Confused about Apple Music? We've got the beats and the deets.
Apple Music is just over a year old, and offers its users a subscription music service, Beats 1 radio, a redesigned music app, and more custom playlists than you can shake a stick at. Here's what Apple Music is, what it's not, how it compares to other services, what you'll be able to find on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC, and what's coming with iOS 10 and macOS Sierra.
Basics and membership | What's coming this fall with iOS 10 and macOS Sierra | Music | Apple Music, iTunes Match, and DRM | Radio | Connect | Troubleshooting Apple Music
Basics and membership
What is Apple Music?
Apple Music is, to quote the company, "All the ways you love music. All in one place."
So... in non-marketing lingo, Apple has put together a service that combines your purchased music library and ripped tracks with the power of its Apple Music streaming catalog.
From there, you can mix-and-match your songs with their songs in online or offline playlists, listen to specific artists, or rock out to hand-built groupings of music from Apple's music editors.
Apple Music also encompasses a 24/7 radio station that will be available for anyone to listen to; iTunes Radio-like custom radio stations; and a social media stream for musicians called Connect.
Why is Apple making a streaming music service in the first place?
More and more people are listening to streaming music, and for good reason: When you can listen to just about any artist, genre, and song you set your heart on, it's a lot more enticing than playing the same thousand songs you own in your library.
By adding a streaming component to its service, Apple can unify the music you already own with its gigantic catalog — described as "tens of millions" during WWDC–and let you mix your purchased or uploaded music together with your streamed songs, whether or not you have them locally stored on your device.
It's largely what iTunes Match does — sticking your personal library in the cloud — but when you add in Apple's massive streaming library, you have quite a few songs to pick from.
On top of that, Apple thinks it can help you find great new music to either stream or purchase with tailored recommendations, hand-built playlists, and its new Beats 1 radio station. It's a gamble, but given Apple's background in music, it's one the company wants to take.
How does Apple pay artists when a track is streamed?
When an artist's music is streamed, they're paid a certain monetary percentage per-play. Apple currently pays a certain percentage during your free trial and pays a higher premium when the trial is over.
Do I have to pay for Apple Music?
Yes, but not at first: The company offers a free three-month trial for everyone when they first subscribe, whether you own an iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, or PC. Once those three months are up, you'll have to pay $9.99/mo to continue taking advantage of all that Apple Music has to offer.
There's a family plan, too, right?
Yup! If you have a few people in your house who love streaming, just sign up for the $14.99/mo family plan and up to six people in your family can jam out to Apple Music. You don't even use the same Apple ID for each device, either: You just have to turn on iCloud Family Sharing.
How to sign up and activate an Apple Music family plan
Can't get Family Sharing in Apple Music to work? Here's the fix!
How to switch between Apple Music Individual and Family plans
Is there a student plan?
Yes! Apple is offering students in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand whose schools can be authenticated by third-party service Unidays a $4.99/month discounted membership option. This membership is good for the length of your student tenure or four consecutive years, whichever comes first. You can find more information about student plans on Apple's website.
What do I get when I sign up for Apple Music?
For the first three months after signup, everyone will get all the features of Apple Music. After that initial trial, however, here's how it breaks down.
If you don't have a paid subscription with Apple Music, you'll be able to listen to any music you've purchased, ripped, or uploaded to your device. You'll also be able to listen to Beats 1 radio, and view and follow an artist's Connect stream. You won't be able to match or upload your music to iCloud Music Library, however, unless you pay $24.99/year for iTunes Match.
With a paid subscription (or a free three-month trial), you get all of the above plus:
unlimited skips for Apple Music radio stations
the ability to like, comment, play, and save Connect content
unlimited listening to the entire Apple Music catalog
the ability to add Apple Music songs to your library and listen offline
your entire purchased and ripped library, matched to the Apple Music catalog or uploaded to iCloud for access on all your devices
access to Apple Music's hand-curated recommendations and playlists
What happens if I decide not to subscribe after the three month trial?
