Hi everyone,

I’m trying to switch from Spotify to Apple Music because of better audio quality, spatial audio, and AirPlay 2 support. However, I’m struggling with recommendations

I’ve been actively selecting songs I like (Claude VonStroke, Linkin Park, etc.), adding them to my library, and using the “Love” feature. But Apple Music still plays songs that don’t match my taste, and my “Made for You” mixes feel way off

I know some users say Apple Music improves over time, but is there a way to speed up the learning process? Are there specific tricks to help the algorithm understand my preferences better?

Thanks in advance for any tips!

My mom just subscribed to the Apple Music family plan, and I currently have an individual trial plan. I canceled my trial, but when I check my shared subscriptions, Apple Music isn’t showing up. However, when I check my mom’s phone, it says I have access.

My trial subscription expires on February 9, and I canceled it right after my mom subscribed to the family plan. Will I be able to join the family plan once my trial ends?

I remember I once redeemed 3 months free Apple TV after my purchase of a MacBook Air, but I think that I will get 3 months free also for Apple Music because I have just bought my AirPods Max. Will I not get it because of my Apple TV free trial?

OK Internet hive mind.. help me resolve this one.

Today I upgraded to Mac OS Sequoia on the Mac Mini connected to my TV (Yes I know I am behind!) and in preferences in Music set Atmos to be able to stream over HDMI (great update).

I have been previously using an Apple TV to listen to Atmos music fed into a Denon AV amp. Listening to the Mac today, fed into the same amp I am convinced it has a clearer more ‘full’ sound than the Apple TV but I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I mean an Atmos stream is an Atmos stream, surely? I wondered if, for some reason, the input that the Apple TV was connected to on the amp had any different settings than the connection the Mac was connected to, but no. Both neutral settings.

The only difference is the HDMI cable used. Both are different make cables but both good quality.

The audio level coming from the Mac seems a slightly lower level also. In order to get the same SPL level I have the Apple TV input set to -10db volume but the Mac is set to -8.5db to get the same level on my SPL meter.

All very strange. Any ideas anyone?

I would think I am making this up but my partner also commented at the same time that they thought it was sounding better so it’s not just my ears!

I personally use R&B, it has the best bass without muddling the sound imo

Can anyone please assist me? I've reset my phone and backed it up from data ranging from 1/29/25. My entire music library is now greyed out and the entire playlist is blank. I'm receiving the error "This item is not currently available in your country of region".

What is the deal apple? I'm seeing a few similar posts saying that the recent IOS update has flagrantly messed up entire libraries. I cannot even bring up my music on my laptop as my entire cache of data will not sync. What gives apple? This music ranges from 2009 or even earlier. What in the F**k?

I would have tried different means of reuploading music from my old laptop that most likely has my playlist saved. Although, I'm currently in a different state for the time being and do not have access.

You've gone and bricked your sh*t apple. Would love any form of advice, and thanks.

Why doesn’t Apple Music have closed captions for any of the music videos? It’s 2025!!! Fix it Apple.

Fun Way to Blind Test Lossless vs. Lossy on iPhone

Decided to share this with others from my other post.

Want to test whether you can hear the difference between lossless and lossy audio without needing anybody else to help you? Here’s a way to do it on Apple Music:

Requirements:

• Wifi connection (good one)
• Not a single downloaded song in library
• iPhone device
• Apple Music subscription

1- Pick a track to test and make sure it is not downloaded. Also make sure you’re on a good wifi. LTE won’t work because cellular playback defaults to aac every time you toggle lossless vs lossy AAC.

2- Ensure your library has no downloaded songs (important for step 5).

3- Start playing the song. Optionally you can set to repeat the same song, if you want to test on a single track on continuous loop.

4- Go to Settings > Apps > Music > Audio Quality.

5- Locate the Lossless Audio toggle with your finger, then close your eyes.

6- While the music plays, randomly toggle lossless on and off multiple times, so you lose track of whether it’s on or off (eyes closed)

7- Listen carefully and try to guess which one is lossless while switching the toggle (eyes closed). You will hear a mini pause in the music and that’s when it will change between lossless and lossy AAC even on the same song. AM doesn’t wait for next track to switch between lossy vs lossless. It will immediately switch (after a sec or so)

Why remove all downloads?

If you have downloaded songs, switching between lossless and lossy triggers a prompt asking if you want to convert your entire library, which disrupts the blind test. Keeping your library download-free avoids this issue.

