Apple Music Sing - Get Your Party Started

It's been a funny old summer. One minute hot and sunny, the next minute everything's being blown upside down and flooded out.

I was lucky enough to have a good long break and given it seems like years since we've been able to do some proper socialising, we had a few get-togethers - 'twas the season and all that.

At the risk of being caught in a humble brag, I'd have to say the do's we hosted were pretty successful... partly thanks to the great company, partly thanks to my creative cocktail menu and perhaps most surprisingly, partly thanks to Apple.

Specifically, Apple Music Sing; a new service now included with your Apple Music subscription, assuming you've updated your device to the latest OS.

While some other music streaming providers allow you to display lyrics on-screen when listening to your favourite sing-along tunes, Apple Music has now taken things a step further, essentially transforming your iPhone into a karaoke machine in your pocket.

And as usual, with all things Apple, it's simple. While using the Apple Music app, select the little speech bubble icon at the bottom to get the lyrics scrolling up your screen. These are highlighted exactly in sync with when they should be sung. If the song is a duet or there are backing vocals, these lyrics will show on the other side of the screen or in a smaller font.

But the clever bit is what happens when you touch the microphone icon. Then a slider appears to give you full control over the level of vocals in the track you're listening to. If you're a confident singer (or you've tried my cocktails) you can turn the original vocals right down. On the other hand, if you're a bit nervous about attempting to sing every part of Bohemian Rhapsody yourself (seemed like a good idea at the time) you can leave Freddy and the lads wound up at full volume - or perhaps halfway in between.

Amazingly, this tech seems to leave the rest of the track unaltered, the band literally playing on regardless. This means you end up singing to the original music you're used to, not some weird, plastic-sounding karaoke track that doesn't have the genuine, crowd-pleasing guitar solos or thumping bass riffs.

With this kind of D.I.Y. home entertainment, I find bigger is better. While you can play your favourite Apple Music Sing playlist from your iPhone through whatever sound system it will connect to, it's not much fun for everyone else in the room if they can't sing along too. Frankly, having everyone gathered around a tiny phone screen to read the lyrics is a bit restrictive when it comes to busting out your best moves.

Luckily, Apple Music Sing works even better on the much larger iPad screen and even better still using Apple TV. At this point, with the lyrics flashing up on your giant telly and the tunes rocking through your home theatre, the urge to join in and belt out your favourite ballad becomes irresistible and your party is guaranteed to be an instant success.

Only one problem; by amplifying Apple Music Sing to this grand, almost arena-like scale, nobody can hear you anymore. Fortunately, there's a musician living in my house so I have access to things like microphones and amps. I'm pretty sure you could hear us from your place. It'd be more streamlined if you could just plug a mic straight into the Apple TV box or even better; maybe Apple should bring out its own wireless mics that pair with Apple TV automatically. Yes, do that immediately, please Apple. That'd be amazing.

Oh, if you were thinking there's only a limited set of songs optimised for Apple Music Sing, think again. Apple has curated a host of different "Sing" playlists, divided into different styles, genres, decades - or you can just ask Siri to play the song you want to sing with and go from there. Over Christmas, we chose to dip into the Festive Favourites playlist - but all the latest hits are on offer along with thousands of "Family Favourites," "Epic Choruses" and even "Air Guitar Classics."

The best thing about it is it's so easy. When you're in the middle of a party the last thing you want to be bogged down with is figuring out how to get the karaoke working. Apple Music Sing is as simple as opening the app and pushing play.

If like me, you've been starting to find your existing music streaming service a bit stale and you're looking to try something new, the "Sing" feature on Apple Music is a damn fun reason to give it a try. Your next party will thank you for it.

    

Click here for more information on Apple Music Sing.