Any streaming music you've added to your library from the Apple Music catalog will no longer be playable. (You have thirty days to reinstate your membership if you want to restore these tracks.) You'll also stop having access to Connect content; and unless you have iTunes Match enabled, you won't be able to stream your previously purchased and uploaded music to your devices, and any songs from your Mac's library that you've downloaded to other devices will be removed. (Your Mac's original iTunes library remains as-is.)
How do I unsubscribe?
You can keep your Apple Music subscription from renewing by following these instructions:
How to unsubscribe from Apple Music
What devices can I use to listen to Apple Music?
Apple Music is available on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch running iOS 8.4 or later; it's also available on Apple Watch 1.0.1 or later; on Macs and PCs running iTunes; on Android; and on the Apple TV.
Wait... Android? Really?
Really. Beats Music had an Android app, after all. And if Apple really wants to offer all your music in one place, it needs the flexibility to do so on multiple platforms.
What about listening on an iPod?
Sadly, only the iPod touch is compatible with Apple Music; the new iPod nano and iPod shuffle are limited to tracks you own. We're hoping for a software update from Apple to address this, but it's not likely.
The iPod nano and shuffle won't sync Apple Music songs, putting another nail in the iPod's coffin
How does Apple Music work on the Apple Watch?
Basically, you can sync any music from your Apple Music library to your Apple Watch like you would a normal playlist. You don't have to have your iPhone nearby to play it, as it's stored locally on your Apple Watch; if you unsubscribe from Apple Music, however, the next time your Apple Watch connects to the internet, any Apple Music songs within that playlist will disappear.
I already use Pandora/Spotify/Google Music/Tidal/etc. Why would I use Apple Music instead?
Apple Music's biggest asset is its integration: You don't have to download extra software. You use your Apple ID to pay for it. And it can tap into your iTunes library, allowing you to listen to any of those songs while you're on the go — even if you don't have them downloaded to your device.
Apple Music: our review
Pandora is cheaper, but limited to algorithmically-generated radio stations. Google, Tidal, and Spotify are on par price-wise, but can't upload and stream your iTunes library with the same ease as Apple, and they all rely more on algorithms. Music, in contrast, will have the old custom-curated playlist magic Beats Music brought to its customers as well as custom-curated Apple Music radio stations.
I'd give Apple Music a shot if any of the following are true for you:
You want your iTunes collection easily side-by-side with your streaming music
You like Siri's music integration
You don't want to download an app and pay for a third-party service
You loved Beats Music's playlists
You want an affordable family plan
And hey: it's free for your first three months. Might as well give it a try.
How do I get Apple Music, exactly?
On your iPhone or iPad, make sure you're running iOS 8.4 or later, then open the Music app! You'll also be able to use Apple Music on your Mac via iTunes using OS X El Capitan or later, and Apple TV 9.2 or later.
How to sign up for Apple Music
How to turn off Apple Music's automatic subscription renewal
Which countries can listen to Apple Music?
Over 100 countries can currently groove to Apple Music; here's the company's current list of who can listen.
What's coming in the fall with Apple Music 2.0
How is Apple fixing Apple Music?
After a year of running the service, Apple Music has grown tremendously — but it's not without its growing pains. Apple is well-aware of those complaints and grumbles, and the company is addressing many of them in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra with a redesigned Apple Music experience that simplifies a lot of the insanity without taking away the features users love.
Apple Music has now been consolidated into three tabs: For You, Browse, and Radio. Your Library lives to the left of those tabs; on the Mac, you get a link to the iTunes Store, while iPhone and iPad users will have a tab for search.
Gone are the top-level tabs and weird drop-downs, and though the More button still exists, it's a lot more organized.
On the design side, Apple Music has made everything bigger, bolder, and white, with side-scrollable areas and vibrant section headers offsetting a pure white background. The mini-player also gets this redesign, replacing tiny buttons with larger play/pause and forward buttons.
What's new with my music?
For one thing, it's all in one place! The My Music tab is now Library, and it provides an easy-to-tap list for your playlists, artists, albums, songs, Home Sharing libraries, and any and all downloaded tracks. Below the main navigation is a collection of your recently-added songs and playlists, viewable in album art form.
