Apple is cleaning up some of the pages on Apple Music by bringing together different versions of the same album under a single page. The organizational change was spotted by Frederico Viticci of MacStories.
It"s not uncommon for artists, especially those with long careers, to re-release some of their albums after some time with either re-recordings, remixes, or remasters of the same songs, but having these releases displayed as individual entries in an artist"s page can clutter up the interface with somewhat redundant results. This way, you"ll only see the original album on the artist"s page, and then find the other versions inside the page for that album. Different versions of the same album also still show up in general search results, as counterintuitive as that may seem.
Looks like Apple has brought back one of the best features from Beats Music with Apple Music: Other Versions of the same album.
— Federico Viticci (@viticci) February 18, 2020
This section collects remasters, reissues, remixes, demos, deluxe editions, and explicit/clean versions of the same album. 💯 pic.twitter.com/0FrHmxkqsP
It"s worth noting that not every album variation seems to be affected by this update. The Verge reports that, for example, the Codes and Keys (Deluxe) album by Death Cab for Cutie does not include a link to the Keys and Codes (Remixes) album. Only full re-releases of the same album seem to be included.
This kind of album grouping was a feature in the Beats Music app, which Apple Music replaced back in 2015, so long-time fans may find this a welcome change.