As a carefree college student with plenty of time to kill after classes and before marching band duties, I prided myself on staying on top of all the new music that came out every day.

It wasn’t that hard for me to stay in the know, since there was an abundance of blogs showcasing new artists, and my dorm mates were generous with their musical recommendations. Even after I graduated from my alma mater, I stayed in all types of musical circles that never let me fall behind whenever a new song by a popular or emerging artist started gaining popularity.

Now, as a man in his late 30s whose time is occupied by work and tons of other personal responsibilities, it’s gotten hard for me to follow all the newest releases from my favorite musical genres. Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, do a great job of exposing me to fresh artists, but I’ve had one too many instances of being disappointed by their biggest songs.

I figured ChatGPT would make for a great musical tastemaker and lead me to the promised land of new tunes. That trick definitely did the job, as it exposed me to the best sources for brand-new songs and songs I never knew about beforehand.

Freshening up my playlists for the summer and beyond

I put ChatGPT to work when I presented it with this prompt: “Recommend the best ways to stay informed about emerging artists and new songs from the following musical genres: hip-hop/rap, R&B, metal, J-Pop, and K-Pop. Give me sites and YouTube channels that can help me out as well.”

The chatbot stepped up to develop a new music curation system that combines genre-specific media outlets, discovery-focused YouTube channels and curated playlists/charts.

ChatGPT then laid out a bunch of trustworthy sites and YouTube channels for each genre that have the sole intent of putting me onto a wealth of recently released songs from legacy acts and emerging artists. I ended up leaving with one site and YT channel for each genre, as you can see below:

• Hip-Hop/Rap: Raptology and gentR
• R&B: Rated R&B and Stereohearts R&B
• Metal: Metal Injection and Nuclear Blast Records
• J-Pop: Billboard Japan Hot 100 and RICECAKEProd
• K-Pop: Billboard Japan Hot 100 and K-Ville Entertainment

Alongside those reliable sources, ChatGPT also mentioned the likes of Groover Charts, COLORSxSTUDIOS, THE FIRST TAKE, STUDIO CHOOM and Pitchfork as additional gateways to new artists and music. With my new music discovery system in place, I had an easier way to find something new to jam to during my daily walks to the train station for work.

Here are 10 of the latest songs that made my playlist thanks to ChatGPT’s dependable music curating process:

• “Day In The Sun (Gettin’ wit U)” by De La Soul
• “Pop This Heat” by JPEGMAFIA
• “Paegant Stage” by Tone Stith
• “G.Y.A.M.L. (My Love) by Glenn Lewis
• “Erased” by SYLOSIS
• “GHOST TOWN” by SPACE OF VARIATIONS
• “LUCID DREAM” by IVE
• “Bubble” by Yorushika
• “TNT” by Cortis
• “Summer’s Not Over” by Tiffany Young

Final thoughts

After realizing I was listening to the same five to 10 tracks on repeat, I made a conscious effort to use ChatGPT as my digital music curator. The AI tool helped point me toward new artists, playlists, websites and YouTube channels that regularly cover the genres I already love.

Now, taking a walk through the city with an updated playlist has become one of the parts of my day I look forward to most.

Music has always been the lifeblood of my life, and discovering fresh tracks again has made it feel exciting in a way I didn’t realize I was missing.

More from Tom’s Guide

• I use Gemini every day — these are the 7 features most people overlook
• I use these 5 prompts to stop AI from giving me lazy answers — the difference is huge
• I use ChatGPT every day — but Gemini and Claude keep beating it in these key areas

Without music, I’d go insane.

I just can’t fathom going on my daily walks to the train and having to listen to cars whizzing by and pigeons feasting on leftover bread crumbs over actual tunes downloaded to my iPod (yes, I still have a working one). And whenever I sit around with my friends or go for a random drive, we always end up sharing new songs we’ve recently heard and putting each other onto fresh artists we may have never known about beforehand.

Now that Apple Music is one of the many apps users can connect to within ChatGPT, I decided to test its playlist-generating abilities. For this stress test, I gave it three situational prompts to challenge the AI to match my mood.

Here's what happened.

‘90s hip-hop vibes for an underground hangout

My friend group is varied — their music tastes are just as diverse.

One of those groups is a bunch of guys who have no desire to listen to today’s brand of rap/hip-hop. That’s because all they need in their lives are classic boom bap tunes that originated in and were inspired by the golden era of that genre, the ‘90s.

With Apple Music in tow, I prompted ChatGPT with this request: Build a playlist of 10 songs for 90s hip-hop fans who only want to hear from obscure underground rap artists. The chatbot tapped into Apple Music to present me with a list of songs that I’m sure would make ‘90s babies break their necks while furiously bobbing their heads to. ChatGPT deemed its picks as songs that barely grazed the surface outside indie circuits, college radio, or Fondle ’Em Records-era circles:

• Company Flow — “The Fire in Which You Burn”
• Juggaknots — “You Gotta Do One of These”
• Mic Geronimo — “S**t’s Real”
• Natural Elements — “First of All”
• Prince Paul feat. Kool Keith — “Weapon World”
• Pete Rock, InI — “Fakin Jax”
• Raw Produce — “Weight of the World”
• Arsonists, Q-Unique, Jise — “Language Arts”
• Non Phixion feat. Necro — “Black Helicopters”
• Godfather Don — “Status (Solo OG Home Demo)”

ChatGPT also noted that this playlist perfectly encapsulates the late-90s indie explosion — Rawkus, Fondle ’Em, Stretch & Bobbito-era NYC, where lyrical density and dusty beats mattered more than radio spins.

Jazz tunes for a moody evening stroll

For my second playlist request, I decided to go a completely different route with my setup: Build a playlist of 10 atmospheric jazz songs that are perfect for walking through the city streets at night.

Before ChatGPT supplied me with its choice of songs, it generated a pretty apt interpretation of the playlist I requested: This one’s built for empty sidewalks, neon reflections, and that slightly surreal “city never sleeps” feeling—slow tempos, space between notes, and just enough melancholy. And it leans into modal, ambient, and spiritual jazz, where the mood carries more weight than the melody—perfect for walking with no destination.

These are the 10 songs that the Apple Music ChatGPT app highlighted:

• Bill Evans — “Peace Piece”
• Miles Davis — “Blue in Green”
• Ornette Coleman — “Lonely Woman”
• Miles Davis — “In a Silent Way”
• Bill Evans Trio — “Nardis”
• McCoy Tyner — “Search for Peace”
• Wayne Shorter — “Infant Eyes”
• Modern Jazz Quartet — “Django”
• Pharoah Sanders — “The Creator Has a Master Plan”
• John Coltrane — “Naima”

Hype-inducing metal for a wrestling fan's road trip

For my final playlist prompt, I wanted to evoke the spirit of excited wrestling fans driving to a major wrestling show while screaming their heads off in unison to heavy metal tracks: Build a playlist of 10 metal songs that are perfect to listen to during a road trip to a major wrestling event.

ChatGPT knew exactly where I was trying to go musically when it acknowledged my playlist request as the type of songs that could double as a wrestler’s entrance music.

The songs that the Apple Music app presented me with included a mix of recognizable groove metal, nu-metal, and classic metal tracks that I was pleased to see:

• Pantera — “Walk”
• Slipknot — “Duality”
• Slipknot — “Before I Forget”
• System Of A Down — “Chop Suey!”
• Disturbed — “Indestructible”
• Iron Maiden — “The Trooper”
• Metallica — “Enter Sandman”
• Drowning Pool — “Bodies”
• Disturbed — “Down With the Sickness”
• Motörhead — “Ace of Spades”

Final thoughts

Out of all the apps inside ChatGPT, Apple Music was the one I was most excited to try — and it didn’t disappoint.

Basic prompts like “top songs right now” or “best tracks from this artist” felt too generic. They worked, but the results weren’t anything special. What actually surprised me was how much better the playlists got when I was more specific.

Once I started describing the exact vibe — whether it was a laid-back hangout or something more upbeat — the results jumped from decent to genuinely great.

At this point, it’s something I’d actually use every day. It’s an easy way to build playlists that feel more tailored without spending time digging through songs myself. It's especially great for last-minute plans, road trips or hitting the gym.

And I’m not done testing these apps yet — more to come. Let me know in the comments what apps are your favorite.

More from Tom’s Guide

• Tubi is the latest app inside ChatGPT — now you can instantly get movie and TV recommendations
• Netflix’s new AI doesn’t create videos — it rewrites reality (and it's open source)
• Forget Siri — I just tried the new CarPlay with iOS 26.5 beta and now I can talk to ChatGPT while I drive

I didn’t expect this to be the feature I ended up using the most in iOS 26.4, but it’s quickly become my favorite. Not because it’s flashy, but because it solves something I’ve always found slightly annoying.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve thought about going to a gig, only to forget to check dates or give up halfway through searching for tickets. It always felt like more effort than it should be.

Now, Apple Music surfaces concerts from artists I already listen to, right inside the app. I don’t have to go looking for anything. I just come across shows while I’m listening, which makes it much harder to miss something I’d actually want to go to.

Here’s how to find it and why it’s worth paying attention to.

Why this feature is so useful

At first glance, this feels like one of those features you might try once and forget about. In practice, it fits neatly into how most people already use Apple Music, which makes it much more useful than it sounds.

Because it’s built into the app itself, there’s no need to check separate sites or keep track of tour dates manually. You come across concerts naturally while listening, which makes it far easier to spot something worth going to without planning ahead.

It’s also good at surfacing artists you might not think to search for, but would still want to see live. That makes it feel less like a tool you have to use and more like something that works in the background.

Features like this have been a strength of Spotify for a while, so it’s good to see Apple Music catching up here. It finally brings that same sense of passive discovery to the platform.

With summer coming up, when there are more gigs and festivals to choose from, it feels especially useful. It’s not a dramatic change, but it removes just enough friction to make actually booking tickets feel a lot more likely.

More from Tom's Guide

• Stop using the default iPhone vibration — this iPhone setting lets you 'feel' who's calling you
• Ditch the signature apps — your iPhone has a hidden built-in tool to sign any document
• I haven’t answered a scam call in months — this hidden iPhone feature is why

Napster — yes, that Napster — has launched a redesigned mobile app for iOS and Android, and it looks nothing like a traditional music streaming service.

Instead of offering licensed catalogs from record labels, the new Napster app is built entirely around AI-generated content. That includes music, podcasts, wellness audio and what the company calls “AI Companions” — conversational video agents designed to collaborate with users in real time.

The shift marks a sharp break from the streaming model most listeners are used to. There are no top 100 charts, no major-label releases and no passive listening queues. Napster says the goal is to turn listeners into creators, letting users co-create music and audio experiences directly inside the app rather than just press play.

At the center of the experience are interactive tools that let users shape sound, experiment with genres and engage with AI agents that respond, adapt and build alongside them. In Napster’s framing, the app isn’t meant to replace Spotify or Apple Music — it’s trying to redefine what a music app can be in the age of generative AI.

It’s a bold reinvention for a brand once synonymous with digital disruption. Two decades after helping upend the music industry, Napster is betting that AI-powered creation — not licensed streaming — is the next frontier.

What’s different about the new Napster app

At its core, the new Napster app is an AI creation platform rather than a streaming service. Users can interact with AI artists, experiment with original music generation and publish finished tracks without needing production software or technical expertise.

According to the company, features in the app include:

• AI-generated music across multiple genres and moods, composed dynamically rather than selected from a fixed catalog
• AI-hosted podcasts that adapt over time based on listener feedback
• Wellness experiences, including generative ambient music, sleep soundscapes and adaptive meditation audio
• AI artist collaboration tools that let users co-write, co-produce and perform music with AI personalities, generating mixed and mastered tracks that can be shared or published instantly

Rather than playlists or artist pages, the app presents a collection of interactive experiences that evolve as users engage with them.

All AI, all the time

One of the most notable aspects of Napster’s new approach is what’s missing: human artists. The app does not license music from record labels or host traditional artist catalogs. Every piece of content is generated through AI models and user prompts.

Napster CTO Edo Segal says this model allows content to adapt continuously to each listener. Instead of replaying the same track, each interaction is meant to produce a slightly different result.

The company positions this as a fundamental shift in how music and audio are created — one where listeners can step into the role of producer or performer without upfront costs or technical barriers.

AI Companions and a broader platform push

The mobile app also connects to Napster’s broader ecosystem of AI tools and hardware. Users can interact with AI video Companions designed to offer specialized collaboration or guidance, and the app supports web access and a macOS version.

Napster says the app integrates with its previously announced Napster View hardware and follows the launch of Napster Station, which debuted at CES in Las Vegas.

CEO John Acunto framed the app as part of a larger shift away from traditional media consumption, positioning AI as a creative partner rather than a recommendation engine.

The takeaway

For consumers, the new Napster app represents a different bet than Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube Music. There are no familiar artists to search for and no static playlists to follow. Instead, the value proposition is experimentation — generating music on demand, shaping AI personas and collaborating with synthetic artists.

Whether that model appeals to mainstream listeners remains an open question. But it highlights a growing trend in consumer AI: platforms that prioritize creation and interaction over discovery and playback.

The new Napster app is available now worldwide on iOS and Android, with sign-ups also open via the web.

More from Tom's Guide

• The ‘glitch’ prompt instantly makes ChatGPT smarter — I use it every day
• I let ChatGPT plan what I watch every night — and it ended my streaming scroll
• I thought my ChatGPT chats were gone — here’s how I found them instantly

Most people use AI to summarize PDFs or write emails. I use it to scan my fridge, calm my email guilt and even generate custom bedtime stories that appeal to my four-year-old and eight-year-old.

Over the past year, I’ve tested some seriously weird AI automations using ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and a few creative shortcuts. I didn’t expect most of them to work. But they did — and now I rely on them more than I’d like to admit. Here are 9 of the strangest ways I’m using AI in real life — and why you might want to try them too.

1. Bathroom shelf inventory

My husband uses one product for hair and body. I have about 15 bottles for any given day of the week. It drives him crazy, so I leaned on Gemini to calm his nerves and help eliminate clutter. I simply snapped a photo of my chaotic shelf and asked Gemini: “List everything you see and help me organize."

It gave me a categorized inventory — and even told me that both types of conditioner do almost the same thing. Weird? Yes. Useful? Also yes. From there, it added each item to my grocery list, which is managed using the built‑in list feature in Google Keep.

2. Spur of the moment meal planner

I have a shopping list (as mentioned above), but if I haven't been to the store in several days, I'll snap a photo of my fridge and ask Gemini:

“Plan 3 dinners using only what’s in here.”

It will always serve up shockingly decent ideas — including one that used the sad, half-wilted spinach I always ignore. It told me to use it in a chicken stir-fry that is now part of our meal rotation.

3. NFC-triggered bedtime story

I stuck an old hotel key card onto my kid’s nightstand. Now, when they tap it, it launches ChatGPT Voice and runs:

“Tell a 3-minute bedtime story with a purple unicorn and a space pirate.”

They think I’m magic. But it keeps them entertained while I'm cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.

4. Dream journal pipeline

Every morning, I ramble into a voice note about my dreams. Then I run it through Whisper + ChatGPT to turn it into a real journal entry. It even tags symbols and recurring themes. It’s weirdly therapeutic — and occasionally inspiring.

5. Price checker shortcut

I saved a Shortcut that asks ChatGPT to analyze Amazon prices on various products I'm watching. I simply upload the link and the graph associated with Amaon's new Price History feature and use the prompt:

“Tell me if these products are at their lowest price in the past 60 days.”

It’s saved me from more than one impulse buy.

6. Email guilt tracker

After sending a cringe email, I ask ChatGPT:

“Rate how awkward this was from 1–10, and tell me why I’ll survive.”

Does it help? Yes. Always. I often run my conversations by ChatGPT and ask how I could have said something differently to help me improve. I've always been extremely shy, so I have found this to be incredibly helpful.

7. Weekly “handle it” prompt

Every Sunday, I ask ChatGPT;

“What’s one thing I keep avoiding — and what’s the easiest way to start it this week?”

It’s almost never wrong and it always helps me begin my week on the right foot. I've noticed that by using my 'handle it' prompt, I'm almost always more productive.

8. Playlist refresh bot

There's nothing worse than a stale playlist. That's why I gave Gemini access to my Apple Music and linked it with Google Home. Then I prompt:

“Recommend 5 songs I’ve never heard that match my current vibe.”

It nails it — including a lo-fi remix I now have on repeat. It's great for having music on while I work or adding a soundtrack while I'm cleaning the house.

9. Using AI to figure out to fix things around the house

So many times this year I've relied on ChatGPT Voice and Vision and Gemini Live for advice. ChatGPT Voice walked me through changing a tail light (I saved a lot of time and money doing it myself), knowing what type of lock I needed to buy for our back door and, perhaps my favorite, that the "spiders" I often find in the basement are not going to kill me.

While AI doesn't replace an expert, it does help in a pinch.

Final thoughts

It's been a great year for AI. There have been so many developments like Gemini 3 and Nano Banana as well as Alexa+.

Most people use AI to work faster. But the best uses I’ve found are smaller, sillier — and a lot more personal. These hacks won’t show up in a product demo or productivity blog, but they’ve made my life smoother, funnier, and, dare I say, more human.

So if you’ve only used ChatGPT to fix grammar or plan trips, try something more out-of-the-box. Start with your fridge or your kids' bedtime routines, and you might discover a new and easier way to do something.

More from Tom's Guide

• I turned a hotel key card into a one-tap shortcut for ChatGPT — and now I use it every day
• I used Nano Banana on undeveloped photo negatives — and finally saw what was inside
• I tested Google’s Nano Banana — drawing directly on my photos works better than typing prompts

MP3 players and retro audio tech has experienced a resurgence in recent years, with brands such as We Are Rewind making cassette players. I, myself, am no stranger to the popularity of MP3 players. The early years of my life were spent with a Sony Discman, one I was obsessed with, and I'd spend days burning CDs.

As I grew older, Apple's iPods, came into existence, and boy were they fantastic. I went from having an iPod Shuffle to an iPod nano — and the last iPod I owned was an iPod touch 6th Gen. My parents gifted me a space gray iPod touch for my 18th birthday, and it was my old means of listening to music when I was in boarding school and we weren't allowed any phones or laptops or any other tech — and I adored my iPod.

So, when I went home to India a few weeks back, my dad brought out a box which contained our old compact point-and-shoot cameras, my iPod Nano (which I, sadly, couldn't bring back to life) in a brown flip-up leather case, and my iPod Touch — and I couldn't contain my excitement. I knew I had to bring it back with me, and so I did, and I decided to go a week without using my smartphone to listen to my favorite tunes. The result? I really enjoyed it, and it made me yearn for much simpler days.

What I like

I love the nostalgia of it all

When I first held my iPod Touch after about a decade, all the memories came flooding back. Having to replace the Lightning cable a few times because it kept breaking. The 8MP rear camera I took numerous photos of flowers and leaves on. The satisfying click sound of the home button (it doesn't beat the clickwheel on old iPods though). And that lovely, clickity clackity typing sound — I really wish my Google Pixel 7 Pro sounded like that.

What also felt nostalgic was going through my music library and seeing all the songs I'd added to my iPod Touch way back when. Many artists on my iPod Touch still show up in my Spotify Wrapped every year, such as Linkin Park, Twenty One Pilots, Poets of the Fall, Pink Floyd, Alt-J, among others. But I discovered some long-forgotten gems too. It had escaped me just how much I liked listening to The Veronicas, Cigarettes After Sex, and Flipsyde, to name a few.

But imagine my surprise when I saw Taylor Swift on there (an artist I try to avoid at all costs). And then I remembered. In my dorm at boarding school, I was one of the only people who had an iPod Touch, and my dormmates would borrow my iPod Touch when I wasn't using it. I remember getting requests from them to download their favorite artists on to my iPod when I got the chance during our school vacations. It got a chuckle out of me, to be fair (and then I promptly deleted her album off my iPod).

There are no distractions, only music

I'm not opposed to using smartphones to listen to music. I've done it for years now and I've never once felt like I needed to complain about it... until recently. I use streaming services to listen to music on my commute to and from work, in my downtime, and whenever else I can. But because said streaming service (Spotify and Qobuz, to be precise) is on my phone, I tend to get distracted. A lot. I'll put on a playlist and doom-scroll through Reddit, Instagram, what-have-you.

And I don't like that. When I've just woken up and hopped on to a bus, my brain feels heavily overstimulated by the time I get to work. There are hundred thoughts going through my head, related to something I read on the internet, and it massively affects my mood and productivity. But ever since I've started using my iPod Touch instead of my Google Pixel 7 Pro, I've felt better.

I don't have any games on my iPod touch. No internet access. No social media apps. Nothing. All I have is the Apple Music app, and it's helped me live in the present and actually enjoy my favorite tracks and artists. I've consciously made an effort to not reach for my phone in my pocket, and I'm better off this way.

Limited storage = Careful consideration

Streaming services give us instant access to millions of songs and artists, which can be a blessing and a curse. What feels like a curse, though, is the constant bombardment of ads and "AI-powered features" which many streaming apps seem to peddle, and I strongly dislike that. I feel like I'm always getting distracted by, say, an ad for a podcast. Which I inevitably click on because it features my favorite actor or whatnot. Which means I abandon the song I was listening to.

Uninterrupted and unlimited access can be a problem, in my opinion. The good thing about my iPod touch is that it doesn't have any of that. Because you're limited to the device's internal storage (mine is capped at 64GB), you have to really think about what you put on there — and I love that. Carefully considering the songs and artists I wanted on my iPod touch made me realize that I didn't actually care for many of the ones I listened to on Spotify.

So, I hooked up my iPod touch to my MacBook and prayed that I could still transfer music using Apple Music — and it worked! All I had to do after that was download MP3 files so I used a combination of converting YouTube links to MP3 using a third-party website for songs I couldn't find on Apple Music, and spending some money on songs I could. Not only did it give me a sense of ownership (which streaming services don't), I felt like I appreciated the artists I put on my iPod touch even more than I originally did.

What I don't like

I will preface this section by saying that these drawbacks of using an iPod Touch aren't necessarily the device's fault, but it's aging hardware and lack of software updates that make it a slight pain.

No new updates = Security risk

You know how your smartphone gets updated every couple weeks? My Google Pixel 7 Pro prompts me to update its security firmware every now and then, and I'm sure your phone does too. These updates, basically, negate security risks, keeping hackers at bay, especially when you're browsing the internet. Because Apple doesn't manufacturer iPods any longer (R.I.P.), iPods don't get any security updates, so my iPod Touch is stuck on iOS 9.3.5. That's old.

