We all have the songs wehaveto sing along to—whether they pop upon the radio, astreaming playlist, or the Sonos speaker in the office bathroom, when that track hits your ears, you’re grabbing the imaginary mic。And now, ifyou have Apple Music, you actually have a free karaoke machine in your pocket at all times, thanks toApple Music Sing。
Apple Music Sing is anew, freefeature for Apple Music that workson iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV 4K. With it, you can turn any compatible song into a karaoke moment. It builds off the popularity of the services’real-time lyrics feature (which competingplatformslike Spotifyhave alsotaken on), andmakesApple Music feel like a sing-a-long app for you and your friends.
Apple Music Sing turns your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV into a karaoke machine
First, Apple has updated real-time lyrics to “dance to the rhythm of the vocals,” which is a fancy way of saying the app dynamically highlights each word as it’s sung. It’s a bit more helpful for following along than the previous real-time lyrics feature, which highlights a whole line at a time, but it’s really the smallest change here.
Sing also breaks up the lyrics for background vocals into their own animation, so you don’t get distracted trying to sing two simultaneous vocal streams at once. If you chose a song with multiple singers, lyrics for each singer appear on opposites sides of the display. So, in a duet, you don’t need to worry about singing the other person’s line.
What makes Apple Music Sing trulyinnovativeis how it gives youthe ability to adjust the volume of the vocals in your chosensong。你可以选择是否唱的iginal vocalsor reduce them to focus on your own voice. You can’t completelyeliminatethe lead vocals, but you can quiet them alot, which I think extends Apple Music Sing’s potential beyond karaoke. You can reduce the vocals on your favorite songs to better hear elements of the musicpreviously obscured by the lead singer, for example。I’m currently having a blast listening to some go-to songsin a new light, paying more attention to the instrumentation and overall production than the lyrics。
That said, the feature isn’t intended as a music education tool, so it isn’t perfect. Whatever process Apple uses to isolate vocals does have an impact on the audio quality,with audiblehiccups and glitches here and there. But it’s still a fun way to learn more about your fave tunes。And, of course, it excels at offeringtracksto sing along to.
Apple says “millions” of songs in their library are compatible with the feature, and,as Gizmodo reports, “80% of its songs will be released at launch.” You’ll also find songs to sing along to in one of 50 unique Apple Music Sing playlists. While I’m finding a lot of songs work, Carly Rae Jepsen’s “The Loneliest Time” isn’t compatible. Blasphemy, Apple.
How to use Apple Music Sing on Your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV 4K
Apple Music Sing isn’t available on all Apple devices, even those running the latest software versions, because of the computational power the feature requires. The following devices are compatible with Sing:
- iPhone 11 and later
- iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation and later)
- iPad Air (4th generation and later)
- iPad mini (6th generation)
- iPad (9th generation and later)
- Apple TV 4K (3rd generation)
The feature isnot available on theApple Music Voice plan(a bit ironic, Apple).
While you can try out Apple Music Sing today, you’ll need to installthe latest betaof iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, ortvOS 16.2 on your device。If you want to try out Sing, as well as the other features coming to these next versions of Apple’s software, right now,you canenroll your device in the Apple beta program。This latest beta is a release candidate, which meansit is more stable than other types of beta software. However, there are still risks to installing early software on your device, including data loss, so keep that in mind before installing 16.2. Apple will publicly release the software update sometime later this month, so you can always wait to try it.
Once your device is running 16.2, choose a song to play on Apple Music. If it’s compatible with Sing, you’ll see a new microphone icon appear in the lyrics. Tap it, and it turns into a mini volume slider, which you use to adjust the volume of the main vocals. If you ever want to turn Sing off, slide the slider to the top, or tap it.