Apple’s streaming service has rebranded for the first time since launch. Created with TBWAMedia Arts Lab, the new identity is full of ripples made by sound. We find out more.
It’s hard to believe Apple Music launched in 2015 and hasn’t rebranded in the 11 years since. So when it finally got round to one, I expected it’d do something a little weird and unusual. Well, say hello to a transducer, a shallow bath of mineral oil and a short composition by British producer Fred Again.
The new identity is built around the idea: “made by sound”, which is why Apple didn’t go the usual route of visuals first, sound later. No, Apple and its long-time agency TBWAMedia Arts Lab did it the other way round.
Fred Again and his collaborator NEST Acoustics wrote a piece of music and broke it down into individual notes. They played each note through a transducer (a device that turns an audio signal into physical vibration) sitting in oil. They then captured the waves entirely on camera. And the footage became the foundation for the new look.
It might sound simple, but it wasn’t. The process took months of experimentation to get right. Fast Company reports that they had to tune the sound and image together because too many notes or notes pitched too high made the oil move so much that the image became unreadable.
All their patience and hard work paid off: the result is a new, expressive musical note icon shaped by that captured movement. The identity hasn’t wandered too far, either. It’s still very much part of Apple’s Liquid Glass design language, but the team describes the finished mark as a physical record of music rather than a picture of what sound might look like.
The wordmark has also received some love. It pairs the Apple symbol with a custom version of SF Pro, Apple’s own typeface, but now in bold, lowercase letterforms. This gives Apple Music more personality while keeping it in the family. Plau handled the type design consultation and vector logo reconstruction.
Londoners may have already spotted the new identity. The wordmark was first teased in September as part of the marketing for Apple Music Hall, the brand’s new live music venue in London.
The same composition also becomes Apple Music’s new sonic signature, so the brand looks and sounds as one. Apple Music introduced the identity on X and Instagram as “physically shaped by an original composition” from Fred Again and NEST Acoustics. It included a behind-the-scenes film, directed by Joe Jackson, that gives us a peek at the whole process. You can watch this below. Optical Arts produced it, Time Based Arts did the VFX, Trafik looked after the colour and finishing, and Model Citizen mixed the music.
Apple Music will roll out the new identity across its own content this week. It’ll show up in the app with iOS 27.2, coming soon. Then marketing and product will follow.
What do you think? Personally, I love that they chose one of my favourite musicians, a bath of mineral oil and a lot of time and patience. Hands-on craft and original thinking you can actually see. As they say here in Manchester, it’s proper sound.
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