The Downloads button will be a welcome addition to anyone who flies regularly, but better still are the behind-the-scenes settings for your music, which will let you specify whether you want to optimize your storage or manually control which songs stay on your devices or not. There's also a new setting to restrict Apple Music tracks from your library if you add them to playlists; as a result, you can add hundreds of subscription tracks to an "Apple Music" playlist without worrying about them cluttering up your main library.
Is iCloud Music Library any less terrible?
Jury's still out. There are some nice additions coming — see the aforementioned switch that limits Apple Music tracks to your playlists, as well as being able to delete tracks from iCloud directly from your iPhone — but my big problems with iCloud Music Library remain. You still can't force tracks to upload rather than match to the Apple Music (or iTunes, if you use iTunes Match) catalog, and the process remains exceedingly confusing for the average user.
There's also the question of whether Apple Music will borrow iTunes Match's algorithm, using both metadata and track signature to match tracks, rather than just matching via metadata.
How has For You been improved?
In a word: Greatly. Rather than just give you an assortment of playlists and albums, For You now offers several side-scrollable sections tailored to your taste. Come the fall, you'll have your very own Spotify-style Discovery playlist, along with six daily playlist recommendations; a recently played section that tracks playlists you may have enjoyed but not saved; a grouping of playlists you listen to frequently; daily album recommendations; playlists spotlighting specific artists; and new releases recommendations.
There's no tab for Connect: Is it gone for good?
The tab, yes. Connect itself is being folded into For You; after your new releases recommendations, you can endlessly scroll through your timeline of followed artists and DJs. It's a change I'd been hoping for since Apple Music's release, and one that will hopefully make Connect feel more relevant, rather than a tab doomed to isolation.
How is the New section changing?
New has become Browse; while it still highlights new artist releases and holds the entire Apple Music catalog and playlist rotation, it's now been reconfigured to more accurately reflect its contents. You can browse the week's new albums or look at specific genres; scan through playlists; view top charts; play video; and more.
Any new Beats stations?
Sadly, not that we've heard about just yet. There are several new Beats 1 show anchors, however, including Jehnny Beth, Mary J Blige, Martin Garrix, Corey Taylor, Matt Wilkinson, and deadmau5.
When can I get the new Apple Music experience?
You'll see it appear alongside iOS 10, macOS Sierra, and tvOS 10 sometime this fall — we'd guess around the third week of September.
Music
What does the current Music app on iOS 9 look like?
It puts Apple Music front and center, offering five categories: For You, New, Radio, Connect, and My Music.
How to use the new Music app for iPhone and iPad: The Ultimate Guide
For You showcases your playlists along with any suggested music and playlists Apple Music thinks you might like. New highlights the latest and greatest from artists you've told Apple Music that you enjoy. Radio is where you can find Beats 1, along with Apple's hand-built Music radio (née iTunes Radio) stations. Connect collects the social feeds of your favorite artists, and it's where they can post exclusive videos, songs, lyrics, photos, and more.
My Music is the tab for your music library — any music you've purchased, uploaded, or transferred from Apple Music — and it contains all your songs; you can organize this by Artists, Albums, Songs, Music Videos, Genres, Composers, and Compilations.
Along the top bar of the app, there's an icon to access your Music/iTunes account, two tabs that let you switch between your Library and Playlists, and a search icon.
What about iTunes for the Mac and PC?
It largely resembles iTunes 12, with some new top-tab categories. My Music, Playlists, and the iTunes Store tabs remain the same; replacing Match and Radio are the four new tabs found on iOS: For You, New, Radio, and Connect.
Apple's not going to automatically put music in my music library, right?
Nope, we're not getting another U2 debacle: Any music that shows up in your library should be music that you put there. You may see suggested playlists and songs for you in the other tabs, however, if you've subscribed to Apple Music.
So my music lives next to the streaming service?
Next to, yes, but also integrated with. Your current music collection now exists in iCloud Music Library, accessible on any of your devices. You can also add anything from the Apple Music collection to that library. Of course, if you never want to download songs from Apple Music's streaming catalog, you have that option — but it would make having the service pretty silly.
