What is Apple Music?
Apple Music is a streaming music service developed by Apple. It allows users to stream over 90 million songs from Apple’s library of music. In addition to streaming songs, Apple Music also includes pre-programmed radio stations and some exclusive content not available on other services.
As described on the Apple Music website, Apple Music supports artists by providing tools to create, release, promote and measure music globally. For subscribers, it is an all-you-can-eat service where you can stream any song in the Apple Music catalog.
Apple Music launched in 2015 as a competitor to other streaming services like Spotify and Pandora. It has grown to over 90 million songs and is available on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Echo devices, and via the web at music.apple.com.
Reasons to Delete Apple Music
There are a few key reasons why you may want to delete the Apple Music app from your iPhone or other iOS device:
Free up storage space on your device – The Apple Music app and downloaded content can take up a significant amount of storage space. Deleting the app removes all associated files and frees up room on your device [1].
Stop accidental subscriptions – If you no longer want to pay for an Apple Music subscription, deleting the app can prevent accidentally starting a paid membership again. This ensures you don’t get unexpectedly charged [2].
Troubleshoot issues with the app – Sometimes glitches, bugs or other problems can occur with the Apple Music app. Deleting and reinstalling the app gives you a fresh start, which may resolve any technical issues.
How to Delete Apple Music
To delete the Apple Music app from your iOS device, follow these steps:
First, open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Then tap on General, and select iPhone/iPad Storage. This will show you a list of all the apps installed on your device along with how much storage space they are using.
Find the Apple Music app in the list. Tap on it to bring up details about the app’s storage usage. Here you will see any cached or offline music taking up space. At the bottom is an option to Delete App.
Tapping Delete App will remove the Apple Music app from your iOS device. This will free up the storage space the app was occupying. However, it will not delete your Apple Music account or any of your library content (source).
Important Things to Know Before Deleting
Before deciding to delete Apple Music from your iPhone, iPad, or other Apple device, there are some key things you need to be aware of.
Most importantly, deleting the Apple Music app removes your ability to play Apple Music content offline. This means any songs, albums or playlists you’ve downloaded for offline listening will no longer be accessible without an internet connection after deleting the app [1].
However, your Apple Music libraries and playlists themselves will remain intact and associated with your account. If you reinstall Apple Music later, you’ll regain access to all your playlists, libraries, preferences and other data [2]. The music files are not actually deleted from your account, only the ability to play them offline is lost.
So in summary, deleting the app removes offline access, but your content and data will be there if you sign back into Apple Music again. This is an important consideration if you rely on offline listening and downloads.
How to Reinstall Apple Music
Reinstalling Apple Music on your iOS device is a straightforward process through the App Store:
Open the App Store on your iOS device.
Search for ‘Apple Music’.
Tap the ‘Get’ button to reinstall the Apple Music app.
The App Store will begin downloading and installing Apple Music again. The process is quick and Apple Music will appear on your home screen once installation is complete.
All of your Apple Music data and playlists are stored in the cloud, so you won’t lose anything by reinstalling the app. Your library and profile will be intact once you sign in again.
Reinstalling Apple Music can help resolve a variety of issues, such as storage problems, bugs, or glitches. If you are experiencing problems with Apple Music, reinstalling the app from the App Store is an easy troubleshooting step.
What Happens to Your Content
When you delete and reinstall Apple Music, your playlists, libraries, preferences, and other data remain intact and associated with your Apple ID. According to discussions on Reddit, “It will delete any songs you have downloaded. They will still be in your library to listen to via streaming.”
So when you reinstall Apple Music and login again with the same Apple ID, you will regain access to your full libraries, playlists, preferences and other data. Apple Music saves all of your data on their servers tied to your account, so you can delete the app without worrying about losing your content. As one Apple discussions thread explains, “Deleting the App is unrelated to your purchases. You’ll keep the purchases, they will remain tied to your account, and will be accessible from any device where you install the Music app and sign in.”
In summary, your Apple Music content will remain intact after deleting and reinstalling the app. You just need to login again with your Apple ID to restore access.
Tips for Managing Storage
If Apple Music is taking up too much space, there are some tips you can use to better manage the storage used:
- Use offline listening selectively for favorite songs – Instead of downloading your entire library, consider only downloading specific playlists, albums or artists you listen to frequently when offline. You can always stream the rest when you have an internet connection.
- Download higher quality only on WiFi – Downloading songs in a higher quality like Lossless will take up a lot more space. You can configure Apple Music to only use higher quality on WiFi in Settings.
- Regularly review and delete unused content – Check your Apple Music library for playlists, albums and songs you no longer listen to. Deleting these can recover a lot of storage space.
Carefully managing what content you download for offline listening is key to reducing the storage footprint of Apple Music on your device. Focus on just keeping your most played and favorite music available offline.
Alternative Music Apps
If you decide to delete Apple Music, there are several alternative music apps available that you can use instead:
Spotify
Spotify (https://www.spotify.com/) is one of the most popular Apple Music alternatives. Like Apple Music, Spotify offers access to millions of songs, playlists, podcasts and more. It also has social features that allow you to follow friends and see what they’re listening to. Spotify has both a free, ad-supported tier and a paid subscription option. One benefit of Spotify over Apple Music is that it’s available on more platforms, including game consoles and smart speakers.
YouTube Music
YouTube Music (https://music.youtube.com/) is Google’s music streaming service. It gives you access to official songs, albums, thousands of playlists and artist radio. The audio-only mode lets you listen to music without having the video. There is a free, ad-supported version, as well as a paid subscription option. An advantage of YouTube Music is the ability to access rare songs, live performances and remixes you won’t find on other services.
Amazon Music
Amazon Music (https://www.amazon.com/music) comes with Prime membership or you can upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited. The standard Prime Music library is somewhat limited compared to competitors, but Music Unlimited gives you access to over 100 million songs. Amazon Music is deeply integrated with Alexa, so it’s easy to control with Echo devices. Family plans are also available.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/) offers a platform for listening to audio created and shared by independent artists as well as major record labels. The content you find on SoundCloud tends to be more unique, eclectic and hard-to-find than mainstream services. SoundCloud has a free option with limited skips as well as a paid subscription tier. The platform can be great for discovering emerging artists.
Summary
In summary, deleting and reinstalling Apple Music is a straightforward process that can help free up storage space on your iPhone. When you delete Apple Music, you won’t lose your Apple Music library or any downloaded content – it will all still be available if you reinstall the app later.
Before deleting, it’s important to understand that your personal data like playlists and libraries stay associated with your Apple ID, so they can be accessed again after reinstalling. The only potential downside is that you’ll lose any customized settings, which will reset to default.
Some key things to know about managing storage with Apple Music: turning off automatic downloads saves space, downloading music over WiFi avoids cellular data charges, and you can always redownload anything in your library after reinstalling the app later. Alternative music apps like Spotify offer similar features and libraries.
Overall, deleting and reinstalling Apple Music is a simple option for freeing up storage space temporarily or troubleshooting issues with the app. Your Apple Music library and data remains safely stored in your account for easy access after reinstalling the app.
References
This article synthesizes and describes general knowledge and procedures for deleting and reinstalling Apple Music. No specific sources were directly relied upon or cited for the content. However, the descriptions and steps are based on widely known information about Apple Music and iOS. The author has experience using Apple Music and iOS devices.