What Apple Music Fans Need to Know to Sign Up June 30

by Todd R. Weiss

Apple Music will put the entire Apple Music catalog of some 30 million songs at the fingertips of subscribers. A user’s existing music tracks, whether purchased from the iTunes Store or ripped from CDs, will live in one place on their devices alongside the Apple Music catalog. Here is a screen shot image of a user’s account, highlighting newly added tracks.

With an Apple Music membership, a user’s entire library lives in Apple’s iCloud. The service automatically compares every track in a user’s music collection to Apple’s music library and can play it from the iCloud if Apple has a copy. If the music is not in Apple’s catalog, it is uploaded from iTunes on a user’s Mac or PC so it won’t take up space on a user’s devices.

Apple Music uses an intelligent search engine to help users find the music they are seeking. It remembers whether users are looking in their local music library or in the Apple Music library, so they get results from the place they expect. Users can also browse music they’ve previously looked for, and they can see what searches are trending.

Apple Music members can easily add tracks, albums or videos from the Apple Music library once they find it in search. Members can then also create personalized playlists from music they’ve added to their collections. Music can also be saved for offline listening on the road. Users can post your favorites to Facebook, Twitter or Messages.

When users tell Apple Music about the kinds of music they enjoy, the service “learns” those preferences and provides additional suggestions based on that information. Users can inform Apple Music about music genres and bands they prefer, as well as the ones they don’t like, to help build future recommendations. Tap the artist icons (pictured) to train Apple Music.

A key new feature of Apple Music is that experts around world will curate the music and help create perfect playlists for users based on their preferences. A special “For You” section in Apple Music brings those selections together. The expert curators include “Rolling Stone” magazine, “XXL” magazine, Pitchfork, The Grand Ole Opry and others.

The new online Beats 1 live radio streaming service will include on-air personalities spinning songs and exploring new music with listeners. The 24/7 Beats 1 streaming radio show will be led by influential DJs Zane Lowe in Los Angeles, Ebro Darden in New York and Julie Adenuga in London, with the programming broadcast around the globe at the same time.

Apple Music will initially be available to Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod users once they upgrade to the latest iOS 8.4 operating system, as well as to Windows users of iTunes. By the fall, it will also be available to Apple TV and Android users. Apple Watch users can access the service as well. Members can use the service on any or all of these devices under their membership.

The Connect feature in Apple Music lets artists and fans communicate with one another directly in Apple Music. Through Connect, artists can share on-the-road experiences, lyrics, backstage photos and videos or release their latest songs directly to fans from an iPhone, while fans can comment or interact with artists through social media platforms.