iOS Beta update adds five new Apple Music features (inspired by Spotify)

As part of its ongoing iOS 26.4 Beta, Apple has made five updates to Apple Music.

The most notable of them is an AI playlist-making tool called ‘Playlist Playground’, which is similar to Spotify’s flagship AI playlist tool.

Apple Music users can enter a text prompt which, using Apple Intelligence, will automatically curate a 25-song playlist. Users can then add, remove or reorder songs to make it their own.

AI on music platforms is something of a hot and divisive topic but using AI to create playlists certainly seems less problematic than platforming AI-generated tracks.

A more minor but still useful change to playlists is the option to add a song to multiple playlists simultaneously. When adding songs to a playlist, users can tap a selection button in the bottom-right corner and then be able to select multiple playlists at once.

Another seemingly Spotify-inspired feature, clocked by 9To5Mac, is the inclusion of upcoming show information in the Apple Music app.

When there is concert information available, artist’s profiles will now include an ‘Upcoming Concerts’ section, where users can find details about upcoming shows, including the option to buy tickets.

The Ambient Music feature, which allows you to start playing music for four moods – Sleep, Chill, Productivity and Wellbeing – now has a new Home Screen widget too, with small and medium widget sizes available.

Last but not least are some aesthetic changes to the Apple Music platform, with album and playlist artwork now driving the background styling.

When we reviewed Apple’s music streaming service back in 2024, we gave it five stars, so we can only hope these new features further enhance its offering. Assuming you're a fan of adding some AI to your streaming music experience...

Have you tried these new features? Are you a fan of AI curation? Let us know in the comments...

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