While pricing remains competitive between streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, each platform offers unique features.Spotify excels with curated playlists, a free ad-supported tier, and integrated audiobooks and podcasts. Apple Music integrates tightly within the Apple ecosystem, offering lossless playback and spatial audio capabilities. The upcoming iOS 26 will introduce features designed to enhance the user experience, focusing on improved transitions and accessibility for singing along.

New Design and Lyric Features in iOS 26

iOS 26 brings visual and functional enhancements to the music app. The lock screen now features an expanded album art view that fills the entire display, complete with subtle animations. The app interface adopts a “Liquid Glass” design, streamlining the controls at the bottom of the screen.

“iOS 26 makes some cosmetic improvements in the music app… Of course,the new ‘Liquid Glass’ design is used within the app.”

the “Live Lyrics” feature, already available for many songs, will now include translations. Additionally, the new “Lyrics Pronunciation” feature will help users understand the pronunciation of lyrics in different languages, making it easier to sing along.

Apple is also expanding its karaoke features for Apple TV, allowing multiple iPhones to be paired as microphones.

Automix and Enhanced Playback

Apple Music Replay is now integrated directly into the app, eliminating the need for a separate web view to access listening statistics. Users can pin favorite artists, albums, and playlists for quick access. The new Automix feature uses time-stretching and beatmatching to create seamless transitions between songs, similar to a professional DJ set. This feature is optional and can be disabled in favor of crossfade or no transitions at all.