iOS 18 Apple Music App to Get Smarter Song Transitions

[MacRumors]

With iOS 18 and macOS 15, the Apple Music app will gain smarter song transitions, reports AppleInsider. Apple is reportedly testing a new feature called "smart song transitions" that would be an improvement to the current crossfade option that comes into play when transitioning from one song to the next.

With smart song transitions, Apple Music users will be able to adjust the crossfade duration from 1 to 12 seconds. As it stands, crossfade bridges the gap between songs by lowering the volume of the song that's ending while increasing the volume of the new song, creating a successful transition without the music ever coming to an end.

AppleInsider says that Apple is also working on a new feature called "Passthrough" for Apple Music and QuickTime Player, but there is no information on what this feature is. The site suggests that it is related to Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos.

Similarly, Apple is said to be working on a "Spatial Gaming" feature internally, but there are also no details on what this might be.

iOS 18 is set to be unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference that will kick off on Monday, June 10.

Article Link: iOS 18 Apple Music App to Get Smarter Song Transitions

 

[california_kid]

The MacOS app really needs to automatically switch sampling rate playback for lossless files.

 

[bradjames83]

Customisable. The word you’re looking for is “customisable”, not smart. 😂

 

[Slix]

Ever since I learned that some albums have songs that transition into the next song seamlessly, I turned off crossfade, probably 14 years ago or so.

 

[Andres Cantu]

Customisable. The word you’re looking for is “customisable”, not smart. 😂

Yup, smart would be if it used AI to know how long the end of the song takes, like how some songs have no sound for a couple of seconds.

 

[iObama]

I really wish they'd let us link songs during shuffle, for instance when a track has a separate intro track. There's a way to do it in desktop Apple Music, but it's kinda complicated and doesn't work on mobile.

 

[anthogag]

Apple Music needs to give the user the ability to change the order of songs in Library -> Songs. For example, if I add a classical music work that has several movements I have to add them backwards to get the right order in "Songs". Note: if I choose "recently Added" as sort order

 

[JonathanParker]

Hoping for some sort of algorithm change or "AI" features in music like generating a playlist with "AI"—my suggestions, station, etc. are full of songs I don't like at all

 

[Cirillo Gherardo]

Customisable. The word you’re looking for is “customisable”, not smart. 😂

Right, that doesn't sound particularly smart. A Smart transition would be able to analyze the music and do an appropriate type of cross fade or hard start depending on the start and end of the two songs.

 

[klasma]

Ever since I learned that some albums have songs that transition into the next song seamlessly, I turned off crossfade, probably 14 years ago or so.

Music players should really automatically recognize when tracks have no gap between them, or when songs of an album are played in sequence.

 

[klasma]

Yup, smart would be if it used AI to know how long the end of the song takes, like how some songs have no sound for a couple of seconds.

You don’t need AI for that.

 

[mrfunnypenguin]

They need to fix crossfade on the Mac app. It only works when streaming lossy and through the built-in speakers, which makes it kind of pointless. I think they have something like Smart Transitions on the Android app.

 

[ignatius345]

I tried crossfade when Apple Music added it as a feature and immediately found it made everything sound like a weird half-assed medley.

 

[mazz0]

I don’t get why you’d ever want this anyway. Most songs fade out so you’re not losing much at the end of one song, but surely you’re losing the first few notes of the next song, which are often quite impactful?

 

[johnnytravels]

All I need from this app is to stop deleting songs from my playlists when I delete these songs or their albums from my library.
It works the other way round and I don’t have to add songs to my library when I put them in playlists..

 

[ladodger5]

I really hope the passthrough feature is for dac's. Been asking for this for years.

 

[WB2Colorado]

I just want the iOS Apple Music app to have the automatic cross play setting that the Android app has had for years

 

[tomchr9]

How about removing the silly 24-bit/48kHz limit and support common sample rates of 96-192kHz which has been supported in DACs for the last 25 years?

 

[JippaLippa]

Is this a joke?!?
With all the requests from the community (yours truly included) and the promise of an AI Overhaul, is this all we can look forward to?!?

 

[IllegitimateValor]

At this point if they want to impress us, this AI-amped Apple Music they announce should perform generated key change transitions. Ad hoc DJ-grade.

 

[sjsharksfan12]

I recently moved away from AM to Spotify because AM doesn't work well on Android Auto. If it did, I probably would move back. I still don't like the Spotify interface and the simple fact of all they need to do on the Albums screen is just add a shuffle button. I really would just like to shuffle my entire library, which is something I've always done. With Spotify, I put it in a big playlist, but that is approaching 10,000 songs and I just want a way to shuffle everything together.

 

[Sowelu]

Wait, I had no idea that Crossfade has been added to the iOS Music App. It's been a missing basic (and expected) feature for years. I guess it was quietly added in a relatively recent update, or I've just not been paying close enough attention.

Speaking of the Music App, Crossfade still does not work via AirPlay and it's spotty with AirPods unless you kind of trick it by toggling the audio source on and off (not sure if this is due to running Boom as well). Music is also one of the most neglected apps on macOS, but I guess that's for another thread.

 

[antiprotest]

With smart song transitions, Apple Music users will be able to adjust the crossfade duration from 1 to 12 seconds.

We can do that now. What's the difference? Can someone explain?

 

[tomchr9]

What's next for iOS 18? Updated clock face for the Clock app? Oooooh, exiting stuff!

No, Wait. I guess, that would be "Apple is presently working on planning to consider testing a new clock face...or maybe just the clock hands"

 

[antiprotest]

Is this a joke?!?
With all the requests from the community (yours truly included) and the promise of an AI Overhaul, is this all we can look forward to?!?

Apple users will gaslight you that Apple will take their time to get things right and polished before releasing anything. Then, of course, when it is released it will be super buggy. 🤣