I heard Apple Music's tracks are DRM-locked?
Yes: Any song from the Apple Music catalog has DRM (digital rights management) applied to it, which is how the company makes sure you don't sign up for a streaming service, download a bunch of songs for offline listening, then cancel and run away with that music. So you can play any song from the Apple Music catalog on your devices, but you can't burn it to a CD or play it in, say, Spotify's online player. Makes sense enough, and it's similar to the DRM used by every other major streaming service.
Where it gets tricky is when it comes to streaming your Mac's music library. Apple Music lets you upload your Mac's library to iCloud Music Library, where you can then stream and download songs to any of your other devices (up to 10). To keep you from incurring massive data bills, Apple tries to "match" the songs it can from your Mac's library with songs from its catalog, rather than upload all your tracks to iCloud; as such, any matched song will download to another device as an high-quality Apple Music catalog song — and thus, have DRM.
This is different from Apple's similar iTunes Match service, which provides the same sort of matching service but matches to the iTunes Store catalog, which is DRM-free.
As a result, if you cancel your Apple Music subscription, any matched tracks you download to another device will be rendered inoperative. (If you have both Match and Music, Match's iTunes Store catalog will take priority and you shouldn't have to worry about this.) Your Mac's original library will remain as-is — Apple Music will never replace those songs with DRM-laden files unless you specifically delete the track and redownload it.
Apple Music and DRM explained: What you need to know
But [insert site here] told me Apple DRM-locks the music on my Mac!
That website is wrong. The only thing Apple DRM-locks is their Apple Music catalog. If you download matched tracks from that catalog on another device, those tracks — and those tracks alone — will be DRM-locked. (Or if you delete your Mac's local copy of your music and try to redownload it, which I highly do not recommend.) For more info and a full breakdown of Apple's DRM service:
No, Apple is not adding DRM to songs on your Mac you already own
I don't want DRM on my matched songs! Is iTunes Match going away?
Nope, iTunes Match lives on, and you can subscribe to both it and Apple Music if you want to keep your matched music DRM-free. (Subscription tracks will remain DRM-locked. If you really want that track DRM-free, you'll have to buy it.)
How to check if your Mac's songs are uploaded, matched, purchased, or Apple Music DRM-laden
If you don't care about DRM, why would you subscribe to iTunes Match?
If you're an Apple Music subscriber, you don't really need to — the service's iCloud Music Library takes care of matching and uploading for you.
If you don't subscribe to Apple Music, however, you'll still need iTunes Match to store your music in iCloud if you want to stream your Mac's library to your other devices.
Why would you choose iTunes Match rather than just subscribe to Apple Music? Math, my friends: iTunes Match is just $24.99/year, while an Apple Music subscription runs you $119.98/year. If streaming all of Apple's music collection doesn't appeal to you, but having on-the-go access to your full music library does, iTunes Match appears to be a good alternate option.
Apple Music vs iTunes Match: What's the difference?
I heard there's a song limit on matching for Apple Music and iTunes Match?
You're correct: You can only match up to 100,000 tracks from your library to the Apple Music or iTunes catalog, depending on what kind of subscription you have.
Here's how to create a secondary iTunes library for Apple Music and iTunes Match
Can I mix and match my songs with the Apple Music collection?
Absolutely: Apple has said you'll be able to build playlists with both your music and the Apple Music collection, and add Apple Music songs to your library.
How to find Apple Music songs you've added to your library
What does Apple Music mean for Radio and the iTunes Store?
Apple has two radio offerings: Beats 1 (which is live and streaming 24/7) and algorithmically-created Apple Music radio stations, along with the option to create your own custom algorithmic Apple Music radio station based on your favorite song, artist, or album.
The iTunes Store is very much alive, though: Just because you can stream music doesn't mean Apple expects you never to buy a song again in your life. Sometimes, you just want to own an album or song, and iTunes will be there for you.
What's the streaming bitrate?
