1. City Charts From 100 Cities Worldwide
Apple Music is adding a new “City Charts” daily playlists feature with iOS 14.5. City Charts will feature the most played songs from more than 100 cities around the world.
At the time of writing, City Charts does not yet feature on the latest iOS beta, so it’s likely only going to be made available to the public after the official release of iOS 14.5. The cities that will feature a dedicated playlist on Apple Music are also unknown so far as Apple has not released the list.
Apple Music currently has a “Worldwide” category, featuring trending music from around the world in the “Hot Tracks” playlist. Apple Music also has a similar “Daily Top 100” feature, with playlists dedicated to each country, featuring the top 100 tracks in those countries.
However, these playlists feature a mix of trending songs from around the globe and particular to different countries, respectively, while City Charts will dedicate a full playlist to different cities around the world.
2. Share Song Lyrics on Social Media
With iOS 13.5, Apple allowed you to share songs from Apple Music to Instagram Stories. Now the company has taken this a step further by enabling a new option with iOS 14.5 that also allows you to share snippets of your favourite song lyrics on your social platforms.
When you tap the More Options button when playing a song, the Apple Music app will show you two buttons: Share Music and Share Lyrics. By choosing the Share Lyrics option, you can select up to three verses of lyrics to share with your friends on Instagram Stories, Facebook Messenger, and iMessage.
3. Saylists for Kids With SSD
Apple Music has partnered with record label Warner Music and Rothco to compile a series of playlists called Saylists to help young listeners with a speech-sound disorder (SSD), also known as an articulation disorder.
Apple Music’s algorithms search through the library of more than 70 million songs to find songs with lyrics that could be challenging for children with SSD to repeat, allowing them to sing along as a form of speech therapy.
The focus is on helping SSD-affected children to improve the pronunciation of a particular word or sound by singing along, making the often-challenging task of getting children to repeat sounds and syllables fun and engaging.
As stated on the Apple Music website:
A total of 10 different playlists are featured with a focus on a particular letter or sound. The Saylists feature is currently only available in the UK, and it is unknown when it will be rolled out to other countries.
4. The Replay 2021 Playlist
You can now “Replay 2021” by listening to your favorite tracks from 2021. Apple Music curates and ranks all of the music you’ve been listening to during the year from 1 to 100, with your most-streamed songs ranked at the top of the list.
The Replay 2021 playlist is unique to you and will be updated every Sunday throughout the year, changing the ranking of your music to reflect your streaming in the past week.
To find your Replay 2021 playlist, simply select the Listen Now tab in Apple Music, as well as on Apple Music for the web. Here you will find the playlist personally curated for you, featuring the music you’ve streamed the most so far in 2021.
5. Swipe to Manage Your Song Queue
Apple Music is making it easier to quickly add songs you’re currently playing to your Apple Music queue or library.
When viewing a list of your music, you’re able to swipe from left to right to reveal a pair of hidden options. These options will allow you to quickly add the song you’ve selected to the top or bottom of your Up Next queue.
When you swipe from right to left, a new button displayed as a + icon should be presented. By selecting this button, you will instantly add the current song to your Apple Music library.
Apple is currently testing this new swiping feature with its developers and public beta testers. They will be available with the release of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5. They’ll also be available on the Mac with an upcoming macOS update.
6. Add “Made for You” Playlists to Your Library
You can now add the Apple Music “Made for You” mixes to your library in the music app. These are playlists curated and categorized for your listening pleasure, based on the music in your library.
To add these playlists to your library, tap Listen Now, scroll down to Made for You, then select the playlist you want to add. When the playlist opens up, you will be able to view the songs in it. Tap the Add button on the top, right-hand corner of your screen. The playlist will now be added to your library.
Apple Music Is Getting Better All of Time
To access these features, make sure you have the latest version of the app installed on your device(s). To update to the latest version, simply go to App Store > Apple Music > Update.
Apple is constantly improving its music app to give you an enhanced, more tailored user experience. Making sure you can get the most out of the streaming service.
