What does the star on apple music mean

What does the star icon mean on Apple Music? Avid listeners have noticed a little star-shaped icon appear next to certain songs, which sparked the question: what does it mean? And why does it end up next to some songs but not others?

What does the star mean on Apple Music?

Apple support have posted a cursory explanation on their Twitter, but this left fans feeling unsatisfied, as a more detailed answer is nowhere to be found on the Apple Music website.

See a star next to a song? It's a hot track. 🔥

Here's how to spot the most popular songs on @AppleMusic. pic.twitter.com/wn0VRRoOaO

— Apple Support (@AppleSupport) June 29, 2018

Determined to get to the root of this, fans took to Apple community forums and social media instead to discuss it. One Reddit user asks:

Finally, an answer

The star is given to a track depending on how well it does. Generally, the star will appear next to a song if it is the most popular or most played one on an album.

The older version of iTunes used a star rating. Users could show how much they enjoyed a song by marking it up or down by a few stars.

In the meantime, however, this system was removed and the single star replaced it as an indicator of a song’s popularity. The single star also lets users know which tracks they might enjoy based on their listening history and music tastes.

How many plays does it take to earn a star on Apple Music?

How a song earns a star is not explained directly as far as we can see. Still, Apple support have pointed one Twitter user to the Apple Music for Artists section on their website, when they asked for further clarification.

how many plays does it take to get a star by one of my songs ?

— ROT$ Worldwide (@rotsworldwide) April 27, 2019

A lot of people on the Apple community are unhappy about this feature, with one user explaining: “Apple thinks you should like that song. They don’t understand we can make our own decisions and that it is actually annoying.”.

Another says, “So, Apple no longer lets us rate our own songs, but they let other people tell us. So much for freedom of choice. I’m going back to iOS9”.

Users are hoping to see the star feature updated or improved on the next Apple iOS version.

How to find the most listened to song on Apple Music

Apple Music has its own dedicated section to find out the most-played song on the platform – Apple Music for Artists. Here, users can look at the analytics of a song to see: how many times it’s been played, average daily listeners, purchases and much more.

Now, the next time your friend asks you, “what does the star mean on Apple Music?”, you will have a one-up.

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Iram Sharifah Khan

Iram is a London-based freelance journalist with a BA in Journalism and Media from Birkbeck University. She studied several modules, including Journalism in British Life, Interview skills and Feature Writing, Introduction to Journalism Practice and Manga and Anime. Iram went from university to work with GRV Media at The Focus Writers’ Academy and enjoys learning Japanese, taking singing lessons, playing video games and watching Korean dramas in her spare time.

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Hold your horses and your questions because, in this guide, we will talk to you about what the star means on the Apple Music app. If you have started using the Apple Music app, you have landed yourself at the right place. Apple Music offers an unparalleled experience to music lovers. You can see it because Apple now rates its most played tracks with a star on Apple Music. 

Furthermore, Apple Music’s expansive catalog brings around 90 million songs from the most imaginable genre straight from its deck. At the same time, sometimes, Apple left fans feeling frustrated with their new updates. One such tiny bit of a puzzling thing for Apple fans is the star symbol next to the track on the most popular album.

We assume you are browsing through an album, and you see 2-3 popular songs with a star-shaped icon. Chances are higher that you assume the star icon appears on all popular songs. If that is so, you must know star ratings are not based on these parameters. We will talk about why that is so, but first, learn a few other things! 

To your surprise, many avid listeners are in a dilemma: why does the star icon feature next to a few songs only, not all of the songs in the Apple library? On the brighter side, the Apple community introduced an explanation about the same on Twitter. However, this breaking news has left consumers unsatisfied. 

Read on to find the most resonating answer regarding the star’s meaning on the most popular songs. Also, you will get the answer to whether playing certain songs more often is enough to get a star. 

What is Apple Music?

A cluster of video streaming, music, and audio services developed by Apple Inc is called Apple Music. As an Apple member, you are a privileged user to select your favorite song to stream on your device on demand. Get ready to shell down the flat fee to enjoy the Apple Music catalog. In a nutshell, Apple Music is a subscription-based music service like Spotify and Amazon Music. 

How Does a Song Get a Star on Apple Music?

In 2018, in July, Apple on Twitter announced that the star symbolizes hot tracks. Since then, listeners have been weaving their conclusions because the Apple service team has not introduced any other additional clarification. So it boils down to one conclusion; star means the songs that are the most popular tracks in the Apple music library. 

A single star sign appears when hot tracks are popularly played back to back. In a nutshell, you can understand this; Apple community associates star icons next to the hot tracks on an album. Also, you can take advantage of whisking through Apple Music for artists. The same act will allow you to discover what songs the average daily listeners listen to on the iTunes store. 

What About Old Apple iOS Variants? 

Talking of the old Apple iOS variant, listeners can give star ratings for their played tracks based on preference. In the older version of iTunes, the star rating option was available. Some listeners think it is better to rate the song and mark them up or down by a few stars. 

But for now, Apple no longer entertains its users with this option. Earlier, the company used to have star ratings for the tracks, where users also could rate their favorite songs. However, Apple has removed the star rating feature now.

What Does Star on Apple Music Mean?

According to Apple’s additional clarification, star icon crops in front of the hot tracks in the library signifies the tracks that average daily listeners often play more. However, there is no official clarification by Apple, which throws light on one of the most searched questions – “how many plays are required to earn the star symbol next to songs?

What Are the Number of Plays to Gain a Star on Apple Music? 

This attribute regarding Apple Music is one of the most discussed questions on the Apple consumer forum. The reason is simple; Apple has still not directly explained the same issue to its users in any official statements. So it is still a mysterious question to Apple Music members. 

How to Identify the Most Listened Tracks By Apple Members on Apple Music?

The good thing about Apple Music is it has its own dedicated section to sniff the most listened-to tracks by Apple members on Apple Music. Go to Apple Music by Artists segment. Pay attention to the trending tag, which will show you music insights. For example, what are the average daily listens of the particular song, including purchases and more! In addition, you can apply different filters to check out the gender also!

Final Words

We hope you got your answer regarding what the star means on Apple Music. The new star icon appears in front of the most popular albums. You can easily calculate the song’s performance with a star icon as an avid listener. 

Unquestionably, Apple products and services always create hype. So the star icon feature is also no exception. Maybe that’s the strong reason Apple Music experienced a massive shift since it’s branched off from iTunes. 

So the next time you see a hot track on Apple Music, you know what it is! Although Apple has not explained this directly to its Twitter consumers. At the same time, the Apple website doesn’t have any dedicated section to answer what a star means next to the few songs in the library.

Lastly, be a good Twitter consumer for Apple. Feel free to submit your questions on the Apple community forum because Apple always encourages feedback from its users. And don’t forget to stick to Apple’s official Twitter handle if they release additional clarification on what the star means on Apple music.