# Apple Music reviews: what users love, hate and want

> Loved for sound and catalog, but icon swap and vanishing songs are angering people.

- App: Apple Music by Apple Inc. (Music, iOS)
- App Store page: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apple-music/id1108187390?uo=4
- Source: Apple App Store, United States store. The 500 most recent public reviews, written Oct 18 – Oct 31, 2026.
- Satisfaction score: 72/100 (how happy recent reviewers are; 0 = unhappy, 100 = delighted)
- Recent average: 4.1 stars. 19% of these reviews gave 1 or 2 stars.
- App Store rating: 4.9 stars from 3,236,108 ratings
- First published: 2026-11-01. Last updated: 2026-11-01.
- Canonical page: https://synthiya.ai/r/apple-music

## What users love

1. **Huge catalog, finds nearly any song** (15 mentions). Quote: "Every song that I look for is on Apple Music."
2. **No ads, unlike Spotify and YouTube** (12 mentions). Quote: "I love Apple Music because there's no ads like Spotify or YouTube"
3. **Clear, high-quality sound** (10 mentions). Quote: "The sound is clear as water"
4. **Clean, easy-to-navigate interface** (7 mentions). Quote: "The interface is so much cleaner."

## What users hate

1. **Red icon swapped for black and white** (25 mentions). Quote: "Bring back the RED app icon!"
2. **Downloaded songs vanish or won't play** (12 mentions). Quote: "all my downloaded songs are gone"
3. **Price keeps climbing** (12 mentions). Quote: "Started 1.99 and now it is 11.99 a month"
4. **Recommendations and autoplay feel random** (12 mentions). Quote: "the algorithm is still really really really unusable"
5. **Crashes, freezes, and auto-skipping** (8 mentions). Quote: "it just automatically starts skipping and running through a list of 100 other songs"

## What users want

1. **Restore red icon or offer icon choices** (22 mentions). Quote: "Can you give us maybe 5 choices of what kind of app icon"
2. **Free or ad-supported tier** (5 mentions). Quote: "I just think there should be a free version with ads"
3. **Block artists and genres from recommendations** (4 mentions). Quote: "I should be able to block artists that I don't want to hear"
4. **Download whole library in one click** (3 mentions). Quote: "download your whole music library in one click"
5. **Bulk delete downloads or duplicates** (2 mentions). Quote: "Selecting each one you want to remove and deleting them all at once!"

## Why people say they are leaving

- Switching to Spotify or Amazon Music after bugs or algorithm complaints
- Songs deleted from playlists and libraries, so users cancel
- Deleting and reinstalling the app every few months due to technical issues

## What to fix first

Restore the red icon or offer icon choices, and stop songs disappearing from libraries.

## Opportunity for a competitor

Build a cheap, ad-supported tier with a stable offline library, artist and genre blocking, and icon choice. Target Apple Music defectors.

## Rating by app version

| Version | Average stars | Reviews |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 3.8 | 4.17 | 323 |
| 3.18 | 3.85 | 177 |

## Quick answers

### What do users like most about Apple Music?

Users like “Huge catalog, finds nearly any song” the most. 15 reviews mention it. They also praise “No ads, unlike Spotify and YouTube” and “Clear, high-quality sound”.

### What are the biggest complaints about Apple Music?

The top complaint is “Red icon swapped for black and white”. 25 reviews mention it. Users also complain about “Downloaded songs vanish or won't play” and “Price keeps climbing”. Of the 500 reviews we read, 19% gave 1 or 2 stars.

### What features do Apple Music users want?

The top request is “Restore red icon or offer icon choices”. 22 reviews mention it. Users also ask for “Free or ad-supported tier” and “Block artists and genres from recommendations”.

### Why do people stop using Apple Music?

The main reason people give is “Switching to Spotify or Amazon Music after bugs or algorithm complaints”. Others point to “Songs deleted from playlists and libraries, so users cancel” and “Deleting and reinstalling the app every few months due to technical issues”.

### Is Apple Music worth it, according to reviews?

Mostly yes. Recent reviews give it 4.1 stars on average, and it scores 72 out of 100 for satisfaction. Its overall App Store rating is 4.9 stars from 3,236,108 ratings.

### What should Apple Music fix first?

Based on the reviews, our teardown says: Restore the red icon or offer icon choices, and stop songs disappearing from libraries.

## About this teardown

Synthiya read the 500 newest public reviews of Apple Music on the App Store in the United States and summed up what people say. Each point comes with a real quote. Mention counts are estimates. How we make teardowns: https://synthiya.ai/methodology

Cite as: Synthiya. “Apple Music reviews: what users love, hate and want.” Updated Nov 1, 2026. https://synthiya.ai/r/apple-music