- Apple Music is launching five new features in iOS 24.6, including the new Playlist Playground and Concerts Near You features
- It also gets a new UI design for albums and playlists
- Despite its new look, it’s divided users who have called out Apple for its lack of accessibility features
Apple will unveil its next batch of new products in a few weeks at its event on March 4, but it’s already teasing some of the new upgrades coming to Apple Music in iOS 24.6 — and there’s no doubt they’ll breathe new life into one of the best music streaming services.
If you’re signed up for the iOS 24.6 beta, there’s a chance you’ve already caught a glimpse of the new Apple Music features expected to roll out widely in the coming weeks. Unlike Spotify, it’s not in Apple Music’s nature to roll out one new feature after another, so the fact that it’s bringing five new upgrades at once is big news.
As we recently covered, Playlist Playground is one of the standout new features coming to Apple Music — if you’re familiar with Spotify’s AI playlist tool, Playlist Playground isn’t all that different.
It works very similarly in that you enter a text prompt or select an idea preset and it will then generate a playlist of songs based on your request. It’s Apple Music’s second AI music streaming tool, following the launch of its clever AutoMix beat-matching feature.
It’s clear that Apple Music has had its eye on what’s working on Spotify, and similar to Spotify’s Live Events hub, Apple Music is introducing a ‘Concerts Near You’ feature. While we don’t know what this looks like in the app yet, we do know it’s coming, and it will be refreshing to see Apple Music connect its subscribers to live concerts – I’m surprised it didn’t do this sooner.
Additionally, Apple Music finally lifts a pesky playlist restriction by letting you add a song to multiple playlists at once—a freedom subscribers on other platforms have always had. And building on last year’s Ambient Music feature, Apple is making it available as a new home screen widget in various sizes, giving app visitors a new shortcut.
So this Apple Music upgrade is pretty significant, but it doesn’t stop there. Its album and playlist interfaces are getting a facelift — and while it puts Spotify’s messy app to shame, not everyone is happy with the result.
Apple Music’s UI upgrades are polished and striking, but it’s abandoned accessibility
Although Spotify has all the fun features, its cluttered interface constantly attracts user backlash, and now that Apple Music has given its albums and playlists a facelift, many Spotify users are demanding the same.
Previously, Apple Music’s playlist and album pages featured a large, and sometimes immersive, graphic with the tracklist against a plain white background underneath. In iOS 24.6, the album/playlist artwork is now used for the entire page, so now the tracklist will be positioned against the most prominent color of the artwork. A user shared a comparison image on Reddit (see below).
Apple has murdered Spotify with UI from r/truespotify
While trying out Apple Music while taking a break from Spotify, its clean layout was one of my favorite parts of the UX, and it highlighted everything I didn’t like about Spotify’s design. There’s no doubt that Apple Music is leaps and bounds ahead here; however, users have been quick to point out Apple’s disregard for accessibility, and I can see why.
The Liquid Glass redesign still divides iPhone users as it is, and while I enjoy some aspects of its glow, Apple Music’s new UI is quite difficult to read in places, and I much prefer the clear separation between the colorful artwork and the tracklist. And yes, the ability to disable Liquid Glass is there along with other accessibility features, but the default could be more accommodating to those with reading difficulties.
Does this change how I feel about Spotify’s messy UI? Not at all – I still think it could take some notes from Apple Music. That said, I have a feeling that Apple isn’t quite done extending its new aesthetic through all areas of its music streaming app — it’s an overkill waiting to happen.
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