My iPod Touch has Wi-Fi built-in so I can browse the internet whenever I like, but do I do it? No, because there's a fear in the back of my head that my device is wide open to hackers and malware, and that I'm at risk of data theft and exploitation (which would have otherwise been patched in a newer version). It might be silly but that's just how my brain is wired. I don't like being a sitting duck.

Battery life is no longer the best

One of the key things I look for when buying any new device (or testing one, as I do for a living) is the battery life. Can this phone or laptop or handheld console last me a good 12 hours, at least? Most modern devices can, and my iPod Touch isn't one of them. A quick Google search shows that, when new, the iPod Touch 6th Gen can provide up to 40 hours of audio playback. I can't speak to that but I do remember that when I was using my iPod Touch regularly, more than a decade ago, I went long periods of time between charges.

That is no longer the case. Aging hardware means I'm stuck with an irreplaceable battery that dies after a few hours — the longest I've gone recently without charging my iPod Touch has been around five hours. Honestly, that doesn't sound too bad in the grand scheme of things, but I've noticed that my iPod Touch gets laggy when it dips under 20%, which hampers the user experience.

Looking ahead...

I don't know how much life my iPod touch has left in it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't turn back on one of these days. But until that day comes, I'll continue using it to listen to my carefully curated playlists and library. So far, it has been a wonderful experience not having to rely on my smartphone for music. That sense of nostalgia coupled with its simplicity make the iPod touch a winner in my books.

My iPod touch is more than a decade old. It is beaten, bruised and battered, sports many scratches, and it has endured many falls and tumbles over the years, but it still works — and it works well. In a way, it's a metaphor for how I've grown and changed since I first unboxed it, and it has affirmed something positive in me that I did not know I needed.

More from Tom's Guide

• Spotify Wrapped 2025 is here — and to nobody’s surprise, my top stats (and yours) are exactly what you expected
• I've been testing this cassette walkman, and I'm having a blast reliving my childhood
• A massive retro revival is happening on the music scene, and this 80s-style radio is all the proof you need

I've been trying to find a Spotify alternative for months. I've tried Tidal, Qobuz, and I'm now on my trial of Apple Music. But there's one major reason why I can't cut the cord and break up with Spotify: Wrapped.

Spotify Wrapped is the best year-end roundup on this planet. Qobuz doesn't even do one, which is majorly disappointing. Both Apple Music and Tidal offer a monthly/yearly recap you can access at any time. This approach makes your end-of-year stats feel less special.

Even though I'm trying to leave Spotify, I can't deny that the Swedish streaming giant has its claws deep in me. This is why Spotify Wrapped is the beast that makes Spotify so hard to quit.

What makes Spotify Wrapped so addictive?

Humans are naturally obsessed with themselves, and Spotify Wrapped taps into that suppressed narcissism just right. As with pretty much every social media platform, there's no alchemy or wizardry happening here: it's simple psychology.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all humans are selfish. Being selfish and being interested in one's musical stats are not the same. Put simply, Spotify Wrapped makes it so much easier for us to show the world who we are, and isn't that what everyone wants? It's the perfect combination of social trends and personal interests.

Many people loathe the trend of sharing Wrappeds on social media, but I love it. What is that random girl I met on vacation in 2019 listening to now? Well, I don't have to wonder anymore. I can see it in full color on her Instagram story.

I adore judging people's music tastes with the same voracity with which they judge mine. I know everyone who sees my Spotify Wrapped is analyzing every artist, every track, and every sub-genre, and that's fine. I welcome it. I'm just as guilty of it as the next person.

Why is Spotify Wrapped so much better than the alternatives?

So, now we know that Spotify Wrapped is so addictive because it taps into our inherent narcissism in a shareable, consumable way. I'll talk about why no other streaming service comes close.

Spotify feels like a friend. Apple Music's yearly breakdown — called Replay — is less personable, more corporate. Replay has less of a focus on pinpointing niche genres and analyzing your listening habits with depth. Wrapped, on the other hand, breaks down your listening by the day, hour, and time. In short, Wrapped feels more thorough.

Let's take a look at some screenshots from 2025's Apple Music Replay and Spotify Wrapped. Obviously, the results will be different from Spotify and Apple Music as I wasn't using both services simultaneously. I only got Apple Music in October, so my Replay is based on less data. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that Apple Music's overall end-of-year report has less depth than Spotify's.

On top of being inherently less shareable, Apple Music's Replay lacks the statistical intrigue of Spotify Wrapped. My top artists are displayed in a list (that I had to click through another menu to find) rather than being shown to me with digital fireworks and glitter.

There's no top artist image or top song image. This is a major reason why Spotify Wrapped is so excellent — bite-sized data nuggets — and a huge part of the appeal.

It makes me wonder if Spotify's somehow patented its five-song and five-artist graphic. How has Apple Music not adopted this design yet? I feel like it's the key thing missing from Apple's version.

Graphics aren't the only thing missing from Replay, though. Spotify has some unique features that no other streaming service can compete with.

These are some listening "clubs". Basically, Spotify analyzes your music taste and sorts you into houses. Imagine Hogwarts houses, but for music listening. Again, this is psychology — it makes you feel like you're in a secret society. A community of fellow music lovers.

Replay lacks that. I don't know what style of listener Apple Music thinks I am, and I want to know so bad. I want to compare my results with my friends and chat about why John from that one college class is in the "Soft Hearts Club" when he was definitely more of a death metal fan ten years ago.

Finally, I want to talk about Spotify's new feature for 2025: listening age. This is such an intelligent move. It's so shareable, and can definitely spark frenzied discussions within friend groups. I've already had two conversations about listening ages with my colleagues and in my family group chat.

This screenshot shows my listening age, my colleague Nikita's listening age, and my colleague Ashley's listening age. I predict this age rating is based on the age of your most-listened-to tracks rather than a robust comparative analysis of your age bracket's listening habits versus older and younger generations, but it's still fun to talk about.

Many jibes, such as "mythical unc" and shocked-face-emoji, have been thrown around since the sharing of our listening ages.

Apple Music can't even come close to this. The most shareable thing on my Replay is my list of top artists. And it's not even that shareable.

Although I'm on a mission to quit Spotify, I can't help but imagine next year's Wrapped day. What if I do succeed in completely switching to Apple Music, and I don't get any Instagrammable data next year? I can already envision myself swiping through my friends' Stories with barely concealed jealousy.

Could Spotify Wrapped be the one thing holding me back from committing to Apple Music full-time? Is Replay enough for me to make the switch?

I suppose only time will tell. In the meantime, I'm going to go back through my Spotify Wrapped and watch it all again.

More from Tom's Guide

• Your Spotify Wrapped 2025 is here — here's how to find it
• These are the best noise canceling earbuds that are actually worth your money right now
• I've tested a ton of earbuds in the last year — here's my top picks under $50, $150 and $300

While we wait for Spotify Wrapped 2025, it looks like two other streaming services have already dropped their annual stats wrap-ups: Amazon Music has just launched "Delivered," while Apple Music's "Replay" has landed on users' devices.

There's even another entrant from Deezer — "My Deezer Year."

So how do you find them, and what do they tell you? Let's break it down — and then think ahead to Spotify Wrapped and what it might look like in 2025.

Apple Music Replay — what it is and how to find it

Apple Music Replay has landed for a whole bunch of users — including some of the Tom's Guide team. It breaks down your listening stats for the year, although it doesn't have some of the more personal elements of previous Spotify Wrapped. Instead, you get a plain view of how many minutes you've listened to albums, artists, and genres.

Those milestone badges are fun, though, and it's more colorful and involved than previous years.

It's easy enough to find. Just head to the Apple Music app, and it will be on the front page, ready for you to investigate. Or, you can always head to music.apple.com and find your replay there.

Previously, it was only accessible via desktop, but this year, it is much easier to access. It's also more in-depth than last year's, although not as good as Spotify Wrapped.

Amazon Music Delivered — what it is and how to find it

Amazon Music Delivered is the Wrapped equivalent that looks to be the most fun. There's all the requisite listening stats like minutes listened and top artists and tracks, but there are fun extras like the custom festival built around your music taste.

I'm not sure anyone would want to go to "Tammy Fest," given it would be loaded with an eclectic mix of Death metal, Jazz, and hyperpop, but your mileage may vary. Tickets go on sale soon.

It's also easy to find. Open up the Amazon Music app, head to the "library" page, and you'll find the 2025 Delivered banner ready to click. From there, you'll learn your stats and discover which artists are going to be headlining and playing your festival.

You can also head to the "Best of 2025" to learn more about the listening stats of other Amazon Music users.

My Deezer Year — what it is and how to find it

Not to be outdone, Deezer has launched this year's "My Deezer Year." It's filled with colorful stats, and plenty more, including quizes, top artists and tracks, and even where you rank amongst other listeners.

It's also easy to find — if you open up your Deezer app, it's on the front page. From there, you'll learn all of your stats. Or, you can head to My Deezer Year and log in from there.

I really like this one. It looks super fun, and it's packed with information and interactive quizes and games.

Where is Spotify Wrapped?

This just whets our appetite for Spotify Wrapped. It's likely that we'll see Spotify Wrapped soon, given that last year it fell on December 4th. That gives us a moment to get jealous of Apple Music and Amazon Music listeners.

We'll be sure to let you know the moment that Spotify Wrapped lands — but until then, let's see what stats Amazon Music and Apple Music users share for us to tease them over.

More from Tom's Guide

• When is Spotify Wrapped 2025? Everything we know and when to expect it
• Households urged not to pour boiling water down drains this winter — I asked a plumber what to do instead
• Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold just announced — everything we know so far

I've tried almost all of the mainstream music streaming services. I've listened to Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer, and I'm onto Apple Music now.

I've found replacing Spotify really hard. No other streaming service has as many features — whether that's music discovery, social, or playlist features — but Apple Music has got the closest thus far. Although I still miss Spotify, I think Apple Music is my new go-to.

Three main features have helped me make the switch: 1) Apple Music's live radio, 2) Apple Music's best-in-class Dolby Atmos-powered Spatial Audio, and 3) Apple Music's super-specific year-by-year genre playlists. Slowly, but surely, the Spotify-shaped hole in my heart is closing. Here's what I think you should check out if you're making the switch.

1. Live radio

One of my favorite parts of Apple Music is the live radio. With an Apple Music subscription, you get access to a 24/7 (mostly) radio schedule, with genres ranging from J-Pop to throwback hits to brand-new alternative music.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, but if you're a music lover on the lookout for curated playlists or new artists, you'll probably love live radio. If you find a specialist radio show about your favorite genres, you should find tons of new tracks in no time. I have a wide, varied, and sometimes niche music taste. My secret? I listen to the radio.

Apple Music has two of my favorite shows: Zane Lowe's New Music Discovery and Matt Wilkinson's UK-oriented New Music show. It's not just new music, though: there are also throwback and Bollywood stations. Even Elton John has a show.

I would actually pay for Apple Music just for these radio shows. They've seriously changed how I discover new music — and you can save your favorite discoveries to your Apple Music library directly from the radio show. Simply tap the star icon next to the track name, and voila. It's in your library.

2. Spatial Audio

Now, a small part of me wonders if this is just because Dolby Atmos-powered Spatial Audio is still a novelty. Spotify doesn't have any Spatial Audio functionality, so I've been spoiled by Apple Music's Atmos.

I have AirPods, so you will only be able to take advantage of this feature if you have Spatial Audio-enabled headphones or earbuds, like AirPods Pro 3 or AirPods Max.

Not every song is Dolby Atmos-encoded, but I'd say most hot, major-label new hits are. Apple Music has premade playlists specifically for Spatial Audio, though, so don't worry. You don't have to play a guessing game.

As I move my head, the music follows and tricks my brain into thinking it's coming from all around me. If I tilt my head to the left side, the music feels as if it's only audible in my right ear.

Beyond being pretty cool, this makes the music sound more expansive, more real. You can easily trick your brain into thinking your favorite artists are performing a private concert in the comfort of your skull. It's pretty neat.

But opinions differ. While I find that it enhances my listening experience, Tom's Guide's Audio Editor finds that it can make her tunes sound more synthetic, thinning out the sound to provide an artificially widened soundstage. Still, it's something I've come to appreciate during my time with the service.

Then again, it could just be a novelty feature, and I might be bored with it in a week. Who knows?

3. Super-specific year-by-year playlists

I know that Spotify has pre-made playlists similar to Apple Music's. However, Spotify's playlists are much less specific. You can find playlists like "Alternative 10s" and "Rock 90s", but there are fewer playlists just as niche as Apple Music's.

As you can see from the screenshot above, Apple Music has a range of playlists in a certain genre — for every single year. The "Alternative" playlists go back until 1988. If I want, I can live vicariously in 1991 through Apple Music's specific genre playlists. I love these.

I'm feeling quite nostalgic for the mid-late 2010s at the moment (a simpler, better time), so I'm loving the 2015-2019 playlists. As soon as I press play, I feel like I'm back in my college days, when my only worries were about how much reading I had to do.

Here's a screenshot of Spotify's version of these playlists so you can see what I mean.

As you can see, the playlists aren't as niche or as specific. It's great that Spotify has these ready-made, and I know you can search for more specific playlists made by the community, but the Apple Music playlists are a great starting point if you want to relive a certain year.

What other Apple Music features have I missed? I've only been using it for two weeks, so I'm not an Apple Music expert yet. Let me know in the comments what I should check out next!

More from Tom's Guide

• Hurry! Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds just crashed to lowest price ever before Black Friday
• I tried audiophile icon Meze’s brand-new entry-level headphones — and I feel like I’m hearing my favorite songs for the first time
• I just tested this pair of wired headphones, and they blow wireless options out of the water

I've tried almost all of the best music streaming services. I've used audiophile-approved Qobuz, best-of-both-worlds Tidal, and even dabbled in Deezer.

But after Spotify's recent missteps — unethical investments, disappointing lossless, increasing subscription prices, to name a few — I started using Apple Music. I can't see myself ever going back to Spotify now. I love everything about Apple Music: the playlists, the algorithm, and the live radio stations.

I've not had time to uncover every inch of Apple Music's features, but I've already deleted the Spotify app. Here's everything I love about Apple Music, and why I quit Spotify.

Why did I leave Spotify?

I've written about my distaste for Spotify many, many times here on Tom's Guide. I've been on a journey for the past few months, trying to find a music streaming service that does everything I want and need, whilst also making ethical sense.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the delayed introduction of Spotify Lossless. This belated addition felt more like a "shut up" feature than something Spotify actually wanted to do. The worst part? Spotify Lossless isn't as lossless as Qobuz, Apple Music, or Tidal.

On top of the lackluster hi-res streaming, Spotify is (allegedly) the worst-paying music streaming service out there. Take a look at these figures.

Spotify is rumored to pay a mere $0.003-$0.005 per stream. Let's compare this to Qobuz, which paid "US$0.01873 per stream" in the financial year 2024. Qobuz pays the most out of any streaming services I've personally come across.

Comparatively, Apple Music (allegedly) pays $0.01 per stream. Yes, this is $0.008 less than Qobuz, but still more than Spotify.

$0.003 is an incomprehensibly low number. You'd need to get 334 streams to make $1.

Regarding artist payouts, I've received the following statement from a spokesperson for Spotify: "Every other streaming service pays less than Spotify. Spotify paid out $10 billion to the music industry last year and has paid out $60 billion all time. Our music subscription competitors haven’t reported their subscriber figures or music industry payouts in years, because they pay far less. Additionally, per-stream rate is a false narrative – a high per-stream rate means that users are listening less. No one wants that!” 

Now, I'm not privy to the inner workings of streaming services' payouts, so I can only believe two things: 1) What the freely available facts tell me, or 2) What the companies themselves claim.

Qobuz actually does share its payouts, as I linked above, in its yearly financial reports.

Qobuz says that, "In terms of average revenue per user (ARPU), Qobuz generated average revenue of  US$121.13 per year, where the market average is US$22.38 per year². This means that Qobuz generates on average five times more revenue per user than the market average, which results in a significant impact on artists' remuneration."

So while Tidal and Apple Music don't share their payouts, Qobuz does. This is why it's the best streaming service for serious music lovers.

However, it's worth noting that Spotify has the largest subscriber base of any streaming service, so this is better for artists in terms of exposure. Ethical Consumer reports that, "It's important to note that while Spotify receives extensive criticism regarding artist compensation, it does not use a significantly less equitable payout model than most of its competitors."

All that being said, streaming is less profitable for artists than buying physical copies of their music. However, we can't make any concrete decisions about which music streamer pays the best until all the streaming services release their payout information.

I would love to see Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, and Amazon Music's true royalty-payments information, so I can compare directly with Qobuz.

If every artist made peanuts from their music, they wouldn't be able to pay for essentials like rent, food, bills, etc. I'm not talking about huge artists like Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter — they're earning more than enough money for the bare minimum. But smaller, indie artists need extra help.

Sure, music streaming services are inherently exploitative, and I think you should do your bit by attending live shows, buying merch, and promoting your favorite musicians via word of mouth. But I think every little helps, which is why I'm so done with Spotify. I don't want all musicians to have to be on a major label contract to make a wage (and even then, not all of them do).

Don't even get me started on Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, making military investments. Let's just say I'm not a fan of the guy and leave it at that.

Does Apple Music have the same features as Spotify?

In short, no. I hate how well Spotify has nailed the streaming landscape. Nay, not nailed. Shaped. Spotify has shaped the streaming landscape and continues to do so. Unfortunately, no other music streamer can quite match the utter beast that is Spotify.

Apple Music doesn't have "Daily Mixes" like Spotify, but it creates a personal station based on your taste. This refreshes once a week, which isn't as good as Spotify. All is not lost, though. Apple Music also has a "Discover Station, "Get Up!", "Focus", "Chill", and mood-based playlists like "Heartbreak" and "Feel Good".

I only dislike one thing about these automated playlists: You can't see the tracklist before pressing play. On Spotify, you can see an entire mix's tracklist before committing. On Apple Music, you're risking it all. I suppose, though, there's a bit of magic to that — it's like going for a lucky dip at a record store, isn't it?

The actual content of these playlists is awesome: my "Heartbreak" playlist was populated with artists like Hayley Williams, Beck, and Nick Cave. All the tracks were, as advertised, heartbreaking.

Some good news, though: Apple Music does have a Spotify Wrapped alternative! It's called "Apple Music Replay" and is a very similar feature. Replay tracks: Minutes listened, top artists, top tracks — by month and year — and top genres. There's no fun names like "Pink Pilates Princess" or "Emo Fuzzwave Bucket Summer" (I made that second one up, but doesn't it sound legit?).

You do get the overall genre, though, which is enough. It'll say things like "pop rock", "soft rock", and "alternative" rather than super-niche Instagrammable neo-names.

What does Apple Music have that Spotify doesn't?

For starters, Apple Music (allegedly) pays artists more. This is my joint-first reason for deleting the Spotify app, alongside the dodgy investments and forgettable Lossless.

Secondly, if you've got AirPods or AirPods Max, you're in for a complete and utter treat. Apple Music unlocks a hi-res Bluetooth codec called ALAC. This is kind of like Apple's version of aptX or LDAC.

There's a catch, though: You can only use ALAC if you're listening with Apple-manufactured audio gear, through the Apple-manufactured streaming service. Yeah, I know, I know. I hate everything about that. But... it's Apple. At this point, what do you expect?

So if you have AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Max, or AirPods Pro 2 like me, you're going to get a whole new world of audio quality. I'm talking second-to-none Dolby Spatial Audio, high-fidelity, expansive soundscapes, and textured, dynamic sound reproduction. Oh, boy. Apple Music makes my AirPods Pro 2 sound even better than they are.

Now for a really good reason: Live radio. You know how Spotify keeps shoving that "AI DJ" down our throats?

Yeah, Apple Music heard you, and raised you. Apple Music has real human DJs almost 24/7. You'll find specialist radio shows on all sorts of genres, from cheesy throwback pop hits, to alternative new releases, to J-Pop, and hip-hop. Here's what the radio homepage looks like.

I utterly adore live radio. I test all the best microphones for broadcasting here at Tom's Guide, and spent three years presenting a specialist radio show whilst at university, so of course, radio holds a special place in my heart. All of Apple Music's shows are versatile and nuanced, and showcase a huge variety of genres, with playlists highlighting unknown musicians and big-name artists alike.

I listen to these shows pretty much every day and I'm always discovering new songs. I especially am into Matt Wilkinson and Zane Lowe — I highly recommend these DJs if you take advantage of Apple Music's free trial month.

Speaking of the Apple Music free trial month... if you're interested in switching, you can now transfer your Spotify library for free. Unfortunately, this is only available in a certain number of countries, and the U.S. isn't one of them. As I'm based in the U.K., though, I can confirm that I've tried this feature and it works like a dream. It transferred around 10,000 songs worth of playlists in under 2 hours.

I'm not finished exploring Apple Music, though

I'm going to end by saying that I have only been using Apple Music for a few weeks, whereas I used Spotify for almost 17 years. I got Spotify in January 2009. I was literally a child on my parents' old desktop PC.

So, of course I know more about Spotify than I do Apple Music. I'm actually heartbroken that Spotify has forced me to do this, and forced an old dog to learn new tricks. I barely have time to do my hobbies, let alone teach myself how to use a brand-new music streaming service.

Rest assured I'll write more pieces on how I'm getting on with Apple Music. As I uncover more features, annoyances, and points of comparison, I'll almost certainly write about. If you want more info on the switch from Spotify, be sure to follow along.

For example: I've seen other users claim you can't really switch between smart home devices when using Apple Music, and setting up a home sound system can be tricky thanks to the lack of a "Spotify Connect" type feature. I'll investigate that in due course.

More from Tom's Guide

• Not a typo! Bose QuietComfort Headphones are 43% off right now before Black Friday
• I ditched my Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones for the Sony WH-1000XM6 — here's my verdict after a week
• I'm sick of headphone apps — and here's how I think we can solve the problem

I, like many others, am sick of Spotify's nonsense. I'm sick of having an AI DJ shoved down my throat in the same way that I'm sick of paying a whopping $12 a month for a music streaming service that doesn't pay artists fairly. Where does all that money go? Seriously?

So I've decided: enough is enough. No more Spotify. Bye, bye. I've written articles here at Tom's Guide about this for months now, and I know many readers feel the same way. You want to quit Spotify, but it's just too darn good.

