Apple Music has upped its Apple Music game with collaborative playlists that are accessible via of iOS 17.3. It’s a feature that was announced a few months ago but now you can access the same.

The feature delivers exactly what the name suggests — collaborate on playlists with friends and family. Users can invite one another to select tracks for a shared playlist. For example, you can create a shared playlist and allow others to use emojis to react to specific songs.

Of course, this feature also makes it easy to share songs. Needless to say, a group of people can easily come up with a playlist for, say, a party. If Ariana Grande’s Yes, And? is the sonic jam of a group then why not?!

To use the feature, choose a playlist and then click on the new Collaborate button that appears next to the download icon on the top right of the app. Invite people to the playlist and they will receive a message to join the playlist. Everyone in the playlist has the option to add, delete or reorder songs.

Users can also contribute to what’s playing in a car with SharePlay. It involves streaming music through Apple Music. Other trusted iPhone devices in the car receive an invite to join the session. Even if a person doesn’t have an Apple Music subscription, they can control the music from their devices.

Meanwhile, Apple Music is making all the right noises with its Spatial Audio feature. The streaming service will give higher royalty payments to music released on Apple Music in the more immersive Spatial Audio. The move encourages musicians to offer higher-quality content. The company said that the change will begin starting with January’s month-end royalty payments, and that songs that are available in Spatial Audio will now receive up to a 10 per cent higher payout rate than other tracks. Artistes need to remember that listeners don’t have to listen to the Spatial version of a track to receive greater royalties; the song just needs to be available in Spatial as well.