, because I use it all the time.
It’s the top reason why I don’t use Spotify. While Spotify technically supports custom music as well, it’s a convoluted and clunky process. On Apple Music, it’s dead simple to add your own tracks and only takes minutes. All you need is a Mac or a Windows 10 PC with iTunes.
Here’s how it works — keep reading or watch our quick video.
Spotify is once again raising prices in the United States. This is the streaming service’s third price bump in four years. By comparison, Apple Music hasn’t raised its price since 2022.
Apple Music and Apple TV just had their biggest month ever. That strong streaming performance added to a banner year for the collection of products that go under the heading of Apple services.
“2025 was a record-breaking year for Apple Services, marked by remarkable growth, global expansion, and continuous innovation,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, in a press release Monday.
Music-recognition service Shazam now features Popular Segments, a data-driven feature that reveals exactly which part of a song resonates most with listeners all over the world, according to an Apple website update Thursday.
Apple is bundling three months of free Apple Arcade access with every Apple Gift Card purchase. Best Buy is running an even better offer, bundling access to Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade and Apple TV with an Apple Gift Card.
The best part? The offer applies to both new and returning subscribers.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: With the sudden departure of Apple’s UI design chief Alan Dye — and the prompt naming of a Steve Jobs-era veteran to take his place — are we looking at a software renaissance for iPhones and Macs?
We certainly hope so!
Also on The CultCast:
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video version, embedded below.
Apple Music Replay is a great way to find your music stats for the past year: the most played songs, artists and albums in the last 12 months. Similar to Spotify Wrapped and the like, your annual Apple Music Replay is a fun way to see what tracks you listened to most.
Fun fact: Apple usually publicizes Apple Music Replay in December, but it’s actually updated weekly and available throughout the whole year! You can check in whenever you want to see how your year is shaping up.
We’ll show you how to find it and how to share your top music of the year to your friends and social media.
Spotify just made it easier to import your music library from other streaming services. And you can do this directly from its mobile app.
The company has partnered with popular third-party service TuneMyMusic to integrate this functionality into its app.
Apple Music crowned rapper Tyler, The Creator as its 2025 Artist of the Year on Thursday, honoring the hip-hop innovator’s remarkable creative output and cultural influence over the past 12 months. With streaming minutes numbering in the billions, the guy gives new meaning to “off the charts.”
This year has been Tyler’s most successful to date across Apple Music’s platform. Between November 2024 and October 2025, fans worldwide streamed his music for more than 4.5 billion minutes, marking career highs in plays, listeners and total listening hours on the service.
You can queue songs in Apple Music so the tracks you want to hear play automatically, one after another. You don’t need to wait for the song to end and manually play the next one. And if you want to start over, you can quickly clear the queue as well.
Plus, you can let friends add songs to the queue from their own phones — even if they don’t have an Apple Music subscription. Watch our video or keep reading below.
October 9, 1991: A court orders Apple to pay $26.5 million to Apple Corps, The Beatles’ record label and holding company, for trademark infringement. The end of this Beatles versus Apple lawsuit marks the second time Cupertino is forced to pay the English rock band.
The ruling comes a decade after Apple swore it would never get into the music business.
September 1, 2010: Apple’s new music-focused social network, Ping, ships as part of iTunes 10. Apple says the service will let users discover new music and more easily follow their favorite artists.
Ping racks up 1 million signups in the first 48 hours. Nevertheless, Apple’s social network is doomed from the start.
Apple significantly expanded availability of its Apple Music migration tool, bringing the service to the United States and eight other major markets this week after months of limited testing. It helps users transfer their music libraries from competing streaming services like Spotify.
The Apple One subscription bundle lets users save money on Apple’s subscription services like Apple Music, Apple TV+ and iCloud+ storage. The company offers three Apple One configurations. Check pricing on Apple One’s three tiers — Individual, Family and Premier — and find out what you get for your money (and, most importantly, how much you can save).
With a recent price increase for Apple TV+, Apple One just became an even better deal!
Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass will once again serve as the exclusive global streaming destination for the Leagues Cup, North America’s premier cross-league soccer tournament that kicked off Tuesday and runs through August.
The monthlong competition brings together clubs from Major League Soccer and Mexico’s Liga MX in what organizers call the first in-season club tournament across all men’s professional sports in North America.
Apple Music Replay All Time launched Monday, letting listeners see which tracks they’ve played over their history with the service.
It comes as part of a broader 10th-anniversary celebration for the music-streaming service. Other upgrades include an upcoming top-500 Apple Music tracks countdown, special programming on Apple Music Radio and a new Apple Music studio planned to open in Los Angeles this summer.
June 30, 2015: Apple launches 24/7 radio station Apple Music 1 (launched originally as Beats 1). Part of Apple Music, the new global radio station features top DJs ranging from former BBC presenter Zane Lowe to top musical artists like Lil Wayne.
Apple calls Apple Music 1 “the biggest radio station in the world” and says it beats (no pun intended) all other music stations when it comes to concurrent listeners. However, without hard figures to back that up, some call out Cupertino on this claim.