Apple today announced that artists and bands can now personalize their Apple Music profile page with a custom bio and the option to add their hometown, birth date or year formed, and more. Artists can also quickly add lyrics for their songs on Apple Music.
Apple shared more details about the personalization options and other new features added to the Apple Music for Artists platform in an emailed announcement:
Profile - Image and personality are key to connecting with fans and engaging new listeners. The new Artist Profile section lets artists take control of their Apple Music profiles and connect with fans in their own words. Artists can answer a series of short questions to create a customized biography that displays on their Apple Music artist page. Artists can also optionally add their hometown (or place of origin for bands), date of birth (or year formed for bands), and identify band members, collaborators, influences, and pronouns.
Lyrics - Lyrics have become an integral part of discoverability and the listening experience. Artists can now add their song lyrics to appear alongside their music in Apple Music so fans can read the words behind the beats. Adding lyrics is as easy as copying and pasting formatted lyrics.
Account - Building a great team is part of any artist's success. New permissions in the Account section (formerly Manage) provide an easy way for artists to control who has access to their profile so their team can jump into action and support upcoming releases and keep content new and fresh. Artists can also assign different roles to individuals on their team, specifying admins, analysts, and profile editors.
Measure - Apple Music for Artists insights are now in a single, easy-to-access location under Measure. Artists can chart their performance and monitor Apple Music plays, average daily listeners, iTunes song purchases, and Shazams. Intelligent insights and detailed analytics help artists plan future releases, tour dates, and other activities, like creating merch.
Apple Music for Artists is available to every artist on Apple Music and provides stats like how many streams a song or album has received, average daily listeners, iTunes Store sales, Shazam data, and more. Artists can sign up for an account at artists.apple.com.
The ability for artists to set a custom bio might remind some users of Apple's short-lived social network Ping, which launched in 2010 and allowed users to follow their favorite artists in iTunes. Ping allowed artists to share status updates, photos, and more on their profiles, but the service was discontinued in 2012 due to limited usage. However, the personalized artists pages rolling out now will be much more limited in scope.
