Apple Music Gains Better Organization of Releases on Artist Pages

In an update rolled out last night following the release of global top charts, Apple redesigned artist pages on Apple Music with separation of different kinds of music releases.

While the old artist page design of Apple Music mixed albums, singles, EPs, live albums, and more under the same ‘Albums’ section, the new Apple Music features separate sections for different types of music releases. The new sections include singles and EPs, live albums, essential albums recommended by Apple Music editors, compilations, and appearances by an artist on other albums. As pictured above, Apple Music now also highlights an artist’s latest or upcoming release at the top of the page.

Separation between albums and other releases isn’t a new idea. Beats Music, the streaming service Apple acquired in 2014 and subsequently relaunched as Apple Music in 2015, featured separate views for albums, EPs, and compilations. Three years after its relaunch, it appears Apple has implemented most of Beats Music’s organization of artist releases, which was arguably one of the original service’s most useful and innovative functionalities.

The new artist page design is live for the vast majority of artists on Apple Music (see: Oasis, Death Cab for Cutie, Coheed and Cambria, CHVRCHES).

I’d still like to see better grouping options for different editions of the same album: while Beats Music used to group explicit, remastered, and re-issued albums under a single sub-section, these versions aren’t grouped by Apple Music yet. I also think remixes should gain their own dedicated section. Overall though, as someone who’s been waiting for Beats Music’s several design details to make it to Apple Music, I’m surprised by the quiet rollout of this feature, which I believe substantially improves the experience of browsing an artist’s back catalogue.