Can You Customize Apple Music? Themes, Colors & Icons

Updated July 14, 2026 · Marquee Guides

Quick answer

Not in Apple’s app — the Music app only follows the system light/dark mode. To theme your Apple Music experience, use Marquee: a free player for Apple Music with unlimited custom color themes, five alternate app icons, and widgets that match your theme.

Search "how to change Apple Music colors" and every answer says the same thing: you can’t. The Music app follows your iPhone’s system-wide light or dark mode, and that’s the extent of it.

But "you can’t theme the Music app" doesn’t mean you can’t theme your music. Here’s how to get a fully customized Apple Music experience.

What Apple’s Music app allows

The stock Music app offers exactly two looks: light and dark, controlled in Settings → Display & Brightness for the whole phone. There are no accent colors, no custom themes, and no alternate app icons. The only visual flourish is the now-playing background tinting itself from album art.

Theme everything with Marquee

Marquee is a player built on your real Apple Music library — same music, same playlists — with an interface designed to be made yours. It ships with three free themes (Theatre, Light, and Dark), three more built-ins with Pro (Fall, Ocean Breeze, and Forest Green), and a theme editor where you pick your own primary and background colors and the entire app adapts — the player, the library, even your home screen widgets follow your palette. Prefer a matching home screen? Choose from five alternate app icons: Granny, Rose, Purple, Green, and Black.

  1. Download Marquee free from the App Store and connect Apple Music.
  2. Go to the Customize tab and open Themes & Appearance.
  3. Pick a theme — or tap Create Custom Theme with Marquee Pro and choose your own colors with a live preview.
  4. Back in Customize, pick an App Icon that matches, and add a themed widget so your setup carries through to the home screen.
Marquee app icon

Try it with Marquee — free

The Apple Music player with themes, Last.fm scrobbling, Library Insights, and Upcoming Releases tracking. Requires an Apple Music subscription.

Download on the App Store

Frequently asked questions

Are custom themes free?

Theatre, Light, and Dark themes are free. The premium built-in themes, unlimited custom color themes, and the five alternate app icons are part of Marquee Pro, with a free trial to start.