Hosting a karaoke night this holiday season? Feel like belting out some tunes on your own? Apple just rolled out Apple Music Sing, a new karaoke feature for Apple Music, with its latest OS updates. It's available to all subscribers of the music-streaming service via supported iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs. Here's how to put your vocal talents to to the test.
How Use Apple Music Sing
Many songs in Apple Music feature real-time lyrics that help you follow along as the song progresses. However, only Sing-enabled songs are optimized for karaoke mode. On compatible songs, tap the quote icon to view the lyrics, and then use the microphone icon to adjust the volume of the original artist's voice. Background vocals are left intact with lyrics in a smaller font tucked beneath the main words. For songs that have a duet, lyrics will align to the left and right of the screen to indicate different singers’ parts.
How to Find Karaoke Songs
Apple says millions of songs are part of the Sing feature at launch, as are 50 dedicated companion playlists. Currently, tracks enabled for karaoke through Sing can be found in a dedicated section within Apple Music. On an iPhone, tap the Search icon along the bottom of the app, then select the curated section for Sing tracks. Within this collection there are more curated playlists of karaoke songs such as holiday and duets.
What Devices Support Apple Music Sing?
In order to use the karaoke feature, you must be using a device with an A13 Bionic chip (or later). There hasn’t been any clarification on why this hardware is tied to the feature, but that means your supported options are limited.
To use Apple Music Sing on an iPhone, you will need an iPhone SE (2022), or a device from the iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, or iPhone 14 family of phones running iOS 16.2 and above. For iPad models, you must have at least a 5th gen 12.9-inch iPad Pro, 3rd gen 11-inch iPad Pro, 4th gen iPad Air, 6th gen iPad mini, or 9th gen iPad, running iPadOS 16.2
If you plan to use the karaoke feature on a television, you will need the Apple TV 4K released in late 2022, running the latest version of tvOS. At this time, Apple Music Sing is not currently supported on Mac computers or via Apple Music for Android.
Are Microphones Compatible With Apple Music Sing?
While Sing is intended to be used as a DIY karaoke system on your phone, the Music app is not directly compatible with hardware accessories, such as microphones. However, that does not mean you are out of luck when it comes to the setup experience.
You can connect your iPhone or iPad to an external speaker in order to raise the music volume, and a microphone can be used with that setup to create your own karaoke station. Microphone kits can be purchased at a number of online stores, including Amazon.