I’m curious about the technical differences between these two approaches when using AirPods:

• Playing pre-converted AAC files
• Playing Apple Lossless (ALAC) and letting the iPhone convert to AAC in real-time

Another way to frame the question:

• Is Apple’s AAC conversion from the master file better?
• Or does a latest-gen iPhone’s real-time conversion from lossless result in better audio quality?

It seems unlikely that both methods would yield identical results. The key factors influencing this would be:

• Whether Apple’s offline AAC conversion prioritizes smaller file sizes at the expense of quality
• Whether the iPhone’s real-time conversion benefits from having no file size constraints and can produce better results

Has anyone tested this, or does anyone know if Apple has commented on the quality differences?

Bonus: Fun Way to Blind Test Lossless vs. Lossy on iPhone

Want to test whether you can hear the difference between lossless and lossy audio without needing anybody else to help you? Here’s a way to do it on Apple Music:

1- Pick a track to test and make sure it is not downloaded. Also make sure you’re on a good wifi. LTE won’t work because cellular playback defaults to aac every time you toggle lossless vs lossy AAC.

2- Ensure your library has no downloaded songs (important for step 5).

3- Set playback to repeat the same song and start playing.

4- Go to Settings > Apps > Music > Audio Quality.

5- Locate the Lossless Audio toggle, then close your eyes.

6- While the music plays, randomly toggle lossless on and off multiple times, so you lose track of whether it’s on or off.

7- Listen carefully and try to guess which one is lossless while switching the toggle (eyes closed). You will hear a mini pause in the music and that’s when it will change between lossless and lossy AAC.

Why remove all downloads?

If you have downloaded songs, switching between lossless and lossy triggers a prompt asking if you want to convert your entire library, which disrupts the blind test. Keeping your library download-free avoids this issue.

Let me know if you try it. curious to hear what others find

Environment

• OS: macOS 15.2
• Device: M1 Macbook Pro
• App Version: Apple Music 1.5.2.56
• Region: USA

##Problem Description:

The initial symptom was that music files added to the "Automatically Add to Music"(AATM) folder were not imported to the original library.

Original library

• Automatically add to music folder didn’t work.
• I tried deleting AATM folder and restarting AM. No change.
• I tried deleting the AATM folder and recreating it from the command line. No change.
• I exported the original library to a playlist file Library.xml
• I created a new music library to see if I can get that to work.

New Library

• I noted that there wasn’t an AATM folder created by default in the new library.
• Imported library.xml into the new library
• Error message post import - Some of the songs in Library XML were not imported because they could not be found
• 30 folders under Music were not imported
• Closed and Opened AM - still no AATM folder
• Closed and open AM in safe mode with CMD+Option Keys
• Closed AM, Backed up and deleted com.apple.Music.plist file. Opened AM - still no AATM folder
• Rebooted MBP and opened AM - still no AATM folder
• Performed Music folder security settings procedure for original and new libraries(https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-13743) - no change

Thank you in advance. Any help appreciated. So I created a smart playlist on my MacBook and it didn't show up on my iPhone. Sometimes it's slow so I waited, but that was weeks ago. I created another smart playlist and the second one won't show up on my iPhone either. Apple support sent me through the typical update everything, sign out, sign in, physically plug phone in to sync. After all that now some of my regular non smart playlists don't show up in the list, but I am able to search them and they show up. Any advice?

I worked very hard to get my music collection into Apple Music. But now unless I synch the entire library every time I synch my phone all the music goes away.

Now all of songs are on my MacBook but I can’t access them on my iPhone unless they are part of a playlist I have just synched.

How do I put music in my phone and keep it there to access via Apple Music?

Hi again! I'm a UX Design student who loves music & a few days ago, I posted about frustrations with music streaming platforms, and the response was AMAZING! After reading through all your insights, I’m focusing on playlist organization and how to make it easier.

I’ve put together a quick (under 2 min) survey to dive deeper. if you’d like to help shape this tool, you can take it here: Google Form

Also, if you’re interested in trying out the prototype later, there’s an option to sign up at the end!Thanks again to everyone who shared their thoughts I appreciate it! 🎶

Maybe this can help my attention span

The other day I compared my “New” tab with my friends because I had a bad feeling about something. Unsurprisingly my suspicions were true

My “New” tab (specifically under the New Releases) was different from their New tab. The “new releases” were based I guess on our personal taste/based on artists I have in my library. It was literally showing month old albums for me.

This is so extremely annoying. Just show me what has just dropped don’t try to algorithm feed me. Makes it harder to find new music from someone I never heard or a genre that is maybe not my primary genre I listen to.

