Apple Music redesign makes it easier to find the songs you want

Back in early May, rumors circulated that Apple was planning to unveil a big redesign for its music streaming service at WWDC. Those reports were indeed correct. During today's keynote, Senior Vice President Eddy Cue showed off a much-streamlined interface that should make using the service a bit less of a headache. The service, "redesigned from the ground up," features a black-and-white scheme, as rumored, with splashes of color that emphasize the album artwork. Oh, by the way: Apple Music now has 15 million paid subscribers, and Cue said it was the fastest music-streaming service to achieve that feat.

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When you first open the app now, your Library is what you'll see first. There's a special section for any music you've purchased and a "Recently Added" summary for all the new stuff. From there, launching a song taps into the new music-focused UI, where a mostly black-and-white color scheme helps the album artwork pop on that screen. After you start a song and move to another section, a thumbnail of the album art, song title, play/pause and skip controls stay just above the menu for easy access. Those lyrics are also easily accessible from the main player screen, should you need to settle a bet over what Future really said on "Commas."

Library is also the first tab across the bottom, followed, from left to right, by "For You," "Browse," "Radio" and "Search." That "For You" section sill offers a curated selection of music based on your listening habits. There's also a "Recently Added" menu, so you'll know what's been added since the last time you looked. "For You" has a "Discover Mix" as part of its suggestions, a collection that seems to be similar to Spotify's popular "Discover Weekly" feature. Spotify's version compiles a new playlist every week based on what you've been listening to recently.

The "Browse" tab is where you'll find those useful charts, a list of new releases and more if you're just perusing what's available. It also replaces the "New" tab users are likely familiar with. As you might expect, "Radio" is direct access to the Beats1 internet stream alongside a listing of featured and upcoming shows. As we mentioned during our liveblog, this info about Beats1 seems geared toward folks who may not have given the radio option a chance.

While Apple Music on the desktop only got a brief mention -- the service was unveiled during the iOS portion of the presentation -- Apple actually did show off the new interface on a Mac. There are also new Apple Music links inside iMessage, making for handy song previews inside the chat app. We'll reserve final judgement until we can spend some quality time with the updated version of the streaming service, but on the surface, the refreshed interface and reorganization should make Music less of a chore to use. The changes will be part of iOS 10, which will be released to all users in the fall, following a public beta that begins next month.

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