I've tried Qobuz, and it wasn't for me. It's objectively fantastic, but it doesn't suit my needs. I want to try Tidal, and it's next on my list. But right now, I'm in my Apple Music era. I got the music streamer three days ago and here are my first impressions.

Why I'm switching from Spotify

There are so many reasons why I want to leave Spotify. For starters, Spotify (allegedly) pays only $0.006-$0.006 per stream, which is astronomically lower than Qobuz, which paid "US$0.01873 per stream" in the financial year 2024. This is the highest out of any music streaming services that I've personally come across. Apple Music (allegedly) pays $0.01 per stream, which is around $0.008 less than Qobuz, but way better than Spotify could even dream of.

Then we come onto the topic of Spotify's CEO, who has made many a controversial investment that I don't personally agree with. It's just a whole fiasco of unethical nonsense, and I'm over it. I'm ready to go.

I will, however, miss Spotify a lot. I love my Discover Weekly; I love my Release Radar; I love how well the algorithm knows me; I love the Spotify-exclusive Spotify Sessions with song covers that scratch my brain just right.

And most of all, I'll miss Spotify Wrapped day. You know those memes where it's like "The worst person you know is about to get even worse"? That's me on Spotify Wrapped day. I await Spotify Wrapped day more than Christmas. Trust me, I'd rather have Spotify Wrapped ten times a year than celebrate my birthday.

It's not all doom and gloom, though: you can get Spotify Wrapped-adjacent features from services like Last.fm, which tracks your "scrobbles" (plays) and shows your most listened songs and artists. It doesn't hit the same, but it'll do. I guess.

What I like about Apple Music so far

Before we get any further, please allow me to set the scene so as to manage your expectations of me. I'm an Apple girlie through and through. I have an iPhone, a MacBook, and AirPods. Therefore, my experience of Apple Music will be far superior to someone who has a Samsung phone and Sony earbuds. So if you particularly hate Apple, then maybe this isn't the article for you.

I had an Apple Music free trial ages ago, but never opted to subscribe. In my subscription era, I've been using Apple Music for about three days, and I'm already a big, big fan. There are a few main reasons why, and I'll get into them now.

The algorithm already knows me

Even though I've only just made my account and transferred my Spotify data over, Apple Music already seems to understand my music taste deeply. When I was using Qobuz, my song radios would be full of artists and genres I never listen to, which confused me.

Not with Apple Music. The algorithm must be different, because it just gets me. Apple Music makes you a personalized station (so, for example, mine's called "Erin Bashford's Station") that plays both songs you have saved, and songs you don't yet know but will probably like. It took nine songs for Apple Music to recommend a non-favorited track, and oh boy, did I love this track suggestion. It recommended "It's Random" by Dora Jar, which is a groovy acoustic indie pop track, and meshed perfectly with the rest of my playlist.

Unfortunately, you can't skip back a track once it finishes, so if you like a song, you need to favorite it quick!

Here's an example of what my Apple Music homepage looks like.

As you can see, there's a lovely selection of new releases — by artists I actually listen to, which is a nice change from Qobuz, which recommended obscure stuff I wasn't into — and tracks I know and love.

You can also see that I've already found two pre-made playlists — for my two fave genres, alternative electronic and alternative rock — and made use of the random mixes. I'm not missing Spotify's "Altar" playlist or "All New Indie" or my Daily Mixes right now, and that's saying something. I used to be addicted to those things.

Obviously, only time will tell, but I'm already impressed with how well Apple Music knows me from just the songs I've imported from Spotify.

The radio shows

As someone who hosted a radio show for three years at university, radio will always hold a special place in my heart. If you genuinely love discovering new music, there's nothing better than a specialist radio show curated and hosted by a DJ who knows their stuff. I'm not talking about commercial radio ("Next caller gets a free Ferrari *jingle noise**car horn**foghorn**cash register noise*!!!"). I'm talking about specialist radio.

Thankfully, Apple Music has a ton. I love Zane Lowe's show, Matt Wilkinson's show, and the Apple Music Club DJ Mixes. Here's what they look like in the app.

There are hours and hours and hours of content for me to stick my teeth into, and I can't wait to start listening. I already watch some Zane Lowe episodes on YouTube, but it's nice to be able to do it in the Apple Music app, too (which doesn't count towards my social media screen time limit — score!).

I'm already discovering new music and understanding more depth with my favorite artists thanks to the interesting interviews and supplemental content in Apple Music. For example, Tame Impala's recent interview with Zane Lowe was so illuminating into his creative process, and now I'm listening to the new album with a completely different lens. I wholeheartedly recommend checking out Lowe's interviews — they're excellent.

The hi-res streaming

This one is nice and quick. I love how hi-res Apple Music's files are. I use AirPods Pro 2 to listen to 50% of my music and my Edifier R1280T to listen to the other 50% (we don't talk about the 10% of the time I use my Bose Smart Soundbar to play music).

As I've got AirPods, I'm privy to Apple's super-elusive hi-res Bluetooth codec, ALAC. This codec is kind of like LDAC on Android. However, you can only get this codec on Apple Music. It's really annoying, but hey, that's Apple for you.

Thanks to ALAC, music sounds so much better wirelessly on Apple Music with an iPhone than Spotify, and even better than Qobuz. The instrument separation is second-to-none, and I swear I feel even more immersed in the tracks than I ever have before. Qobuz and Tidal still sound better with a wired connection — USB-C — but Apple Music is the way to go for wireless listening.

Apple Music is the one to beat if you've got AirPods — trust me. It makes me wonder how I ever survived with another streaming service.

What I don't like about Apple Music

Although the music quality, diverse library, and radio shows already have me hooked, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. There is one major thing I don't like about Apple Music.

No seamless device switching

Unlike Spotify, it's not quite as easy to switch between devices on Apple Music. I often open my work MacBook in the morning and am greeted by a "Switch device for playback". This occurs after I've played music on my personal MacBook between working hours.

To further prove my point, I opened up Apple Music on my iPhone and my work MacBook while writing this article. I played a track from my phone, and then played another track from my MacBook.

Apple Music gave me the old "More than one device trying to play music at a time". But both are mine! I want to be able to control the decks from my phone and my computer! Why is that so hard? Why can't I do that?

If I've got a really good shuffle going on my work Mac at 5pm, I can't switch it onto my phone or personal Mac for post-work grooving. This is a major disappointment, and I hope Apple does something about it ASAP.

Spotify just trusts you and pops up with the green banner that allows you to seamlessly switch between devices. I long for this feature on Apple Music. I yearn. Nay, I crave.

More from Tom's Guide

• I ditched Spotify for this niche audiophile streaming service for a month — and I might be ready to go back
• Spotify Lossless didn't give me what I want — here's what to use instead
• I look for epic sound when buying new headphones — but what about you?

If you're looking to get in on the music streaming game or simply want to try out another of the best music streaming services, then Apple has a deal for you. It's offering three months free access to Apple Music, and that's without asking you buy some kind of Apple product first.

The promotion is celebrating the release of the new Genshin Impact album, Shimmering Voyage Vol. 5, which is now available on Apple Music and Apple Music Classical.

Apple Music Classical is included in the standard Apple Music subscription, albeit as a standalone app, and features multi-language commentary from the game's original voice actors. You do need to download a separate app, though, which should be worth it if you're a big fan of orchestral tunes.

Apple Music also gives you access to 100 million songs in CD and hi-res quality, offers spatial audio for compatible headphones (like AirPods Pro 3), and offers curated content made just for you. Apple Music Classical has over 5 million tracks and is easily one of the best search tools of any classical music platform.

• Apple Music: 3 months free @ Apple

Returning subscribers aren't left out

More from Tom's Guide

• How to track your heart rate with the Apple AirPods Pro 3
• I tested the AirPods Pro 3 and the way they seamlessly pair with my iPhone is almost magical
• Google's Pixel Buds Pro 2 are getting a major update with adaptive audio, head gestures and loud noise protection

Now that Spotify has "lossless listening," the idea of higher quality streaming is cemented in the mainstream. Those streaming numbers and bitrates are no longer just the talking points of audio-weirdos — your friend at work is suddenly going to become interested in hi-res audio, and how much better it sounds than "the old Spotify."

But what does it all mean? Why is Spotify's new 24-bit, 44.1kHz update not quite what audiophiles were hoping for, and what do those numbers actually stand for? Even further, if they're so much better, what are Qobuz, Tidal and Apple Music bitrates? I'll go through all that and more — so let's dive in.

Music file formats

Music files are quite large. After all, there's loads of data inside telling your music player what instrument is playing, how it sounds, what the vocalist is doing, where the drummer got his illicit substances, and where everything is on stage. So that you can fit more tracks into a hard drive/SD Card/internal storage, those tracks are condensed down into different file formats.

That's why you might have seen MP3, FLAC, and WAV when you were downloading all those tracks from Limewire & Napster all those years ago. Generally, it looks like this: MP3 is small, but lower quality. FLAC and WAV are larger and of much higher quality.

That's the first stage of music quality — understanding the file formats — out of the way. There are more file formats besides, and if you're not sure, a quick search on Google will tell you everything you need to know about the file at hand.

Those larger formats are what we call "lossless," where less data is lost when compressing the tracks so that you can fit them onto your storage medium, or so that they can be transmitted over Wi-Fi to your listening devices. One thing to bear in mind is that Bluetooth cannot transmit lossless audio, although there are technologies that try to make music sound better, like AptX and LDAC.

Music streaming bit rates

This isn't something that's really worth going into much detail over, but a surface-level understanding is still helpful. You'll find two numbers when you look at track quality — the bitrate and the sample rate.

The highest quality streams you'll find at any streaming service is 24-bit, 192kHz audio. This means a couple of things. The dynamic range is going to be high, with more difference in the loud and quiet parts of your music, and there's more detail retrieval. In essence, your music is going to sound really good. Anything with a bit depth of higher than 16-bit is considered 'hi-res' as a result.

This comes with a drawback, however. First is the amount of data in that track — it'll be a larger file, in FLAC or WAV (as we spoke about earlier — see, it all comes around). That means you'll need more data in your phone contract, or you'll run out after one spin of Britney's In the Zone.

It's also why those fully featured lossless and hi-res tracks can't be transmitted over Bluetooth. They're simply too large for the connection to handle. Instead, you're going to need to listen to these tracks with a compatible Wi-Fi connection, like Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, or Qobuz Connect (these streaming companies sure are imaginative).

Or, you can go the wired route and hook up some of the best headphones. In fact, to get any kind of difference out of these streaming numbers, you'll want to make sure you've got some top-quality listening gear.

The difference

To demonstrate, I'll talk about Spotify. It's recently been upgraded to hi-res lossless audio — 24bit (hi-res) 44.1kHz (lossless) — so that more people can enjoy higher quality audio. You'll notice that the second number isn't as high as we talked about before, much to the chagrin of audiophiles everywhere, but it's still higher than the 320kbps MP3 tracks users used to have to put up with.

The difference in quality isn't subtle. Even with Bluetooth headphones, you'll notice a difference, thanks to the higher quality track that's being compressed for your headphones — start with better data, and you get better data on the other side. You'll really notice a difference when you listen to a pair of excellent speakers or some high-quality headphones.

You'll find more detail, for one. That means that things are going to sound more realistic, and that you'll notice more subtleties in your music. Think of the singers' breath, the crystalline sounds of cymbals, or fingers on a fretboard. You'll also find more bass depth, giving you more low-end to enjoy.

Soundstage is wider when there's more data to play with, and instrument separation is better. It has to be heard to be believed, but there's a lot to love about higher-quality streamed audio.

The drawbacks

There's really not all that much to complain about when it comes to higher quality audio, but there are a couple of key drawbacks. The first is simply the amount of data you now need to stream and/or store. An MP3 file at its highest bit rate is about 7MB large. A 24-bit 192 kHz FLAC file is around 200MB. You could fit Queen's "Night at the Opera" in MP3 format about four times into a FLAC copy of "Bohemian Rhapsody".

You need a large storage medium to store all your high-quality files, as a result, and a lot of data in your internet plan to stream them from the best music streaming service.

You'll also find that most tracks on even Qobuz and Tidal — the two services with the highest quality streaming — aren't 24-bit 192kHz. Many are CD-quality or slightly lower hi-res lossless formats. That's not a problem, and I'd defy most people to find a difference, but it's worth noting.

Beyond storage and inconsistencies amongst streaming platforms, however, there are a few drawbacks to higher quality music streaming.

What quality is my streamer?

So now that you have an idea about what streaming quality is, how it works, and what it all means for your music, let's see what kind of quality your streaming service can offer. And why Spotify's most recent update is disappointing.

• Spotify — up to 24-bit 44.1kHz (FLAC)
• Amazon Music Unlimited — up to 24-bit 192kHz (FLAC)
• Deezer — up to 16-bit 44.1kHz (FLAC)
• Apple Music — up to 24-bit 192kHz (ALAC)
• Qobuz — up to 24-bit 192kHz (FLAC, DSD/DXD)
• Tidal — up to 24-bit 192kHz (FLAC)

Should you upgrade?

More from Tom's Guide

• Spotify's Lossless Listening makes music sound amazing — here's how to enable it
• iOS 26 arrives today — here are the 5 things you need to do to prepare
• Sony Bravia 8 II vs Panasonic Z95B: Which OLED TV wins?

The built-in Music app doesn't get lost in the shuffle in Apple's iOS 26 update. Indeed, amid the Liquid Glass overhaul to the iPhone's interface — including the look of the Music app — a trio of new features will appear aimed at getting more out of your favorite tunes.

One of the biggest additions — an AutoMix feature to seamlessly transition between songs — is aimed at Apple Music subscribers, while a translation tool for song lyrics will be limited initially to select songs in a handful of languages. It's the third change — the ability to pin your favorite artists, songs, albums and playlists to the top of your Music Library — that figures to benefit the most people in iOS 26 Music.

In fact, after spending some time with the Music app in the iOS 26 developer beta to try out AutoMix, it's the pinning feature that I wound up appreciating the most. Here's what to expect from both of those new additions, and some more information about translated lyrics, should you decide to try out iOS 26 for yourself once the public beta arrives this month.

AutoMix in iOS 26

To experience iOS 26's AutoMix feature in the Music app, you need to first take care of two items of business. Number one, make sure you're an Apple Music subscriber, as AutoMix is limited to Apple's music subscription service. After that, you'll need to turn on the feature in the Music app's Settings.

Launch the Settings app, tap on Apps and then pick Music from the list of apps installed on your phone.

From there, select Song Transitions from the options under the Audio heading. On the subsequent screen, toggle on the Song Transitions button and select AutoMix as the Transition Style. (If you don't subscribe to Apple Music, the AutoMix option will appear grayed out.)

I tried playing around with AutoMix using songs from my own library, first with a playlist I created specifically to test out transitions from one song to the next, then by just going into my library and hitting shuffle to randomly play songs. But I didn't notice any slick transitions between each song — just the usual beats as one track gave way to the next. It was then that I figured out AutoMix's magic is limited to Apple Music songs only, something Apple doesn't spell out on its iOS 26 preview page.

No matter: I tapped on an Apple-curated playlist of '70s rock and immediately noticed the impact of AutoMix. As Boston's "More Than a Feeling" began to fade to a close, the opening strains of "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin could be heard. Similarly, the opening guitar of "Hotel California" started playing over the fade out from "Born to Run."

Another nice touch that happens with AutoMix enabled is a slow fade between album art. During the aforementioned Boston-to-Zeppelin transition, the "Boston" album cover slowly gave way to the "Led Zeppelin IV" artwork on my iPhone 15 Pro screen.

This is probably not the sort of thing that convinces people who haven't subscribed to Apple Music to part with their $10.99/month subscription fee, but for those who've signed on, it's a nice addition via iOS 26. Hopefully, it eventually extends to other tracks like songs that you've bought from Apple's music store.

Pinned library items

iOS 26 give you more choice of what appears at the top of the Library tab in the Music app, thanks to a new pinning feature.

Say you've got a favorite song — just tap and hold on the title. A pop-up menu will appear with various options like Add to a Playlist, Play Next and more. The iOS 26 addition you're interested in is Pin Song. When you tab that your song will appear at the top of the Library screen, above the menu for Playlists, Artists, Albums, Songs and Downloaded.

Pinning works with more than just songs. I've used it to adorn the top of my Library with albums, artists and playlists I want quick access to.

And that's the advantage of pinning — it save you taps when it's time to find your absolute favorite music. Let's say you've got a playlist of workout tunes you like to fire up at the start of a run — pin that playlist and it will be waiting for you at the top of the Library tab.

Are pins a revolutionary new change to the way the Music app works? Not at all. But it's one of those quality-of-life improvements you come to appreciate the more you make use of it.

Other iOS 26 Music changes

The other advertised addition coming to Apple Music is translations for lyrics, a feature that doesn't appear to be live just yet. I played a version of "Las Golondrinas" via Apple Music, and while the lyrics appeared in Spanish as you'd expect, there was no Spanish-to-English translation, which is one of the supported languages Apple will offer.

In case you're interested, other supported languages for translated include English to Chinese, English to Japanese, Korean to Chinese, Korean to English and Korean to Japanese.

The translation feature seems largely geared toward Apple Music Sing, the karaoke mode that's available to Apple Music subscribers. Once translations are available, you'll have the ability to sing along in your native language, assuming the song you've picked is one of the selected ones to have translated lyrics.

iOS 26 Music outlook

AutoMix certainly delivers what it promises in the current version of Apple's iOS 26 beta, though the fact that it's only available via an Apple Music subscription will limit its appeal. Pinned music, on the other hand, is something everyone can take advantage of, and it feels very consistent with Apple's push toward making its iPhone software more reflective of your tastes.

More from Tom's Guide

• Best streaming music services
• I've been testing iOS 26 for a month — 5 tips you need to know before trying the public beta
• iOS 26 Photos — here's the biggest upgrades for your iPhone

Apple announced a new Apple Music team-up with Universal Music Group (UMG) for a new curated section dubbed Sound Therapy that is designed to help you "attain clearer focus, deeper relaxation, and better sleep."

According to Apple's press release, Sound Therapy is put together using "scientific research" and proprietary technology from UMG.

"Sound Therapy harnesses the power of sound waves, psychoacoustics, and cognitive science to help listeners relax or focus the mind," the company says.

The feature was designed and "crafted" by Sollos, a "music-wellness venture" within UMG's London studios.

The curated selection blends songs that you might be familiar with, like Lewis Capaldi's "Someone You Love," with "special sound waves" that are meant to "enhance" your routines. These sound waves might be "auditory beats or colored noise to encourage specific brain responses."

There are three different Sound Therapy playlists inside the Music app that are available now:

• Sound Therapy: Focus
• Sound Therapy: Relax
• Sound Therapy: Sleep

Apple shared some examples of the types of waves or noise you can expect in the updated songs. "Gamma waves and white noise — a whoosh-like combination of every sound frequency—may help with focusing," the company said.

On the relaxation and sleep front, you'll get theta waves (relax), delta waves and pink noise (sleep). Pink noise is described as a "deeper, gentler variation" similar to rain or wind, which Apple says could assist you in getting sleep. Pink noise is supposed to feature more "natural" sounds compared to white noise streams.

Other familiar artists include Imagine Dragons, AURORA, Jhené Aiko, and Kacey Musgraves.

Sound Therapy does require that you have an active Apple Music subscription. Those start at $5.99 for students and $10.99 for individuals. The feature is available now if you want to tune in.

More from Tom's Guide

• Apple just announced huge accessibility upgrades for iPhone, Macs and more — 9 biggest new features
• iOS 19 could supercharge your iPhone’s battery with AI
• Apple is working on a 'product renaissance' for 2027 — here's the potential products I'm most excited about

Have you ever wondered what music King Charles III listens to when he wants to wind down? What tunes he plays before he goes to speak to the Prime Minister? Well, wonder no longer — he's going to tell you.

In a very special broadcast on Apple Music called "The King's Music Room", His Majesty is going to take us through the musical history of the Commonwealth, as well as his own personal music taste.

A celebration of Commonwealth Day

The show is going to include some surprising tracks, from the likes of Bob Marley, Kylie Minogue, and Grace Jones and even more modern acts like Davido and RAYE.

"Throughout my life, music has meant a great deal to me. I know that is also the case for so many others," The King explained.

"It has that remarkable ability to bring happy memories flooding back from the deepest recesses of our memory, to comfort us in times of sadness, and to take us to distant places," he continued.

The King's Music Room is going to celebrate the music of the Commonwealth first and foremost. There's music from all over the world, showing the range of talent in a "fun and eclectic collection."

The King's Music Room will premiere on Apple Music 1 on March 10 at 6am GMT/1am ET, and can then be listened to anytime with an Apple Music subscription.

More from Tom's Guide

• M4 MacBook Air vs M3 Macbook Air: Here's the biggest upgrades
• Massive foldable iPhone leak just tipped key specs, release window and a very high price
• I’ve tried dozens of wallet cases, but this MagSafe wallet does one thing I haven’t seen before

Offline playlists on music streamers aren’t a new innovation — and those with miserly data plans will no doubt have plenty of them. The best music streaming services all let you pick and choose tracks to store locally for when you lose your internet connection.

The trouble is that this requires a bit of forward planning. Once offline, you can’t download more, so you’re stuck with nothing, or whatever you set up the last time you revisited your offline playlists — which might be wildly out of kilter with your current listening habits.

This week, Spotify announced a genius update to fix this for subscribers to its Premium service. It’s called “Offline Backup,” and will take the effort out of planning offline playlists. When playing normally, the app will observe your listening habits, and keep a bunch of tracks that you’ve already streamed locally in an Offline Backup playlist, ready to go when you lose your connection. 

Crucially, this will “evolve” over time, Spotify explains. “If you’re looking for a certain vibe, you can filter and sort songs within the playlist by artist, mood, and even genre—and Offline Backup evolves as you continue to listen, so you’ll always have something new,” the company says. 

This could be a lifesaver when you find yourself unexpectedly without internet on a long road trip, or when boarding a flight, say. 

Although it’s minimal effort, there are a couple of things you need to do in order for Offline Backup to appear. First, you need to make sure “Offline Listening” is enabled — you can find this in the Settings menu, under “Data Saving and Offline”. Second, Offline Backup will only kick in once you’ve listened to more than five songs recently. 

When enabled and with more than five songs played, the playlist will appear automatically in the Home feed as soon as you’re offline.

Good — but not for me

This is undoubtedly a sensible feature. You’re streaming the tracks anyway, so if storage isn’t an issue, why not keep a copy on your phone just in case? Indeed, it’s surprising it’s taken this long to adopt, given Netflix has allowed you to download movies and shows you might like for offline watching since 2021.

