Apple Music tests AI “Playlist Playground” feature in iOS 26.4 beta
Apple Music is the next DSP to test out its own AI-powered playlist generator feature.
AI is becoming ever-prominent in music streaming, particularly when it comes to music discovery and the creation of playlists. We have Amazon Music’s Weekly Vibe, Spotify’s Prompted Playlist and, very recently, YouTube joined the ranks with “AI Playlist”. Apple Music is next up, testing out a feature called “Playlist Playground” that lets users generate playlists by entering a text prompt.
MacRumors spotted the new AI playlist feature in the beta version of iOS 26.4, which was released to developers at the start of this week.
As 9to5Mac notes, you can access “Playlist Playground” in the Apple Music app by tapping the “+” icon in the top right of the “Library” page. From here, users can enter a text prompt or description of the kind of music they want to listen to, and Apple Music will generate a 25-song playlist based on this. Similarly to other DSPs’ AI playlist features, there are also ready-made playlist idea prompts as well, if users need a bit of help getting started or are just stuck for ideas.
Apple’s AI playlist feature sounds closer to Spotify’s Prompted Playlist, in that once a playlist has been generated, users can add or remove tracks as they wish. There is also the option to save AI-generated playlists to users’ libraries. Additionally, you can alter and refine a playlist once it has been created by tweaking your prompt, if it doesn’t quite land first time.
Users can further customise their AI playlists by selecting a cover for them, as well as adding a description. Just like standard playlists, playlists created within “Playlist Playground” can be shared and displayed on your profile, according to MacRumors.
Digital Music News notes that “Playlist Playground” appears to be powered by Apple’s own AI system, Apple Intelligence. There is a label stating this on the feature, and the latest Apple Intelligence models are required before the feature becomes available. You can check up on this by going to Settings and selecting the “Apple Intelligence & Siri” menu.
Currently, the iOS 24.6 beta is only with developers, but will likely become available as a public beta in the near future.