Apple Music files are sent to your device at 256kbps AAC, similar to the iTunes Match service. According to Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue, the actual bitrate varies depending whether you're on Wi-Fi or cellular, likely to save on your monthly data bill. This is done automatically, though you can choose to stream in a higher bit-rate over cellular via the Music preferences screen.
Can I listen offline?
Yup! Offline listening to both songs and playlists is one of the perks of Apple Music. (It's also why any songs from the streaming catalog are DRM-locked.)
How to view (and remove) offline music on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Can I burn Apple Music songs to a CD?
Nope: That would be stealing. They're not tracks you own, even if you download them for offline use; they're protected .m4p files.
Is Apple Music getting any exclusive content I won't be able to hear elsewhere?
All kinds! Apple Music has debuted music from Pharrell, Taylor Swift, Chance the Rapper, and many other high-profile artists in its first year of operation.
Beats 1 also offers a variety of special and exclusive shows: You'll be able to hear radio spots from Jaden Smith, St. Vincent, Pharrell, and Dr. Dre, as well as exclusive interviews from musicians like Eminem.
How do I tell Apple Music what I like to listen to?
When you first set up Apple Music after upgrading, it'll ask you to highlight genres and artists that you like by tapping on gigantic bubbles. From there, it's an ever-evolving process where the service pays attention to what you favorite and listen to and adjusts accordingly; you can also tap and hold on the Favorite icon while listening to a song to ask Apple Music to play more like the current song, or less of that taste and genre.
What about new music?
The New tab of the Music app is dedicated to finding the best new music specifically for you — it's not just a top ten list or Billboard chart. Apple Music looks at what you like and curates accordingly, highlighting new songs, albums, and artists it thinks you'll love.
Tell me more about curated playlists?
Curated playlists are hand-built by Apple's Music Editors, artists, and what Apple is calling "Curators"; they're targeted specifically to your genre tastes, so if you like soundtracks, for example, you may get "The Musical Dialogue of Gilmore Girls."
Apple has a host of editors on-hand who are constantly making new playlists, but they've also partnered with websites, magazines, and "tastemakers" for their Curators program: Expect to see song recommendations from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Q Magazine, DJ Mag, Shazam, Mojo, The Grand Ole Opry, XXL Magazine, and more.
Is there a way to share what I'm listening to?
You bet. Apple is integrating Twitter, Facebook, and Messages into Apple Music, so you can share playlists, albums, and videos with your friends. Unfortunately, those shared playlists aren't searchable nor live-updating: You'll just get a static link.
How do I search Apple Music?
There are two primary ways to search Apple Music: the dynamic search field, and Siri.
How does Apple Music's dynamic search engine work?
When you tap the search icon at the top of the app, you can type in just about anything you're looking for — artist, song, genre, playlist title — and Apple Music will try and find it for you. It'll also remember what you've searched for recently, and display trending music searches from other Apple Music members.
You'll also be able to filter between searching through Apple Music's catalog and the songs that you've added to your library.
How to add, cache, search for, and delete songs from Apple's new Music app
What about Siri? Has it gotten more intelligent about music?
Has it ever! Siri's music-playing and finding abilities will improve massively with the Apple Music software update: You'll be able to ask it to do things like "Play the top songs from 1980" and it'll make a playlist of the chart-toppers from that year, for instance. Or, while listening to a song, you can say "Play more songs like this," and it'll generate a playlist for you on the spot. You can also tell it to queue up a song: "After this song, play Thru the Eyes of Ruby." And if you like something you've heard on Apple Music, you can ask Siri "Add this song to my library."
Nine cool Siri commands for Apple Music
Can I still use Home Sharing?
Yup! You can set it up for each of your devices within the Settings and preferences screens.
I have a Sonos system: How can I listen to Apple Music and Beats 1?
Pretty easily! Apple Music is an offical Sonos partner, so all you need is the Sonos app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. (Unfortunately, Siri doesn't integrate with Sonos, so you won't be able to use voice commands.)
How to play Apple Music and Beats 1 on Sonos
What about other home-connected speakers like the Amazon Echo?
Unfortunately — but unsurprisingly — Amazon currently only supports its own music service and Spotify for the Amazon Echo, Dot, and Tap.