But ultimately, it’s not enough to make me reactivate my Spotify Premium account for two reasons. 

Firstly, because I’ve taken the time to download a few of my favorite albums to Apple Music for when I’m without signal — which happens quite often in cities with underground transit systems like mine. True, it doesn’t automatically adjust to my current tastes, but my interest in exploring new music has waned as I’ve eased into middle age anyway (don’t judge: it’ll happen to you too).

But, more importantly, Spotify just can’t compete for me in terms of value — and not just because when the long-delayed lossless support arrives, you might have to pay extra. 

As I wrote when I bought my first iPhone in 13 years, the one accessory I’d be buying was an Apple One subscription, because it bundles Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple TV and iCloud storage into one simple $19.95 per month payment. 

I’m not especially wedded to Apple Music as a service. In fact, I have quite a few bugbears with it, from its lack of Lastfm support and patchy recommendation engine to its maddening habit of adding seemingly random album art to your library because you like one song. 

But generally, Apple Music is ‘good enough’, and you can’t argue with its value as part of Apple One. I’ll be interested to see what Spotify Deluxe offers when it launches, but for now I’m sticking with Apple Music, despite my reservations. 

Playlist lovers rejoice — Apple has just launched five new playlists on Apple Music that are, apparently, going to help you "Find your mood". They're easy enough to find as well, just hop to the 'home' page of Apple Music, and then scroll down until you see the 'Find Your Mood' section.

There you'll find the new continuously playing playlists, each with a mood attached. They are in addition to the existing two playlists, 'Love' and 'Heartbreak'. The new playlists are as follows:

• Feel Good
• Energy
• Relax
• Feeling Blue
• Focus

A further move away from human curation

These playlists are, according to Apple, based on your listening preferences, so you can expect each one to be filled with music befitting the mood that you would actually like. Given that they are in-exhaustive playlists, playing indefinitely until you play something else, it tells me that they are algorithmically driven — seemingly forgetting something that set Apple Music apart from the rest of the music streaming landscape.

One of the best bits of Apple Music are the human-curated playlists. Lists of tracks chosen by real people who love the music that they are putting in the playlists, and not just everyday Joe from down the street who's really into 90s drum & bass. People selected by Apple for their passion and knowledge. I could choose a playlist on Apple Music and know that it was lovingly made by someone like me, so that I could discover new music, or rediscover artists and tracks that I might have forgotten.

In a landscape smothered with artificial intelligences and algorithms telling me what I should and shouldn't listen to, those human-curated playlists made Apple Music feel more analog than its contemporaries. Since its launch, however, there have been more playlists based on algorithms on the app, and these latest five just seem to solidify a more computerized future for Apple Music.

Sure, there are other excellent reasons to choose Apple Music over the competition. Hi-Res lossless playback for less than a Spotify subscription, detailed artist descriptions, and Apple Music Classical included in the entry fee are all great selling points — but I'll still lament every time a computer-created playlist makes its way onto the app.

More from Tom's Guide

• I trialed Apple Music for 3 months — and now I'm going back to Spotify
• Why I Picked Apple Music Over Spotify
• I ditched Spotify for Apple Music for working out

Tidal is officially being kicked from Samsung’s smart TV ecosystem in a forthcoming update in the wake of losing support on several other smart displays. 

An email sent to Tidal customers explains the departure with little extra clarity. Several Reddit users provided a screenshot of the email, which reads: 

“After July 8, 2024, Tidal will no longer be available on Samsung Smart TVs. To keep listening to your favorite tunes, log in to Tidal from your computer, download the mobile app, or discover other ways to stream.” 

The email doesn’t provide a specific reason as to why Tidal might be getting axed from Samsung TVs, but as mentioned previously it’s not the only one losing access to the music streaming platform. Amazon TVs lost support for Tidal nearly two months prior, while both the best Roku TVs and best Roku devices also lost Tidal about a month ago. 

Time for Tidal to make like a wave

Tidal’s loss of support across these TV and device ecosystems might prove to be a heavy blow for users who enjoy listening to music on their TV speaker systems as much as they do watching general entertainment. Despite Tidal’s high praise (we gave it a perfect score in our review), there are other options to consider, namely either Spotify or Apple Music, both of which are supported on a wide range of devices and TVs. 

You could also still cast Tidal from alternate devices to Samsung TVs using AirPlay — though, the feature is only available on newer TVs. There’s also Chromecast with Google TV 4K that would allow you to cast Tidal from your phone or tablet to the TV in question, though this would also bypass Samsung’s Tizen interface. 

Thus, there are several options to consider for those who might be missing out on all of their favorite music and music videos come Tidal’s departure on Samsung TVs July 8. Plus, Tidal is still available on several alternate TVs and some of the best streaming devices, including Android TV, Google TV, Apple TV, Vizio SmartCast TVs, and even LG TVs (though Tidal’s website for some reason does not list support for the platform). 

It’s an unfortunate loss, as Tidal recently added an exciting new feature that allows you to share tracks with others and they will be able to open that particular song or music video in their own music streaming app. It also launched a far cheaper hi-resolution music streaming subscription that takes a jibe at Apple Music at just $11 monthly. 

Want to upgrade your TV speakers? Don't miss our guide to the best soundbars you can buy in 2024.

More from Tom's Guide

• Samsung just expanded its Micro-LED TV lineup — starting at $110,000
• I've been overpaying for my Tidal music subscription via Apple — don't make this mistake
• Tidal just rolled all of its premium hi-res streaming features into one affordable plan

Apple’s SharePlay is expanding, and will be coming to all sorts of new devices — including speakers. Specifically, the Apple HomePod, HomePod mini, Apple TV and regular-old-Bluetooth speakers will be getting SharePlay support through Apple Music.

This news was announced at WWDC 2024, and means that you’ll be able to give friends and family control over the music coming through all of those devices. However you’re going to have to wait until sometime in the fall before the relevant updates to tvOS and iOS start rolling out.

Much like how SharePlay works with Apple CarPlay, you are effectively giving full control over music playback to someone else — regardless of whether they have an Apple Music subscription or not. You need a valid subscription, and your friends will need an iPhone with Apple Music installed, naturally. But the only thing other folks will need to do is scan a SharePlay QR code with their iPhone.

Some of you may remember that Apple bought SharePlay to HomePod speakers and Apple TV in the iOS 17.4 beta. However this feature was pulled before the final release of iOS 17.4. It was never made entirely clear why the feature was pulled, but now it seems like that expanded SharePlay is back with a vengeance. 

On top of this Apple has announced that Apple Music will be able to tap into the iPhone’s Taptic Engine, which will “play taps, textures and refined vibrations to the audio of the music”. It’s primarily an accessibility feature to help people with hearing difficulties sense the sound in a different way.

Music Haptics, as this feature is called, is scheduled to arrive as part of iOS 18. According to Apple this feature works with millions of songs from the Apple Music catalog. An API will also be available so developers can add the feature to their own apps, so expect that to expand further.

More from Tom's Guide

• AirPods Pro 2 get 3 big upgrades courtesy of iOS 18 — here's what's coming
• tvOS 18: InSight, audio enhancements, subtitle upgrades, new screensavers and more
• iOS 18 beta can detect when your phone is charging too slowly — but it may need some work

Apple is reportedly testing a new feature for its built-in Music app called "Smart Song Transitions" for iOS 18 and a potential name change for a popular feature.

This rumor comes to us from a report made by AppleInsider, which states that the new feature is built on the existing Crossfade function. Crossfade works by lowering the volume of the current song on the playlist over time, while starting the next tune and slowly raising the volume. This allows for a seamless transition between songs. 

The report is slightly bare bones on what this new feature will offer, although it is mentioned that Smart Song Transitions will allow users to adjust the duration of the crossfade effect. The song transitions can last anywhere between one and twelve seconds. This isn't the only new feature, as the music app will also introduce support for "Passthrough".

While we don’t know much about the details of Passthrough’s function, it could be a rebrand for Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. However, the report indicates that Passthrough will be available without an Apple Music subscription. This wouldn’t be the only rebrand to come with the update, as there is an indication that Apple is planning to rename Apple ID to Apple Accounts. 

iOS 18 promises to be a major change for iPhone users, with several new features coming to help improve the average person's experience. For instance, We recently heard about new Vehicle Motion Cues designed to help reduce motion sickness for passengers looking at their phones while in a moving vehicle.

It should be noted that these new features are just rumors currently, and should be taken with a grain of salt. In the meantime, we can only wait for Apple to unveil all the changes at WWDC 2024, which kicks off June 10. You can also check out our iOS 18 Hub, which we update with all the rumors and news as we hear them.

More from Tom's Guide

• iPhone 16 Pro Max tipped for these two camera upgrades — what we know
• iPhone 17 Slim could be the most expensive iPhone ever — but how?
• Apple patents foldable iPhone featuring a 'self-healing screen'

It's safe to say it's been a long time since an iOS software update generated as much anticipation as this year's upcoming iOS 18 release has. We're a little less than two months away from a preview of the software — and many more months away from its full release — but iOS 18 is already being touted as one of the most significant updates in Apple's history.

That's mainly because Apple is likely to rely heavily on artificial intelligence for many of iOS 18's upgrades as the company looks to play catch-up with other tech giants already incorporating AI more aggressively into their products. Rumored changes to iOS 18 include large language modules (LLM), generative AI features and a revamped Siri that can respond to more complex requests.

While AI figures to grab the spotlight in any iOS 18 discussion, it's not the only change to keep an eye on — and we're not talking about the rumored redesign of Apple's iPhone software that's also apparently in the works. iOS updates bring new features to existing apps, and though Apple may be concentrating on system-wide improvements this time around, iOS 18 still figures to offer its share of app-specific updates.

We're already hearing about enhancements and new capabilities coming to your favorite built-in iPhone apps as part of iOS 18. And while some of those features figure to be part of Apple's AI push, others are the kind of improvements you'd see in any ordinary iOS update.

Expect more details to emerge as we approach WWDC 2024 and the anticipated preview for iOS 18. But here are the rumored app updates that have caught our eye so far.

iOS 18 Notes

Of all the apps set for an update in iOS 18, we probably have the most detailed information about Notes, thanks to a report from Apple Insider. Apple's note-taking app should add at least two significant capabilities — the ability to include voice recordings in a note and calculator integration.

In iOS 17's Notes, you can add pictures and video, make sketches and even scan documents, but you can't embed an audio recording. That's expected to change with iOS 18, where a recorder would be embedded into the Notes app. Possible use cases include recording lectures or meetings supplemented by typed-in notes or pictures of a whiteboard that amplify what's being said in the recording.

Fewer details are available about the rumored calculator integration coming to Notes, but basically, it sounds as if the feature will allow the app to display mathematical notations. While that may not interest you, it certainly is to scientists, engineers and academics. And as Apple Insider pointed out, it would also mirror similar capabilities already included in Microsoft's OneNote.

iOS 18 Maps

After iOS 17 added the ability to download offline maps, iOS 18 appears to be on tap to add another capability found in other mapping applications to Apple Maps — the ability to create a custom route. Nicolás Alvarez spotted the code for the feature, and MacRumors says it's confirmed that custom routes are coming.

With custom routes, you're not limited to taking the suggested routes that Maps generates when you enter your starting point and destination. For example, when I take a road trip, I'm not always a fan of the auto-generated route Maps comes up with to get me from my home to the freeway — presumably, with custom routes, I'll be able to tweak the directions to take my preferred route. It also sounds like a feature that will come in handy if you'd like to swing by a point of interest that's not necessarily on the route Maps has suggested.

The changes to Maps in iOS 18 may not end there. There's also rumors of topographical maps coming to the app. Those are already available to Apple Watch users, and this addition would merely extend the feature to the iOS, macOS and visionOS versions of the Maps app.

iOS 18 Messages

We know that Apple is adding support for the Rich Communication Service (RCS) standard to the iPhone this year—the company has already said as much. We're guessing that RCS support will arrive as part of the iOS 18 update.

This won't mean an end to the green bubble-blue bubble split, as Apple isn't planning on updating its own iMessage platform. Rather, RCS support will merely be added to messaging services on the iPhone, with that support bringing a number of improvements to interplatform texting, particularly in group chats. The addition of RCS means features like emoji reactions, real-time read receipts and typing indicators will now be available when you message your Android pals.

iOS 18 Music

Now, we're moving into areas where fewer details are available about Apple's plans — just rumors indicating that some sort of improvement will be coming to these apps in iOS 18. In the case of Apple Music, the rumored new feature involves Apple's AI efforts.

Specifically, Bloomberg has reported that AI-generated playlists are coming to Apple Music. Because that's the extent of the reporting, we don't know specifics. Still, we'd assume that you'll be able to provide specific prompts for the kinds of songs you want to hear — either music from a particular genre or songs that match your current mood — and Apple Music will assemble a playlist. We'd also assume that feature will be tied to Apple Music's subscription service, though that's just a guess on our part.

iOS 18 Pages and Keynote

These are two separate apps, but we're lumping them together here because 1) they're both on tap to get similar AI-powered improvements, and 2) there's not much in the way of details about the extent of those changes.

Nevertheless, the Pages word processing tool and the Keynote presentations app are both tipped to adapt generative AI for iOS 18. According to reports, that will mean an AI-powered writing assistant and help with deck creation for presentations. It sounds a lot like what Samsung added to its smartphones with its Galaxy AI features, which include tools to rewrite texts based on different tones and auto-formatting for notes powered by AI.

iOS 18 Freeform

Freeform debuted as part of the iOS 16.2 update, giving you a tool for cross-platform collaboration on your Apple devices. The app looks to be getting a new navigational feature in iOS 18, at least if initial reports prove accurate.

Specifically, MacRumors claims that Freeform will add a new feature called Scenes that will let users designate specific sections of their whiteboard as a scene. Doing so will allow them to more easily jump back to that scene should they find themselves working elsewhere in the app.

iOS 18 Safari

Annual iOS updates usually introduce new capabilities to the Safari web browser, and it sounds like this will once again be the case for iOS 18, even if details are pretty sparse about the new additions. 

We once again turn to code found by Nicolás Álvarez that indicates Safari is getting an AI-powered browsing assistant and encrypted visual search as part of the iOS 18 update. We assume the former feature will be able to summarize the contents of websites, which is not unlike a similar capability offered by Galaxy AI. The latter addition sounds like enhanced privacy to searches.

iOS 18 app outlook

That's just a handful of the rumored changes to apps that have emerged thus far. While AI-flavored enhancements will garner most of the attention with iOS 18, we're certain that more apps will see updates of their own and that some of the apps listed here are in line for additional improvements. We'll find out for certain on June 10 when WWDC 2024 gets underway with Apple's opening keynote about the software updates it plans to introduce later this year.

More from Tom's Guide

• iOS 18 — this is the biggest AI move Apple needs to make
• Here are the customization features I want to see in iOS 18
• iOS 18 device support details leak — will your iPhone be able to upgrade?

As Fitness Editor, I spend a lot of my time experimenting with workout apps, testing workout headphones, and doing a mix of high-intensity training sessions and low-impact walks. I have an iPhone and use a Mac, so, naturally, I use Apple Music to stream music. But it wasn’t always this way.

I resisted streaming services for years, as I prefer the security of using my own local music library filled with tracks imported from obscure CDs and songs I bought on Bandcamp. But, eventually, I decided to sign up for Spotify to listen to new releases before buying them.

I grew to like the personalized playlists and easy access to such a large and diverse music collection. But as the app refocused on podcasts, I found it too hard to find what I was looking for. This was especially true when searching for a good workout playlist.

So, I switched to Apple Music once I realized I could upload my music library using iTunes Match (yes, the name is confusing since iTunes doesn’t exist anymore). Apple knows more about my preferences than I do, so I expected to find great playlists to soundtrack my workouts, but it didn’t work out that way. Here’s what happened instead.

Apple Music doesn’t always understand me

Apple Music has a clearer interface, allows me to toggle between my uploaded library tracks and streamed playlists, and, generally, does a much better job of understanding what I like. But apparently not when I want to work out, as Apple doesn’t personalize its fitness playlists.

Instead, the themed workout playlists — grouped by genre or exercise style — are the same for everyone. So when I open Metal Workout, for example, I see the same selection of newly released tracks and timeless classics as anyone else, even though Apple has a vast trove of data on what I listen to and when.

It’s hard to understand why Apple isn’t using its library of preference data to customize the playlists, especially since it does such a great job of this elsewhere. I even abandoned manual playlists on my phone because the automatically generated James Frew’s Station is so good.

And because I use iTunes Match, Apple has a catalog of every song I own and how often I listen to it. It’s surprising that despite having three detailed sources of data, it can’t seem to find a way to generate personalized exercise playlists tailored to my interests.

Of course, this may all change later this year when Apple unveils its new AI tools in iOS 18. I'd love if my iPhone could understand context; so, if I open a workout app, Music would know I'm about to exercise and start playing a personalized fitness-focused playlist. Maybe one day. 

One-size-fits-all playlists don’t work

The Metal Workout playlist includes Slipknot’s Duality, which is great for getting pumped, but I don’t feel the same buzz from the demo version of Metallica’s Enter Sandman. If you do, that’s great, but this one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t seem to fit in a highly personalized streaming app.

Meanwhile, Spotify has a far larger collection of workout-themed playlists, has recently introduced the ability to create the perfect playlist from a text prompt using AI, and there are vastly more public playlists created by other users that you can add to your library.

The main downside to Apple's approach is that a single playlist will never please everyone. You may love a certain track and feel entirely put off by another. And I prefer training to songs that keep a similar beat and intensity the whole way through, so find I need to skip tracks that don't fit that format. 

Not that they're bad songs — many I really enjoy — but they're not right for my training. And that's the problem. In fairness, I'm not sure any streaming service has completely resolved this, but it feels like Apple is starting to fall behind compared to the new features Spotify has rolled out in recent months. 

Spotify has a lot more choice

Whatever my personal thoughts, Spotify is the default music streaming app for most people, so yoga teachers, personal trainers, and fitness instructors often put together custom playlists for their classes or clients that you can find on Spotify too.

These are usually designed specifically for your session, and many trainers and instructors adjust the run order so that the tempo fits with the flow of the class, building up to a crescendo before slowing the pace for you to cool down and recover.

Likewise, brands like Peloton add class-specific playlists to Spotify, so when I had the opportunity to try Peloton’s latest dance-focused class with Defected Records, I loaded up the playlist on my way home, re-listened to all the tracks, but then had to manually add them to my Apple Music library.

The user-generated playlists are particularly useful, as you're quite likely to find something that matches (or, at least, resembles) what you'd like to listen to. And then you can just copy the tracks into a new list, add a few others, and then you're good to go. 

Apple Music plays well with Apple Fitness Plus

This being Apple, Music integrates well with other Apple services. For instance, if you’re an Apple Music subscriber, exclusive radio shows and podcasts show up in the Apple Podcasts app. And the company takes the same approach with its workout app, Apple Fitness Plus.

These two apps work well together, so if you take a class in Fitness Plus, the music is all listed with a link to the corresponding Apple Music playlist. And you can choose sessions specifically for their music, with workouts celebrating album anniversaries or Super Bowl halftime show headliners.

It’s a much more organized and easy-to-use system than Spotify, which usually relies on manually curated community or brand playlists for specific workouts. But to use this feature, you’ll need to subscribe to Apple Music and take out an Apple Fitness Plus membership for $9.99 per month.

I liked this integration when I used Apple Fitness Plus, but as I review a lot of different apps, I haven't kept up my subscription. It would be great to see Apple roll this out beyond its own platforms though. Especially since some apps, like Centr, have dedicated Apple Music playlists that could be integrated into the app. 

Apple Music or Spotify: which wins for working out?

Having used both apps, I definitely prefer Apple Music’s interface, personalized playlists, and higher payments to artists compared to Spotify. That doesn’t mean that it’s perfect. I really wish Apple would use all the data it gathers about my preferences to make customized workout playlists.

Particularly because it’s so good at this in other areas of the app. My personal station has become a daily staple as it blends my favorite songs with new tracks I might enjoy, but Spotify just has more choices when it comes to fitness-focused playlists.

Plus, Spotify has started to roll out AI-generated playlists, so it’s possible to create the perfect workout soundtrack to suit your mood and training in just a few seconds. But I still prefer Apple Music and will stick with it, even if that means taking an extra break to manually change tracks in the middle of a workout.

More from Tom's Guide

• Apple Music vs. Spotify: Which is the best music app?
• I just tested the AirPods Pro 2 for workouts, and the fit surprised me
• 5 reasons to ditch Spotify for Apple Music

Tidal may not be as popular as Apple Music or Spotify, but it now offers an outstanding new feature those platforms can’t match.

Tidal released an update earlier this week that allows users to share universal links to songs or albums, allowing them to open those tracks in whatever service they use for listening to music. The move means Tidal users can share their favorite new song with Spotify or Apple Music users and recipients will be able to open that song on their favored streaming platform.

“Now, with just a couple of taps, your friends can play any TIDAL track, artist, or album that you share on their preferred streaming service – no fuss or feeling left out because they’re not on the same platform,” Tidal wrote in a changelog that accompanied its software update.

Tidal didn’t say which services its universal linking is compatible with. Still, Reddit users tested it on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music and found it works with all those platforms. Tidal said it will add more platforms over time.

Overall, it’s an outstanding move by Tidal. One of the biggest problems facing music streaming services is that sharing songs with others is nearly impossible unless everyone is on the same platform. And with so many options, people like certain streaming services for different reasons. Indeed, it’s challenging to fathom Apple Music users opting for Spotify out of the blue or Spotify users making a switch to Apple Music. With Tidal’s feature, however, it doesn’t matter which platform a user likes.

The question now is whether Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, or any other platform will follow Tidal’s lead.

Either way, Tidal’s innovative feature adds to what is otherwise an outstanding music streaming service. Earlier this month, in fact, Tom’s Guide reviewed Tidal and awarded it a coveted five stars thanks to its exceptional audio quality and excellent curated content. 

Our review clarified just how good Tidal really is: “High fidelity isn’t the only perk that makes Tidal the best music app out there.”

More from Tom's Guide

• WhatsApp’s swipeable navigation bar has arrived on Android — here's how to use it
• Best phone battery life: These are the longest-lasting phones
• iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus key specs just tipped

Tidal is set to streamline its subscription plans by combining its lossless audio and hi-res tiers into one new ad-free individual plan for just $10.99 / £10.99 / AU$12.99 per month. This is big news for lovers of hi-res audio like myself and will also include full access to Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio spatial audio content. The change will bring Tidal's prices in line with Apple Music and Amazon Music.  

