Apple Music redesign makes it easier to find tunes you want

Back in early May, rumors circulated that Apple was planning on a big redesign for its music streaming service at WWDC. Well, those reports were correct. During today’s keynote, SVP Eddy Cue showed off a much more streamlined interface that should make using the service a bit less of a headache, “redesigned from the ground up.” The rumored black and white design is indeed here with a splash of color, placing more focus on the album artwork. Oh, by the way: Apple Music now has 15 million paid subscribers, and Cue said it was the fastest music streaming service to achieve that feat.

When you first launch the app now, your Library is what you’ll see first. There’s a special section for any music you’ve purchased and a “Recently Added” summary for all the new stuff. From there, launching a song taps into the new music-focused UI, where a mostly black and white color scheme (there’s some color) helps the album artwork pop on that screen. After you start a song and move on to another section, a thumbnail of the album art, song title, play/pause and skip controls stay just above the menu for easy access. Those lyrics are also easily accessible from the main player screen, should you need to settle a bet over what Future really said on “Commas.”

Library is also the first tab across the bottom, followed by “For You,” “Browse,” “Radio” and “Search” from left to right. That “For You” section sill offers a curated selection of music based on your listening habits. It also has a “Recently Added” menu as well, so you’ll know what’s been added since the last time you looked. “For You” also has a “Discover Mix” as part of its suggestions, a collection that seems to be similar to Spotify’s popular “Discover Weekly” feature. Spotify’s version compiles a new playlist every week based on what you’ve been listening to recently.

The “Browse” tab is where you’ll find those useful charts, a list of new releases and more if you’re just perusing what’s available. It also replaces the “New” tab users are likely familiar with. As you might expect “Radio” is direct access to the Beats1 internet stream alongside a listing of featured and upcoming shows. As we mentioned during our liveblog, this info about Beats1 seems to be geared towards folks who may not have given the radio option a chance.

While Apple Music on the desktop only got a brief mention, Apple showed off the new interface on a Mac. Music was discussed during the iOS portion of the event, after all. This means that the new look will make its way to the app there as well, where it’s tucked inside iTunes. There are also new Apple Music links inside iMessage, making for handy song previews inside the chat app. We’ll reserve any final judgement until we can spend some quality time with the updated version of the streaming service, but on the surface, the refreshed interface and re-organizing should make Music less of a chore to use. The changes will be part of iOS 10 which will be released to all users in the fall, following a public beta that begins next month.

Get all the latest news from WWDC 2016 here!