When Apple Music Connect launched alongside Apple Music in 2015, it was pitched as a direct artist-to-fan social channel embedded within the app.
It was quietly shut down in 2018, after struggling to gain traction.
Now, Apple has resurrected the name — but this time, Apple Music Connect serves as a professional toolkit for labels and distributors to promote content, pitch releases to Apple’s editorial team, upload press photos, and coordinate marketing materials.
At the time of the original Apple Music Connect’s closure, 9to5Mac reported that the move echoed what happened to Ping, Apple’s earlier music social network built inside iTunes, which was removed in 2012.
MBW cited a number of reasons for shutting down Connect as a fan-facing social platform, including the lack of artists’ motivation to post content on Connect because of the accessibility of social media platforms; and how fans weren’t incentivized to engage with it.
Meanwhile, the relaunched Apple Music Connect gives label and distributor teams a single dashboard to manage the parts of a release cycle. The platform offers a ‘Pitch’ tool that lets teams submit upcoming releases for editorial and playlist consideration, specifying content details, such as the format, content name, and artist, as well as additional release details, including mood, genre, language, and release date.
Apple has set a minimum of 10 days before release for full consideration and seven days for late submissions. Apple explained what editorial teams want in a pitch, such as rollout plans, key media moments, focus tracks, not artist biographies.
“Information such as campaign details or rollout plans are critical, but additional information such as an artist’s biography are not. If there is a focus or feeler track, be sure to let our team know.”
There’s also a bulk upload option that handles labels and distributors working across multiple releases at the same time.
Aside from pitching, Apple Music Connect also offers a ‘Promote’ tool that helps teams generate custom social media cards to announce artists’ pre-adds, new album or song releases, and music videos. They can then share this content to Instagram Stories, X, Snapchat, and Facebook, or send custom assets via email.
Through Apple Music Connect, artist teams can also fulfill requests for publicity photos from Apple Music.
As Apple explained: “Admins and marketing managers tied to your Apple Music Connect account will receive and can fulfill a media request if Apple reaches out for publicity photos. You can also assign non-Apple Music Connect users a one-time request to help fulfill the media request.”
The new Connect tool marks Apple’s latest feature in its continuous expansion of Apple Music. Apple-focused news websites MacRumors and Macworld recently reported that Apple Music is close to launching an artificial intelligence-powered playlist generator that would let users create playlists through text prompts.
The feature, called Playlist Playground, appeared in the beta version of iOS 26.4 released to developers last week, the reports said.
Also recently, 9to5Mac reported that Apple Music has teamed up with TikTok to beta-test a feature called “Play Full Song,” which would allow TikTok users to stream full songs through Apple Music without having to leave the app; and a “Listening Party” feature that would allow groups of users to stream music at the same time within TikTok.
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