The new plan will simply be called Tidal when it rolls out on April 10. It will combine Tidal's current HiFi and HiFi Plus tiers, which will cease to exist beyond that date.

As a paid subscriber to several of the best music streaming services, I regularly listen to Tidal's HiFi (CD-quality lossless audio) tier. I'm signed up for the $10.99 per month individual subscription (although I confess, I've being overpaying since I foolishly reinstated my Tidal subscription via iPhone) and have already received a notification to my email account telling me about the changes to my Tidal subscription. The price remains the same as my current subscription, and there's an option to cancel my subscription should I wish.

When it arrives, the new Tidal plan means I'll get access to Tidal's entire library of hi-res music files for no extra cost. Previously, I would have needed to sign up to Tidal's costly $20 per month HiFi Plus plan to access its hi-res music content, so this is great news for hi-res music fans everywhere and follows the company's simplification of its streaming offering that began last year.

Tidal drops MQA in favor of FLAC

Tidal has been known for its hi-res MQA format. At the time it launched, MQA enabled hi-res audio files containing large amounts of data to be 'packed' in such a way that they could easily be streamed from music servers over digital networks with limited bandwidth and 'unpacked' by compatible MQA playback devices in our homes.

As digital networks and infrastructure have improved though, Tidal began phasing out its MQA format support, and in June 2023 started making its hi-res library available in FLAC format.

Tidal's current price plans

What you'll get with the new $11 Tidal plan

1. Full access to Tidal's hi-res library: Tidal's music library claims over 110 million tracks in lossless audio and hi-res FLAC. It adds around 200,000 new hi-res tracks every week. 

2. Spatial audio content: Two other features bundled with this new Tidal package are 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos spatial audio integration.

3. Offline listening: Tidal tracks and videos can be downloaded to your phone for offline listening, in any streaming quality. 

4. Content exclusives: The amount of exclusive content is among the biggest of any of the best streaming services, and consists of concerts, curated mixes, discovery radio stations, podcasts, and shows.

5: The best content curation: Algorithm-generated recommendations are personalized to your music and video mixes that favor users' listening habits, while my Daily Discovery is a solid tool for finding new artists and songs.

As Tidal streamlines its subscription plan to more closely match market rivals, Spotify is the only streaming service without a lossless, hi-res, or spatial audio streaming tier. I look forward to discovering more at the Spotify Stream On 2024 that's rumored to be happening later this month. 

More from Tom's Guide

• Which music streaming service pays artists more?
• 10 hidden Tidal features to get the best audiophile listening experience
• Spotify HiFi could be getting bundled into a larger tier not aimed at audiophiles

Reddit users have reported that Apple Music on Android is currently beta testing integration with SongShift, although the feature is still in A/B beta testing at this point.

SongShift is a third-party feature that allows users to easily move their music libraries and playlists between different music streaming services. This saves the user time as they don’t have to constantly recreate each playlist and allows for more integration between apps. For instance, it would be possible to transfer a created playlist from Spotify to Apple Music without having to search for all the artists and tracks again.

According to Reddit users, Apple is testing a native integration with SongShift. It seems that there is now a new prompt in Apple Music that asks if they want to “add saved music and playlists you made in other music services to your Apple Music library.” There also appears to be an option to do this through Apple Music's settings on Android. 

This feature is still locked to the Apple Music for Android Beta, and there are no indications that Apple is planning to move SongShift integration to the iPhone. If users are using the iPhone they will still need to download a third-party app to transfer playlists easily. However, it would not be unusual for Apple to have different features on its Android app versions.

A/B testing, also known as split testing or bucket testing,  is a method of testing that compares versions of a webpage or app against the other to determine which is better. While the term often refers to using two versions, it can be increased to use multiple versions to achieve the results. It is considered to be very useful at gauging audience interest as it allows the developer to add feature variations with ease and measure how the different users react.

The idea of easily shifting playlists is an interesting one and arguably would be a great step for better Apple software integration. There is currently no indication when Apple will plan to release the updated version of Apple Music on Android, but we will bring that news to you as soon as it becomes available for every user. 

More from Tom's Guide

• 5 ways Apple can make the ultimate iPhone Flip foldable
• iPhone 16 Pro new colors may have just leaked — here's the options
• Android 15 could make web pages load faster — here’s how

It may surprise you to learn that iTunes for Windows does still exist, though it probably won’t be sticking around for much longer. Apple has officially launched apps for Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Devices on Windows, meaning iTunes is more or less obsolete.

This move was actually first announced way back in October 2022, with the goal of offering a significantly better experience for Windows users. Or, more specifically, one that mimics how Mac users access Apple’s software and services on their machines. 

Preview versions of all three apps were released to the Windows Store in January 2023, and have spent the last year receiving various updates from Apple. As of right now the Preview label has been dropped, meaning Windows users with iPhones no longer have to rely on iTunes on the rare occasion that it’s actually needed. 

Let’s be honest, that’s definitely a good thing. iTunes was never exactly the pinnacle of Apple’s software department, especially on Windows. 

Plus it’s been more or less redundant for the past few years, with advancing technology lessening the iPhone and iPad's reliance on a desktop companion. That's why Apple killed the Mac version of iTunes back in 2019.

iTunes is still available on the Microsoft Store, and should stick around in case you want to listen to podcasts or audiobooks on your PC. But the three alternatives have taken over the rest of its duties, should you need use of them. So long as you have a machine running Windows 10 or higher

Apple Music gives you the option to purchase and manage music in your iTunes library, while also offering access to Apple’s music streaming service on your desktop. Apple TV does much the same thing for movies and TV shows, with the added benefit of native Apple TV Plus support.

Apple Devices will let you update, sync, backup and restore iPhones and iPads from your PC. On the off chance that your devices are unable to do any of these things on their own — like if they got stuck in some kind of boot loop after a software update. 

Thankfully all three apps appear to offer a more modern and streamlined design than iTunes, which doesn’t seem to have changed much in the past 20 years. Here’s just hoping these apps don’t end up being quite as neglected by Apple. Otherwise we’ll just end up with the exact same problems repeating themselves a few years down the road.

More from Tom's Guide

• Goodbye, Bard — Google unveils new Gemini chatbot that will replace Assistant
• iOS 17.4 beta — Apple wants to remind EU users that the App Store is a 'safe and trusted place' as it's forced to allow sideloading
• iPhone 16 lineup tipped for battery upgrade — with one exception

Apple Music is already one of the biggest providers of Dolby Atmos audio tracks and, soon, it’s likely going to add even more tracks to the service thanks to a potential new incentive program that rewards artists for recording in the spatial audio format.

According to a new report by Bloomberg, Apple is going to pay artists more in royalties when their music is played in the spatial audio format, which in turn should cause an influx of new Dolby Atmos audio tracks for streamers to listen to. At least, that’s the plan on paper.

Why the sudden interest? It all comes down to the upcoming launch of the Apple Vision Pro headset — due out early in 2024 — and rumored release of the AirPods Max 2, both of which could support near-lossless spatial audio. A slew of new music coming down the pipeline right as these products are about to launch could help drum up some interest in the new devices, something Apple is surely keen to do.

What is Dolby Atmos? 

Dolby Atmos is already one of the most prominent names in the home theater space — and, thanks to streaming services like Apple Music, it’s found success in the music industry, too. 

In short, Atmos provides a greater level of surround sound detail than is typically available in stereo or 5.1 surround sound mixes. Apple introduced Dolby Atmos audio to its Apple Music service in 2021 and has been a major proponent of the format ever since.

Currently, there are more than a dozen Apple devices that support spatial audio including the latest iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro as well as the AirPods Pro 2 and the current-generation AirPods Max. With two more devices potentially on the horizon, now's as good of a time as any for Apple to invest in its Dolby Atmos music catalogue. 

Looking for a new way to listen to spatial audio tracks? Check out our guide to the best Dolby Atmos soundbars.

More from Tom's Guide

• 5 features I want to see on Apple's AirPods 4
• AirPods Max 2 may not arrive next year — but this should be coming
• New AirPods Pro 2 have Lossless Audio support

Last week saw the release of the iOS 17.2 beta 4, with a bunch of additional features — and one glaring omission. Collaborative Playlists had been removed for reasons unknown, and now it seems as though that was a deliberate move rather than some kind of bug.

Apple has released the iOS 17.2 RC to users on the developer and public betas, suggesting that the final version of the update could arrive pretty soon. Unfortunately the Collaborative Playlists feature in Apple Music is still missing. That means it won’t be debuting in iOS 17.2, as originally promised. 

According to code seen by 9to5MacApple appears to have pulled the feature due to concerns about spam and abuse. Apparently the feature is still being developed, but there will be extra precautions to cut down on these kinds of issues. That includes limits on how many “pending requests” a playlist owner can have.

It’s not clear what sort of abuses Apple is trying to curb. The set up for a collaborative playlist did require users to toggle on a feature that lets them approve who can and can't take one part. Much like the trend of zoom bombing during 2020, not having this on means anyone with a link could access and screw up your playlist.

That could involve non-stop spamming of songs to the playlist, or choosing particular titles that are designed to upset or offend. Horrible people are nothing if not inventive with how they try to push your buttons. Though obviously Apple could prevent a lot of this by locking down playlists by default or offering extra features to block certain users.

It’s a disappointing piece of news, especially considering Collaborative Playlists was originally announced at WWDC back in June. It was never intended to be released as part of iOS 17 at launch, but it was supposed to arrive before the end of the year. 

It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, at least not for the general public. There’s a good chance that iOS 17.2 is the last major update of the year. If anything else is released before January 1, it’ll likely be for bug fixes or security-centric issues — not brand new features.

So maybe we’ll see Collaborative Playlists return as part of iOS 17.3, whenever that arrives.

More from Tom's Guide

• OnePlus 12 makes its first appearance with a huge battery, 100W charging and a super-bright display
• Xbox could be getting its own mobile store on iPhone and Android — this is big
• Your Pixel has an awesome long exposure mode for capturing light trails — how it works

The best headphones (wired or wireless) are built to deliver great sound from all kinds of playback devices, including the best MacBooks. Class-leading headphone designs like the Sony WH-1000XM5 are exceptionally engineered with technologies that maximize audio quality over Bluetooth for higher quality streaming that's better than standard SBC and AAC wireless connectivity. While the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones have cleverly developed a spatial audio alternative to deliver an immersive listening experience no matter what playback source you're using. 

So, why are you still unsatisfied with the sound your headphones produce when paired to Apple’s MacBook? The answer is simple: you haven’t optimized its audio capabilities beyond the factory settings, nor explored other sound-enhancing techniques to enhance playback. Allow me to assist. 

Being a MacBook Pro owner for over a decade, I’ve dug around in macOS and found some of the operating system’s unadvertised audio features. I’ve also taken advantage of the hidden listening modes and settings on my favorite music streaming platforms, while adding Hi-Fi tools to my laptop setup that have raised the bar when it comes to listening on my favorite headphones.

These are the five tips I recommend for achieving better headphone sound on a MacBook.

1. Adjust your streaming service’s EQ

This first option isn't specific to MacBooks, but is a handy first step for all kinds of platforms. Many of the best wireless headphones and best wireless earbuds come with a customizable EQ to manually adjust and create your own sound profiles. Those who use wired headphones do not have that luxury. Furthermore, the EQ available on most headphones isn’t always great, so using the one available on a streaming platform is a sweet alternative.

Apple Music and Spotify have their own built-in equalizer that lets you set frequency levels, while also granting access to over 20 presets that complement different music genres and media.

• Apple Music > Window > Equalizer
• Spotify > Settings > Playback > Equalizer

2. Add an outboard DAC to unlock true lossless audio

Apple Music subscribers can enable the Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) for maximum audio output. However, a DAC (digital-to-analog converter) and wired headphones setup is required to stream lossless files in true 24-bit/192kHz high-resolution audio. You can purchase a quality DAC and headphones for much less than the $549 AirPods Max, which don’t play lossless audio over Bluetooth. 

Tom's Guide's audio editor has been mightily impressed by the versatility of the Chord MoJo 2 portable DAC, which can be hardwired to devices or wirelessly connected using AirPlay to the MoJo's Poly module (available as an add-on). Also consider the iFi Uno USB DAC/headphone amp for $79 at Amazon.   

• Music > Settings > Playback > Audio Quality > Streaming > Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/48kHz)

3. Download Dolby Atmos-quality tracks for offline listening

Travelers who want to maintain hi-res playback when Wi-Fi is unavailable should save this somewhere in their Notes app. It turns out you can download lossless and Dolby Atmos tracks from Apple Music for offline listening. Your Apple Music library must first be merged with your Apple account.

Go to Settings and check the Download Dolby Atmos box in the General tab. Make sure to also enable and select Lossless Audio in the streaming and download drop menus via Playback tab. A downward arrow will appear when hovering the cursor over a track that’s available for download.

• Apple Music > Music > Settings > General > Download Dolby Atmos
• Apple Music > Music > Settings > Playback > Audio Quality > Click Lossless Audio
• Apple Music > Music > Settings > Playback > Audio Quality > Download > Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/48kHz)

4. Turn on Sound Enhancer

Another secret audio feature in Apple Music is Sound Enhancer. Essentially, it’s a slider that increases the “perceived ‘wideness’ of the stereo effect by modifying bass and treble response.” The feature works effectively on local tracks stored to your MacBook drive, expanding the soundstage for greater low-mid presentation. You’ll immediately hear the differences in sound quality on EDM, hip-hop, rock, and most other contemporary genres.

• Apple Music > Music > Settings > Playback > Sound Enhancer > Adjust to preference

5. Use Tidal’s hidden desktop modes

As one of the best music streaming services, Tidal has many features that boost the audiophile streaming experience, two of which are exclusive for desktop/laptop use. First up is Exclusive Mode (formerly Hog Mode), which bypasses your MacBook’s audio mixer and gives Tidal permission to assign the specific bitrate and sample rate relating to playable audio files on the streaming service. 

The second is for audiophiles with older DACs: Passthrough MQA. Disabling this feature turns off the software MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) unfolding in Tidal and has your DAC perform full decoding of Tidal Master recordings.

• Tidal > Sound Output (speaker icon bottom right on music player) > More Settings > enable Use Exclusive Mode
• Tidal > Settings > Streaming > Master
• Tidal > Settings > Sound Output > Select DAC
• Tidal > Sound Output (speaker icon on music player) > More Settings > Enable Exclusive Mode > Disable Passthrough MQA

More from Tom's Guide

• Spotify Wrapped 2023 is live — here's how to get it
• AirPods Max vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones face-off
• Tidal opens the floodgates to 6 million hi-res FLAC tracks 

Gone are the days when a proper singalong was restricted to karaoke bar, pubs or expensive karaoke sets that hooked up to your home TV. Emblematic of humanity's progression, in 2023 karaoke is now available to us all, anywhere, via our smartphones. As long as you have a subscription to one of the best music streaming services, that is.

While smartphone karaoke is (at least for the most part) nowhere near as good as a classic karaoke bar, it's still a great way to liven up a party. I say "for the most part" because, as we'll cover shortly, there's one particular streaming service that offers a far better karaoke experience than the rest, pushing it much closer toward a full karaoke experience. And that's Apple Music, which offers some awesome features like duet support and the ability to turn down the vocal tracks of songs! Most services simply offer the lyrics to songs on screen which, realistically, is all you really need to sing along.

Regardless of the service you use, though, if you're signed up to one of the major streaming services — Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Music or Deezer — there's a tool of some extent to help you bring the house down.

Here, we'll cover how to get karaoke on all major music streaming platforms.

How to get karaoke mode on all major music streaming services

Here's how to get karaoke mode on Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Music and Deezer. Note, the following screenshots were taken on an iPhone 15 Pro, but the steps should be more or less the same on Android.

Apple Music Sing

Apple Music's karaoke mode is called "Sing" and it's my favorite of the bunch. Sing does what the rest do (that is, put some lyrics on screen) while also adding more classic karaoke features, such as duets, and enabling you to turn down the vocal tracks of certain songs. The full suite of features isn't available on all songs, but you'll find lots of karaoke classics on there.

Spotify Karaoke

Spotify's karaoke mode is relatively simple compared to Apple Music Sing, but it still offers you the fundamentals of what you need to sing along: scrolling lyrics! Spotify did introduce a limited karaoke mode a while back which would rate your singing, but it hasn't gone anywhere and wasn't available on any of the songs we tried.

Tidal Karaoke

Tidal is similar to Spotify and doesn't have the bells and whistles of Apple Music. Again, though, all you really need is lyrics, passion and commitment. (A drink helps too.)

YouTube Music Karaoke

Once again, YouTube Music only provides scrolling lyrics for you to sing along to. Simply but effective.

Deezer Karaoke

Deezer's karaoke mode is again pretty basic, but it at least offers one feature over the others: there's a countdown timer to show you when you need to start singing!

Voila, you now know how to use your music streaming service for karaoke. Admittedly, most of the services are pretty basic, but you should now be armed with the bare minimum you need for a joyous karaoke session.

Next up, check out our full guide on how to use Apple Music Sing on iPhone. We can also show you how to download music from Spotify and how to change your password on Spotify.

Disabling your Apple Music listening history is now fairly simple thanks to a new setting available in iOS 17.2, currently in beta but rolling out to recent iPhones soon.

Playing tracks without them being tracked, and added to your playing history and recommendation algorithm, is available as part of the Focus Filter system. It's fiddlier than we'd like, but it's still easy to set up and use, which is more than can be said for the old method of disabling listening history entirely just to temporarily hide all the embarrassing nursery rhymes your nephew demanded you play for him.

Getting this focus filter set up is perfect for when you're allowing others to add songs to the queue for a party, or you need to indulge in a guilty pleasure album or two. So follow along with the instructions below to see what to do to disable Listening History in Apple Music.

How to disable Listening History in Apple Music

New features are being added to the iPhone, either as software or hardware, all the time. Check out how to change focus after taking a photo on iPhone 15, how to move the address bar in Chrome for iOS or how to set up Translate using the iPhone 15 Pro's Action Button when you're done listening to music safe in the knowledge that nobody but you will know what you've been listening to.

More from Tom's Guide

• These are the best iPhones you can buy today
• This hidden camera feature is the best thing about the iPhone 15 Pro
• Forget foldables — future iPhones could have expanding scrollable displays

If, like me, you've been familiar with both Apple Music and Spotify for some time — whether you've switched from one to the other or have flitted between the two — you'll know that there are some ways in which Apple's music streaming app has lagged behind.

While Apple Music has tended to target audiophiles and champion quality with features like lossless playback, the app has tended to have less general-user features. Party tricks, so to speak. Spotify was the first to implement karaoke mode, for example, and has long since had a crossfade feature to allow the person in charge of the tunes to act like they're a DJ. 

Apple Music released their answer to Spotify's karaoke mode in late 2022 with Apple Music Sing, and have now launched an automated crossfade feature with the release of iOS 17, to square things there too.

The thing is, if you didn't read the release notes or know where to look, you'd never have realized, as Apple hasn't really made a big song and dance (get it?) about the feature. It's buried in the Settings menu and isn't turned on by default.

We're here to fix that. Read on to find out how to enable the new Apple Music crossfader.

How to enable the Apple Music crossfader

You'll need to be running iOS 17 in order to use this feature. We can show you how to update your iPhone if you need help.

Easy, right? If you'd like to read more tutorials, we have plenty. Learn how to use your Amazon Echo to find your phone if you've lost your device. Find out how to set separate ringtones for dual SIMs on iPhone, so you know when you're getting a personal or business call. And learn how to use Visual Look Up to decrypt laundry instructions on iPhone, if you're a little baffled by the symbols.

Apple's AirPods Pro 2 are the ultimate noise-canceling earbuds for iPhone users and some of the best wireless earbuds around. But when it comes to unleashing the full quality of lossless audio, Bluetooth wireless connectivity isn't giving you the full audio picture. 

With this in mind, news of the Questyle NHB12 wired earbuds grabbed my attention owing to their 'True Lossless Earphones for Apple iOS' billing, and the 'Made for iPhone' (MFi) certification. 

As a plug 'n' play solution, they're designed to deliver true lossless and hi-res audio up to 24-bit/192kHz without compromise thanks to their wired design with an integrated DAC that bypasses the iPhone's own internal DAC for top-flight sound quality from the likes of Apple Music or any other lossless/hi-res music service. 

Although there's no mention from the Chinese maker about an on sale date just yet, the Questyle NHB12 wired earbuds are available to pre-order via a Kickstarter campaign where early-bird backers can grab them for $229. That's a $70 saving on the full $299 asking price, which converts to £235 / AU$465 based on exchange rates at the time of writing.

Questyle NHB12 design and features  

The NHB12 wired earbuds use a single dynamic speaker driver in each earpiece powered by the inline DAC and amplifier module. A single red light indicates that it's running and processing audio data at a sampling rate of 48kHz or below, while a double red light shows that it's processing high-resolution lossless data beyond 48kHz.

Although Questyle may be a new name to Tom's Guide readers and a new name in the world of earbuds, I've encountered the Chinese-based audio specialist's upmarket digital audio players in a previous role where I've been impressed by the company's audiophile credentials.

They NHB12 are specifically designed for iOS devices and connect via Apple's Lightning port. These are not compatible with Android devices, although the accessories provided run to a 3.5mm jack cable without an inline DAC, along with five sets of silicone ear tips and a leather storage case.

In terms of iOS connectivity, though, this does raise the question of what happens when the iPhone 15 arrives next month fitted with a USB-C connector to comply with EU regulations, making Questyle's MFi-certified earbuds incompatible with the newest iPhone models.

Why are wired earbuds better?

The reason to choose wired over wireless headphones is entirely to do with maintaining full audio signal integrity and sound quality. Whether it's Sony's WF-1000XM5 with LDAC support, or Apple's own AirPods Pro 2 wireless earbuds, audio signals over Bluetooth are compromised and don’t have the bandwidth to fully handle true lossless or hi-res audio files. Significant advances could soon be made though as support for Qualcomm's aptX Lossless audio codec is increased, but so far only a select few makers offer this kind of wireless audio support. 

With wired headphones there are no audio bandwidth compromises, thus enabling listeners to get the full lossless and hi-res audio experience from streaming services such as Apple Music and Tidal in resolutions ranging from 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD-quality) to 24-bit/192kHz (hi-res audio quality). Now what music lover doesn't want to hear that? 

