Apple Music has improved dramatically since its first release in 2015, but there’s still a lot to do. There are two long-awaited features Apple hopes to add to Apple Music in 2023. Both are already provided by Spotify.
Apple Music Crossfade on iPhone and iPad
One of Apple Music’s obvious omissions on iPhone and iPad is crossfade support. This feature has been around for years, dating back to the days of the iPod. But for some strange reason, crossfade has yet to make its way into his Apple Music experience on his iPhone.
Crossfade is a feature that allows a song to fade in (gradual increase in volume) while the previous song fades out. This prevents gaps of silence between songs. In general, the app also allows you to adjust the length of the song crossfade. For example, on Mac you can set the crossfade from 1 second to 12 seconds.
What makes this omission even more bizarre is that Apple Music crossfades are available for Mac and Android devices. Why didn’t Apple extend this feature to the iPhone and iPad? We hope this is something that will be finally addressed in 2023.
Spotify Connect style features
Spotify Connect is a feature that Spotify has offered for years that allows you to use one device to remotely control listening on another. For example, you can listen on your Mac and use your iPhone to control playback.
Apple Music offers similar functionality for HomePod playback, but currently other devices do not support such functionality. In an ideal world, Apple Music could be controlled on all devices regardless of where the playback actually took place.

For example, I imagine a world where I can play Apple Music on my Mac and control the playback from my Apple Watch or iPhone. Currently this is not possible. If you’re listening on your Mac, the only way to control its playback is from your Mac.
It seems that the basis for such functionality already exists with Apple’s Handoff and AirPlay technologies. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen this extended to more parts of the Apple Music experience.
What’s on your Apple Music Wishlist?
There are many other ways you can improve your Apple Music experience. Most notably, this includes significant upgrades to the performance, reliability, and navigation of Apple’s Music app across all platforms.
We are also waiting for the release of the Apple Music Classical app, which Apple has promised to release by the end of 2022.
What’s on your Apple Music wish list for 2023? Let us know in the comments.
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