Apple Music

Whether you're staying in your hometown for the weekend or traveling to a nearby or faraway city, live music is always a great option for entertainment — but finding decent music or a good music venue isn't always easy. With new features added to two of its core apps, your iPhone just made it easier to do both.

A massive new feature just hit Apple Music, and it's the biggest thing to happen to Apple Music since Apple Music was even a thing.

It's that time of year again. No, not the holiday season … the "share your year in music listening" season. And no matter which music streaming service you use, there's a way to find and share (or not share) your activity from 2022.

After updating to iOS 15 or iPadOS 15, you'll notice a new "Shared with You" section in certain Apple apps that contains recent shares from conversations in Messages. If you don't like seeing shared content from specific contacts or groups, there's a way to block them from Shared with You on your iPhone or iPad.

On May 17, Apple announced that Lossless Audio playback for Apple Music was finally coming to subscribers in June. The long-awaited option will let users stream songs at a much higher quality than ever before. Still, in the fine print, Apple noted that you wouldn't be able to listen to the best sound quality — Hi-Resolution Lossless — on your iPhone without a DAC.

Apple's big iOS 14.5 update adds over 60 new features and changes to your iPhone, some of which are upgrades that audiophiles and even casual music listeners can appreciate. Whether you subscribe to the Apple Music streaming service or simply use the Music app for your own library of tunes, iOS 14.5 has a few things you should know about.

Sometimes, you don't want to be the only one enjoying killer lyrics from your favorite songs. Sure, you can text your friends and let them know how great these tracks are, but you could also take advantage of one of Apple Music's coolest new features of iOS 14.5 — lyrics sharing!

Your Apple Music subscription is tied to the Apple ID that subscribed, so you can stream content from any iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, or watchOS device that your Apple ID is signed in to. However, things get slightly more complicated when you want to listen to Apple Music on another device you use with a different Apple ID, such as a work iPhone. Complicated, but not impossible.

At the end of every year, Spotify analyzes your listening habits for the last 12 months and creates a colorful graphic showcasing your favorite artists, albums, artists, and more. Apple Music does have its own version called Replay, but it's just not very good.

Even though the Music app took a backseat during Apple's initial iOS 14 announcements, there's a lot going on in the updated app. Some of the new features and changes apply only to Apple Music subscribers, while others apply to your own music library, so there's something for everyone.

You shouldn't care what other people think, but sometimes, it's unavoidable. Take your music tastes, for instance. Sure, you might want your friends to think you only listen to the coolest songs, but we all have our guilty pleasures. If you're uncomfortable with your peers seeing your listening history in Apple Music, know there's something you can do about it — on iOS or Android.

The music you listen to is often a reflection of your personality, which is why people tend to use the artwork from their favorite albums as device wallpapers. But one lonely album cover may not look right on your iPhone's lock screen, and it's not indicative of your broader music interests. To combine cover art into one lock screen background, there's a shortcut that makes it easy to do for any playlist.

The Music app for iPhone underwent a significant update back in iOS 8.4 when the Apple Music subscription service was incorporated into the user interface. It then had another transformation in iOS 10 that improved the UI for everyone. But things can still feel a little cluttered in Music, even in iOS 14, especially if you don't or never will subscribe to Apple Music.

Don't like how Apple's default Radar ringtone — or any other tone — wakes you up in the morning? Then don't use them as your alarm sound. Instead, use your favorite song to get you out of bed. Whether you enjoy an acoustic tune or a heavy, energetic jam, you can choose any Apple Music song you want, or any track in your personal Music library, to get you going each day.

To share a song or album to family and friends, it's as easy as copying its link in the app and pasting that into a message. However, not everyone uses the same music streaming service, so a link to an Apple Music song won't do a Spotify, Tidal, Pandora, Deezer, or YouTube Music subscriber any good. If you're on an iPhone, though, there's an easy way to convert links from one service to another.

Sometimes, we get stuck on a song so good we want the world to know about it. Sure, you could take the time to save the album art to your iPhone, then upload it to your Instagram or Facebook story, but why bother doing that when you can simply share the song to your story right from Apple Music?

There are a lot of songs out there, so it's tough to remember all of the words to every song you like. If you're like me and have a less-than-perfect memory, visual aids will ensure your Apple Music jams aren't interrupted with incorrect or forgotten lyrics. That's why Apple's update with time-synced lyrics is so cool, essentially turning your iPhone into a portable karaoke machine.

Apple's streaming music service, Apple Music, offers a three-month free trial that hopes to get you addicted enough to pay for a monthly subscription. You may even see a one-month trial if you're a former subscriber. While it's not very obvious, there is a way to cancel either free trial from auto-renewing. That way, you don't have to deal with Apple support to try and get your money back because you forgot.

Switching from one popular music streaming service to another shouldn't have to be a hassle, but it is if you want to transfer all your favorite music over. No popular service offers a built-in feature to export or import playlists, so if you want to move your favorite Apple Music playlists over to Spotify, you'll have to use a third-party service.

We all fall sleep in different ways. Some may require absolute silence, others need white noise, and some enjoy listening to a song or two to help bring on the sleep. If you're in the latter group, like I am, there's a problem. Fall asleep before the music stops, and a loud song may jolt you awake in the middle of the night. With an iPhone, however, that issue can be avoided with a little setup.

Newer smartphones usually come with a decent amount of storage, even at the lowest tier, but that doesn't stop items from filling up all that space. Watching movies offline, shooting 4K videos, and other processes can fill up your phone fast, and so can albums and songs in Apple Music.

Staying alert to directions and changing the music you're listening to on your smartphone at the same time can be cumbersome, but Google Maps wants to fix that. One of the mapping service's features allows you to control music playing on Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music from inside of Google Maps — while you're navigating in the car, on public transport, or even on your bike.

With iOS 8.4 and iTunes 12.2, we got our first look at Apple Music, Apple's new streaming subscription service. While it's a little late to the party, there is definitely an incentive for iOS and Mac OS X users to switch over from competitors due to its heavy integration with the Apple ecosystem.

Around the end of each year, Spotify offers a year-in-review service so its users can see what they listened to the past year and share their listening histories in fun infographics. Apple Music does not have such a feature, unfortunately, but there is a way to curb that FOMO feeling this holiday season by downloading your listening history not just for 2018, but for the entire lifespan of your account.

For most carriers, "unlimited" data plans aren't really unlimited, and they still cost more than data limited plans. So while subscribing to music streaming services and storing your own music library in the cloud may be more convenient, it may eat your data up like candy. To keep that from happening, try downloading tracks from Apple Music for offline playback.

When you've exhausted your data plan, streaming isn't an option unless you want overcharges. While Apple Music makes it easy to download songs for offline listening, you need to add the music to your library first. This creates an extra step in downloading music, but it doesn't have to — Apple Music lets you automatically download any song, album, or playlist that you add to your library.

Apple Music's name reveals a lot about itself — it's made by Apple, and it has a lot of music. 40 million songs, in fact, if the iPhone-maker is to be believed. With that many songs, you may find a gem before any of your friends or family do. How can you share that song with them?

Apple Music, Apple's answer to Spotify, has many interesting features packed in to make that $9.99/month price tag as attractive as possible. One of those features is geared towards social listeners — those who want to follow other Apple Music users and who want to be followed back. But here's the thing: how do you know if your account is public or private?