Apple continues to improve Apple Music, the company’s streaming music service. Apple Music already had a massive catalog of more than 75 million songs, the curated Apple Music 1 radio station, Siri compatibility, video content, lyrics, a 24/7 music video channel, and support for a number of devices, including the Apple Watch. Recently, Apple has made the service even better by offering lossless audio and Dolby Atmos support at no additional cost. For its entertaining, ever-evolving features, Apple Music joins Spotify as PCMag’s top-rated, overall Editors’ Choice pick for streaming music services.
Signing Up
Apple Music is a streaming music service that brings more than 75 million songs and a strong music video catalog to macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, CarPlay, HomePod, Windows, Android, Chrome OS, Amazon Echo, Sonos, and web browsers. So, if you own a consumer tech device, there’s a good chance that you can use it to stream Apple Music.
Signing up is easy. Apple Music offers a three-month trial, which is a significant amount of time to try before you subscribe (you’ll still need to supply credit or debit card info, though). After that, you must sign up for a subscription plan to continue using the service. The $9.99 per month Single Membership and the $14.99 Family Membership (for up to six people using iCloud Family Sharing) grant ad-free music listening, ad-free video watching, offline listening, and access to Apple Music radio (Apple’s three human-curated, 24/7 channels). We like seeing Apple Music and other streaming music services adopt family plans, which is something that LiveXLive still lacks.
If you’re a college student who’s enrolled in an eligible college or university, you can subscribe to Apple Music for a wallet-friendly $4.99 per month. Students can take advantage of the discount for up to four years. Spotify and Tidal offer a similar student deal. Unfortunately, Apple Music lacks a free, ad-supported version.
Putting the Needle to the Groove
Apple Music’s layout features large, eye-catching icons that invite you to explore the service, be it via a browser or an app. Honestly, that’s something that you’re likely to do anyway, as the interface features a menu structure that helps you quickly find content. Library, Playlists, Artists, Albums, and Songs are all prominent and easy to navigate.
When you sign into the service for the first time, you’ll be asked to pick your favorite music genres and a few sample acts. This populates the Listen Now page for the first time, giving you top songs from those artists and genres, tailormade radio stations, and more. Alternatively, you can go to the Browse section to look at Apple’s featured playlists and albums. It’s here that the service highlights some of its Spatial Audio tracks (with support for Dolby Atmos), which is useful if you have the company’s AirPods Pro or other surround sound headset. Finally, the Radio tab includes Apple’s three radio stations—Music 1, Music Hits, and Music Country—alongside the additional content available on the service. This includes third-party radio stations, podcast-style radio shows like Strombo and Elton John’s Rocket Hour, and artist video interviews.
Digging Into the Library
Apple Music features a vast selection of albums and songs, including Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, as well as tracks from Taylor Swift and other pop acts. We found many Prince albums, too, including 1999, Purple Rain, and Sign ‘O’ the Times. You can also listen to music channels dedicated to certain themes, such as Hip-Hop Workout Anthems and Disney Princess Radio. Looking into K-pop, we found that certain albums also include music videos for related singles. Like YouTube Music, Apple Music lets you jump from EXO’s Don’t Fight the Feeling audio stream to watching the music video with a single click.
There are plenty of comedy tracks, too, for those times when you’re in the mood to yuck it up. Maria Bramford, Kevin Hart, Eddie Murphy, Amy Schumer, Daniel Tosh, Katt Williams, and Daniel Tosh are just a few of the notable comedians who have standup work on Apple Music.
Meanwhile, Apple’s flagship radio station, Apple Music, features tracks curated by DJ Zane Lowe, along with artist interviews. However, that’s the extent of the music-related extras; Apple Music lacks LiveXLive’s Stories and music history channels (Artist DNA and Sample City), Tidal‘s editorial, and Spotify‘s podcasts. If you want to listen to the best podcasts, Apple Podcasts is your destination. We understand why they keep the apps separate, but the options to jump from music listening to podcasts within the same app is great on Spotify.
If you dig music videos, you’ll be happy to know that Apple Music has a dedicated section for that medium. The videos are tailored to your preferences, too, so it was not at all surprising that we were fed plenty of hip-hop tracks.
Audio Quality and Siri
Apple Music has finally caught up to top competitors with the addition of non-compressed, lossless audio. Lossless music streams top out at 24-bit/48khz, while hi-res lossless streams top out at 24-bit/192kHz. With hi-res lossless audio, Apple Music now matches Amazon Music Unlimited, Primephonic, Qobuz, and Tidal’s Hi-Res Audio offerings. The streams support Spatial Audio with support for the excellent, immersive Dolby Atmos.
Apple Music supports a range of devices, but lossless audio is only currently available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K, and Android devices. The web player doesn’t support lossless audio, and iTunes hasn’t been updated for it, either. As a result, Windows PC users can’t access lossless audio at all. In addition, only a fraction of the Apple Music catalog supports hi-res lossless streams.
Still, we welcome this enhanced sound quality. We loaded up Balencies by Chika—which is not only lossless, but also an Apple Digital Master for enhanced quality—and loved the clear separation between the choir samples and that bumpin’ bass line. We even found the Castlevania Dracula X video game soundtrack in lossless quality; every instrument sounded great, from Bloody Tears‘ pipe organ to Vampire Killer‘s smooth violins.
What would an Apple service be if it didn’t encourage you to use other Apple services and products? You can use Siri to tell Apple Music to play specific songs or ask for recommendations, like The Top Songs of the 80s. Apple Watch owners can sync music to their devices, and keep listening even when the timepiece isn’t paired to an iPhone. Apple Music supports lyrics (when they are available), so you can sing along to a song, even if you don’t know the words.
Apple Music TV
Apple Music has proven itself a solid music streaming service since its debut, but it lacked a truly killer feature to help it stand out in a crowded field. That’s changed with the Apple Music TV, a 24/7, ad-free music video stream that recalls MTV’s heyday (minus the VJs).
Found in Apple’s Apple Music and Apple TV apps (it’s not a part of Apple TV+!), Apple Music TV focuses on popular, youth-centric tunes. In our tests, the service served up videos by Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa, and Alicia Keys. Well, those are the artists we recognized. Sadly, Apple Music TV lacks metadata that informs you of what’s playing. So, if you happen upon a music video in the middle of its broadcast, there’s no way to identify the song or performer. That’s a major music discovery oversight. Apple Music TV isn’t just wall-to-wall videos. The service also breaks things up with artist interviews, live performances, and themed artist takeovers.
A Sound Garden
Apple Music’s 90-day free trial should be plenty of time to determine whether the service is one you want to invest in (just make sure to turn off auto-payments in case you don’t dig it). However, chances are that if you’re a music fan, you’ll dig it. Apple Music has numerous tracks and music videos, as well as cool, human-curated radio stations. If you don’t mind that Apple Music lacks non-music content beyond comedy, such as LiveXLive’s Stories or Spotify’s podcasts, you’ll find a lot to love. For that, Apple Music is an Editors’ Choice pick for streaming music services.
For more on streaming music, check out Amazon Music Unlimited vs. Spotify and The Best Free Online Streaming Music Services.
