Apple Music's web browser-based player launches

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited April 2020
Following a months-long beta period, Apple this week launched an Apple Music streaming player for the web, enabling subscriber access to content libraries and curated playlists without a dedicated app.

Apple Music
Apple Music web player user interface.


Apple Music's web player initially debuted as a beta website in September, offering up the usual assortment of playlists, saved tracks and collections, albums, radio mixes and more directly from a browser.

This week, with the "beta" prefix removed from the music.apple.com site, the service officially launched as a public-facing product.

Visiting Apple Music on the web presents an experience similar to that of the Music app on Mac, complete with For You, Browse and Radio tabs arranged in an interactive sidebar. An option to open the Music app appears as a link at the bottom of the column, reading "Open in Music" on Safari and "Open in iTunes" on other browsers like Chrome.

Users visiting the site for the first time are presented an option to sign up for Apple Music's free trial offer, a process that is handled through the dedicated Music app or iTunes.

Existing subscribers can sign in using an Apple ID. Interestingly, authenticating an Apple ID grants access to "Apple Music players on this and other sites," suggesting Apple is working on future integrations beyond music.apple.com.

Once signed in, subscribers can play full songs and add them to their Apple Music library. Playlists and collections are also accessible through the web interface, as are songs, albums and artists added to Library on another platform.

Playing music brings up a user interface identical to that of the Music app on Mac, with playback controls, a scrub bar with album art, and a volume slider. When playing a track, users can add it to their library, add the track to Play Next or Play Later, "Love" or "Unlove," and "Suggest less like this." Common media attributes like track lists, song playback time, publication information and other data are displayed in the main playback window.

Apple continues to build out Apple Music's feature set as it competes with market leader Spotify. Beyond the web player, the upcoming iOS 13.4.5 update is expected to deliver new social media sharing options and integrations, a first for the streaming service.
JWKenny

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    digitoldigitol Posts: 276member
    That's good. Spotify has had their web-player since 2012.  /* begin sarcasm: Way to go Apple, only 8yrs BEHIND! Fantastic response time, especially given the industry you are in. End Sarcasm */  Deplorable, Shameful. Sad. Apple sauced! 
  • Reply 2 of 8
    rezwitsrezwits Posts: 879member
    I am surprised, "shocked I tell you", they finally feel the security is there...
  • Reply 3 of 8
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    They’re quite determined to get this “music social” thing going, but at least they’re not trying to build it themselves … again. 
  • Reply 4 of 8
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    digitol said:
    That's good. Spotify has had their web-player since 2012.  /* begin sarcasm: Way to go Apple, only 8yrs BEHIND! Fantastic response time, especially given the industry you are in. End Sarcasm */  Deplorable, Shameful. Sad. Apple sauced! 
    You mean the company that had a 9-10 head start in streaming, while Apple Music has been around for 4 years and gaining significant numbers without a free web offering that pays artist almost nothing, but exploits their work. 
    edited April 2020
  • Reply 5 of 8
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,286member
    That's great. Now I only have to get my company to allow it through their proxy server.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    swat671swat671 Posts: 150member
    I have a question. I pay $25/year for iTunes Match. Why can't I use this? I don't feel like paying an equivalent about for Apple Music JUST to get this. I mainly am interested in getting the music I already have in my iTunes Match account. If I just wanted streaming music, I'd use something like Pandora or Spotify. It's not worth it for me to pay for that.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    thattallguythattallguy Posts: 1member
    So you can only access playlists that are already created but you can't create new playlists, or add new songs to any existing playlists?

    This seems like something simple, why wouldn't that be a part of the interface?
  • Reply 8 of 8
    BadBillBadBill Posts: 1member
    So, now when I click an Apple Music link shared with me via Messages, it launches in Safari. I prefer to have it launch the Music app on the Mac as it did previously. I know I can click the link on the page that displays, but is there any way to have it automatically launch Music instead?
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