Radio
How does Apple's radio service work?
It's split up into two sections: Beats 1, and algorithmic stations. Apple's premade algorithmic stations are a slight misnomer; They're partially custom-programmed by humans, to add an extra touch. You can also create a new entirely-algorithmic station from one of your songs, artists, or albums, however.
Beats 1 is the other half of Apple's radio initiative: It's a 24/7 station that plays music along with exclusive interviews, special celebrity programs, debut singles, and more.
So tell me about Beats 1.
Well, there's it's aforementioned 24/7 nature, achieved by a combination of several A-list hosts and custom programming. Anyone can listen to Beats 1 — whether or not you have an Apple Music subscription — and it's coming to over 100 countries, like Apple Music itself.
Once a Beats 1 show airs, can I download it and listen to it later?
Yes! All of the programmed shows have a full archive, while the everyday live shows are replayed 12 hours later, and some DJs may post playlists or snippets of their shows after the fact.
How to listen to Beats 1 shows you've missed
Who are the hosts of Beats 1?
Apple's tapped three top-tier radio personalities: Zane Lowe, formerly of BBC1, will host the LA segment; Ebro Darden, former vice president of programming for NYC's WQHT Hot 97, will broadcast for NYC; and newcomer Julie Adenuga will host London's broadcast.
Of the three, Adenuga's the newest to the radio scene, but also the one music personalities are most excited about; the younger sister of grime crew Boy Better Know, she arrived on the London airwaves in 2010 as a DJ for Rinse FM and has been winning hearts and minds ever since. You can read more about Adenuga's background in this excellent overview from Fader.
Each Beats 1 station also has a number of smaller personalities who run the country-specific shows (London, NYC, and LA each have a few one-hour blocks), along with CHART and REQUEST.
Does Beats 1 play explicit music?
Beats 1 plays music from explicit artists, but the music itself has so far just been clean radio-edits. Currently, there doesn't appear to be a way to set a preference for this on either Beats 1 or other algorithmic Apple Music radio stations.
Are there other radio stations, too?
No live ones, though Beats 1 does host programs from various celebrities and NYC/LA/London DJs whenever Low, Darden, and Adenuga aren't rocking the mic.
You'll have plenty of algorithmic Apple Music radio stations to choose from, however, including Soundsystem, The Mixtape, On the Floor, Pop Hits, All-City, Americana, Blues, Chill, Classic Alternative, Dance Pop, Electronic, Hip-Hop, Indie, R&B, and Workout Anthems. (You can read more about each on Apple's website.)
Can I create my own station?
Yep! You need only select "Create Station" from a song, album, or artist and Apple Music will algorithmically do the rest. You can also adjust your mix on the fly by favoriting songs and marking the ones you dislike.
How can I find my old iTunes Radio stations?
Just go to the Radio tab and tap on the Recently Played title.
What if I don't like a song that's playing?
You can easily adjust what Apple Music's radio stations are playing by tapping the Favorite (star) icon to the left side of the screen: From there, just tap "Play more like this" or "Play less like this."
Can I see what songs played on Beats 1 while I was listening?
Sure thing. Just tap the Up Next button (it looks like a list of three horizontal lines) in iTunes, or go to the iTunes app on your iOS device. For more info, check out our tutorial:
How to view your Beats 1 and other radio play history on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac
Connect
What's Connect, and does it suck any less than Ping?
So pessimistic, readers! But you're not wrong. Connect sucks a little bit less than Ping, offering artists exclusive portals to chat with their colleagues and fans, post unfinished work, showcase videos and photos, and more.
It's a little bit like MySpace's Band pages, but for the 21st century.
As for whether it works? Well, artists haven't been particularly engrossed by it, and it's Yet Another Page to check — so much so that Connect will be incorporated into For You this fall when iOS 10 and macOS Sierra launch.
What can I find on Apple Music Connect?
Whatever artists wish to post, whether that's a photo, lyrics, URLs, videos up to 8 minutes, song snippets up to 90 minutes — you name it. And if you have an Apple Music subscription, you may even be able to download some of those exclusive song snippets.
