How to make the most of Apple Music

Want to get the best from Apple Music? Then you want our updated list of handy pointers to features you may not yet have stumbled across... Since its launch, Apple Music has gained over 36 million subscribers. The release of IOS 10 in 2016 led to a refresh of the interface and with the advent of the Apple Music-orientated Homepod smart speaker, there’s no better time to get fully acquainted with the ins and outs of this music-streaming service.

How to unsubscribe

Say you’ve opted for the free trial but no longer want to continue with it. To cancel, click on your profile icon in the top-right corner of the screen and in the For You tab, hit View Account, then View Apple ID and sign in to your itunes account. Next, tap Subscriptions halfway down the page. Here you can cancel your free trial so it won’t automatically renew.

Sign in to icloud Music for extra features You need to enable icloud Music Library to get the most from Apple Music. A number of features, notably offline listening, are only available with icloud Music activated. In your iphone/ipad, go to Setting > Music and toggle icloud Music Library on.

The only trouble with this is that it can present problems to users with a big existing library, especially if you have your own playlists. Apple will match these with its own tracks so you can listen offline – but it may not always get the right version.

Offline music

You can save tracks, albums and playlists to your phone for offline playback if icloud Music is enabled (see previous point). You can only download music that’s been added to your library. If there’s a ‘+’ icon next to a song, that means it hasn’t been added to your library. Tap it to add and it’ll then transform into a cloud icon and then tap the cloud to download.

Shuffle and repeat

Wonder where the shuffle and repeat icons have gone? Scroll down just a little in the Now Playing screen, and you’ll see them pop up right underneath the volume slider.

New music

Need to find new music? Click on the Browse tab and you’ll find a section called, you guessed it, New Music that’s dedicated to the latest releases, albums, playlists, videos and more. In Browse’s Playlists section, you’ll find curated playlists from the likes of Pitchfork, NME and Sonos, as well as a number of playlists for every mood and activity.

Browse new music by genre

To tailor to your music tastes even more, go to the Genres section to filter music by – that’s right – genre. You can filter playlists by genre, too, in the Playlists section.

Create your own radio station

You can play an Apple-curated selection of music based on a certain artist or track. Simply click on the three dots on an artist or a track and select Create Station from the pop-up menu to listen to related music. Tap the ‘star’ icon on subsequent songs to tell Apple to keep playing more songs like it.