Crowdfunded campaign advice

Although we've seen headphone launches before using similar campaigns, mainly as a tool to manage pre-orders, the usual risk warnings about crowdfunded products should be taken into consideration.

As the Questyle NHB12 crowdfunding campaign has already reached its goal, I look forward to hearing these Made for iPhone wired earbuds with DAC when a full production sample arrives. Watch this space for our full review coming soon to see whether they make the grade to join our best audiophile headphones guide.

More from Tom's Guide

• Jabra noise-canceling earbuds with Dolby Atmos support leak early
• These $2,200 headphones are the first to offer true lossless audio over Wi-Fi
• I'd still choose wired headphones over wireless — here's why   

Apple Music just added a serious upgrade to keep its spot on our list of the best music streaming services. And this one gives Apple Music users a feature Spotify has had for years.

As reported by Apple Insider, Apple Music has quietly added a Discovery Station to its Stations for You section of the Apple Music Listen Now tab. It joins your Personal Station as another option for discovering something to listen to with the help of an algorithm rather than Apple Music’s curated playlists.

The Discovery Station seemingly came in an August 7 update and, frankly, I’m surprised by the lack of fanfare on Apple’s part. Maybe Apple didn’t want to remind people that Apple Music lags behind Spotify when it comes to algorithm-driven playlists. But, to me, this is a massive upgrade for Apple’s music streamer.

That’s because Spotify has had a similar feature for years. The Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify also gives users a blend of new music you haven’t heard before and it’s probably one of my favorite playlists on Spotify — if not one of my favorite features. So Apple adding a similar feature eliminates a competitive advantage that Spotify has held for a while when it comes to finding new music.

Unfortunately, it still has one issue — at least so far in my testing — that Spotify’s algorithm-based recommendations have as well. Because the algorithm for Discovery Station is based on your listening habits, it doesn’t take you too far out of your comfort zone even though it (theoretically) is designed to not play anything you’ve heard before. 

For someone like me who just started using Apple Music, that’s both a blessing and a curse. Hopefully, as I use the feature more I’ll start being offered a broader selection of music.

How to find Apple Music Discovery Station

Despite being called a “Station” you won’t find this in the Radio tab of your Apple Music app, because… well, that’d be too easy. The good news is that, at least for me, once I used the Discovery Station it did start appearing in my Radio tab.

But at first, you’ll need to do just a bit of scrolling. First, open Apple Music. Then, on the Listen Now tab, scroll down until you see Stations for You. This should have (at least) your Personal Station and your Discovery Station. Tap Discovery Station and Apple Music’s algorithm will start doing its thing so you can start listening to some new music.

More from Tom's Guide

• Apple Music vs. Spotify: Which is the best music app?
• Spotify HiFi is still coming — but Spotify 'Supremium' sounds like a bummer
• I’ve been using Spotify DJ for a month — here’s 5 things I love and hate

Apple CarPlay didn’t get a lot of attention at WWDC 2023, but Apple did announce a few helpful upgrades that are coming to your car’s infotainment screen. The most exciting of these is SharePlay support for Apple Music, which just arrived as part of iOS 17.

SharePlay support in CarPlay essentially democratizes the music selection on road trips, ensuring passengers aren’t at the mercy of either the driver or shotgun. Think of it as a 2020’s equivalent to “pass the aux,” just without the need for any physical cables. You know, because Apple got rid of those kind of ports back in 2016.

You don’t even need an active Apple Music subscription, so long as you have an iPhone (or iPad) running the latest version of Apple’s operating system. SharePlay in CarPlay isn’t difficult to set up, but it’s not immediately obvious if you don’t know what you’re looking for either. Here’s how to get everything going.

How to use SharePlay on Apple Music in your car

Before you get started, there are a few things you should do ahead of time. The first is to make sure everyone has updated to iOS 17, which you can do by reading our guide on how to download and install iOS 17. 

You also need to have Apple CarPlay running on your car’s infotainment screen. The easiest way to do this is to plug your iPhone into the car’s USB port, and follow the instructions on both your car’s display and your iPhone. We also have a guide on how to set up wireless CarPlay if it’s available in your car.

It’s also possible to set up SharePlay from CarPlay and the connected iPhone, so we’ll have instructions for both. Just remember not to be distracted from the road ahead, so either set everything up before you leave or delegate SharePlay duties to whoever is in the shotgun seat

iOS 17 offers a heck of a lot more features, and the inclusion of SharePlay in your car is only scratching the surface. Be sure to check out some of our other iOS 17 tutorials, including how to set up StandBy mode, how to blur sensitive photos in Messages, how to set up a NameDrop file transfer and how to set up Personal Voice.

With lossless audio support for no additional cost, Apple Music is one of the best music streaming services right now and iOS 17 looks set to make it even better. 

We already know that Apple Adaptive Audio for AirPods Pro 2 is coming in a firmware update along with the anticipated full iOS 17 roll out in September, but there are seemingly new Apple Music features being explored by app developers who have access to a limited beta release version of the app ahead of the official launch.  

Here's everything we know so far about the new features coming to Apple Music with iOS 17.

1. Crossfade

I'll cut to the chase and say that Crossfade is one of my favorite Spotify features. It's a very useful playback tool that blends the ending of one song with the intro of the next. Despite the feature being available on several rival streaming services, it's one that's been missing from the Apple Music streaming platform so far.

If you're anything like me, there will often be times when you don't want gaps in between tracks breaking up the pace and mood of an upbeat playlist and leaving you wondering what the next track coming up will be. Although we have no idea about Apples Music's crossfade feature implementation with the iOS 17 update, I hope it will be incorporated with some form of AI that selects appropriate tracks and the point at which they transition from one to the other so that we get seamless crossfades just like a DJ.        

According to 9to5Mac, once users have upgraded to iOS 17 the Apple Music app tells you about Crossfade after launching it for the first time. To enable crossfade go to Settings > Music > Crossfade and turn on the corresponding toggle.

2. Collaborative Playlists

Collaborative Playlists is another popular music streaming feature that's been on rival music streaming platforms for a while. The feature that's coming to Apple music with the iOS 17 upgrade sounds similar to Spotify Blend, which allows users to combine their favorite songs with those of a friend's in a single shared playlist.

According to MacRumors, the ability to share playlists on Apple Music is one of the most requested features. Much like Spotify Blend, Apple Music's new Collaborative Playlists feature will enable subscribers to invite friends to add and edit songs in a shared playlist. When a person adds a song to a Collaborative Playlist, their profile picture appears beside the track.

Playlist collaborators will also be able to react to their favorite songs using emojis, but unlike Spotify Blend there's no mention of a Spotify-like taste match scoring system to enable collaborators to see how well your musical preferences match with the tastes of others.

3. SharePlay for CarPlay

Apple's SharePlay for CarPlay neatly navigates those tricky situations where passengers want to take control of what's playing on the in-car audio system, but you don't want them twiddling with the dials on the console while you're trying to concentrate on the highway and navigate the rush-hour traffic. 

With the iOS 17 update, SharePlay will still connect one iPhone to the car audio system as as normal, but passengers will be able to connect to it using SharePlay and have their say of what Apple Music tracks (as well as content from any other streaming services they happen to be subscribed) everyone listens to.

It's expected that SharePlay for CarPlay control will work by accepting a notification or scanning a QR code, so soon even passengers in the back seat will be able to play their favorite music and contribute to what's playing. Additionally, given that iOS 17 will integrate SharePlay with the new AirDrop update that's activated by bringing iOS devices closer together, it should be easier than ever to get everyone connected.

4. Camera support for Apple Music Sing

Apple Music Sing is the streaming service's karaoke feature that launched in late 2022, and is available to all Apple Music subscribers except those on the Apple Music Voice plan. Usable on all iPhones and iPads that have the app, plus the Apple TV 4K, it builds on Apple Music's lyrics feature to make it easier to sing along, while also adding a toggle to turn down the vocals of a song to replace them with your own.

When the iOS 17‌ update finally lands, wannabe performers will be able to watch themselves perform their favorite songs thanks to the tvOS 17 Continuity Camera support. I look forward to trying this one out when the update finally arrives. 

5. Updated Apple Music UI

Given Spotify's recent redesign it's reasonable to expect that Apple Music will also be getting a new look. Although there's not a whole lot of additional information around about it, MacRumors says we can expect the Apple Music app to introduce "some nice quality of life improvements and design tweaks" to its app. 

The streaming service has slowly been improving the look and feel of its music playback offering, and the music player and expected new feature additions include full-screen animated artwork on supported albums that blend into the media playback controls at the bottom.

In addition, when you minimize the Apple Music a depth effect will make it appear as though the music player is hovering over the rest of the interface as you navigate through the app. Lastly, we understand that Apple is making non-synced lyrics easier to read with a larger font size.

More from Tom's Guide

• Spotify HiFi could come in a new tier called Supreimium
• iOS 17 compatible devices list — does your iPhone make the cut?
• The best wireless earbuds we've tested 

Apple Music wants to help you find that next Taylor Swift concert.

Apple is rolling out a couple of new ideas it calls, “concert discovery features” using Apple Music and Apple Maps to help you find — you guessed it — your next concert. Apple Maps is getting a feature called Apple Music Guides and Apple Music is getting a feature called Set Lists. Both are available now.

Apple Music Guides is for when you know you want to see a live show but don’t care who you’re going to see. These guides highlight over 40 different music venues in over 10 different cities and are curated by Apple Music editors. Just pop open the Apple Maps app and you can explore everything — or, at least a lot of the things — cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Vienna, Tokyo and more have to offer. 

However, the coolest part of these guides is how the Maps app integrates with Shazam’s concert discovery module powered by Bandsintown. This integration allows you to see a venue's upcoming shows list through Apple Maps.

How to check out concert venues using Apple Music Guides

Here’s how it works. If you go to Apple Music Guides and click on the guide for a city, you get a list of venues. Click on one of the venues, and it will take you to the familiar Apple Maps page where you see icons such as “Directions,” “Call,” etc. For supported venues, you’ll now also see an icon that says “Tickets.”  Click the Tickets icon and it will take you to a Shazam page showing upcoming concerts for the venue.

Unfortunately, there is still a bit left to be desired with this integration. While you can see what’s coming and add a concert’s details to your calendar, you can’t actually buy tickets. Or at least, that was the case when I tested the feature for Nashville’s American Legion Post 82. But the issue is with the Shazam page — not Apple Maps. Hopefully, Shazam boosts the functionality of its concert discovery features soon. 

Set Lists will tell you your favorite artist is playing next

With Set Lists, Apple Music is finally getting one of my favorite Spotify features, but with a twist. This feature highlights major tours, similar to the Live events section you’ll see on a Spotify artist page. But it goes beyond that as well. With Set Lists, Apple Music users can listen to the set list for the tour and learn more about the production. And of course, you can see if the artist is coming to your area by clicking Browse upcoming shows.

While both apps are getting new features, you don’t need to have both in order to use one or the other. So if you’re a Spotify user you can still access Apple Music Guides through the Apple Maps app. And if you’re a Google Maps fan, you can still use Apple Music Set Lists to see when major artists are coming to a venue near you. 

If you don’t have the Apple Maps app, you can also take a look at the Apple Music Guides site on a web browser to check out the new feature. 

More from Tom's Guide

• 6 best Apple Music tracks to try spatial audio on speakers and headphones
• What is Apple spatial audio? How it works and how to use it
• Beats Studio Pro headphones with huge spatial audio upgrades tipped by Apple

If you've yet to be fully persuaded by the benefits of listening to music in spatial audio, then you may be interested in my pick of the 6 best tracks I've heard in the format so far. Each song manages to showcase the full potential spatial audio tracks can bring on the latest speakers or headphones capable of handling the new audio format.

I've been discussing spatial audio for a while now. I confess, though, I'm not entirely convinced by the new audio format and every spatial audio mix. After all, do we really need a more nuanced version of a song just to give it a greater sense of scale when played on today's wireless speakers or headphones?

An audio format that's built around remixing a song to deliver a stronger sound on today's small speakers, say, doesn't exactly feel like progress to me. To my mind, anything that messes with the original recording undermines the music mix that the artist(s) and record producer(s) settled on at the time the song was made, and from that point of view feels like a backwards step.

As an audio expert, I have spent more years than I care to mention listening to stereo recordings on conventional speaker systems. I know all about the benefits listening to music on a good quality system can bring in terms of soundstage depth, and conjuring up a three-dimensional sonic image of a musical performance in my living room simply by using a pair of Hi-Fi speakers, or the best audiophile headphones. Ironically, this is the goal of Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio formats, but for non audiophile setups using modern speaker systems and headphones.

Of course, not all spatial audio format songs are as effective as one another. So if you really want to hear what spatial audio is capable of, play these 5 Dolby Atmos remixed songs on a Sonos Era 300 speaker, which is designed specifically for spatial audio formats. Alternatively, you can try any stereo speaker setup or pair of headphones that support spatial audio, such as the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro Max, to discover what the format can bring when done right.

1. Rocket Man by Elton John

Few tracks demonstrate the immersive capabilities of spatial audio more effectively than Elton John's remixed Dolby Atmos version of "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long Long Time)". The soundscape this version of the classic song manages to produce on my Sonos Era 300 smart speaker is so expansive that it defies belief that it's coming from a single source. 

The exaggerated backing vocal harmonies and ramped up synth sounds in this Dolby Atmos mix aren't authentic to the version I've listened to hundreds of times over the years. It's very effective, though, and although I don't dislike it, it does feel a bit too different. Thankfully, not everything has been tinkered with in the track's mix, and the song still has a lovely warm characteristic that evokes the original 1970's recording style, making it sound familiar and different at the same time.

2. Thriller by Micheal Jackson

Another classic pop album that's been given the Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio treatment on Apple Music is Jackson's "Thriller." There are some neat touches that make the synth sound bigger on "Beat It" than the speaker cabinet the track is being streamed on, and has a room filling sound that is very engaging. 

Meanwhile, I can well imagine that there's some audio trickery applied to the howling wolves at the beginning of the "Thriller" album's title track, but it refused to play on my Sonos Era 300, informing me that 'the song is not encoded correctly.' It's not the first time this has happened when trying to stream Apple Music content to the Sonos Era 300, and leads me to suspect that there are still some encoding issues to be addressed between Apple Music and Sonos. 

3. No Time To Die (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) 

From Hans Zimmer's rousing orchestral score for James Bond's most recent outing to Billie Eilish's brooding performance of the title track, the No Time To Die movie soundtrack is a fine example of how orchestral pieces can work spectacularly well with spatial audio. Once again, the sound is much bigger in scale than I would typically expect from a single cabinet speaker, and the rousing strings and lavish production of the soundtrack are projected upwards and outwards, filling the room.

The track called "Matera" is a particular highlight, with all the signature elements of a Bond movie rolled into one very beautiful piece of music, and I have to confess that the Dolby Atoms Spatial Audio elements make it sound pretty spectacular on my Sonos Era 300. 

4. Royals by Lorde

Lorde's "Royals" track from 2013's "Pure Heroine" album was a go-to track ideal for showcasing bass performance on passive speakers and subwoofers in my reviews for a previous role, and I'm pleased to discover this Dolby Atmos version. The remixed version has all the scale to show off the bass handling of whatever speaker or pair of headphones you're listening on, and gives an extra dimension to the finger snaps and harmonies that seem to stretch beyond the confines of the speaker cabinet.

I love the way I am able to follow each layer of the backing vocal harmonies, and the way they seem to build on the Sonos speaker. The crashing gong sounds at the beginning of the chorus also appear to have additional presence in this mix that I wasn't aware of when listening to the original stereo version. This all adds up to the Dolby Atmos version of the song being added to my go-to demo tracks for spatial audio. 

5. A Day in The Life by The Beatles

The Dolby Atmos mix of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album by The Beatles is full of special effects that show just how ahead of their time the band was back in 1967 when the album was originally released. I've often found the original mix of the album a bit too chaotic for my tastes, but this Dolby Atmos remix version unpicks the multitracked layers to give each element its own space within the soundstage. 

With so many tracks on the album to showcase Dolby Atmos' capabilities with throwing sounds wide of the soundstage thanks to the likes of the cock-a-doodle-doing cockerel on "Good Morning, Good Morning", to the extra dimension given to the snaking synth sounds on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Even more spectacular, though, is "A Day In the Life." 

The way the Dolby Atmos version places the instruments in their own acoustic space within the soundstage is remarkable for a 55-year-old recording. The drum kit feels as though it's actually positioned behind the speaker in the soundstage, which is a really neat trick that gives this mix the impression of depth. If fact, the soundstage conjured up by the Sonos Era 300 here sounds closer to what I'd expect to hear on a traditional stereo music system, with two speakers placed several feet apart, than any single speaker setup I've heard so far.

6. The Immaculate Collection by Madonna 

Regarded as one of the best-selling compilation albums by a solo artist, Madonna's 1990s collection of songs on "The Immaculate Collection" remains one of the best-selling compilation albums of all time, with global sales exceeding 30 million. The original CD of greatest hits included tracks remixed in Q-Sound, an early version of spatial audio sound that enveloped the listener sat in the 'sweet spot' in front of a pair of stereo speakers.

I was a fan of the collection of songs, largely because of the immersive Q-Sound remixes on tracks including "Like a Prayer" and "Express Yourself", and this released Dolby Atmos remix version of some of Madonna's biggest hits throws out a wide soundstage that places me right at the heart of the music for every song.

Although much of Madonna's early 90s output have the better production, with drum beats appearing to come from somewhere outside of the speaker cabinet, it's early-era (mid-80s) Madonna songs that are the most effective Dolby Atmos remixes. Tracks like "Lucky Star" and "Boderline" have more prominent guitar and synth lines that seem to pop out of my Sonos Era 300 speaker, and the space around the vocal reverb makes it sound like Madonna is singing in a much larger auditorium than on the original mix of the track.

If you were ever a fan, then this Dolby Atmos remix version of one of the best compilation albums of the 1990s is pure nostalgic joy with a modern-day twist. This album is the perfect demonstration of how good spatial audio can sound.

How to hear spatial audio tracks

From Apple's AirPods Max headphones to the latest HomePod 2 smart home speaker, the idea of spatial audio seems to be finding its way into all kinds of products. Indeed, it's a fundamental part of the distinctive design behind the Sonos Era 300 smart speaker, which makes some spatial audio tracks sound so impressive they defy belief that they're coming from a relatively compact speaker design.

It is no surprise, then, that spatial audio music is taking off, and as Apple Insider points out, it's important to note that there's no fixed definition for the term spatial audio. 

When it comes down to it, Apple Music uses Dolby Atmos mixed tracks that it calls Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, while Tidal and Amazon Music Unlimited employ both Dolby Atmos and Sony's 360 Reality Audio formats in their Spatial Audio content libraries.

There are some issues with easily tracking down spatial audio version of songs. For Apple Music subscribers using iOS, though, this third-party music library tracker app automatically discovers which of the tracks and albums in your Apple Music library have a spatial audio version, all without having to carry out lengthy searches of your favorite artist's back catalog.

I've found it particularly useful with getting to grips with spatial audio content in my own library, rather than relying on Apple Music's playlist of Spatial Audio tracks, it has made streaming tracks to my Sonos Era 300 smart speaker far more straight forward.

More from Tom's Guide

• This AirPods Max feature blew me away
• This 3D sound app made me feel like I was buried alive  
• 5 wireless earbuds picks for all budgets

As two of the best music streaming services, Spotify and Apple Music are close rivals when it comes to essential music listening. Although Spotify has the largest share of the music streaming market worldwide, when it comes to the total number of subscribers in the U.S., the two streaming services are more closely matched. This doesn't mean, though, that one service isn't better suited to everyday music listeners than the other. 

To find out why Apple Music is my go-to music streaming service for testing and personal listening right now, read on. And be sure to check out our full Apple Music vs Spotify face-off. 

1. Better sound quality

Apple Music's sound quality is top-notch. When it comes to resolution and bit rate, Apple Music's "lossless" delivers full “CD-quality” at 16-bit/44.1kHz and up to 24-bit/192kHz for true Hi-Res Audio. The only slight downside is that hi-res output is not supported on Windows desktops.

The Apple Music mobile app sounds consistently excellent, with a natural sounding balance across every genre of music. It's my go-to music provider for reviewing headphones on the move, and it sounds pretty great through the various Sonos speakers and components dotted around my home, and is a great alternative to hi-res streaming services such as Tidal and Qobuz.

You may think that all music streaming services sound the same. They don't, of course, but the differences can be remarkably subtle. Generally speaking, any differences come down to the file format being supported by providers and the streaming data rates used. These have a direct effect on the levels of detail that can be heard in tracks, and most listeners should be able to tell a compressed music file from Spotify, say, over a CD-quality one streamed via Apple Music.

You don’t need to be an audiophile with golden ears or have spent a fortune on a pair of headphones to hear the benefits streaming music in lossless audio can bring. You just have to listen. 

2. Easy to use interface

Spotify appears to be going through something of an identity crisis following a redesigned TikTok-like home feed introduced last month, along with AI DJ that attempts to enhance the 'personalized feel' of its user experience by inserting computer generated commentary between tracks. 

Meanwhile, ever since Apple Music’s big redesign for iOS 10, Apple Music has been focussing on a traditional music experience. The interface looks smart, and the clean and easy to navigate tabs do an excellent job of bringing together artists and genres of music I like. It's a long way from Spotify's new scroll through cards UI that appears to be more focussed on podcasts, audiobooks and video content that I have no interest in.

Apple Music's Browse tab feels perfectly tuned to my music tastes with an excellent mix of playlists, hit songs, new releases, and spatial audio content, which is what it's about after all.

Speaking of which, Music Library Tracker is a third-party app for iPhone and iPad that has been developed to integrate with the Apple Music library to track spatial audio content changes. As an Apple Music subscriber, it will automatically find out which of the tracks and albums in your music library are also available in spatial audio without having to carry out lengthy searches of your favorite artist's back catalog. It costs $3.99 / £3.99 via the iOS app store — but if you don't want to pay, you can follow the developer's Twitter account to keep track of new spatial audio releases.

3. Apple Music Sing karaoke 

Apple Music Sing karaoke is a blast! It builds on the streaming service's lyrics feature to make it easier to sing along. The feature adds an independent volume control for the song's vocals, so you can sing by yourself (almost, there's no fully silent option) if you want, or with the original singer in the background at full or reduced volume as you like. Some songs have the ability to split the words between multiple singers to allow for duets, or enabling a friend, say, to sing the backing vocals while you take the main vocal.

