Apple Music is adding a new tool for music lovers later this month called Apple Music Sing, which turns an Apple device into a karaoke machine. Though Apple Music competes heavily with other music streaming services in a few key areas, one way Apple’s offering impresses is through real-time lyrics. While users are listening to a song with lyrics in Apple Music’s database, they can view the lyrics in real-time as they are heard in the track. Tapping a past or future lyric automatically jumps the user to that place in the song, making it easy to find a user’s favorite part in a song or to hear a line over again.
Apple Music’s current lyric experience might sound like it could be used for karaoke already, but even though the feature allows users to view the lyrics in real time, the words are shown in groups. Usually, Apple Music will show the now-playing lyrics as a singular line, not as individual words. Knowing the timing of specific words is crucial when trying to sing along to a song. This allows singers to learn when to sing each word, how long to sustain the notes, and the cadence of each line. As such, using Apple Music as a karaoke machine requires more features than are currently included in the streaming service.
Apple Music Sing is a robust karaoke mode for the company’s streaming service that offers adjustable vocals and real-time lyrics. The feature will be available later this month to Apple Music subscribers worldwide but will be limited to Apple devices. While Apple Music has a web client and an Android app, the company says Apple Music Sing will be available on iPhone, iPad, and the new Apple TV 4K. It’s unclear why the feature is limited to only the latest Apple TV model, but that might be because of its processing package. Launched in Oct. 2022, the Apple TV 4K packs an A15 Bionic processor, a big from an A12 Bionic chip found on the prior model.
How Apple Music Sing Helps You Sing Better
Apple Music Sing packs a few neat features to help users jam to their favorite songs. The mode’s real-time lyrics get more advanced, showing the rhythm and cadence of the lyrics. Apple says that when reading the lyrics to a support song, the words will ‘dance’ to the rhythm of the vocals, making it easy to sing along. Users can also control the song’s vocal levels separately from the rest of the track, which is important when they’ve mastered a song. However, Apple does not allow users to remove vocals from a song completely — the volume can only be decreased.
The karaoke mode also facilitates fun with friends and family through duet view and background vocals. In duet view, Apple Music Sing shows multiple vocalists on opposite sides of the screen on songs with more than one lead vocalist. Songs with key backing vocals will show animations for those lyrics separately from the lead vocals, but Apple Music Sing shows the backing lyrics simultaneously with the main lyrics. To help users find the songs best optimized for Apple Music Sing, the company is adding over 50 playlists featuring those tracks. Apple Music Sing is available on all Apple Music plans, except for the Voice Plan, beginning later this month.
