- Apple Music iOS 27 updates include new artist pages and performance improvements
- The platform has yet to implement highly requested features such as continuity tools and social features.
- The longer Apple Music goes without them, the more chances Spotify will have of attracting its users.
Tim Cook took what could be his final bow as Apple CEO at the company’s WWDC 2026 event, and iPhone users have a lot to look forward to with iOS 27, including updates to Apple Music.
In addition to the announcement of Apple’s next-generation Siri update, Siri AI, the company is rolling out some updates to its music streaming platform. It hasn’t been long since Apple last updated the Apple Music user interface, but its Liquid Glass seems to divide subscribers.
One of the most notable new changes to the user interface is a new look for artist pages, which now places “Play” and information buttons in the center of the page below new name screens. The ‘Essentials’ carousel, which highlights an artist’s popular albums, has also been changed and is now in list form which doesn’t look as impactful, which is a bit of a design downgrade if you ask me.
Apple Music redesigned r/AppleMusic artist pages
It’s not just the Apple Music user interface that’s had a little tweak; The platform is also getting some performance improvements in iOS 27, starting with the Automix tool, which uses AI to match the beat of songs and create seamless DJ-like transitions.
According to Apple, the company has improved its algorithms to accommodate better transitions. That’s a pretty vague way of putting it, but I guess it means it will work more efficiently when creating transitions between songs from different genres, a weak point I experienced during my time testing it. Additionally, Apple says it has updated startup times for faster playback and that the “Now Playing” page will now load much faster.
I will always welcome new design approaches and performance improvements; I’ve been running into delayed playtimes too often lately. But once again, Apple has chosen to overlook significant features that users really want.
Many Apple Music subscribers like to criticize rival platforms like Spotify, but if they can agree on one thing it’s that Spotify Connect destroys Apple Music on the continuity front. To this day, Apple Music users are still waiting for a similar feature, and it is one of the tools, if not he tool, which will really put Apple Music on par with its competitors. The fact that Apple hasn’t even discussed such a feature only adds to the frustration.
The platform also faces scrutiny for the inconsistency of its features across devices, creating a user experience that is far from perfect. For example, new information about Apple Music live concerts, playlists, and album tabs are still missing from the Mac version.
Something I was patiently waiting for during WWDC was Apple’s official announcement of Playlist Playground, an AI-powered playlist creation tool similar to Spotify’s requested playlists. However, to my dismay, nothing was mentioned, even though we were hoping a wider release would be confirmed after Playlist Playground hit beta in February.
Like continuity tools, this feature would give Apple the perfect opportunity to not only match a popular Spotify feature, but also give its users another reason to stick around. Apple Music has already won on streaming audio quality and editorial fronts, but now Apple needs to start paying close attention to how it can create social features that complement its ecosystem.
It’s been four months since Playlist Playground first appeared, but there still has been no word from Apple about when it will finally open its doors to the public. We may see a reveal at Apple’s iPhone launch event, which will probably be in September, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
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