As you might expect, Apple Music Sing enhancements aren't available for every track. Compatible songs are arranged into playlists, so you can easily find tracks that will work perfectly with the new feature. 

Despite Spotify Karaoke offering a more competitive experience with its built-in scoring system, its implementation doesn't seem quite as robust as what Apple Music Sing offers.

4. Apple HomePod 2 integration

No other music streaming service has its own range of audio components. Although AirPods headphones don't actually support lossless audio, Apple's HomePod speakers do and are among the best smart speaker music systems on the planet. The newly launched HomePod 2 sounds just as good as the original, while adding a few more smart home capabilities. Like the original, the HomePod 2 uses built-in microphones to sonically "map" the room it’s placed in and adjusts the audio output to sound best for that room. It’s all done automatically, without you needing to do anything.

As part of Apple's perfectly tuned ecosystem, the HomePod 2 is an ideal model for making the most of Apple's Lossless 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD-quality), and spatial audio content. However, I should also point out that if you have an AirPlay-capable speaker, you can also hear lossless audio when using Apple Music connected to a playback device via AirPlay.

What's more, though, there's some suggestion that HomePod speakers may actually be able to go beyond lossless resolution support as they already share 24-bit/48kHz audio signals between other HomePod speakers in multiroom setups.

5. Apple Music Classical

Apple Music has been focusing on broadening its reach by introducing classical music lovers to its platform through a dedicated classical app, which is free to existing subscribers.

Many of the best music streaming services have a good selection of classical music content in their libraries, but they can often make searching for classical works feel inaccessible. That's because most streaming service searches use metadata that catalogs content by artist, genre, song title, and album title, and isn't capable of handling the complex way classical music is cataloged. 

Searches often miss the mark when it comes to finding specific classical content, but the dedicated Apple Music Classical app (available from the App Store) uses stronger metadata to enable searches by composer, work, conductor, and even catalog number to find specific recordings instantly.

The app claims to offer more than 5 million classical tracks and complete works from new releases to celebrated masterpieces, and favorite playlists integrate seamlessly with your music library for easy playback from the regular Apple Music app.

If, like me, you've spent far too much time searching for a particular recording or version of a piece of classical music, you'll appreciate how stronger metadata can help deliver more accurate search results. As music libraries are continually expanding, other streaming services could learn a thing or two from Apple Music Classical's stronger metadata implementation to help every kind of music lover find the exact content they desire.

• For subscription prices and a complete run down of features, read our full Apple Music review.

More from Tom's Guide

• Spotify's redesign is so bad I'm considering switching to Apple Music
• Apple Music vs. Spotify face-off, the rival streaming services compared on price and features
• 3 headphones that are better value than AirPods Max

Apple has launched a classical music streaming service, which is live to existing Apple Music subscribers today (March 28) via a dedicated app available from the App Store. 

The new classical music streaming service claims to offer over 5 million classical tracks and complete works from new releases to celebrated masterpieces.

Why do I need Apple Music Classical?

Apple purchased classical music streaming service Primephonic in 2021, which built a comprehensive classical music focussed service based around strong metadata with the ability to search by composer, work, conductor, or even catalog number, to find specific recordings instantly.

If you're a classical music listener then you're probably a little frustrated with the way many of the best music streaming services out there handle classical music. They can often make classical recording works feel inaccessible due to limited search criteria that doesn't quite handle the complex way classical music is cataloged, and often miss the mark when it comes to searching for specific classical content.

I know from experience that few music streaming services manage to dig any deeper than the most popular versions of well-known classics when carrying out searches for a particular classical track. It's often difficult to find the exact recording or performance you're after, but Apple says that its new service delivers complete and accurate metadata to make sure you can find specific recordings instantly. Users will also get access to thousands of editorial notes and composer biographies, as well as descriptions of key works.

"Apple Music Classical is the ultimate classical experience with hundreds of curated playlists, thousands of exclusive albums, insightful composer biographies, deep-dive guides for many key works, intuitive browsing features and much more," Apple states.

Classical music streaming for audiophiles

As with Apple Music, its classical content will also stream at lossless 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD quality) and up to 24-bit/192kHz (hi-res audio quality) for no extra charge. 

Thousands of tracks will also be available mastered for Dolby Atmos, which is compatible with Apple's 3D surround format spatial audio available on its AirPods Pro 2, and AirPods Max headphones, and HomePod 2 speaker, as well as the new Sonos Era 300 smart speaker — although we've yet to see the dedicated Apple Music Classical streaming app appear on the latest version of Sonos' ecosystem app. 

How to get Apple Music Classical

Once again, Apple Music Classical will launch on March 28 for Apple iOS devices. Apple says that Apple Music Classical for Android is coming soon. 

Apple Music subscribers will be able to download and enjoy the Apple Music Classical app as part of their existing subscription at no additional cost. The dedicated Apple Music Classical app is available today on the App Store. If you're already an Apple Music subscriber, the Apple Music Classical app will automatically download to enable immediate listening for users who have Auto Update turned on in their settings.

Apple Music subscription costs require Individual, Student, Family or Apple One subscriptions costing $10.99, $5.99, $16.99, and $16.95 respectively. Apple Music Classical will not be available with the Apple Music Voice Plan.

About Apple Music

Apple Music has made big strides over the past year to the high-quality service it is today, and Apple Music Classical is only likely to broaden its reach. It has advanced its music streaming offering through strong curated content, lossless and hi-res audio support, and spatial audio. Its app is clean and easy to navigate and only the limited support outside of Apple's ecosystem count against it. Even with the recent price increases, it's the main alternative to Spotify Premium and ultimately the best value option for Apple-loving music fans.

More from Tom's Guide

• Discover why Apple Music is our favorite music streaming service
• Apple Music vs. Tidal, how the lossless services compare
• How to discover spatial audio tracks in your Apple Music library. 

“Thanks, I Hate It” is the name of a pretty fun song by pop punk band Simple Creatures, it was also my exact reaction to the news that Spotify is being redesigned. The popular music streaming service is one of my daily essentials, and up until now its well-considered home page and interface were a big part of the reason I largely ignored rivals such as Apple Music. 

But the service’s upcoming TikTok-inspired new look has me wondering if the grass might be a little greener on the other side. That’s because despite the fact that Spotify is a music streaming service, the redesigned home page appears to be less about highlighting new tracks, artists and playlists, but rather the focus seems to be on video content and podcasts. And that's got me considering a switch in the near future. 

Spotify is trying to fix what isn’t broken 

I would argue that redesigning the Spotify home page is a fundamentally flawed endeavor. The app already has a very well-structured interface that is really good at throwing relevant recommendations your way. I've lost count of the number of times it's spotlighted an artist I've never even heard of who quickly became a new favorite. 

A great example of this is the fact I’ve spent the better part of the last six months listening to Texas-based artist Dayglow on repeat. And I only discovered the indie-pop singer because of a recommendation on the Spotify homepage. That’s just one example of how Spotify currently does an excellent job of spotlighting new music.

I also love how easy the current Spotify homepage makes jumping into curated playlists. In fact, I’ve all but stopped making my own custom playlists because, after a quick scroll of the Spotify home page, I’ll find half a dozen auto-generated ones that are always stuffed full of songs I love. And usually, they're also sprinkled with new music that appeals to my tastes as well.

To date, I can only describe the user experience on Spotify as exceptional. It’s a huge part of the reason I’ve never even considered canceling my subscription or switching over to an alternative service. But based on what we’ve seen of the new UI, I’m getting increasingly concerned that could change very soon.   

The new Spotify isn't about the music

The new Spotify home page has more than a hint of TikTok about it. The rows upon rows of recently played artists, recommended playlists and new music to discover, are set to be replaced with a vertically scrolling feed with large-scale cards that will dominate the whole screen. In short, it sounds awful.  

Rather than being presented with a whole range of options at once, you’ll have to scroll through cards one at a time. This will surely become tedious rather quickly. The new feed looks so offputting that I suspect many users will head for the search bar as a first port of call instead of browsing the home page. This will in turn greatly limit a user's exposure to new music and many people will instead resort to listening to familiar favorites on repeat. 

Of course, it’s important to note that there’s been no indication that Spotify’s recommendation algorithm will be changing. So, at least in theory, all the stuff I like about the service's ability to constantly surface relevant new artists should still be there. But as noted, the redesign will just make actually discovering these new artists a more laborious task — hooray! 

From the preview we’ve seen, it appears that podcasts, audiobooks and video content will also be heavily featured in these cards. Which is something I have absolutely zero interest in. I get my podcasts from the dedicated iOS Podcast app, and I’m very content with that system. In the past year, I can only recall listening to a single podcast on Spotify — and that was only because it was platform exclusive. 

Spotify has invested heavily in podcasts over the last five years, acquiring some big shows as exclusives, so naturally will want to promote these shows to users. And it shouldn’t be forgotten that podcasts are a lot easier to monetize than music giving the service an incentive to overpromote them.  

The cynic in me does have to question whether the new home page will regularly recommend new albums to listen to, or will it instead be used to shout about whatever new audio show Spotify just paid thousands of dollars to make exclusive? Confirmation of an option to prevent podcasts from appearing in the new feed would be greatly appreciated. 

Apple Music vs Spotify — will I switch sides? 

And it's at this point that Apple Music comes into my thinking. The Apple Music vs Spotify debate is one that has raged across the Tom’s Guide office plenty of times in the past, and several of my colleagues make a compelling case for Apple's service, but I’ve always found myself sticking loyally to the green side of the fence.  

However, for me, Spotify is solely about music, and this redesign appears to be shifting the focus away from that. That’s a dangerous game for the service to play if it wants to retain my monthly fee.  

Right now, I’m trying to force myself to keep an open mind. After all the redesign hasn’t been fully rolled out yet. There is a (very slim) possibility it could pleasantly surprise me once I go hands-on. However, based on what I’ve seen to date, Spotify’s previously ultra-secure position in my streaming portfolio is starting to look a little precarious, and its loss could ultimately be Apple Music’s gain.

More from Tom's Guide

• 13 hidden Google Search features everyone should be using
• I test wireless earbuds for a living and these beat AirPods for $80 less 
• 5 reasons to ditch Spotify for Apple Music

Apple Music is one of the best music streaming services available and has a strong catalog of tracks available in lossless and spatial audio. But despite it having a good amount of spatial audio content accessible via curated playlists, it doesn't currently have a way for listeners to easily know what tracks in their own Apple Music library are available in the immersive 3D audio version. 

Luckily, if you're an Apple Music subscriber, there's now a way to automatically find out which of the tracks and albums in your music library are also available in spatial audio without having to carry out lengthy searches of your favorite artist's back catalog. It costs $3.99 / £3.99 via the iOS app store — but if you don't want to pay, you can follow the developer's Twitter account to keep track of new spatial audio releases. 

Music Library Tracker is a third-party app for iPhone and iPad that has been developed to integrate with the Apple Music library to track content changes. A recent update now includes monitoring of spatial audio content, and updates and generates a dedicated playlist of songs that have been upgraded to spatial audio. Plus, if you opt-in to notifications when installing the app on your device, it will send you alerts when a track in your music library has been upgraded to spatial audio.

What is spatial audio?

Spatial audio is 360-degree sound format that recreates a surround effect through a pair of speakers, including headphones and even a tiny pair of earbuds. When spatial audio first arrived it was mostly seen as a format for enhanced video playback when using Apple's flagship AirPods Pro earbuds and AirPods Max headphones, but music is now being given the spatial audio treatment as well.

Since Apple first introduced the idea of more immersive listening experiences and 3D soundscapes, we've seen an increasing number of products and services offer spatial audio alongside Dolby Atmos support. Since spatial audio's launch in 2021, music tracks have steadily been engineered to deliver an enhanced stereo experience, and today industry experts estimate that around 80% of new music tracks are emerging with a spatial audio content version.

Do I need spatial audio?

From Apple's own headphones to the latest HomePod 2 smart speaker, the idea of spatial audio seems to be finding its way into all kinds of products, and is fundamental part of the distinctive design behind the new Sonos Era 300 smart speaker, which we understand will be officially unveiled next month.

Whether we realize it or not, most of us have been listening at home on mono speakers such as one of the best Bluetooth speakers or best smart speakers. Unless you have splurged on one of the best music systems for style, have a traditional stereo hi-fi setup, or a multi-channel home theater system, then I'd wager that you're listening to your music through a single speaker unit in mono.

It is no surprise, then, that spatial audio music is taking off, with both old and new recordings being given the spatial audio treatment and popping up on streaming services such as Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, and Tidal. In order for music fans to experience their favorite music in spatial audio, tracks have to be mixed by a studio engineer to create the immersive content. 

To experience the full effect of spatial audio content, you'll need a compatible pair of headphones such as a pair of AirPods Max, AirPods Pro 2, or Beats Fit Pro, or stereo speakers like new Apple HomePod 2. But there are likely to be more products arriving that offer full spatial audio support as the format gets more widely known. 

In the meantime, if you're an iOS user and Apple Music subscriber, the Music Library Tracker app is a great way to integrate your spatial audio content. I found it particularly useful with getting to grips with spatial audio content in my own library, rather than relying on Apple Music's playlist of Spatial Audio tracks, and made experiencing the latest 3D immersive sound of my favorite tunes far more accessible.

Three months ago, when I upgraded from my second-gen AirPods to a shiny new set of AirPods Pro 2, I took out a trial of Apple Music. 

While I already had a Spotify subscription bolted on to my cellular data plan, Apple Music offered a way to sample two key features of the AirPods Pro 2. I could test out dynamic head tracking using Apple’s Spatial Audio collection, plus the rich audio quality promised by the ‘Pro’ moniker using Apple Music’s hi-res audio. Neither were the main reasons for buying the AirPods Pro (I had a sizable Apple voucher and needed earbuds that wouldn’t drop out/be damaged during sweaty gym sessions), but they were certainly features I was interested in trying out. If I’m honest, there was also an element of justifying my extravagant purchase, as well as simply being interested in seeing what Apple Music was like.

Two weeks in and I was impressed by both the headphones and streaming service, regularly and eagerly extolling the virtues of Apple Music to apathetic nods from my partner, and waxing lyrical about how my Spotify subscription was to be cancelled post-haste once my data plan expired. 

It was strange then, when, three months later at a New Year’s party, I instantly went to Spotify to create a playlist and realized that, inadvertently, I hadn’t touched Apple Music in a month. I started wondering why that was.

The one stop Spotify shop

For sure, my unconscious move back to Spotify had something to do with habit. Both apps are located on my home screen, but years of consistently hitting the black and green tile are hard to undo. 

There was definitely a component of inconvenience mingled in too. There are currently no official ways to move playlists between music streaming services, leaving only third-party alternatives. Call me paranoid, but given the amount of data leaks and hacks we see these days, I’m not keen on entering my Apple ID credentials — the single most important credentials in my life — into third-party party apps unless absolutely necessary. Manually transferring playlists and podcast subs between services was too uninviting a hurdle to bother jumping, so I simply reverted back to my old familiar playlists on Spotify. It’s a bit pathetic really, but demonstrates another case of modern tech companies softly locking users into services by capitalizing on consumer laziness.

After giving it some thought, however, the major reason I’ve ditched Apple Music is not because of Apple Music itself, but Apple Podcasts. I care not about Joe Rogan or Spotify Originals, but I find the Apple Podcasts UI somewhat clunky, and don’t particularly enjoy using it. One example: sorting a podcast requires going through the settings menu, whereas Spotify simply has a sort button at the top of each podcast’s feed. On a similar note, I also found it frustrating having to change EQ on Apple Music by going through the iPhone’s main Settings menu, instead of via the app as with Spotify.

More pertinently, I don’t want to use two apps where I only need one. Spotify builds both music and podcasts into a single app, allowing you to flit between the two at will. If you hear a song on a podcast advert, you can go listen to it straight away, or just add it to your queue to play after the podcast finishes. Why add a layer of needless complexity into my life?

But… karaoke?

I don’t mean any of this as a slight against Apple Music itself. It offers some really cool features, which is why we rate the service so highly in our roundup of the best music streaming services. 

For one, Apple Music’s karaoke feature is leaps and bounds above Spotify’s. This may sound like a gimmick, but whether something is a gimmick depends on whether you actually and repeatedly use it, and that varies from person to person. Lots of people will get good use out of karaoke features, and being able to turn down the vocals on a backing track, as you can on Apple Music, puts it as close to a genuine karaoke set up as it's possible to get from a streaming service right now. For me though, who currently does karaoke something like once every 8 years, it isn’t a major selling point.

Check out our guides on how to use Spotify Karaoke and how to use Apple Music Sing.

Spatial Audio, for me, isn’t worth it either. I listen to a lot of slow blues, metal and drum and bass, and the catalogue of Spatial Audio music is currently small or non-existent for these genres. That said, I've enjoyed using the feature to listen to some classics in a new way, and if you’re a pop music or classic rock fan, there’s a good amount of choice for you in Apple Music’s Spatial Audio collection. 

For many people, the ability to listen to higher resolution audio with Apple Music’s lossless playback will be the clincher. I get that — higher quality audio is obviously better. But again, in my case, it isn’t a deal breaker. Most of my music consumption comes through Bluetooth headphones or Alexa, where I’m still not experiencing actual uncompressed audio, resulting in only a moderate boost in sound quality. It also takes place mostly on the bus or train, where I’m lost in thought or daydreaming too much to notice that boost anyway. For me, just having better headphones provides a greater, tangible improvement in real world usage.

In my case, I’d equate having Apple’s lossless audio to owning a car with lots of horsepower. It’s great on paper, but in reality I won’t actually use most of the horses. If you’re a Bluetooth-shunning audiophile — a drag racer or track enthusiast in the metaphor — it’ll definitely be worth it, but as far as I’m concerned, the convenience of Spotify still comes up trumps.

The door isn’t closed

My bolt-on Spotify subscription comes to an end in two months, so I’ll shortly be deciding which streaming service to choose next. Surprise surprise, it’ll be Spotify, which has edged the win thanks primarily to the user experience, with a little habit and laziness mixed in. 

In a way, though, I’m a little sad that I essentially just forgot about Apple Music. It’s a bit of an ignoble send off to what is an objectively competent streaming service. But the great thing about these services is that they’re still innovating, as demonstrated by the slew of relatively new features already outlined in the previous section. It’s not unfeasible that Apple will one day build podcasts into Apple Music, and that services may start to offer official migration tools at some point, as we’re now seeing from Apple and Google in respect to iOS and Android. Should those scenarios end up coming into play, especially given the relative pricing of the two platforms, Apple Music will be a no brainer.

If you're struggling with the same dilemma, you'll want to read Apple Music vs Spotify: which is better?

Of all the music streaming providers out there, Spotify is undoubtedly the go-to service for the majority of music fans. Spotify admits that high-quality streaming is the most requested feature subscribers want to see from it. 

But as 2022 draws to a close there is still no sign of the popular streaming service launching the Spotify HiFi tier any time soon. This is in spite of it being originally announced in February 2021, before the company indefinitely delayed it earlier this year.

It wasn't meant to be this way. We had anticipated that 2022 would be the year that the streaming giant gave the option of lossless audio to subscribers. But as we take stock of the year's audio highlights, we are no clearer in knowing why the service has been delayed, or whether the plans have finally been shelved.

There was a glimmer of hope back in October this year though, and the suggestion that a Spotify HiFi was still on the agenda when a Spotify survey was sent to a Reddit user after ditching Spotify for Apple Music. Inside, the survey asked former subscribers if they would consider returning to something called "Spotify Platinum" in the “next 30 days."

Several months on and a Spotify Platinum tier doesn't exist. But the survey listed the advantages this theoretical $19.99 tier would offer, and the list of features includes "HiFi," “Studio Sound," “Headphone Tuner," “Audio Insights," “Library Pro," “Playlist Pro” and “Limited-ad Spotify podcasts.” 

Market forces

Despite the survey refueling the rumor mill that a lossless-audio tier could still be in the works, Spotify hasn't made any official announcement about its plans since it dashed hopes of an imminent roll out earlier this year. This happened with a comment that appeared in a thread on Spotify’s Community site: “We know that HiFi quality audio is important to you. We feel the same, and we’re excited to deliver a Spotify HiFi experience to Premium users in the future. But we don’t have timing details to share yet. We will of course update you here when we can.” 

There been no official comment on the survey from Spotify either. But if the $19.99 monthly cost seen in the survey is to be believed, it could be too steep for the majority of music fans, including quality-audio diehards. That's especially when you consider that lossless audio is already available for less on other platforms.

Both Apple Music and Amazon’s Music Unlimited surprised the world by adding lossless audio to their subscription packages at no extra cost (although Apple has sinces increased its prices). Some believe that’s the reason why Spotify HiFi has been put on the back burner: if it couldn’t be a driver of additional revenue, then it was no longer seen as a priority for the company.

In our analysis at the time the survey emerged, we felt that Spotify was re-examining whether the new tier could be used to squeeze a bit more money out of subscribers, but the company would certainly have its work cut out. For $3 less than the mooted $19.99 per month price in the survey, users can sign up for Apple One, giving them Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple TV Plus and 50GB of iCloud storage. For $5 more, they can get all that for up to six people with an extra 150GB of cloud storage.

That’s the kind of value that companies the size of Apple can afford to offer, and it’s tough for a relatively small business like Spotify to beat. It may have been the first to do streaming music well, but now the competition is too fierce.

Spotify HiFi outlook 

Of all the music streaming providers out there, Spotify is undoubtedly the go-to service for the majority of music fans. Yet despite its popularity, it continues to lag behind rivals when it comes keeping up with subscriber demands for high-quality lossless audio content. 

There's long been a demand for better audio quality, as Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz demonstrated with the arrival of their lossless audio streaming platforms several years ago, and a Spotify HiFi tier has been something that's often been talked about since 2017. So why hasn't it happened?

OK, the intervening years have been troubling for the tech industry as households feel the increased financial pressure from rising costs post-pandemic. Plus, the service hit some troubles of its own in early 2022 when Neil Young removed his music from Spotify in protest for what Young felt was the spreading of Covid-19 and vaccine misinformation by the Spotify-owned show "The Joe Rogan Experience." A number of artists followed suit, and a reported $2 billion was wiped from Spotify's market value during that period.

Then there's the licensing issue hinted at by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek over lossless content, which as far as we're aware is still ongoing. So the fact that there's been no word on Spotify's HiFi tier right now, could just indicate that it has had other priorities this year. 

