You can now get the digital equivalent of liner notes for Apple Music with a 3rd part app called MusicSmart. The app provides details of writers, producers, and everyone who has credits for it. It also can tell you which samples are used in a song, or which songs have used it as a sample and a host of background information to round out your listening experience.
MusicSmart integrates with your music library regardless of whether it’s an Apple Music or local library. So, you can use it without an Apple Music subscription, as long as your music library is accessible via the Music app. The app also supports Family Sharing in Apple Music.
MusicSmart features
Powered by knowledge from different sources, MusicSmart can aggregate and display the following details about an album:
- The album cover in high-resolution (3000×3000)
- The release date and the list of genres
- If it is mastered for iTunes or not
- The record label and copyright info
- And editorial notes from the Apple Music team
And for each song, you’ll be able to get information such as:
- Notes with the meaning, trivia and interesting facts
- The list of credits containing who was responsible for each aspect of the track, such as:
- Writers
- Engineers
- Producers
- Vocals
- Video directors
- And more
- Which songs it uses as a sample
- Which songs have used this song as a sample
- Interpolations
- Remixes
- Music videos
- Live performances
- And more
And for each artist, you can get details like:
- Stage and legal name
- Hometown
- Birthdate
- And age
You can also use the Action Extension integrated with the Music app to get these details without having to leave the app although due to a limitation in the share feature of the Music app, the Action Extension only works with albums and songs from Apple Music. But you can use the main app to get the same details about your local, non-Apple Music albums as well.
The app costs £1.99 and can be got from the Apple App Store here.
