How Big is My Apple Music Library?
Do you have a massive Apple Music library? If so, we know that sometimes it can seem like your library is limitless as you scroll endlessly from A to Z. Forget about counting every song in between. So, what can you do if you decide you want to know exactly how big your Apple Music library is, both in terms of how many individual songs it holds and how much storage it takes up on our Apple devices? The answer to all this and more is here!
The number of songs in your Apple Music library and the amount of storage space it takes up on your device can be found under the “About” folder of your “General Settings” accessible through the “Settings” app on any Apple phone or tablet. It is also listed within iTunes on PCs, either for the PC itself or any device you have plugged in with an Apple Music Library.
In this article, we’ll show you the simple steps to finding information regarding your Apple Music library. You’ll learn how to check the number of songs and overall library size in GPs on various devices. Additionally, we answer commonly asked questions, such as whether Apple Music libraries have limits, how you can manage large libraries to limit how much device storage they take up.
How Many Songs Are in My Apple Music Library?
The first question people usually ask when they start getting curious about the extent of their Apple Music library is “how many songs do I have?”
The easiest way to find out how many songs are in your Apple Music library on a phone or tablet is to open the “Settings” app (the icon appears as black gears with a gray background) and click the “General” folder inside. You’ll then click the “About” folder where your “Songs” total is listed.
That’s it! Quick and easy. However, there are a few alternative options, particularly if you have a PC with iTunes or Apple Music where you cultivate your library.
If you’re trying to see how many songs you have on a device through a PC or on the PC itself, you could find it on the iTunes application as well.
First, open iTunes (if you haven’t downloaded it yet, you can do so here), and then make sure you click the “Songs” tab at the top to open the folder where all of your PC songs are listed. If you’re viewing the number of songs from a different device, connect the device to your PC and then choose the device when it appears in the left-hand menu column and open its “Songs” folder.
Once inside, you can easily see how many songs you have by looking at the gray banner at the bottom of the screen where your total songs will be listed as the number of items in that folder. You’ll also see the total time it would take to play all of these songs and how many GP of space they take up.
How Much Space Does Apple Music Take Up?
Sometimes people want to know how many songs are in the Apple Music library because they’ve realized they’re running out of usable space on their device and are curious how much of that space is music alone.
To find how much space your Apple Music library is taking up on your Apple phone or tablet, go to your device’s “Settings” app and open the “General” folder like you did for finding how many songs are in the library. Instead of clicking “About,” open the “iPhone Storage” folder (this might appear as “Usage” on older devices). Inside is a comprehensive list of every application on your device, the space it takes up, and how much total storage space on your is used and free.
Once your Apple Music app has loaded in the “iPhone Storage” folder, you’ll be able to clearly see how many GP all the songs are using.
If you have an Apple Music subscription and/or only download music through iTunes, there is an alternative way you can see how much storage your library takes up. To find this, open your “Settings” app again and scroll down to where the Apple Music icon is listed amongst your other applications.
Once you’ve opened this folder, you’ll see all your Apple Music settings along with how many GPs your downloaded Apple Music songs take up. This is seen under the “Downloads” section next to “Downloaded Music.”
Remember that if you have songs in your Apple Music library you downloaded through other means, they won’t be a part of the GP total listed here, as this is strictly for songs downloaded directly from iTunes.
Are Apple Music Libraries Limitless?
To some, having an extensive Apple Music library of over 3,000 songs probably feels like a significant accomplishment, and if you have a device with 128 GB of storage or more, you probably aren’t concerned about how much space they’re taking up. However, is there ever a point where you can’t place any more songs in your Apple Music library?
Despite popular belief, there is actually a limit to Apple Music libraries. Users cannot have more than 100,000 songs in their Apple Music library regardless of their device’s storage.
For most of us, this 100,000-song cap isn’t anything to be concerned about, as we’re lucky to even have 2,000 songs in our Apple Music libraries, let alone five times that amount.
Still, you don’t need to have 100,000 songs for your device to struggle with handling the significant GP storage Apple Music libraries take up. Luckily, there are ways you can manage this.
What Should You Do If You Have a Large Apple Music Library?
It is generally concluded that 100 songs in your Apple Music library will take up about 1GB of storage space, and if you have a device with relatively low storage to begin with (16G-32G), those songs can add up quickly, especially when you consider other applications on the device the storage they require.
Unsurprisingly, the best way to clear storage space in your Apple Music library is to delete songs. While this might not be the ideal approach, you’d be surprised by how many songs you’ve downloaded that you don’t actually listen to or enjoy.
If you’re the type of person who usually downloads entire albums rather than individual songs, try to give each song a listen and pick the ones you like and delete the rest.
Another approach is to delete songs you constantly find yourself skipping. These might be old middle school throwbacks or songs you downloaded because they were popular at the time and only now realize you don’t actually like.
It might take time, but as you remove these extra songs, you’ll free up storage space for your device or room for more music you’re certain you’ll listen to.
Final Thoughts
Finding the storage size and length of any Apple Music is fairly simple on any device by either going through the “Settings” app or checking the “Songs” tab on iTunes.
While we don’t think you’ll reach the Apple Music library cap of 100,000 songs any time soon, remember that the occasional library maintenance of deleting songs can do wonders for your device’s space and allow you to continue enjoying the best music Apple has to offer.
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