Love or Favourite in Apple Music: what changed and what it means for old guides

If you found an old guide that tells you to click the heart to Love a song, you are not missing a feature. The name and the icon changed. The idea did not

What changed

With iOS and iPadOS 17.1 and macOS Sonoma 14.1, Apple moved from Love to Favourite and from a heart to a star. MacStories reported that your existing loved songs were carried over to favourites automatically. BGR noted the same change in the macOS beta: you no longer love songs, you favourite them

What is new

Favourites now cover more than songs: you can favourite albums, artists and playlists too. Songs you favourite are gathered in a Favourite Songs playlist (with British spelling in some regions, Favourite Songs)

What to read as what

• "Love" in a guide, a forum answer or a script comment means Favourite
• "Loved songs" means the songs in Favourite Songs
• The heart means the star

For scripts

The Music scripting dictionary uses the property favorited on a track. Older iTunes scripts used loved. If a script from before 2023 stopped working, this is the first thing to check. See how to favourite a song with AppleScript

Ratings are separate

Star ratings from 1 to 5 are a different feature from the favourite star. Mixing them up is the most common confusion in old threads about this

Likeit is built on the favourite flag: one right click on the menu bar star