How Real Music Helped Make Apple Music's New Look

Apple Music has a new look made with help from real music. TBWA\Media Arts Lab wanted the service to feel more like music. James Taylor led the design work and asked an unusual question. Could music actually help make the pictures people would see? The team worked with Optical Arts to find a way.

They used sound to move oil and create shapes on its surface. But finding the right oil and movement took a lot of work. Optical Arts spent roughly eight to ten weeks testing different ideas. The studio made special machines and software to control the movement. Some music sounded good but made shapes the team did not like. So they chose shapes first, then found notes that could make them.

Those notes also helped create a short piece of music for the service. Fred Again and NEST Acoustics worked on this part of the project. The final moving image combines more than a hundred separately filmed frames. The team also shared a film showing the people and tools involved. It helps viewers see how the work was really made.

The new look needs to work beyond a single moving image. Different versions connect the shapes to different Apple Music features. Still pictures also suggest movement through changes in the image. The main design uses mostly black and white, leaving artists to bring colour. The article also stresses the value of showing the work behind it. Seeing that care can help people believe in the finished result.