Sorry, I’m writing through a translator. I encountered a problem: I bought an Apple Watch SE (2nd gen) and updated iOS on my iPhone to 18.3 to connect the watch. After that, the sound quality on both my iPhone and MacBook (they are synced via iCloud) became compressed and poor, with crackling. I tried different headphones, and even the speaker sound became worse. It feels like all audio playback has become more compressed. I have already disconnected the watch and restarted the devices, but it didn’t help. What could be the issue? I would really appreciate your help.

I recently migrated from Youtube Music to Apple Music and was frustrated by the lack of (free) tools to transfer my "Liked Music" auto playlist. I didn't want to share my account information or pay for some 3rd party tools to do it. So here is how I did it using the Apples official import process:

1. Navigate to your "Liked Music" playlist in a desktop browser: music.youtube.com .
2. Hover over the playtime in the first song in the list until you see the checkbox and check it
3. Without clicking on anything else on the page, scroll to the bottom until no more songs are loaded
4. Hold the SHIFT key and click the box in the last row, this will select all the songs in the list
5. In the mini-dialog window at the bottom of the window, click the icon for "Save to playlist"
6. In the dialog window that opens, click "New Playlist" and name it whatever you want, say "Exported Likes"
7. Follow the official instructions from Apple to Transfer a copy of your music playlists to Apple Music.
8. After your playlists are imported, open the playlist name you created in step 6 "Exported Likes"
9. Click on the first song in the list, then, without clicking anything else, scroll to the bottom of the list.
10. SHIFT click on the last song in the list to select all the songs.
11. Right click on a song and click "Favorite"

Tada! You just converted all your Youtube music likes to apple music favorites!

Whenever I tell Siri to play a song that I’ve purchased on iTunes she tells me that she can’t connect to Apple Music. I’ve never used Apple Music and only want her to search from my purchased songs. Is this possible? Thank you!

When I'd try to play Allison Russell's The Returner album, it always seemed to be missing from my library, and I'd find it with search. Finally, I looked under Ts instead of Rs, and there it was, the only entry in Ts based on the word "The".

I'd report a problem, as it says to in the subreddit FAQ, but I'm on Android and that doesn't seem to be an option. And now that I know where to find it, not big deal.

Have you seen that? Do you have a fix?

When I have an album playing, if I unlock my phone e.g., to see what's next, it usually comes up with a different screen than the album screen it was on when I last used it. It was the search screen when I did it just now.

I have to enlarge the song, click the 3 dots at the right, then click the album to bring it up again.

Until very recently it would still be on the album screen, the way I left it. I don't like this new behavior. Is there a way to get it to stay with the album I'm listening to?

There is 1 album that i can play on my phone no poroblem

but on every version of apple music on pc its just not awiable,

its only that album everything else works fine

On Apple Music for Mac (well, I'm still used to the name iTunes), I have to drag the PLAYLIST from the sidebar menu into the PLAYLIST FOLDER (PF) I made also in the sidebar menu. If I open the PF in another window and try to drag the PLAYLIST into another window, it won't work.

That brings the problem here - dragging a PLAYLIST in the PF and doing this all in the sidebar is a painful experience. I have to be very careful to control the speed of the sidebar scrolling while holding the PLAYLIST to the near top of the sidebar where my PFs are. This is even harder for the playlists at the bottom of the sidebar. Even though, sometimes the PLAYLIST won't get into the PF.

Maybe I miss something? Are there easier ways to drag PLAYLISTs into PFs?

Hello, running macOS 14.7.2 Apple Music doesn't show anything in the viewer but plays music, skips normally and pretty much seems to be the same as "{name's} Station on my iPhone. Please see picture.

https://preview.redd.it/uc58bp83ldge1.png?width=3360&format=png&auto=webp&s=a6fd6d3271a396df5085ca6f8b13d9db73245dc1

Hey everyone,
I’ve been using Apple Music for a while now, and while I love the service overall, there’s one feature I really miss: seamless device switching like Spotify has.

For example, if I’m listening to a playlist or a song on my iPhone and want to switch to my Mac, I have to manually search for the playlist or song again and start playback from scratch. It feels like such a missed opportunity, especially since Spotify lets you just pick up where you left off on another device with a single tap.

This would be such a quality-of-life improvement for Apple Music users. I get that Apple has Handoff for some apps, but why not extend it to Music? It’s frustrating to have to re-navigate everything just to continue listening to the same thing on a different device.

Does anyone else feel the same way? Or am I missing a feature that already exists?