The ink’s barely dry on Apple’s latest press release – the addition of four amazing new accessibility features for iOS – and yet here we are with another feature announcement. Starting immediately, you’ll be able to find information on upcoming music concerts and gig venues using Apple Music and Apple Maps.
Apple Music adds a Set Lists space, featuring major tours chosen by its team of music-obsessed curators. You’ll also be able to see an artist’s upcoming shows thanks to a new module powered by Shazam.
Apple Maps adds Music Venues to its existing Guides section, with 40+ new guides to explore covering the hottest venues around the world. Only a handful of cities are covered at launch, so if you want to explore the new stuff, take a look at one of the following: Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, San Francisco, Berlin, London, Paris, Vienna, Tokyo, Melbourne, Sydney and Mexico City.
It’s nice to see Apple expanding on its historic love of music with even more human-powered curation to keep users in the loop. Apple says the new stuff is rolling out now, so if you don’t see a change in the apps just yet, try again soon.
All these new features being announced just weeks before Apple’s yearly WWDC event kicks off has us wondering: was the opening keynote just so packed with new stuff they decided to release some of the smaller stuff beforehand? There have been rumors swirling that we’ll see Apple’s long-awaited mixed-reality headset at WWDC this year, so perhaps there’s not room for much else. Either way, it’s exciting to see so many new features released out of the blue this week. Stay tuned.