What happened to Music on MacOS

By PaulMartz, 18 March, 2025

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Did Apple somehow change the interface to the Music app without me updating the software on my Mac?

I used to be able to search for an artist or album, and there were radio buttons that let me control whether I was searching Apple Music or my local library. Now, those radio buttons are gone, and I can only search my local Library. What did I do? I could search Apple Music just fine a couple of weeks ago. Anyone else running into this?

Options

Comments

By PaulMartz on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 23:24

Let me give you an example of what I'm doing, what I'm expecting, and what I'm getting instead.

  • In the Music app, press Command+F.
  • Enter the name of a band that's not in my library, e.g., The Osmonds, and press enter.
  • Stop interacting with the sidebar and navigate right.

Expected result: I should find the web content. Within that web content, I should find a list of albums by The Osmonds, play samples, buy the album, etc.

Observed behavior: I don't find the web content. Instead, I only find a message that says, "No results for The Osmonds in your library."

In another example, I search for a band that I actually have, such as Geese. When I stop interacting with the sidebar and navigate right, I find a scroll area, but no web content. Within the scroll area, I find lists for artist, album, and song, and they all correspond to the one Geese album I have, projector. There are no options to get other Geese albums or songs from Apple Music.

Like I said in the original post. I haven't updated any software lately, so it's strange to see such a radical change to the Music app interface.

By Bruce Harrell on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 23:24

I believe SIRI can display in a format you can use, or if you just want to listen to music by a certain band, you can ask SIRI to play their music, and from there in the music app you should be able to get into that band's list of music, fromwhich you can add to play lists etc.

Good luck,

Bruce

By PaulMartz on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 23:24

In Music, I went to the Account menu and selected Join Apple Music. Then I declined the Apple Music free trial. After that, my old interface is restored and everything works as it should again.

Absolutely crazy.

By Dennis Long on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 23:24

It was down earlier says macrumors.

By PaulMartz on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 23:24

Thanks Dennis. I would have expected a more informative error message, but perhaps I expect too much.