Apple Music includes new animated album artwork in the latest beta versions of iOS 14.3 and macOS 11.1, indicating that the feature will likely come to subscribers of the streaming service next week.
Apple Music gained animated playlist artwork with the release of iOS 14, but it looks like Apple is now extending the feature to select album covers in iOS 14.3, too.
Animated album art in Apple Music has been spotted by a Redditor on albums including "12 Questions" by Future Utopia, "Detroit 2" by Big Sean, and Pearl Jam's "Gigaton."
The animations are short and appear similar to live wallpapers on iOS, showcasing brief and colorful sequences that apparently loop infinitely.
Example of animated album artwork appearing in Apple Music since latest iOS 14.3 beta pic.twitter.com/ta1k28pufp — Tim Hardwick (@waxeditorial) December 11, 2020
As noted by 9to5Mac, on iPhone the animated artwork takes up half of the screen, but they're the same size as regular album artwork on iPad and Mac.
Apart from all being new releases, it's not clear what Apple's selection criteria is for adding the animations to albums, but more are likely to be introduced when iOS 14.3 is released to the public on Monday.
