5 years in the past, an Apple Music Radio present tailor-made to my style amplified music discovery for me. Discovering new episodes of that present, nonetheless, proved troublesome.
That modified three years later when Apple Podcasts built-in Apple Music Radio exhibits. Whereas maintaining with new episodes was a lot simpler, listening by means of the Podcasts app lacked key Apple Music integration.
Now in iOS 26.2, Apple has closed the function hole in an sudden however efficient approach.
In early 2021, I named “notifications for exhibits, offline playback for episodes, and a simple approach to observe favourite exhibits” as key options that will enhance the expertise with Apple Music Radio exhibits.
I grew up within the TRL period of MTV and love every little thing from the larger blink-182 universe (Boxcar Racer/+44/Angels & Airwaves/Easy Creatures), so the Mark Hoppus hosted present referred to as After Faculty Radio on Apple Music Hits was made for me. Listening to the present reside at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesdays has since turn into a spotlight of my week, and the songs from it frequently lead me to find artists, albums, and full discographies. […]
I frequently discover myself saving songs to my library straight from the Now Taking part in display screen in the course of the present. If I just like the artist or track sufficient, I’ll return and play by means of the total album or add extra music from the artist to my library. […]
Now that I’m routinely interacting with Apple Music Radio, I’m additionally reminded of all of the function requests we had when it was Beats 1 all these years in the past. Push notifications for exhibits, offline playback for episodes, and a simple approach to observe favourite exhibits could be nice options for members.
Listening reside is straightforward when you be taught the schedule, however listening on-demand requires digging by means of the Music app. I used the share sheet to seize the URL that redirects to the part of the Music app for my comfort and sanity.
In 2023, Apple added all three options plus playback sync with Apple Music Radio exhibits in Apple Podcasts. Nevertheless, there have been two trade-offs when gaining these 4 options.
These exhibits embody music, and also you miss out on the observe data.
The opposite disadvantage is that you just lose the power to shortly add the track to your library.
As of iOS 26.2, Apple has Podcasts app options that lastly ship the most effective of each worlds.
Apple Podcasts now contains Apple Music hyperlinks to songs performed in the course of the episode. This allows you to simply bounce to the observe within the Music app the place it can save you it, see the album, and discover extra of the artist’s catalog.
These hyperlinks seem on the Now Taking part in display screen as they play in the course of the episode. Hyperlinks additionally seem within the auto-generated transcript of the podcast episode, including to a function launched in iOS 17.4.
I didn’t instantly understand that the brand new Podcasts app options in iOS 26.2 would clear up this five-year-old function request. For that purpose, it was a reasonably pleasant shock once I noticed all of it work collectively whereas listening to an Apple Music Radio present episode.
I’m left with one closing concern on this five-year journey. That’s, I’m undecided that After Faculty Radio, the one present I observe frequently, continues to be energetic. The final episode arrived in October. Nonetheless, the listening expertise is mostly nice now for the 222-episode again catalog (and for each different Apple Music Radio present).
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