Protecting the privacy and security of your information is a priority for everyone at Apple. We work hard to collect only the data we need to make your experience better, and when we do collect data we believe it’s important for you to know what we’re collecting and why we need it, so you can make informed choices. Apple Music, like every Apple product, is designed with these principles in mind.
Apple collects information about how you use Apple Music in order to tailor features to your musical tastes. These features include For You—where you see albums and playlists picked for you, Radio—which plays selections from your favorite artists and genres, and Connect—which can recommend new artists to follow or posts you’ll find interesting. We also use this information so that we can contact you about upcoming releases, new artists and other happenings on Apple Music that you may like.
If you want to connect or share with other people using Apple Music, you can create a personal profile by providing a user handle (i.e. @johnappleseed), display name and, if desired, a profile photo, biography, and other information. Apple stores this information with your account so that you can access it from any of your devices. Your user handle, display name, and profile photo can appear alongside any comments you post and activity that you share on Apple Music. Other people using Apple Music may also be able to find your Apple Music profile using the information that you’ve provided. Information that you provide in your profile may be updated or removed by you at any time. Whenever you share online, you should think carefully about what you are making public. When you share from Apple Music to other websites or social networks, anything you share is governed by the privacy policies of those other services.
If your phone carrier offers Apple Music memberships, Apple may check your phone number to determine if you joined through a carrier partner. If you signed up through your carrier, your phone number is used to identify your account. We will use the phone number associated with your membership only to verify your account at sign in and to connect your Apple Music activity with your account.
iCloud Music Library, which is a benefit of your Apple Music membership, allows you to have access to the songs and playlists in your library from any of your devices. This feature sends information from your music library to Apple, such as song and artist names, in order to identify and unlock copies of any of your songs that are also available in Apple Music. Any songs that can’t be found in Apple Music are uploaded to your personal iCloud Music Library, so that you can have access to your complete collection from any of your devices. You can turn off iCloud Music Library in Settings on your device or in iTunes.
When you use Apple Music, we collect information about the songs and videos you play or add to your music library or playlists, and the posts you love, comment, or share on Connect. Information, such as the account, device, and IP address that you used to play music, where in Apple Music you were when you played it, the time you played it and for how long, is noted by and sent to Apple. We use this information to customize your Apple Music experience and to help us understand how Apple Music is being used so we may improve it. For example, this information can help us pick the music, videos and artist posts that we show you in For You, Radio, and Connect. It also allows us to make other recommendations to you, that reflect your tastes, pay royalties and prevent or take action against activities that are, or may be, in breach of the iTunes Store Terms and Conditions or applicable law. You can change your email preferences and opt in or out of receiving emails about new Apple Music content on appleid.apple.com.
We may collect, use, transfer, and disclose non-personal information for any purpose. For example, we may aggregate your non-personal information with that of other Apple Music users in order to improve the service.
All of this information is collected and used in accordance with our privacy policy.
Disclosure to Third Parties
We are obligated to provide some non-personal information about your use of Apple Music to strategic partners associated with this service, such as the record labels, so that they can measure the performance of their creative work, meet royalty and accounting requirements, and improve their products and services. We may also make available certain personal information, like your phone carrier, to partners that work with Apple to provide our products and services, or that help Apple market to customers.