Apple Music is the music streaming service launched by Apple Inc. on June 30, 2015, following the company’s acquisition of Beats Electronics and its Beats Music streaming platform. The service’s visual identity has evolved through several distinct phases, from a wordmark pairing the Apple icon with the word “Music” to a standalone musical note symbol used across marketing and app icons.
Design and History
When Apple Music launched in 2015, its primary logo combined the familiar Apple silhouette with the word “MUSIC” set in all capital letters. The Apple icon appeared to the left of the wordmark, and because the Apple emblem alone was sufficient to identify the company, no separate “Apple” text was included in the lockup. The 2015 wordmark was set in San Francisco Compact, Apple’s proprietary typeface, as documented by Fonts In Use.[1]
In March 2018, Apple released updated brand assets for Apple Music and iTunes to affiliates, featuring a cleaner design consistent with the company’s broader branding updates at the time. The refresh included a new text lockup intended for greater versatility in marketing efforts.[2]
Around 2019, Apple refined the Apple Music wordmark by changing the typography from all-caps “MUSIC” to mixed case, keeping only the initial “M” capitalized. In this updated version, the “M” was enlarged to more closely match the height of the Apple icon, while the remaining letters were set in lowercase for a friendlier appearance.[3]
Separate from the wordmark, Apple Music’s app icon has undergone multiple changes. At the service’s 2015 launch, the Music app icon on iOS and iTunes on OS X changed from the previous pinkish-orange version to a white background with a multicolor musical note.[4] In July 2020, with iOS 14 beta 3, Apple changed the Music app icon again, replacing the white background with a gradient of red shades, a design somewhat similar to the Music app icon used on iOS 8.[5]
Meaning and Symbolism
In late 2017, Apple introduced a new visual identity for Apple Music built around the service’s two-note musical symbol. A 30-second advertisement titled “Anthem” showcased 41 versions of the note symbol, each treated in a different graphic style to reference various musical genres and artists. The campaign used the note as a container for artist-related imagery, in a manner compared by Creative Review to the original MTV logo.[6] The identity was designed to reflect the diversity of artists and musical styles available on the service, with each variation tied to a specific artist, genre, or playlist.[7]
Typography and Design
The 2015 Apple Music wordmark was set in San Francisco Compact, part of Apple’s San Francisco typeface family developed for its product ecosystem.[1] Apple’s official identity guidelines for the service specify that the Apple Music lockups combine the Apple Music icon with specially designed type, and that users must not change the font or color of the type in any provided artwork.[8]
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