Apple Music Rebuilds Its Brand by Hand in an AI Age
On October 21, 2026, Apple Music officially introduced a new brand identity built around a single idea: "made by sound." In Apple's framing, music itself becomes the raw material for the visuals. The refresh spans a redesigned logo, app icon, wordmark, a new sonic identity, and updated content intros and event presentation, all aligned with Apple's broader Liquid Glass design direction.
The most striking part of the rebrand is its explicit rejection of CGI. Apple Music partnered with agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab (MAL), British producer Fred Again.., and sound design company NEST Acoustics. The team placed the Apple logo and the word "music" beneath a tank of mineral oil with a transparent cover, then played an original composition through a transducer — a device that converts an audio signal into physical vibration — into a shallow bath of mineral oil. The oil rippled at the frequency of the notes, and everything was filmed in camera. Apple published a 79-second behind-the-scenes YouTube video documenting the process.
In the video, Apple says it wanted "sound to create the visuals," and describes the goal as distilling the idea of music into something visually beautiful — essentially creating "the perfect sound wave." The short composition by Fred Again.. and NEST Acoustics doubles as the brand's new sonic mnemonic. Apple describes the finished animation as a collaboration between music, craft, and design, positioning the final mark as a physical record of music rather than an illustration of sound.
The collaboration is framed as giving the platform "a sound of its own." The refreshed wordmark pairs the Apple symbol with a custom version of SF Pro, using heavier, lowercase letterforms that give the identity a more individual expression while staying recognizably Apple. According to the team, translating the composition into a visual identity took months of experimentation and collaboration.
Users will notice the app icon shifting from red to black and white, a change that arrived with the iOS 27.2 beta and is expected to roll out more widely with iOS 27.2 next week. The minimalist black-and-white icon drew criticism online, but Apple is sticking with the direction. The rippling animation will open Apple Music's original content and event programming, and out-of-home ads will showcase the new identity. The brand had already teased the new logo last month during the opening of Apple Music Hall in Battersea, London.
Apple Music says the new look starts appearing across original content and event programming this week. iOS 27.2 and macOS 27.2 will bring the broader update, with the rippling animation, sonic identity, and new wordmark all shipping together.