Apple Music played a few tones into a small tray of mineral oil and filmed its logo through the rippling surface. That clip is now the new brand identity.
On October 21, Apple officially introduced the new visual identity for Apple Music. The familiar red is gone, the logo and app icon turn black and white, the word “music” is now lowercase, and Apple’s own San Francisco typeface makes way for a heavier, rounder letterform. The full rollout comes with iOS 27.2 and macOS 27.2.
How to make a logo move to music
Apple teamed up with British producer Fred again.. and sound studio NEST Acoustics. They wrote a short composition that doubles as the brand’s sonic signature and as raw material for the visuals. The logo was etched into the glass floor of a shallow tray filled with mineral oil. A transducer turns the tones into vibration, the oil ripples and the logo warps. Everything was shot in camera, no CGI.
The footage becomes a short sting at the start of every Apple Music video. A logo-only version is overlaid on concert footage. Apple took a similar route for the Apple TV rebrand in November 2025.
“We wanted sound to create the visuals.” That is how Apple sums it up in the video behind the rebrand.
What a small business can take from this
What strikes us most as designers: the concept comes straight out of the product. A music service that lets music shape its visuals needs no explanation. The logo itself got simpler, the motion got richer. The icon on your phone is plain black and white, the story lives in how it comes to life.
That principle works without an Apple budget too. Ask yourself what your brand is about and which material literally belongs to it. A baker has flour and dough, a carpenter has wood grain, a physiotherapist has movement. A short video where your own material creates the shape sticks longer than yet another stock image. How filmed visuals like this hold up against the flood of AI imagery is something we covered in our piece on authenticity and AI.
One caveat. Black and white is a bold move for a brand people recognised by its red for years. Apple can pull it off because the shape of the logo is already iconic. For a young brand, colour is often the first thing people remember, and we weigh that trade-off for every identity in our portfolio. We share how we look at choices like this every week on our LinkedIn page.
Conclusion
Apple Music shows how strong a rebrand gets when the idea comes from the product itself. Curious which story sits inside your brand and how to turn it into logo, imagery and motion? See what we can do for you.
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