Apple Music is already two years old, but it’s still one of the youngest music streaming services out there.
Because of that, there remain many hidden features and tricks inside the app that a casual user may not notice.
For instance, did you know that you can turn off the shuffle feature when listening to an album? Or that you can sing along to your favorite songs with in-app lyrics?
Below are 13 tips and tricks to help you make the most of your Apple Music subscription.
1. Customize your library
By clicking the “Edit” button in the upper right-hand corner, you can alter what tabs appear in your library. If you listen to a lot of classical music, for example, you can add a “Composers” tab to keep your music organized. If you prefer to sort your music by genre, there’s a tab for that too.
If you want to change the order the tabs appear in your library, clicking and dragging on the hamburger menu button will move a tab up or down.
2. Keep Apple up-to-date on what type of music you like
Your "For You" tab displays your "New Music Mix" playlist, along with music you've been listening to lately and albums or playlists Apple thinks you might like. But if the music Apple is serving you isn't a perfect fit, there's an easy way to let Apple know.
If you click on your profile button, you'll see the "Find More Artists and Curators" tab. You probably remember this screen from when you first signed up for Apple Music. But it's worth going back later and putting in some more preferences.
If there's an artist that doesn't pop up in one of the bubbles, you can click either "More Artists" or "Add an Artist" to find who you're looking for.
3. Use the "Love" and "Dislike" buttons to help Apple figure out your musical tastes
If you're listening to an album and you have strong feelings about it, you can define your preferences even further with the "Love" and "Dislike" buttons. Simply click the menu button and the buttons should appear at the bottom of your screen. Apple stores that information to help create your customized playlists and recommended albums.
4. Give feedback on a radio station
Radio stations on Apple Music use a different rating symbol than individual songs an albums - a star. By clicking the star, you can let Apple know what you'd like to hear more and less of in your radio station, which will hopefully improve it in real time.
5. Turn off shuffle (or turn on repeat)
Apple Music seems to default to shuffle mode for albums, which is not ideal for those who like to listen to songs in the order the artist intended. Unfortunately, changing that feature has long been elusive for Apple Music users: You have to swipe up on the screen in order to reveal the "Shuffle" button.
There's also a "Repeat" button if you're in the mood to hear one particular song over and over.
6. Display the lyrics to songs
By clicking the menu button while playing a song, you'll see the option to view the lyrics.
Apple Music will display the full lyrics to the song so you can sing along while it plays.
7. Add a photo to your playlist
Apple usually picks cool cover art for its own playlists, and you don't have to be left out of the fun. When you create your own playlist, you can take a photo or add one from your library to serve as the thumbnail.
8. Share your killer playlists with your friends
Once you've put together the ultimate summer playlist, there's no reason others shouldn't enjoy it. You can share the playlist with friends using AirDrop, iMessage, Facebook, Twitter, and more.
9. Use Apple Music songs to wake up in the morning
When you create a new alarm on your iPhone, you have the option to pick one of several Apple ringtones. But you can also pick a song from your Apple Music library to wake you up in the morning.
One thing to note: The song can't be a random track from an Apple Music playlist — it has to be something you've already added to your library.
10. Download music to your phone for when you don't have an internet connection
This might be an obvious one, but it's crucially important for traveling or the times you've exceeded your data limit: You can save whole albums or individual songs to your phone by first adding them to your library, then hitting download.
It depends on how much you're downloading and what your internet speed is like, but it should only take a few minutes to get a full album onto your phone.
11. Set up automatic downloads
If you go into Apple Music in your settings, you'll see the option to set up automatic downloads. This means that every time you add music to your library, it will automatically download to your phone for offline listening. This is a handy feature that saves you a click.
12. Optimize your storage to save space
If you're someone who downloads a lot of music or doesn't have a lot of space on your phone, you might want to set up storage optimization in your settings. If you're starting to run out of room, Apple Music will automatically remove music you haven't listened to recently. You can choose to keep up to 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, or 16 GB worth of music on your phone (about 400, 800, 1,600, and 3,200 songs, respectively).
13. Change the equalizer to enhance your sound
The equalizer, or EQ, option probably isn't something you've played around with before, but it might be worth testing out. EQ alters the frequency of the sound, adjusting things like the bass and treble. Apple offers 23 different EQ settings based on different genres like hip hop, jazz, and classical, plus settings like bass booster, flat, and deep. If you mainly listen to one genre, it might be worth playing around with the equalizer to get the most out of your listening experience.