Listening to Hörspiele on Apple Music: how to make it work on iPhone

The short version

• German audio dramas (Hörspiele) are included in a regular Apple Music subscription. No separate audiobook service needed.
• The fastest way in is to search for the series name and open its artist page.
• Playing a single episode in the Music app works fine. Across many episodes it gets tedious: it remembers neither your position nor what you've already heard, doesn't sort by episode number and has no sleep timer.
• Audio drama apps for Apple Music fix that. They use your subscription but organize episodes like a series.

Which audio dramas are on Apple Music?

Nearly all the big series: Die drei ???, TKKG, Fünf Freunde, Die drei !!!, Benjamin Blümchen, Bibi Blocksberg, Bibi & Tina, John Sinclair and many more. Labels such as Europa (Sony Music) and Kiddinx have put their catalogs on streaming services for years. The long-running series often have well over a hundred episodes.

What you see depends on the country of your Apple Account. The catalog is most complete in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; outside Europe, Die drei ??? in particular is almost entirely missing. The numbers for 36 countries are in our country check.

Finding audio dramas in the Music app

1. Search for the series, not the episode title – “Die drei Fragezeichen” rather than the name of episode 42. The spelling with question marks usually works too.
2. Open the artist page of the series. Every episode is listed there as an album. Watch out for separate pages for audiobooks or special editions – many series have several.
3. Add the episodes you want to your library, so you'll find them under Library → Albums without searching again.
4. Download them for the road. Any album in your library can be downloaded in Apple Music. “Sync Library” needs to be on in Settings → Music.

In German-speaking storefronts, Apple Music also has a dedicated audio drama section in the Browse tab. It's nice for discovery; for a specific series, search is faster.

Where the Music app falls short for audio dramas

Asked about better audio drama features in 2025, Apple Music boss Oliver Schusser said the team hadn't had the time yet. Playing one episode from start to finish is no problem – the tracks run in the right order. It gets tedious once you follow a series over weeks and months:

1. Your place gets lost

On Apple Music an episode is an album made of many short tracks. Play a song or another episode in between, and the Music app starts from the top next time. If you spread an episode over three evenings, you'll be hunting for the right track every night.

2. You have to remember what you've heard

The Music app doesn't tell heard episodes from unheard ones. With five episodes that doesn't matter. With a series of more than 200, after a few weeks you no longer know whether you've heard episode 87 – and end up starting one twice or skipping one by accident.

3. Episodes aren't in order

Within an episode, the tracks play in order. But the library sorts albums by title, artist or what you added or played most recently, not by episode number. Release dates don't help either: for reissues and box sets they rarely match the episode number.

4. New episodes slip by

When a new episode comes out, you usually find out by accident. Apple Music can tell you about new music from artists you've favorited, but only inside the app. There, an audio drama series is easily buried among music releases. More in Never miss a new album on Apple Music.

5. No sleep timer, few comforts

Music rarely needs a sleep timer; audio dramas in bed almost always do. The Music app has none, and the workaround via the Clock app stops abruptly mid-sentence. Other things that make audio dramas easier are missing too – skipping recaps and theme music, or a hint which episode is up next.

Tips that help right away

• Take finished episodes out of your library: If you only use the Music app, keep just the next few episodes in your library and remove each one once you've heard it. Library → Albums then shows exactly what's left. It won't save your place within an episode, though.
• Shuffle off: Shuffle is fatal for a story. Check the little icon in the player.
• Sleep timer via the Clock app: The Music app has none of its own, but the Clock app has Timer → When Timer Ends → Stop Playing. Apps that fade out gently are better, as we explain in Falling asleep to audio dramas.
• Download ahead: In the car, on a plane or with kids in the back seat, a downloaded episode saves the day. See Audio dramas in the car and Kids' audio dramas on the go.

Audio drama apps for Apple Music

Because Apple hasn't closed the gap, independent developers have built their own iOS apps. They use Apple's official interface (MusicKit) to access your Apple Music subscription and handle what the Music app doesn't: remembering your place, sorting episodes, showing new releases. Well-known examples are Hörspielzentrale, the kids-focused Hörspieler and our own zentr. All of them need an active Apple Music subscription.

The difference is the approach: dedicated audio drama apps focus entirely on Hörspiele; zentr is a player for everything you listen to and watch. Which app suits whom is covered in Audio drama apps for Apple Music compared.

Listening to Apple Music audio dramas in zentr

• A position per episode: zentr remembers the track and second of every episode, even if you play something else in between – synced via iCloud across iPhone and iPad.
• Heard or not: zentr marks finished episodes as played and can hide them. Even with 200 episodes you see at a glance where you are in a series.
• The right order: “Folge 2” before “Folge 10”. Optionally, a smart sort powered by Apple Intelligence – on device – orders episodes by number and groups series.
• New episodes in the inbox: Favorite a series, and new episodes land in your inbox automatically, with a notification if you like.
• Chapter filter: Optionally skips recaps, theme music or credits – extendable with your own keywords.
• Sleep timer: 15 to 90 minutes or to the end of the episode, with a gentle fade-out instead of a hard stop.
• Speed: Seven steps from 0.75× to 2×.

How favorites, inbox and queue work together is explained in How zentr works.