How many of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums are on Apple Music?

Almost all of them. In November 2026 we checked every entry on both editions of the list against Apple’s US catalogue:

• The 2020 list: about 487 of 500 are there as the album Rolling Stone named. One more is only partly there, and we couldn’t find 12.
• The 2012 revision of the original list: about 474 of 500 are there as that album. Two more are there only as a reissue or in part, and we couldn’t find 24.

These are estimates, not an exact count. They cover the US store only, and the catalogue changes as labels add and remove records. How we counted is at the end of the page.

Of the 24 albums from the 2012 revision we couldn’t find, 18 are compilations: greatest-hits records, anthologies and box sets, most of them put together in the 1990s. A compilation is a release of its own. When the label stops offering it, it drops out of the store, even when the songs on it are still there on other albums.

The older list had far more of these than the 2020 list does, and that accounts for most of the difference between the two. Of the 13 missing albums that only the older list includes, 9 are compilations.

The rest are a handful of studio albums and two American editions of British records:

“Couldn’t find” means the US catalogue didn’t have that release. Apple Music carries a few titles the public catalogue doesn’t show, so one or two of these may still be playable. Ranks are each list’s own.

On both lists (2012 rank, then 2020 rank):

• Elvis Presley, The Sun Sessions: 11 and 78
• Muddy Waters, The Anthology: 38 and 483
• The Beatles, Meet the Beatles!: 53 and 197
• Phil Spector, Back to Mono (1958–1969): 65 and 489
• Funkadelic, One Nation Under a Groove: 177 and 360
• ABBA, The Definitive Collection: 179 and 303
• Various artists, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era: 196 and 405
• Ike & Tina Turner, Proud Mary: The Best of Ike and Tina Turner: 214 and 392
• Patsy Cline, The Ultimate Collection: 235 and 229
• Jerry Lee Lewis, All Killer No Filler!: 245 and 325
• The Temptations, Anthology: 400 and 371

Only on the 2012 revision:

• Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, Trout Mask Replica: 60
• Elton John, Greatest Hits: 136
• Linda Ronstadt, The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt: 164
• Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, The Anthology 1961–1977: 178
• Neil Diamond, The Neil Diamond Collection: 224
• Jackie Wilson, Mr. Excitement!: 236
• Various artists, Anthology of American Folk Music: 278
• Various artists, The Sun Records Collection: 311
• John Lee Hooker, The Ultimate Collection 1948–1990: 377
• Various artists, The Best of the Girl Groups, Volume 1: 421
• The Cure, Boys Don’t Cry: 438
• Public Image Ltd., Metal Box: 461
• LL Cool J, Radio: 470

Only on the 2020 list:

• LL Cool J, Mama Said Knock You Out: 246

Two albums are there in another form:

• Moby, Play (2012 revision, 341) is only in the store as Play: The Complete Recordings, which has the original eighteen tracks first, then the extras.
• Bo Diddley, Bo Diddley / Go Bo Diddley (2012 revision 216, 2020 list 455) is a CD that puts his first two albums together. Go Bo Diddley is in the store. The 1958 debut, Bo Diddley, isn’t, though a different 1962 album with the same name is.

Several of the missing ones have a way round:

• Meet the Beatles! was Capitol’s 1964 American album, built mostly from With the Beatles. It isn’t in the store on its own, but it’s the first disc of The U.S. Albums, the 2014 box of the Beatles’ American LPs, in mono and stereo.
• Metal Box was reissued as Second Edition, with the same twelve songs, and Second Edition is in the store.
• Boys Don’t Cry was the American version of the Cure’s debut, Three Imaginary Boys, with some songs swapped for singles. Three Imaginary Boys is there.
• The Sun Sessions: Elvis’s Sun recordings are there on Sunrise, a 1999 collection.
• Nuggets: searching Apple Music for it turns up a 2026 album with the same name and different songs. It isn’t the compilation Rolling Stone listed.

For the other compilations, search the artist in Apple Music. There’s usually a newer collection of the best-known songs. ABBA has ABBA Gold, Muddy Waters has The Best of Muddy Waters from 1957, and Phil Spector’s productions are on Wall of Sound: The Very Best of Phil Spector 1961–1966.

We checked every entry on both lists against Apple’s public iTunes Search and Lookup API, on the US storefront, using Spinworthy’s own matching code, and then went back over every miss. An album counts as there only when the store has that release, not a different compilation or a reissue with a different track list.

The count has limits:

• It’s the US store. Other countries have different catalogues. Some of these albums may be in yours, and some that are here may not be.
• It’s the public catalogue. Apple Music has some titles the public catalogue doesn’t show, so a few of the albums we couldn’t find may still be playable.
• It’s November 2026. Labels add and remove records all the time.

Treat the numbers as close, not exact.

Spinworthy has both Rolling Stone lists built in, the 2020 list and the earlier one, alongside more than eighty others. Each entry is matched to Apple Music by artist and title. When there’s no close match, Spinworthy shows nothing rather than a near miss.

For how the two editions differ and a plan for getting through 500 albums, see how to listen through Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums. Spinworthy needs an Apple Music subscription and is free on iPhone.