The new human-crafted Apple Music brand matters in an AI world

Apple just revealed a new brand identity for Apple Music, with the expected turn to Liquid Glass. I’m not much of a fan of their new design language in general; this is where I admit that I’m still running MacOS Sequoia and have grumpy things to say about rounded corner radii and text legibility.

It’s just a trend, it will pass, and at some point I’ll probably cave and upgrade when it starts actually affecting my ability to get work done, or more importantly get security updates. Once I adjust, I’ll stop noticing it, and life will go on.

As such, I wouldn’t normally find an obvious rebrand like this notable, much less feel like I had much to say about it. But then I happened to catch Apple’s behind-the-scenes video in my YouTube recommendations, and I realized I did have thoughts.

It’s a short clip, respecting your time at just a little over a minute long if you want to watch for yourself.

Let’s get the obvious part out of the way: It’s pretty peak Apple. More than a little pretentious, with all the resources a $5 trillion market cap can bring to bear on every problem.

There’s a design agency (TBWA/Media Arts Lab), a pop hitmaker music producer (Fred again.. and yes, that’s how you spell it), a whole crewed set with cameras and lighting, and a mineral oil tank equipped with a transducer to effectively transmit audio signals into physical ripples.

They shot a ton of footage of the oil (chosen for its higher viscosity) interacting with the branding printed on transparent panels. Fast Company has a nice detailed breakdown of the technical aspects if you want to dig in more.