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After a big update to Apple Music with iOS 26, with the latest batch of features arriving in iOS 26.4, Apple took a step back from upgrading the streaming service in iOS 27. After the WWDC 2026 keynote, the company revealed a few tweaks, and developers have discovered other minor changes in the first iOS 27 beta. The new Apple Music features in iOS 27 are all about new artist pages, songs starting faster, and a few tweaks to the Liquid Glass UI.

Not long ago, BGR wrote about several disadvantages Apple Music subscribers face, expecting that some of those would be addressed with this upcoming software update. However, the cross-platform experience continues to be inconsistent, the service lacks social features, and it's still difficult to tell how popular an artist or their songs actually are on Apple Music. That said, iOS 27 doesn't ignore the music streaming service entirely.

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Following a big design revamp in iOS 26 and a completely new UI for playlists and albums, Apple has now redesigned artist pages on Apple Music. In iOS 27, select artists will have a custom font for their names. Some of these artists include Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, and Lady Gaga. It's unclear if artists need to update this manually or if Apple is testing out the new feature with its most notable artists. There's also a larger play button on the artist page, and if you tap it, it will play their top songs. There's also a banner highlighting the artist's latest release.

The second big change is Siri AI support. With the all-new AI-powered assistant, users can ask Siri about an artist, learn more about a song, or tell Siri to play a song that a friend recommended in a text a few weeks ago. The personal assistant isn't able to replicate the Playlist Playground feature, which is still limited to the U.S.

iOS 27 also brings some visual refreshes to Apple Music. For instance, some buttons react differently when you press and hold them by bringing up hidden menus. The design has also been improved, and users can now decide between a more translucent or tinted experience. Still, the experience remains fairly unchanged, as Apple is more focused on bug fixes and stability.

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Apple also mentioned at WWDC that Apple Music would be gaining new AutoMix transitions and improved reliability for streaming. AutoMix is a feature introduced with iOS 26 and basically works like a smart DJ, which should have been an improvement over Crossfade. Basically, AutoMix brings a more dynamic transition between songs.

However, if you don't listen to house, techno, and pop music, this feature might not be for you, as it tries to transition between every song, so you won't hear the end of your favorite songs as often. Even though Apple says iOS 27 adds new transitions, which should improve how it handles different genres, the experience still seems to be mostly the same in the first beta.

Perhaps the most important improvement to Apple Music in iOS 27 is more reliable streaming. With this software update, Apple's number one goal is to make everything work better and faster: Opening apps, using AirDrop, downloading a photo — Apple wants to eliminate as much friction as possible. It's only natural that tapping a song in Apple Music and having it play instantly is also part of that change. While I never had issues with the reliability of my Apple Music stream, many people have complained about the service feeling sluggish and unresponsive in the past.