Create a collage of “My Year in Music” cover illustrations from your iPhone’s music library to share on social media “iOS and iPhone :: Gadget Hacks

Apple Music Replay functionality is zero. As well as being inaccessible, it offers a fraction of your history compared to Spotify Wrapped, which dives deep into what you’ve been listening to over the past year. Not only that but Spotify aggregates the data into visuals that you can share on social networks. While you can share Replay screenshots, there are better options for Apple Music users.

One of these options is the “My Year in Music” shortcut, created by the RoutineHub user. mmd1080. This shortcut examines all the music in your library that you have played in the past year, then randomly selects albums and creates a simple yet alluring collage using the cover art. You can then save the image to your Photos app, share it with people and apps, or even create a custom playlist.

It may not be as accurate as the Replay function, due to limits by extracting information from Music, but it examines both your personal music library and any Apple Music tracks that you have added to your library. Replay only watches your Apple Music subscription (which you might not even have), which means not everyone can use it without paying or use a free trial if there is one left.

Preconditions

Although not technically required, the “My year in music” shortcut is optimized for iOS 14. If you are still using iOS 13, you might experience some issues. You will also need the Shortcuts app (if you removed it for some reason, you can still reinstall it from the App Store). To make sure you can open the shortcut link below, make sure “Allow untrusted shortcuts” is enabled in Settings -> Shortcuts.

You don’t need a Apple Music subscription to use this shortcut, but if you pay or get a free trial, you’ll only get results for the music you’ve added to your library, because that’s where it gets the cover art from. Likewise, if you own the tracks in your music library, they should also have cover art.

Step 1: Add the shortcut “My year in music”

You can download the shortcut “My year in music” directly from the link below or from RoutineHub. Although the direct link works fine, RoutineHub offers the most recent version, which may fix issues or add new features. As of this writing, version 1.1.2 is the most recent.

Once you have selected “Get Shortcut”, you will be taken to the Shortcuts app. When that happens, take a look at the workflow and hit “Add untrusted shortcut” at the bottom, which will add the shortcut to your library.

Step 2: Give the shortcut access to your library

Now is the time to run the “My Year in Music” shortcut and create your collage of cover illustrations. In the Shortcuts app, on the “My Shortcuts” tab, find and tap the shortcut to run it. The first time you do it, it will ask you to access your music library. Press “OK” to continue. It doesn’t access your Apple Music account, but everything in the Music app‘s library.

Step 3: Create a visual for your final year of music

After giving him access to the library, give the shortcut a few seconds to analyze your listening habits and create your collage. When complete, your graphic will appear as a four by four album grid containing your most played songs, along with the text “Year in Music”. If you press the Share button, you will have the option to share the image, “Save Image”, and more. Tap “Done” to continue.

Step 4: share the image or create a playlist

While it may seem like you’re done, you still have a few more options to choose from, if you want. A menu will appear after clicking “Done”, where you can Tweeter the image, post it on Facebook, send it via Messages, or share it elsewhere (as in the previous screenshot).

However, there is one option that stands out: “Create a playlist”. If you tap on it, you can create a playlist in the Music app with a random song from each album in the collage or the entire album.

Step 5: View your year in the music playlist

If you create a playlist from your Year in Music chart, you can easily view it in the Music app. Go to the “Library” tab and select the “My Year in Music” playlist under Recently added or from the “Playlists” folder.

Customizing the shortcut (optional)

Like any shortcut you add to your iPhone, it can be further personalized if you know what you want and how to change workflow actions. For example, you can refine the illustrations that appear in the graphic, and you can remove or add an “Exit” option to the menu that appears after clicking “Done” on the image.

Adjust the shortcut for different illustrations

Not satisfied with your Year in Music artwork? Running the shortcut a second or third time will generate different artwork as it pulls things up at random. If you want it to be a bit more personalized, you can also go to the shortcut and adjust it to use artwork from your most recently read albums.

To do this, press the ellipsis button (•••) at the top right of the “My Year in Music” card. Then scroll down until you find the Music action, which says “Find all music where” at the top. Then tap on “Random” next to sort by and choose “Date of last reading”. Back in the Music action, tap “Last first” next to Order, then tap “Done” at the top right.

You can also play around with the options above and choose something like “Name” or “Release Date” to get different versions of your Year in music.

Delete or modify the menu

If the Share button on the image is enough for you and you have not planned or used the menu that appears afterwards, you can remove it completely or add an option to exit the menu in case you want to use it more. late. In the actions of the shortcut, to remove the menu, find the only one List action box, then delete it and whatever appears after it and press “Done.”

If you want to add a “quit” option, go to the Script box for “Choose from menu” which is directly below the List action. Then tap on “Add New Item”, name it as “Exit” and scroll to the bottom of the workflow. You should see “Exit” there. Now find and add the “Exit Shortcut” action and drag it right under the “Exit” box. Press “Done” to save. Then when the menu appears next time, press “Exit” to exit the shortcut.