How to use Apple Music's new mood playlists

Playlists can't be found by a direct search, but they can be shown in a list

Alongside the Apple Music Voice Plan, Apple has introduced a huge number of curated playlists, each intended to be called upon to reflect a listener's mood. Here's how to find and use them.

During the "Unleashed" event, Zane Lowe unveiled these playlists, saying they were built for the Apple Music Voice Plan. Users on that lower $4.99/month tier are meant to ask Siri to play a playlist related to whatever they're doing, or however they're feeling.

None of these playlists is actually available by searching within the Apple Music app. They are exclusively found by asking for them, but users on the individual and family Apple Music tiers have the same access to them all.

You just have to find them.

How to find Apple Music's new playlists

Apple seems to genuinely want you to find these playlists when you are in the moment, when you need to do something. So try calling out, "Hey, Siri, play a playlist for when I'm concentrating," and Apple Music will play its new "Focusing" playlist.

Quite often, asking for something gets you a playlist. Other times, you can't be entirely sure whether Siri has got it right or not.

For instance, if you ask for a "playlist while I play golf," you may get a solid gold hits station.

Most often, though, if Siri hasn't understood, or there isn't a playlist for what you wanted, it will say: "What playlist would you like to play?"

The only problem is that sometimes it will gets stuck asking you that over and over again. If you have a HomePod or HomePod mini, you can tap the top control to stop it

There is a Music by Mood section in Apple Music, under the Browse tab, but really the only way to explore the new playlists is by finding them individually.

L-R: drilling down through the MacStories Shortcut to find a playlist

Finding playlists so you don't have to

MacStories spent a fun night finding the new playlists individually. So far the site has found over 250 of them, too.

Which means that for a list of all those found to date, you can read the MacStories guide.

If you are an Apple Music Voice Plan user, that list is the best you can get. If you're on the other tiers, though, you can do more. The site also presents the list as a downloadable Shortcut, which means you can tap through it, narrowing down your selection as you go.