How do I follow an artist on Connect?
In Music or iTunes's search field, type the name of the artist you want to follow. Click on their profile, then click "Follow".
Can I follow Beats 1 DJs, too?
Yep! Just type in their name (or the name of their show) to get playlists, clips from the show, interviews, and more.
Can I leave comments?
Yup, and the artist can respond if they so choose. Better yet, you can share the artist's post — and your comment — through Facebook, Twitter, Messages, or email, so your opinions on Connect's content aren't siloed to just Connect. It's one of the ways I'm hoping Connect will reach a larger audience and not just fizzle the way Ping sputtered and died.
How do I see more music from an artist I like, using Connect?
All artists on Apple Music should have Connect profile pages, though how well they update those pages depends on the musician. That page will have their full discography on it, their biography, and the content they've shared with Connect; you can also see from that page what content of theirs you have downloaded to your library and what you have yet to listen to or download.
How does Connect work for indie artists?
Any musician who has an iTunes Music account can sign up for a Connect page and to put their music on Apple Music. If you don't currently have your music up on iTunes or Apple Music, you'll either have to go through your label (if applicable) or an approved aggregator, or contact Apple Music support directly to request access to a Connect profile. Apple has more details on its website.
Troubleshooting Apple Music
What's the difference between Apple Music and iCloud Music Library?
Apple Music is the company's name for its whole streaming subscription service. iCloud Music Library is a portion of that service dedicated to storing any songs you've uploaded from your Mac's library, and keeping track of any matched tunes from your library and any tracks you've added from the Apple Music catalog.
Is iCloud Music Library part of iTunes Match, as well?
Yep! The iCloud library you use for iTunes Match and Apple Music is identical; the only difference is which catalog you use when matching songs from your Mac's library: Apple Music's (which has DRM), or iTunes Match's (from the iTunes Store, which is DRM-free).
Apple Music has eaten so much of my data plan! How do I make it stop?
Chances are you're streaming a lot of music over your cellular plan. We've put together a bunch of suggestions for keeping that from happening in the future.
Apple Music eating your iPhone's cellular data plan? Here's how to fix it!
iTunes won't let me add music from Apple Music to my library. What gives?
This is a bug that Apple is well aware of by now; hopefully we'll see a fix coming down the line in the next few weeks.
Why can I only heart certain songs and not others on Beats 1?
This is half-bug, half-catalog issue. In general, if you can't heart a song nor add it to your library, there's a good chance that Apple Music doesn't yet have the rights to it within its catalog, so you can't actually listen to it outside of Beats 1. That said: there's also a bug present in both iOS and OS X where a song presents as not available, but actually does exist in the Apple Music catalog. We're crossing our fingers that Apple's working on it, and it'll be fixed soon.
Apple Music sucks so hard! My album art got screwed up, my songs won't sync... ARGH!
Deep breaths. Did you make a backup of your iTunes library before joining Apple Music? It might be worth logging out of Apple Music and going back to that backup.
Depending on your problem, we've got a lot of different troubleshooting steps and solutions you can try. Check out our troubleshooting Ultimate Guide for more help.
Troubleshooting Apple Music: The Ultimate Guide
You don't have a troubleshooting article that helps me. Is there anything I can do?
Yes! Contact Apple Support. They may be able to help where our articles can't.
How to contact Apple about your Apple Music problems
Other questions?
Got a question about Apple Music that we haven't answered yet? Drop it off in the comments and we'll try to answer it to the best of our ability.
If you want even more questions answered, we've put out a 150+ page ebook on Apple Music for all your questions.
June 28: Updated with additional information from Apple Music senior director Ian Rogers on the exact launch time, and Apple SVP Eddy Cue on Beats migration, library size limits, and iOS 9 compatibility.
June 30: Updated with more details on Beats Music migration and Apple Music radio.
July 2: Updated with more details on DRM, iTunes Match, iTunes Radio, and Connect.
July 22: Updated with more information about iPods, Connect, Beats 1, and troubleshooting.
July 5 2016: Updated with information about Apple Music 2.0
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