iOS 17.1 Adds Custom Playlist Art Options to Apple Music

Apple added a new feature to the Apple Music app in the first beta of iOS 17.1 that offers a selection of color-matched playlist artwork options for the first time.

iOS 17 Playlist Artwork Feature 1
As of beta one, Apple provides eight different artwork styles featuring geometric shapes and gradients, with the title of the playlist in the top left corner. The colors used in the artwork are picked from the album artwork of whatever song is first in the playlist. The default artwork continues to be the tiled album artwork of the first four songs in a playlist and the ability to choose a custom image from Photos or Files remains.

Previously, users had to keep the basic tiled image or upload a custom image. Since not all users have custom graphics or photos they want to use for playlists and the default artwork is relatively simple, playlists can be difficult to identify and look fairly generic. Now, users can quickly and easily set a unique appearance for each playlist that fits in with ‌Apple Music‌'s UI.

Other ‌Apple Music‌ changes and improvements in iOS 17.1 include favoriting songs from the Lock Screen and suggested songs in playlists. The ability for multiple users to collaborate on and add to the same playlist and ‌Apple Music‌ SharePlay for CarPlay are also expected to be added in a future update. iOS 17.1 introduces a host of new features, including NameDrop to Apple Watch, UK bank balances in the Wallet app, and more.

Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.4 and iOS 27 Features Revealed in New Leak

Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28. The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
apple beta 26 lineup

Apple Leak Confirms Work on Foldable iPhone, AirTag 2, and Dozens More Devices

Monday December 15, 2025 2:05 pm PST by
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak. As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
Apple Logo Top Half

Early iOS 26 Software Leak Uncovers Dozens of Upcoming Apple Features

Monday December 15, 2025 3:05 pm PST by
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code. In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Leak Reveals Foldable iPhone Details

Monday December 15, 2025 9:09 am PST by
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station. According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
iOS 26

iOS 26.3 Beta 1 Features: What's New So Far

Monday December 15, 2025 4:23 pm PST by
Apple is testing iOS 26.3, the next version of iOS 26 that will launch around January. Since iOS 26.3's testing is happening over the holidays, it is a smaller update with fewer features than we've seen in prior betas. We've rounded up what's new so far, and we'll add to our list with subsequent betas if we come across any other features. Transfer to Android Apple is making it simpler...
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.2 With Alarms for Reminders, Lock Screen Changes, Enhanced Safety Alerts and More

Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. ‌iOS 26‌.2 is compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation ‌iPhone‌ SE. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features on Your iPhone

Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon. Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week. iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
airpods max 2024 colors

AirPods Max 2 Likely to Offer These 10 New Features

Monday December 15, 2025 7:41 am PST by
Apple released the AirPods Max on December 15, 2020, meaning the over-ear headphones launched five years ago today. While the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port and new color options last year, followed by support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio this year, the headphones lack some of the features that have been introduced for newer generations of the regular AirPods and the ...

Top Rated Comments

morphineseason Avatar
29 months ago
Didn't they decouple all the stock apps from iOS years ago so they could update the apps via App Store whenever they wanted? So why do they remain tied to iOS updates? Makes no sense to me. iOS updates should be for actual OS updates and features, not for their apps. Really just makes it seem like they've run out of ideas with every major iOS release.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zach-coleman Avatar
29 months ago

What about letting us customize the Music app home screen more than we can now? I would love to be able to remove the recently added music section from the home screen.
Also would love to be able to assign album artwork of my own to the artist section, which is missing a lot of artwork/covers. And no way to add them.
Bring back the old app design where you could customize the bottom navbar please. I wish I could just go straight into playlists…
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
29 months ago
What I'm really wanting these days is the ability to TAG a song or an artist however I choose (say "driving music" or "upbeat" or "solo artist") so I could assemble smart playlists based on tags. Playlists are all well and good (and definitely have their place), but the concept has not really evolved past the mixtape paradigm.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
talkingheads Avatar
29 months ago
What about letting us customize the Music app home screen more than we can now? I would love to be able to remove the recently added music section from the home screen.
Also would love to be able to assign album artwork of my own to the artist section, which is missing a lot of artwork/covers. And no way to add them.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
talkingheads Avatar
29 months ago

Bring back the old app design where you could customize the bottom navbar please. I wish I could just go straight into playlists…
Yes please Apple bring it back.
The Music app on the Mac has the same problems that I mentioned above.
We need more customization options on both OS’s.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrENGLISH Avatar
29 months ago
Honestly surprised it has taken this long for such a basic feature.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)