Apple Music no longer shows album artwork on playlists

Someone posted the shortcut that makes the album art picture then you edit playlist and add that. Thanks! This is it!

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/8cb4eb54069941dabb77de6905ae745b

This solution is not working for me. What logic would guide Apple to render every playlist the same color, making them virtually distinguishable to the user? I’m incredulous.

I’ve started playlists on my phone and iMac recently and the album covers were happening!

However my greatest wish is for Apple to give us the option of choosing a default setting for how we view our playlist.

I have to change from icons to songs every time. It’s so frustrating!

Unfortunately, it's still not working for me on macOS. I created two separate playlists in Apple Music version 1.4.2.83 on macOS Sonoma 14.2.1, and both got blended gradient artwork. The colours were taken from the first four songs in the playlist. But it didn't show a grid of covers built using the track's artwork.

In the meantime I have found that on iOS 16.7.4, the problem is solved. When I add an album and wait for the Music app to add all the songs (few seconds), next it will add the album title and album art. On MacOS Sonoma 14.3, it is not solved. So the workaround is to create the playlist in iOS.

For me Spotify is not an option. I was one of the very first users, have met the guys that started the company in person and I liked it but Apple Music is in a league of its own: lossless, Atmos, ability to change the start and end times of songs (on Mac using Ctrl-i). In the car, on headsets, and with high-end audio systems at home, I can use the same music service and experience amazing quality. Unless I’m wrong, no other service offers all of this at this price.

Having said that, it is mind-boggling why a company that employs so many top UI designers decided to treat album art like this. It is totally beyond me…

Tried this on my Mac and iPhone with no success. Not totally convinced that this problem is fixed.

I would think since it’s such a universal issue that the fix would come out with a new iSO Update.

glad that your personal fix works for you and hoping that we all very soon get that same satisfaction of getting our artwork back!

Much appreciate you sharing your experience.

No solution here, other than you can upload *one* photo (album cover) that is at least representative of the playlist. The grid is awesome - why take that away?? The "standard" Apple options look like some crap from 2005. Bad move.

I despise not having the artwork in my playlist cover art. These new templates are very bland and dull. When I scroll through, they all look the same and lack the excitement I’d get from seeing the original album artwork in the frame. Please go back to compiling the artwork in the playlist cover.

Thank you. This is a good workaround!

I still feel like Apple Music is a software that has fallen victim of design. I just updated from iTunes (late bloomer), and i must say that it's alot more difficult to use as many important functions are lacking (like how the search works, making new playlists, and the fields in the playlists).

Its just bratty intrusiveness that apple can't fix what's broken but has time to decorate someone's play list with cheezy taste. They just can't leave stuff alone. Improve an operating system OK, but rearrange all the furniture in the room cuz u r bored??, yes this is the apple idea of improvements. How many community members have to point this out b4 apple puts its head back on its shoulders???

There is a workaround, which I'm sure many of you will have discovered. Find the album artwork by googling, take a photo with your iphone and edit your playlist. An unnecessary irritation, I agree, caused by Apple not giving customers what they want.....erm, as is often the case.

Get a grip, Apple.

Yes, it's working fine for me too. I make my playlists in Music on my MacBook Air, it creates playlists using album artwork just as it used to and they stay exactly that way when synced to my iPhone! Just go to the leftmost option but don't add artwork, leave it blank and it'll do it for you.

To answer your question, go to the top of the page where it shows the original post and under that post, click on the bell icon to uncheck it. Your continual notifications of this thread should cease.

Thank you for posting that solution. That is working for me.

(I had responded to someone. Not sure why it posted with no context. I used the option of creating a playlist with albums in it, have the icon/artwork option all the way to the left but do not select anything manually, and it used the top 4 albums. This was in an already-created playlist and I had to select all tracks and create a duplicate/copy playlist. It would not work just by trying to edit the existing playlist.

SOLVED! On a iMac, you have the option of duplicating an old playlist which contains artwork. Once duplicated, add new music and delete the old songs from the original playlist. Duplicated playlist will continue using artwork like before.

Your welcome! 🤗 

If you have an old playlist which still generates album artwork, duplicate it from a iMac as many times you want. This gives you the option of having multiple new templates of new lists to create which will display the 4 top album artworks.

If you don’t have a list which contains artwork (an old version which will show artwork) , try and find somebody who will share one , so then you can duplicate it.