5 Apple Music tricks that help me get the most out of my $11 subscription fee

But I've been enjoying Apple Music's better audio, radio stations, and the organizational aspects of it. Probably largely because I came from using iTunes, I had some ways that I knew I preferred when it came to setting up the library. But here are some tips I use to keep my Apple Music apps organized.

Pin playlists and more to your home screen

Make them more accessible

Depending on the configuration of your computer / phone, this may not be available to you. This is a new feature in iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe. Not every Apple device qualifies for these OS updates.

One of the newest updates on iOS 26 has been the ability to pin different things to your home screen in Apple Music. This has been a game-changer for remembering what you've been listening to lately. If I'm interested in a new artist that I found through a playlist, hearing them on the radio in the car, or just through the grapevine, I can search them in the app and click on the three dot menu at the top of the page. Pin playlist is one of the options right there.

This also works for artists and albums. You only get six pins for your home screen, so it's important to consider what mix of things you want to do. If you're like me and don't just listen to the same kind of music all the time, it's important to rotate them or at least have a diverse array of music pinned. This helps keep your music tastes fresh and lets you stop dealing with having to search the same playlists over and over (or finding them in your saved playlists.) It just eliminates a few steps for you. Frustratingly, pinning radio stations isn't a feature yet in Apple Music but it hopefully will be soon.

Favorite songs to keep track of them

Another way to sort your music

Being able to favorite songs may seem like a simple feature that most streaming services have. But I use my favorites so frequently that I have to give it a shout out. Any time you listen to a song on Apple Music, you can click on it and favorite it by clicking on the Star icon in the top right of the app. This automatically adds it to your Favorites playlist. If you had never created a Favorites playlist, the first time you favorite a song, Apple Music creates it for you.

This helps you build a list of songs that you just like. If you're a big playlist person like me, meaning you like to create playlists for different times of the day or for different experiences, having songs you liked recently in one play helps you build those playlists. If I'm looking to build a new running playlist and I found the perfect EDM song that's going to be a massive pick-me-up when I'm on mile five and need a boost, I'll favorite it. When I start to build that new running playlist, I can go right into Favorites and find that song and know I need to place it in the playlist at roughly 50-55 minutes into the music to have it hit when I need to. Favorites are just an all-encompassing way to keep track of specific songs you like at that moment.

Store your playlists in folders

This is another new feature in Apple Music

A welcomed feature in the latest update is adding folders to the playlists section of Apple Music. As mentioned above, I like to listen to all kinds of music throughout the day. I like more uptempo music while I'm working out or running, and I craft personal playlists for those. But I also love to work and write with classical music on in the background. If I listen to music with words in it while I'm working, I get too distracted by wanting to sing and don't focus on my writing (yes I do frequently sing out loud while in my office.)

If I'm looking to build a new running playlist and I found the perfect EDM song that's going to be a massive pick-me-up when I'm on mile five and need a boost, I'll favorite it.

Now, I can better organize my playlists in folders to make it easier to find the music I need quicker. Having to search through a massive list of playlists on Spotify was frustrating, especially if I was trying to find some older tracks to enjoy during a run. But storing all of my playlists in a folder on Apple Music dedicated for my moods has been so helpful. Also, when you listen to a new album that you want to add to a playlist, you can make it a playlist on its own and then save it into a folder. You can save the Apple Music-created playlists to your Library as well, so you don't only have to rely on playlists you made to fill up your music. I have a good mix of the many Classical playlists made by Apple Music and other users in my folders.

Sort music by year for some throwbacks

Make your library and time capsule

I, like you, are a different person than you were 10 or 15 years ago. The music I was listening to was usually popular at the time. I appreciate classic rock and the blues. But when it comes to seeking out music, I very much am a person of the current era. This stems from years of listening to Top 40 radio growing up and finding my music tastes through that as well as learning about whatever my friends were listening to.

This is why sorting my library by year is so important. I downloaded so much music in the 2000s to 2010s to iTunes. I don't want to give that up. Many of my favorite songs are from my high school and college years and I still enjoy listening to them today. Setting my preferences to sort by year makes finding the tracks that I downloaded years ago more simple. Recently Added compiles everything you've pretty much ever done in the app by year, so you can find thing more easily.

Work around your radio preferences

Trust the algorithms to save more

While I did mention that you can't add a specific radio station to your library, that isn't all that is available in the Radio section of Apple Music. There are things like Artist Takeover that let artists compile their own tastes in music and present them as a radio station. Those can only be shared but can't be saved to your library. But Apple Music also offers an array of interviews, in-studio performances, and DJ club mixes that you can add to your library.

These are basically additional assets that you can add to your growing list of Favorites, saved items, and Recently Played. The DJ club mixes have become a personal favorite because of my yearning to find new dance music to listen to while working out. I can just save the entire club mix to a specific playlist folder and have it there to find easily. The radio portion of Apple Music has a ton of sections, giving you a lot of choices on what kind of music station you want to listen to. You can search by broadcaster, host, or simply by genre to get the most out of your experience.