iOS 17 Music App Features: Crossfade, Collaborative Playlists, Song Credits and More

Apple Music in iOS 17 includes several long-requested features, such as collaborative playlists and an option to enable crossfade for a non-stop music experience. This guide highlights everything new that Apple added to the ‌Apple Music‌ app in iOS 17.

iOS 17 Apple Music Feature

Crossfade

Crossfade allows songs that are playing to smoothly transition into one another, eliminating any dead air time between songs.

apple music crossfade length

Collaborative Playlists

With collaborative playlists, friends and family members can add to, reorder, and remove songs from a single ‌Apple Music‌ playlist. You can set up a playlist with several people, and each person can contribute songs and react to songs in the playlist with emoji.

apple music collaborative playlist
Collaborative playlists are not yet implemented and will be coming to an iOS 17 update a bit later this year.

Apple Music SharePlay for CarPlay

iOS 17 brings an ‌Apple Music‌ SharePlay experience to CarPlay, so everyone in the car can play their favorite songs and contribute music. The car owner that has their iPhone connected to the car needs to have an ‌Apple Music‌ subscription for this feature to work, but passengers do not.

shareplay carplay
The ‌Apple Music‌ interface provides a QR code that each person can scan to get access to a playlist where songs can be added to the in-car ‌Apple Music‌ queue.

Interface Updates

Full-screen animated artwork is available for albums that support the option, and album art is also now designed to blend seamlessly into the music player where the controls are located.

apple music ios 17
When the music player is minimized, there is now a hovering effect that adds depth.

Non-synced Lyrics

Song lyrics that are not synced to the music that's playing are shown in a larger, more legible font. This brings the lyric size in line with the lyrics that are synced to an ‌Apple Music‌ song.

Song Credits

Tapping on the three-dot icon next to a song that is playing or in a playlist shows song credits. The credits show the performing artists, composition artists, and those who were involved in production and engineering.

song credits apple music

Apple Music Sing on Apple TV

With an ‌iPhone‌ running iOS 17 and an Apple TV 4K running tvOS 17, the ‌iPhone‌ can serve as a camera for the ‌Apple TV‌, showing you on the screen as you perform. You can also do this with an iPad, and it is the same feature that enables FaceTime on ‌Apple TV‌.

apple music sing continuity camera
‌Apple Music‌ Sing is integrated into ‌Apple Music‌. It uses the built-in follow-along lyrics and turns down vocals so you can sing along with your favorite songs.

Read More

More on all of the new features in iOS 17 can be found in our in-depth iOS 17 roundup.

Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.4 and iOS 27 Features Revealed in New Leak

Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28. The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Apple Logo Top Half

Early iOS 26 Software Leak Uncovers Dozens of Upcoming Apple Features

Monday December 15, 2025 3:05 pm PST by
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code. In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
apple beta 26 lineup

Apple Leak Confirms Work on Foldable iPhone, AirTag 2, and Dozens More Devices

Monday December 15, 2025 2:05 pm PST by
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak. As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Leak Reveals Foldable iPhone Details

Monday December 15, 2025 9:09 am PST by
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station. According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
iOS 26

iOS 26.3 Beta 1 Features: What's New So Far

Monday December 15, 2025 4:23 pm PST by
Apple is testing iOS 26.3, the next version of iOS 26 that will launch around January. Since iOS 26.3's testing is happening over the holidays, it is a smaller update with fewer features than we've seen in prior betas. We've rounded up what's new so far, and we'll add to our list with subsequent betas if we come across any other features. Transfer to Android Apple is making it simpler...
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.2 With Alarms for Reminders, Lock Screen Changes, Enhanced Safety Alerts and More

Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. ‌iOS 26‌.2 is compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation ‌iPhone‌ SE. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features on Your iPhone

Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon. Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week. iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
airpods max 2024 colors

AirPods Max 2 Likely to Offer These 10 New Features

Monday December 15, 2025 7:41 am PST by
Apple released the AirPods Max on December 15, 2020, meaning the over-ear headphones launched five years ago today. While the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port and new color options last year, followed by support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio this year, the headphones lack some of the features that have been introduced for newer generations of the regular AirPods and the ...

Top Rated Comments

Wilson1313 Avatar
30 months ago
Still an atrocious interface. Needs a ground-up UI redesign.

Edit: Reasons why (no particular order)

* Adding to library or playlist should be a one-click action vs needing to click the 3 dot menu
* No device handoff or memory for last playing if app is restarted
* Random glitches and stability issues (such as now playing not always reflecting current song playing)
* Song radios repeating songs and not as good at curating as Spotify
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
eicca Avatar
30 months ago
But: did they fix the bug where music copied from my computer shows up as each track being its own album?

That bug has been there for SIX YEARS NOW.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AJTC Avatar
30 months ago

Still an atrocious interface. Needs a ground-up UI redesign.

Edit: Reasons why (no particular order)

* Adding to library or playlist should be a one-click action vs needing to click the 3 dot menu
* No device handoff or memory for last playing if app is restarted
* Random glitches and stability issues (such as now playing not always reflecting current song playing)
* Song radios repeating songs and not as good at curating as Spotify

I’d add in that the Listen Now, Browse and Search needs to be faster/native instead of a web app wrapped in an app container. Those tabs are so slow compared to Spotify.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lazyrighteye Avatar
30 months ago
Song Credits!
I’ll have to see it in action, but it’s a step toward complete liner notes that include all musicians, instruments played, producer, studio, etc. Can go a long way toward facilitating deeper connection to the music. Has been my main request of the platform. Excited to finally see some attention in that regard.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dynAdZ Avatar
30 months ago
While these are decent features, what the app really needs is a complete rework from scratch. It should get a whole new UI and coding framework to make it at least as fast and stable as Spotify‘s app is. It is hard to believe how fast you can navigate and search in Spotify compared to Apple Music. They really should start all over.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cgs1xx Avatar
30 months ago
how many years till we get an equalizer? :rolleyes::rolleyes:
come on Apple... you can do it!

Also I'd love to be able to switch off anything "curated" like Listen Now, Radio, Browse etc
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)