Apple Music Joins Music Industry's Blackout Tuesday Awareness Campaign - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Music Joins Music Industry's Blackout Tuesday Awareness Campaign

Apple Music has cancelled its Beats 1 radio schedule for Blackout Tuesday and is suggesting that listeners tune in to a radio stream celebrating the best in black music.

apple music black out tuesday
Blackout Tuesday is a campaign organized by the music industry to support Black Lives Matter after Minneapolis citizen George Floyd was killed by police in the course of his arrest.

On launching ‌Apple Music‌, many users on Mac and iOS devices are today being met with a message replacing the usual For You, Browse, and Radio sections, along with a Listen Together button that links to the aforementioned station.

In steadfast support of the Black voices that define music, creativity, and culture, we use ours. This moment calls upon us all to speak and act against racism and injustice of all kinds. We stand in solidarity with Black communities everywhere. #TheShowMustBePaused
#BlackLivesMatter

Otherwise, the ‌Apple Music‌ service is operating as usual. Users are still able to access their music library and search the ‌Apple Music‌ catalog.


Following the unrest in numerous U.S. cities after last week's killing of George Floyd, Apple CEO Tim Cook on Sunday addressed the pain that many are feeling and urged others to commit "to creating a better, more just world for everyone."

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Popular Stories

apple music

Apple Music Is Down for Some Users

Monday April 20, 2026 12:18 pm PDT by
If Apple Music isn't working for you, you're not alone. According to Apple's System Status page, there's currently an Apple Music outage. Apple says that users may be experiencing intermittent issues with the service. The outage started at 2:38 p.m. Eastern Time, and it is ongoing. We'll update this article when the outage has been...
iOS 26

iOS 26.5 Features: Everything New in iOS 26.5

Monday May 11, 2026 5:09 pm PDT by
Apple released iOS 26.5 after a few months of beta testing, and while it doesn't have the Siri features we were hoping for since those are being held until iOS 27, there are a handful of useful changes worth knowing about. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. End-to-End Encryption for RCS Support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages between iPhone and...
Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

11 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 18 Pro

Monday May 11, 2026 9:01 am PDT by
We're only four months out from the launch of Apple's premium next-generation smartphone lineup, and while we're not expecting a sea change in terms of functionality, there are still several enhancements rumored to be coming to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth noting is that Apple is reportedly planning a major change to its iPhone release cycle this year, adopting a...

Top Rated Comments

78 months ago
Oh wow...complaining about a disruption in Apple Music. Imagine if your entire life (or existence) was interrupted by a bad cop due to the color of your skin.

PAY ATTENTION. THE WORLD IS SPEAKING. LISTEN. UP.
Score: 69 Votes (Like | Disagree)
78 months ago
Hmmm it's pride month, is Apple going to make us listen to Scissor Sisters, Elton John and Cher for the rest of the month? (I'm gay, just making a point.)

I'm all about advocacy, and speaking out, but a company shouldn't FORCE its views on others. There should be an opt out, for those not wanting to be involved.
Score: 57 Votes (Like | Disagree)
78 months ago
Honestly, I prefer when tech companies stay out of politics.
In only a few days we have new gay pride bands and services being taken over with black lives matter slogans but we’ll raise MacBook Ram prices by double.
I watch and read the news so I’m well aware of what’s happening in the world.
Score: 56 Votes (Like | Disagree)
78 months ago

Oh wow...complaining about a disruption in Apple Music. Imagine if your entire life (or existence) was interrupted by a bad cop due to the color of your skin.

PAY ATTENTION. THE WORLD IS SPEAKING. LISTEN. UP.
I really find it insulting and inappropriate to block features for paying customers. Regardless of what is going on in the world, people listen to music to relax. Being bombarded with this issue 24/7 is not good for several people's mental health that is already suffering from covid's social distancing.
Score: 48 Votes (Like | Disagree)
magicschoolbus Avatar
78 months ago
They stay silent in China when the Chinese government commits atrocities against large groups of people. I guess that is okay. All about the $$.
Score: 48 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
78 months ago

On launching Apple Music, many users on Mac and iOS devices are today being met with a message in the Browse and Radio tabs, along with a Listen Together button that links to the aforementioned station.
Otherwise, the Apple Music service is operating as usual. Users are still able to access their music library and search the Apple Music catalog.
I wouldn't call that "operating as usual". You can search for Apple Music playlists and play them that way, but you can't browse them or get suggestions.

I don't mean to be too insensitive to the subject matter, but that's quite a disruption for a $10/mo service (whose client app is already flaky enough as it is). Would it really have hurt to add a little 'x' to close the message and proceed to the regular browsing UI?

(edit)

Or, if disrupting the service like this is by design and a protest statement, I think the message should be clearer. Some fine print at the bottom saying "Your regular Apple Music features like Browse and For You will be back tomorrow.", maybe? Cause right now, it's just not very clear if this is the Music app being janky or a deliberate choice.
Score: 44 Votes (Like | Disagree)