New Apple Music in-app banner notifications alert users to new releases

Apple on Thursday rolled out a new Apple Music feature that notifies users of new releases directly in the app's Library tab, exposing listeners to the latest albums, tracks and videos from their favorite artists.

The feature, which is currently rolling out to Apple Music subscribers, is accessible via a pop-up page that asks users to enable notifications for updates about new music releases.

"See new music from artists you like," the page reads.

Users can elect to turn the feature on from the pop-up page or dive into Apple Music settings.

To manually enable the feature, navigate to "Notifications" in account settings, located in the For You tab, and turn on alerts for new music. A sub-menu offers a new setting to show notifications in the Library tab.

With notifications enabled, users will see a large banner appear at the top of their screen when a preferred artist released a new track, album or video.

Apple Music has relied on push alerts to advertise new music for some time, but the feature can be spotty. Whether Apple updated its notification system backend to take advantage of the banner alert feature is unclear.

5 Comments

fastasleep 6451 comments · 14 Years

About 4 years ago

Geez, I was wondering if they'd ever get around to this. Currently in iTunes (still on Mojave, assume it's similar in Music on Catalina), you have to go to the For Me tab, then scroll to the BOTTOM to get the latest new releases from artists you already have in your Library. I didn't even know that was there for the longest time.

More recently, I started using Music Harbor which analyzes your Library and then presents you with all the new releases for your artists. It's free, with an IAP offering a few power user features. It's great, and guessing still possibly useful regardless:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/musicharbor-track-new-music/id1440405750

GeorgeBMac 11421 comments · 8 Years

About 4 years ago

I don't get it.

Apple only has a like button for songs, not artists. So how does it know which artists I like?

I hope they are not assuming that because I like one song from an artist that I like all songs from that artist? That would be dumb.

Actually, for me, a "like artist" button would be more useful than a "like song" button.

fastasleep 6451 comments · 14 Years

About 4 years ago

GeorgeBMac said:

I don't get it.
Apple only has a like button for songs, not artists. So how does it know which artists I like?

I hope they are not assuming that because I like one song from an artist that I like all songs from that artist? That would be dumb.

Actually, for me, a "like artist" button would be more useful than a "like song" button.

fastasleep 6451 comments · 14 Years

About 4 years ago

GeorgeBMac said:

I don't get it.
Apple only has a like button for songs, not artists. So how does it know which artists I like?

I hope they are not assuming that because I like one song from an artist that I like all songs from that artist? That would be dumb.

Actually, for me, a "like artist" button would be more useful than a "like song" button.

You can Love an album, too. Maybe it only partially uses that data, or not at at all, and just uses your library for guidance? Regardless, it just lets you know new stuff is out, no big deal. Turn it off if you don't like it.

jaredt 1 comment · 4 Years

About 4 years ago

I ended up building my own solution to solve this problem. https://www.musictaco.co.uk lets you track artists and it will email you as soon as a new release comes out. The upside is there is no inference (ie. you can't "like" an artist in Apple Music, only an album), you track exactly who you want to track.