Apple Music’s First Rebrand Was Shaped by Sound in a Pool of Oil
Apple introduced a new identity for Apple Music on 21 October 2026, the service’s first rebrand since it launched in 2015. It includes a new logo, an updated wordmark, a sonic logo and a visual style built on ripples.
How it was made
Apple wanted the logo to be “made by sound”. According to Dezeen, a plastic piece shaped like the app icon was set in a shallow pool of mineral oil, and a transducer turned music into vibrations that rippled the oil around it. The frequencies came from the musician Fred again.. working with NEST Acoustics, and Apple showed the process in a video.
What changed
The new look drops the red that Apple Music used before for black and white. The wordmark now reads in lowercase, “music” beside the Apple logo, set bold in a custom version of Apple’s SF Pro typeface so it sits with Apple’s other services. The new icon began appearing in iOS 27.2 before the announcement.
Why it matters
Most rebrands describe an idea; this one tried to record it. The ripple is a strong idea because it can move: it works as a still icon, an animation and a sound, which is how people actually meet a music service. Losing the red is the bigger risk, since colour was one of the quickest ways to tell Apple Music apart on a crowded home screen.
