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Apple has announced a new feature for Apple Music that could make you a karaoke superstar.
The tech giant’s top music streaming service is getting an upgrade “later this month” with the launch of Apple Music Sing. This feature is coming to devices like the iPhone 14 and iPad Air (2022) for free as an update to the already existing Apple Music Lyrics tool for users around the world.
When it launches, you can not only follow the lyrics of a supported song in real time, but also with the launch of singing (opens in new tab) you can also control the volume of the vocal track. If you’re just starting to learn the words and melody of a piece, you can turn the vocals up to full volume; as you become more confident in your abilities, you can reject the performer until you completely eclipse them and make the performance your own.
Best of all, even with the vocals turned all the way down, the band is still playing behind you at full volume, and the optional backing of any backing singers.
Apple Music Sing isn’t just for songs with solo singers. You and a partner can play different duets – or by turning down one singer’s volume, you can play a virtual duet with your favorite singer.
However, while we wait for more details from Apple, it looks like there will be a few disappointing limitations to this nice-sounding feature, at least at launch.
For starters, you can’t completely mute the original vocal track. We don’t yet know how quiet you can make a singer, but we expect – and hope – it will be as quiet as possible; we look forward to trying out Apple Music Sing to find out.
Another issue is that since this is an extension of Apple Music Lyrics, we expect that songs that don’t currently support the feature won’t support Apple Music Sing either – and we expect that even the songs that do won’t all show up on Apple Music Sing right away.
Apple has said it will have enough songs to fill “50 special companion playlists” with a mix of duets, epic anthems and tear-jerking ballads for the launch of Apple Music Sing; just don’t expect every track in your library to be supported from the start.
Plus, if you’re someone who uses Apple Music on a non-Apple device — like this writer, who uses it on his Google Pixel 6 — it seems like this feature isn’t coming your way. That’s based on Apple’s press release, which says the feature is coming to “compatible iPhone and iPad models and the new Apple TV 4K” – no other devices are listed.
Hopefully these restrictions won’t be in place for too long and more users will be able to pull out some of their favorite bangers.
Are you considering switching to Apple Music after this announcement? Check out our Apple Music vs Spotify guide to find out which service is better for you.