Apple Music Understanding

On the record

Analysis dimensions

It analyzes key, rhythm, structure, pace, instrument activity, and loudness.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

Export

Session results can be encoded as JSON.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

File input limit

Asset-based sessions require locally available media or a complete file.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

Incremental delivery

The framework offers a streaming API that delivers loudness values every 100 milliseconds of analyzed audio.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

Instrument activity

Instrument activity results can indicate instrument presence and activity intensity over time.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

Loudness output

Loudness results include integrated, momentary, short-term, and peak measurements.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

On-device and offline

The framework runs on-device and works offline; Apple says analyzed audio stays private.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

Purpose

Music Understanding is an Apple framework for analyzing audio and extracting musical information.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

Rhythm output

Rhythm results include beat and bar timestamps and an optional global tempo in BPM.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

Selective analysis

Apps can request only selected analysis types to avoid unnecessary computations.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

Session input

A session can use an AVAsset or a custom audio provider.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

Streaming input

A custom audio provider yields AVReadOnlyAudioPCMBuffer objects through an AsyncSequence.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

Structure output

Structure analysis returns time ranges for sections, segments, and phrases.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

Use cases

Apple suggests beat-synced visuals, DJ catalog organization, and music-driven game animation as use cases.developer.apple.com · read 14 Nov 2026

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