iPhone: The Missing Manual, 9th Edition

Chapter 7. Songs, Videos & Apple Music

Of all the iPhone’s talents, its iPoddishness may be the most successful. This function, after all, gets the most impressive battery life (40 to 80 hours of playback, depending on the model). There’s enough room on your phone to store thousands of songs.

In iOS 9, the Music app got a huge makeover. Five tabs now greet you across the bottom: My Music, For You, New, Radio, and Connect.

Some of them are useful only if you’ve subscribed to Apple Music, Apple’s $10-a-month music service—but not all of them. iTunes Radio, for example, means that you’ll never run out of music to listen to—and you’ll never pay a penny for it.

Note

If you’re not interested in paying for an Apple Music subscription, you can hide the two tabs that you’ll never use (For You and New). To do that, tap For You; on the ad for Apple Music, tap No Thanks. Confirm by tapping Yes.

At this point, the For You and New tabs disappear—and a new tab, Playlists, takes their place. This is the Playlists screen described on Creating Playlists on the Phone—more easily accessible than before.

Incidentally, you can always restore the original set of tabs. Open Settings→Music and turn on Show Apple Music.

The bottom line: Your copy of the Music app might show you either of two different sets of tabs. Complicated? Yes. Anyway, this chapter is written as though you haven’t hidden the Apple Music tabs.

Apple Music

The Apple Music service, which debuted in 2015, is a rich stew of components. For $10 a ...