Of course, the market has shifted so much between times, with rivals offering lossless audio content for no additional cost, that it's not too difficult to imagine that Spotify may also be reevaluating its position and working out how it can make its long-awaited HiFi tier work best for music lovers. 

I for one certainly hope so, and look forward to updating you with more Spotify HiFi news in 2023.

More from Tom's Guide

• 5 ways to get better Spotify sound
• Spotify vs. Apple Music, which is the better streaming app?
• Spotify's redesign is so bad that I'm thinking of switching to Apple Music

Apple Music subscriptions are about to get a built-in karaoke mode in the form of Apple Music Sing, slated to arrive "later this month." 

Editors' Note: iOS 16.2 is now live and Apple Music Sing is part of that software update.

Available to all Apple Music subscribers except those on the cheapest Apple Music Voice plan, and usable on all iPhones and iPads that have the app, plus the Apple TV 4K, Apple Music Sing promises to build on the lyrics feature already present in Apple Music to make it easier to sing along.

First off, the app will add an independent volume control for the song's vocals, so you can sing by yourself (almost, there's no fully silent option) if you want, or with the original singer in the background at full or reduced volume as you like.

Also, some songs will offer the ability to split the words between multiple singers where needed. That should make performing duets or providing your friend with backing vocals much more straightforward, as should the touted real-time animated lyrics to help you keep in time with the song.

As you might reasonably expect, Apple's not promising these enhancements for every track in Apple Music's 100 million-strong library. However, what it is doing is conveniently arranging fully compatible songs into fifty-plus playlists, so you can easily find tracks that will work perfectly with the new feature. Sounds a lot like the big catalog of songs you'd get at a real karaoke bar, just in an Apple-ified form.

Apple Music isn't unique among music streaming services for offering a singalong mode. Spotify Karaoke offers a more competitive experience with its built-in scoring system, but it doesn't seem quite as robust as what Apple offers in terms of overall features. We'll be sure to give Apple Music Sing a try once it becomes available on our Apple devices, and show you not only how it works, but if it's any good.

Apple Music may be one of the best music streaming services available today, but its year-end recap has often lagged behind Spotify Wrapped when it comes to giving subscribers a personalized insight into their listening habits and music trends around the world.

But following the relaunch of Apple Music Replay announced recently, the round up service has been revamped for 2022 and subscribers now get a highlight reel showing their listening history with insights into their top songs, artists, albums, and genres played over the last 12 months. 

Everyone loves an end of year soundtrack, right? And Apple Music's redesigned Replay experience serves as a reminder to subscribers about their individual listening habits in 2022. Apple Music's revamped Replay experience also reveals 2022’s top music charts, and get closer to rival year-end recap services like Spotify Wrapped that's been running for several years. 

The Apple Music Replay press release touts that "2022 was a thrilling year in music, with listeners delving into new sounds, new languages, and new genres more than ever before. Additionally, the 2022 year-end charts show just how influential Apple Music listeners were in making 2022 a year to remember, both individually and as a community." 

How to access Apple Music Replay

To access your personalized highlight reel, you need to be an Apple Music subscriber. You also need to have been using the service to listen to sufficient music to qualify. 

The Replay highlight reel can only be found on desktop browsers and iOS devices, although subscribers can add their Replay 2022 playlist to their Apple Music streaming app by clicking on the 'Open in Apple Music' button at the bottom of the webpage. For now, Replay is a web experience only, and you can find it at https://replay.music.apple.com. 

The Music app itself can only show and play a basic playlist of your top songs for the year, ranked by most played, once it has been added via the Replay webpage.

Although Apple Music's Replay revamp brings the experience closer to Spotify Wrapped, its still missing some additional tools that many fans enjoy with Spotify Wrapped, including Audio Aura (a high-color visualization tool of your music moods of the year) and Blend, which compares your Spotify music trends for the year with your friends.

Apple Music Replay and Privacy

Despite the emphasis on data, Apple says that Replay maintains Apple’s standard privacy throughout the experience. An individual user’s insights are never shared, sold, or used in any marketing materials. The user can share their insights at their own discretion if they choose. No other Apple Music subscribers or employees can access their insights outside of their chosen snapshots at any time.

Again, to view your 2022 ‌Apple Music‌ Replay experience and try out the new highlight reel, visit replay.music.apple.com. The insight into your listening patterns for this year is available until December 31.

Next: Spotify Wrapped 2022 is boring — here's how to discover new music. Also check out how I trialed Apple Music for 3 months — and why I’m going back to Spotify

Xbox Game Pass — in particular Xbox Game Pass Ultimate —  has been a great deal for a while. There’s no other service in gaming that gives you access to awesome games on a wide range of devices for just $15 a month. But now, it’s getting even better.

First reported by Eurogamer, Microsoft announced that Xbox will now offer three-month free trials to two killer Apple services: Apple TV Plus and Apple Music. This is part of its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks program, which has been around for a couple of years. Typically, the perks it offers are cosmetics or in-game content, but now you can use your Game Pass Ultimate subscription to sign up for three free months of Apple’s premium streaming and music services. That’s a major upgrade for existing users. Act fast though — this perk is only available until March 31, 2023. 

If you don’t have Game Pass Ultimate yet, don’t worry. There’s a good deal for that too. Right now Microsoft is offering new users one month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just $1. It’s the best deal we see for the service right now, but we’re hoping for more as Black Friday deals really get rolling. So sign up now, enjoy the games, shows, movies and tunes, and then keep an eye out for potential Black Friday deals for potential savings on future months.   

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: What’s included? 

At this point, users get a lot with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. First, you get Xbox Live Gold automatically so you can play games online and get free Games with Gold each month. Then, you get access to hundreds of games that you can play on your Xbox Series S, Xbox Series S, gaming PC or even on your smartphone through Xbox Cloud Gaming. Plus all first-party Xbox Games Studios games automatically launch as playable with your Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

And you get access to more than just Xbox games and services. Game Pass Ultimate users get access to EA Play, which is a library of Electronic Arts games that you can play as part of your Ultimate subscription. While EA Play often makes you wait to play new EA games, if you’re patient it can be a big win. Currently, you can play last year's big sports titles such as FIFA 22 and Madden 22 along with critically acclaimed hits like Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. 

Of course, now Xbox has partnered with Apple to give Ultimate subscribers even more third-party content. Granted, after three months you’ll have to pay. So if you like Apple TV Plus and Apple Music after those three months I recommend checking out Apple One, which gives you both services plus Apple Arcade and 50GB of iCloud storage. Even if you don’t use the Arcade and iCloud storage, you still save a little compared to TV Plus and Music a la carte. Given that Apple Music is our current winner in the battle between it and Spotify and Apple TV Plus is one of our best streaming services, there’s a good chance you’ll stick around after the three months are up.

Oh, and if you need an Xbox there’s good news! Right now you can get an Xbox Series S for $50 off at Adorama for Black Friday. So don’t miss out and stay tuned for our latest Black Friday deals.  

Apple Music is a subscription service that's currently rivaling Spotify in the competitive world of the best music streaming services. It has over 100 million songs in its library, plus there's and Podcasts service as well as a dedicated classical music library with the ability to search by composer, work, conductor, or even catalog number, to find specific recordings instantly. This level of content is far greater than Spotify's library (or any other streaming service for that matter).

Really, though, it is lossless and spatial audio that makes Apple Music so attractive. Not only does this make it the better choice for listeners who want access to the best audio quality available, but given it's no more expensive than a Spotify Premium subscription, it is also better value for those willing to pay.

Read on to find out more on why Apple Music is one of the best music streaming services right now. 

Apple Music review: Price

Apple Music subscription plans

If you're a new subscriber to Apple Music, you automatically get a one-month trial at no charge, or up to 6 months free when you purchase eligible AirPods, HomePod or Beats devices. 

As with all streaming services, Apple Music offers tailored subscription plans to its service, which are available through the music platform's homepage. Unlike Spotify and Tidal, Apple Music doesn't offer a free tier.

Apple discontinued its most affordable Voice Plan subscription tier in November 2023, and ongoing subscriptions will most likely be canceled before renewal.

Apple Music's most affordable plan is its Student plan ($5.99 / £5.99 / AU$5.99 monthly), while its Individual plan costs $10.99 / £10.99 / AU$12.99. A Family Plan costs $16.99 / £16.99 / AU$25.95 on up to 6 accounts. The Apple One Individual plan combines Apple Music, Apple Arcade, iCloud+, and Apple TV+ for $19.95 / £18.95 / AU$24.95 per month. Family and Premier plan options are also available in each territory. 

There is a $109.99 / £109.99 annual plan for committed subscribers, but signing up to it can be a bit of an arcane process — you first need to sign up to a monthly plan, then switch to annual billing in the app or through your Apple device's account settings. You can find full instructions for this on the Apple support site.

Apple Music review: Availability

Thanks to its seamless integration with Apple iOS (via an iPhone or iPad), or OSX platform users (via MacBook or Mac desktops), Apple Music is the go-to music streaming service for Apple fans. It has worked on widening its availability in recent years and no longer requires users to install iTunes. As with the app, you can now listen in a browser, access playlists and play “Made for you” content. 

Apple Music can be used through impressive breadth of supportive devices, from the Apple HomePod and HomePod mini to the Apple TV 4K and Apple Watch, and has an automotive solution called Apple CarPlay.

Support for third-party components now includes Sonos, Xbox (Series X, S and One), PS5, and Roku , and extends to Android mobile users. If you're a Windows user though, you will need to download iTunes to get access to its extensive library of content.

Apple Music review: Features

Apple Music content can be streamed or downloaded to a device to play offline, and there are also song and genre-based radio stations and curated playlists. Plus, Apple Music integrates with your existing iCloud music library, so you can combine Apple Music songs with tracks that you've previously purchased on iTunes and listen to them in one unified location. 

When it comes to user-curated playlists, Apple offers personalized playlists and radio stations based around your listening habits or a theme. It will also recommend songs and artists you haven’t listened to yet based on your previous listening. I particularly like the Made For You content and the selections that are made for my own 'radio' station.      

Apple Music lets you share playlists with other registered users over AirDrop, or create content links to post wherever you want, but its social media integration is more basic than Spotify. SharePlay offers a big extension to Apple FaceTime's feature set, and allows a shared queue of upcoming songs that's accessible to everyone on the FaceTime call. And just as anyone can control playback, anyone can add songs to queue as well.

The headline feature, though, is Apple Music's streaming quality. Last year it upgraded all its music content to lossless ALAC files in resolutions ranging from 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD-quality) to 24-bit/192kHz (hi-res audio quality) for no extra charge. Thousands of tracks are also now mastered for Dolby Atmos, which is compatible with Apple's 3D surround format spatial audio available on its AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Max headphones. 

As an aside, I particularly like this Music Library Tracker app for iPhone and iPad. The third-party app is developed to integrate with the Apple Music library to track content changes and discover Spatial Audio tracks in a library.

Apple Music Classical

In March 2023, Apple Music came to the rescue of classical music streaming fans everywhere when it launched a dedicated classical music app. Apple Music Classical  offers over 5 million classical tracks and complete works from new releases to celebrated masterpieces. It's free to existing Apple Music subscribers via a dedicated app available from the App Store. 

As with its main library, classical content will also stream at lossless 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD quality) and up to 24-bit/192kHz (hi-res audio quality) for no extra charge. Thousands of tracks are also available mastered for Dolby Atmos, which is compatible with Apple's 3D surround format spatial audio available on its AirPods Pro 2, and AirPods Max headphones, and HomePod 2 speaker, as well as the Sonos Era 300 smart speaker.

Apple Music review: Sound quality

The Apple Music mobile app sounds consistently excellent, with a natural sounding balance across every genre of music. It's my go-to music provider for reviewing headphones on the move, and it sounds pretty great through the various Sonos components dotted around my home.

You may think that all music streaming services sound the same. They don't, of course, but the differences can be remarkably subtle. Generally speaking, any differences come down to the file format being supported by providers and the streaming data rates used. These have a direct effect on the levels of detail that can be heard in tracks, and most listeners should be able to tell a compressed music file from Spotify, say, over a CD-quality one streamed via Apple Music. You don’t need to be an audiophile with golden ears or have spent a fortune on pair of headphones to hear the benefits streaming music in lossless audio can bring. You just have to listen. 

Although many will be listening wirelessly via Bluetooth, perhaps with one of the best wireless earbuds or the best wireless headphones, if you're in pursuit of the best quality listening experience it's important to ensure that the audio quality from your playback devices is being streamed at the highest resolution possible to begin with. Spotify streams at around a third of the data rate so you'll appreciate that with Apple Music you're getting the best quality audio before the Bluetooth codec squeezes it over bandwidth limited wireless tech to your earbuds or headphones. 

You could perhaps also call it a negative that Apple Music lossless content cannot be experienced in full resolution through wireless headphones or speakers due to the bandwidth limitations of Bluetooth connectivity, including its own AirPods models. Although, this could soon change.

Apple Music review: Verdict

Apple Music has made big strides over the past year to the high quality service it is today. It has advanced its music streaming offering through strong curated content, lossless and hi-res audio support, and spatial audio. It's app is clean and easy to navigate and only the limited support outside of Apple's eco system count against it. Even with the recent price increases, it's the main alternative to Spotify Premium and ultimately the best value option for Apple-loving music fans.

More from Tom's Guide

• Apple Music vs. Spotify: Which is the best streaming service?
• Apple Music Classical explained and why it has a dedicated app
• Apple Music is testing a feature that could allow you to import Spotify playlists 

The best music streaming services have changed the way we experience music. But with huge music libraries giving access to millions of tracks with curated content to our favorite artists, slick interfaces and some with high-resolution audio support, you may be wondering which is the better service of the two most popular streaming services available. 

Whether you're considering switching, or just want to know how your service of choice stacks up, then this face-off between Spotify and Apple Music — Spotify's closest rival — will help you make up your mind as the Tom's Guide team compares both services to find out which delivers the best overall experience for music fans.

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Specs compared

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Price and availability

The pricing for Spotify and Apple Music is very similar, with one big difference: the former offers a free starting tier. However, Spotify's free option will interrupt your listening with recorded ads, as well as ads within the app, while paying for the Premium tier will get rid of both. Check out our Spotify Free vs. Premium comparison for the full rundown of differences.

As of July 24 2023, a Spotify Premium subscription has increased from $9.99 to $10.99 per month. This is the first time the price of a Premium subscription has risen for U.S. subscribers in 12 years. Premium Duo (aimed at 2-person households) will now cost $14.99/month, while Premium Family will cost $16.99/month, and Premium Student is is now $5.99 per month. There's no official Spotify Premium annual subscription, but you can get around this with a $99 gift card for a 1 year Spotify subscription at Amazon.

Apple increased its prices in 2022 but continues to offer lossless streaming and spatial audio support as standard. It has also launched a dedicated Apple Music Classical app with 5 million classical music tracks in lossless and hi-res audio free to existing Apple Music subscribers.

Apple Music subscriber options now start with a Student plan ($5.99 p/m) and run to Individual ($10.99 p/m) and Family ($16.99p/m) plans. Note that signing up the Apple Music annual plan is a bit of an arcane process: you first need to sign up to a monthly plan, then switch to annual billing in the app or through your Apple device's account settings. You can find full instructions for this on the Apple support site.

Despite Spotify's free tier, Apple Music's monthly individual fee is great value.

Winner: Apple Music  

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Music library size

Apple Music and Spotify both feature massive libraries, but Apple claims the advantage with "over 100 million" songs to Spotify's "over 80 million." The latter also includes around 2.6 million podcast titles, whereas there's an entirely separate Apple Podcasts service; Apple Music therefore definitely has more pure music tracks in total.

Technically this is a win for Apple on sheer numbers, but unless you’ve got particularly eclectic tastes, you’re extremely likely to find the artists you want on either platform.

Winner: Apple Music

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Sound quality

Apple Music's entire catalog uses the ALAC file format in resolutions ranging from 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD-quality) up to 24-bit/192kHz (hi-res audio quality). It also offers spatial audio with Dolby Atmos support. Sound quality is top-notch when it comes to resolution and bit rate, and the only slight downside is that hi-res output is not supported on Windows desktops.

Spotify streams songs at three different rates (96kbps, 160kbps and 320kbps) all in the Ogg Vorbis format, though the highest caliber is limited to paid Premium subscribers. This could change with Spotify's HiFi tier although there's still no official comment on when it will finally arrive. There have been plenty of rumors since it was announced in 2021, and the latest suggests that Spotify could finally get lossless audio via an add-on called Music Pro.

When it comes to resolution and bit rate right now, Apple Music's library of lossless content has Spotify beat. 

Winner: Apple Music

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Cloud storage

Apple Music's biggest special feature is the iCloud Music Library, accessed through iTunes, which allows collectors to access their libraries of tracks in AAC 256kbps wherever they go when signed in with the same Apple ID. While the service's original rollout was hampered by collection-distorting bugs, it's currently a useful feature that helps the service stand out from the pack.

Spotify allows you to listen to your own MP3s within the app itself, check out our how to upload music to Spotify.

Winner: Apple Music

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Browser playback

Thankfully, Apple no longer requires users to install iTunes to access Apple Music, and currently lets you listen in a browser just as Spotify does. Both browser versions let you browse their respective libraries, access your playlists and play “Made for you” content, just like their app counterparts.

Winner: Tie

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Availability

Both services have worked on widening their availability in recent years. In addition to the expected devices like phones, tablets, PCs and Macs, Spotify content can be played via your games consoles. That goes for the most recent PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, as well as older consoles like the Xbox One series and the PS4. Early in 2021 Spotify also launched the Car Thing, but this has now been withdrawn from the market. 

Apple Music has its own automotive solution in Apple CarPlay, and also claims an impressive breadth of supportive devices, from the Apple HomePod, HomePod 2 and HomePod mini to the Apple TV 4K and Apple Watch. Support for third-party components now includes Sonos, Xbox (Series X, S and One), PS5, and Roku, and extends to Android mobile users. If you're a Windows user though, you will need to download iTunes to get access to its extensive library of content.

Spotify also works on smartwatches ranging from Fitbit and Garmin models to more fashion-minded Samsung and Google Wear OS wearables. It’s getting better in this regard too, as Spotify is getting offline listening on Wear OS devices as well as the Apple Watch. 

Either way you’re spoiled for choice, through thanks to its bonus games console support, Spotify edges this one. You could perhaps also call it a negative that Apple Music lossless content cannot be experienced in full resolution through wireless headphones or speakers due to the bandwidth limitations of Bluetooth connectivity, including its own AirPods models. Although, this could be about change with the arrival of the Apple Vision Pro when partnered with the AirPods Pro 2 USB-C that are said to support a new Apple lossless audio protocol.  

Winner: Spotify

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Playlists and curated content

When it comes to user-curated playlists, Apple and Spotify are essentially on parity. Both will present you with personalized playlists. They will also recommend songs and artists you haven’t listened to yet, but might like based on your listening preferences.

Apple Music 1 (previously known as Beats 1) is a 24/7 radio station that also serves as a potential source of new music, though since it functions like a traditional radio station — fronted by veteran DJs like Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden — its content is curated for the Apple Music subscriber base as a whole. Spotify’s version of “radio” is essentially just playlists, curated for certain genres, topics and tastes. 

Additionally, Spotify DJ (one of the streaming service's latest features) uses artificial intelligence to achieve a live radio station feel. It has running commentary voiced by Spotify’s Head of Cultural Partnerships, Xavier “X” Jernigan. AI throws in personalized commentary between the songs based on machine learning about your listening habits and music tastes with fun facts about the album or song you’re listening to.

Winner: Tie

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Social media support

One of Spotify's clearest wins is its wealth of social sharing features. You can easily share Spotify content as Instagram and Facebook stories, post album art on Snapchat (which then links friends and followers to the song) or create links and scannable, QR-like Spotify Codes to share music and playlists on any messaging platform.

Apple Music lets you share playlists with other registered users over AirDrop, or create content links to post wherever you want, but its social media integration is more basic than Spotify’s. If you’re not overly keen with sharing your listening habits with the world, this is unlikely to be an issue.

Winner: Spotify 

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Design

Spotify updated its UI in March 2023, and despite an initial dislike among loyal users for the neew look with more emphasis on vidio content and podcasts, is all the better for it. 

Apple Music retains the redesign that arrived with iOS 10 bit is beginning to look a bit look a bit outdated with large images in an almost tile-like UI given Spotify's more recent TikTok-like redesign. Although I like the navigation bar the bottom of the screen for quick access to my music library and the search function.

The main difference here feel mainly aesthetic though. Apple Music favors a light, bright and white look with high-contrast text, while Spotify has stuck to its darker black/grey color scheme with flashes of neon green.

Winner: Spotify

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Value

If you don’t want to pay for streaming music and you’re OK with ads, Apple’s insistence on not having a free plan will keep you using Spotify. New users can try Apple Music for free for up to 6 months, which is more generous than Spotify Premium’s 1-month free trial, but after that you’ll need to subscribe.

For those who are willing to pay, the playing field looks fairly balanced. Apple Music is $10.99 and you do get access to lossless and spatial audio content. Spotify Premium is now also $10.99 a month for individual accounts. Both services offer a discounted monthly subscription for students.

Keep in mind that Apple Music simply offers more than Spotify Premium does with lossless audio and spatial audio support for the same price. 

If Spotify HiFi was folded into the existing Spotify Premium tier, rather than launching as a separate tiered service, that would keep things somewhat even. But that hasn't happened yet, and even if it does, Apple Music will still have the spatial audio advantage.

The fact that Spotify has a free option makes this particular clash a tie, but if you have the cash for a premium subscription, Apple Music looks like the better deal right now.

Winner: Tie

Apple Music vs Spotify: Verdict

We first ran an Apple Music vs. Spotify comparison a few years ago, and Spotify comfortably won, on the back of its curated content, value for money and wealth of supported hardware.

Credit to Apple Music, then, for not just closing the gap but surpassing Spotify overall. It’s still behind on social features, and lacks native support for games consoles, but changing its approach from consumer-unfriendly exclusives to more thoughtfully curated content streams has paid off. It’s also wisely gained a browser version and remains the better choice for those who like to hoard their music files.

Really, though, it's lossless and spatial audio that make the difference. Not only does this make Apple Music the better choice for listeners who want the best sound quality possible, but given it's no more expensive than a Spotify Premium subscription, it's also better on value for those willing to pay.

Apple Music vs. Spotify: Scorecard

More from Tom's Guide

• Tidal just added a feature Spotify and Apple Music should copy
• 5 reasons to ditch Spotify for Apple Music
• Spotify could finally get lossless audio