Apple iOS 14.5 finally gives you control over music service

With iOS 14.5, Apple finally introduces a long-awaited feature that allows you to customize the default music service. Goodbye Apple Music, hello Spotify!

The upcoming version of Apple iOS 14.5 (and the iPadOS equivalent) finally gives you control over the music service used. This is evident from the beta version of the operating system, spotted by MacRumors. This will allow you to choose on an iPhone whether you use Apple Music or Spotify as the standard music app, for example.

Apple iOS 14.5 introduces choice music service

Apple is notorious for freedom of choice; typically, the multi-billion dollar company bans third-party services if they have an alternative of their own. The entire iOS ecosystem is designed around that philosophy to ensure quality. Slowly but surely this is changing.

With Apple iOS 14.5 for iPhone and iPadOS 14.5 for iPad, users are given the option to choose a default music app. In practical terms, this means that you can play music through Siri, without having to specify which service should be used.

So far Siri only looks at Apple Music. In other words, Siri looks in your own library and (if you have a subscription) the entire Apple Music catalog. With the upcoming update, you can choose a default music service, after which Siri will use that service by default.

This new, inclusive update to iOS fits well with the recent trend. Apple has operated an exceptionally closed ecosystem so far. Slowly but surely, users are finally getting some freedom. In addition to the music service, you can now also choose a different default browser and change your default mail app.

Apple iOS 14.5 is now in beta and will reportedly be released to everyone sometime this month, including features around the music service and face masks FaceID recognition.