Apple Music basics - iPhone and iPad

Apple Music basics

This is a guide to starting using Apple Music with VoiceOver.

What is Apple Music?

Apple Music is a subscription service . For a monthly fee, currently £9.99, you have access to nearly all the music in Apple's iTunes store. This covers a huge range of music in most genres. There is a three month free trial to enable you to find out whether Apple Music is for you.

Music can either be streamed to your iPhone or iPad or it can be downloaded to your device for listening when you aren't within range of a network. Streaming plays music on your device directly over the internet so works only when you have an internet connection. You are licensing this service, so any music downloaded to your device will be removed if you cancel your subscription. If you have an Amazon Echo smart speaker your Apple Music account can be connected to this device, too. An Apple Music app for Android vies full access to Apple Music on Android phones and tablets but it is currently not possible to play Apple Music using a Google Home or Google Nest smart speaker.

A word about network use

You may have several ways of connecting your device to the internet. When your device is connected to your wireless network at home, then you probably have unlimited capacity to make regular use of Apple Music. Be aware, though, that a few internet service providers offer contracts that limit the total amount of data that you can download in each month over your home wifi network.

If you are an iPhone user then you also have access to the cellular 4G network on your phone when you are away from wifi. Some iPads also have cellular connections. Many cellular data deals have small monthly data limits so please be aware of this when using Apple Music to stream music over a cellular network. If your cellular data deal has a small monthly limit, certainly if it is less than 2 Gigabytes, I advise you to download music that you frequently listen to on to your iPhone over your wireless network in preparation for outdoor listening. If you are out and about and on a wireless network like Sky wifi, BT Internet, or even one provided in the bus you're travelling on, then use of that network is often unlimited and free, but the speed of the network may sometimes be inadequate to allow you to stream music.

Signing up:

Apple Music is a subscription service with a free trial period. If you’re already a proficient VoiceOver user then you will probably be able to sign up to Apple Music yourself using the Music app. If you’re not yet proficient with VoiceOver then I suggest that you get help to sign up and set your initial music preferences. When you first sign up for Apple Music, you’re asked what kinds of music you like and which performers you like and dislike so that Apple can begin to learn what kind of music to suggest for you. These notes assume that the initial setting up process is complete and that you are ready to use Apple Music.

Apple Music and Siri

Siri has been integrated with Apple Music quite well and you may find that it is rarely necessary to use the Apple Music app.

Here are some Siri commands that worked for me:

"Play Let it Be"

"Play music by Alan Barnes";

"Play new music by Alan Barnes";

"Play the Elgar Cello Concerto";

"Play new country and western music";

"Play new classical music";

"Play album Tubular Bells";

"Play music by The Beatles";

"Play piano duets by Schubert";

"Play music by Ed Shearan";

"Play nursery rhymes";

"Play latin playlist";

"Add this to playlist latin" - you can say this while the song is playing or immediately after it has finished playing;

"Download playlist latin";

"Love this" - this will tell Apple Music that you like the music you have just played or are playing and will help Apple to suggest relevant new music to you.;

Get started by listening to music Apple suggests for you:

As with all apps, Apple music will usually start just where you last left it.

Once you’ve opened the Music app listen for VoiceOver to announce where it has its focus.

If it’s close to the item you want, you can probably swipe left or right to land on the item you want to use. Otherwise, you should slide your finger over the screen to find the area of the screen you want.

Here’s a description of the Apple Music screen as it was in June 2021.

The main choices are tabs at the bottom of the screen.

They are spoken by VoiceOver as follows, starting at bottom left.

"Listen now, tab"

“browse, tab”

“radio, tab”

“library, tab”

“search, tab”

As always, once you’ve found one of these by sliding your finger around the bottom of the screen, you can swipe left or right to move between the tabs.

Each tab brings up a different aspect of Apple Music.

I suggest you start with the “listen now tab”, which brings up a screen of suggestions from Apple of music you might like to listen to.

Find the “listen now, tab” near bottom left of the screen and then double tap anywhere on the screen.

Now touch the screen near top left to hear and you will find the "top picks, heading" or something similar. Swipe right until you hear the first item that has been chosen for you. VoiceOver will read the name of the music item, followed by the word “button”. Buttons are items you can double tap to choose music.

The “Listen Now” screen often presents you first with playlists of music to select from. It may then moves on to individual albums. So, for example, you might hear:

“Timeless duets. When two voices combine the result is pure magic, button”

If you don’t fancy that one, just keep swiping right. Ignore any “collection of Albums” buttons for now and just use the buttons that speak something helpful. Swipe right and left to go forward and back through the list of suggestions and find a button you like the sound of. Now double tap to activate that item.

VoiceOver will open up the screen for that music and. Swipe right to hear items on the screen one by one.

Keep swiping right and listening until you get to the play button. Double tap and the music will start.

Once the music is playing it will continue playing to the end of the playlist or album until you double tap with two fingers. This pauses or restarts the music. Apple call the two finger double tap the magic tap, probably because it does several different jobs. When you are listening to music, the magic tap will always pause and resume playback.

When you’ve finished listening to the music, feel at the bottom left of the screen for the “for you, tab” and then double tap to return to your personalised selection of music. You can swipe through the buttons again to select something different and repeat the process.

I suggest that you practice using the “listen now” tab before moving on to some of the other features of Apple Music.

More advanced VoiceOver users will spot that there are several headings on the listen now page and will be able to set the rotor to headings and skip quickly through these headings.

Improving Apple Music's suggestions for you

Apple Music can be helped to find music you really like by "loving" tracks and albums you listen to.

Let's assume that you've started listening to some music you like. You can ask Siri to love the current music or music that just ended by saying "love this".

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