Apple Music
Apple's music streaming service and media player app for Apple devices, Windows, Android and web.
HN commenters like it as a Spotify replacement, citing better shuffling, audio quality and album curation,1234 and as a decent media player on macOS.56 The most common complaint is that macOS launches Music uninvited when headphone or play/pause buttons are pressed or other audio starts,78910 along with assorted bugs like memory leaks and lossless tracks stopping after 15 seconds.111213
Why people recommend it
Beats Spotify · 3
Several commenters switched from Spotify and say they prefer it and won't go back.
“Switched to Apple music and won't go back.”
“i use apple music. love it way more than spotify.”
Show 1 more
“I switched to Apple Music and haven't looked back.”
Discovery and curation · 3
Some credit its weekly new-music playlist and its album descriptions and playlists written by music nerds.
“I absolutely love Apple Music. The new music playlist it gives me each week has introduced me to hundreds of new artists”
“i use apple music. love it way more than spotify.”
Show 1 more
“I use Apple Music now for Japanese bands. It's quite good for that.”
Mac media player · 3
Long-time Mac users call it a decent media player that works well for them.
“Apple Music is still a decent media player”
“I mostly use Music on macOS. I use Photos a lot on iOS. Both work very well for me”
Show 1 more
“The power management and convenient things like Apple Music, too.”
Audio quality · 2
Audio quality and lossless audio were reasons people switched to it.
“I switched to Apple Music and haven't looked back.”
“Apple Music stops playing (lossless) tracks after 15 seconds.”
Cross-platform access · 2
Users run it on Android, through the website on Linux, and in the Windows app.
“Switched to Apple music and won't go back.”
“i use apple music. love it way more than spotify.”
Caveats and dissent
Unwanted auto-launch · 3
Play/pause presses, earbud taps and calls make macOS launch Music, sometimes stealing focus or playing audio.
“causing Music to launch and begin playing audio out of my default output device”
“Apple Music decides that what I actually want is for it to steal focus for 5 seconds while it loads”
Show 1 more
“every time I'd start a google meet call (IIRC) or otherwise interact with audio on my MacBook it would bring up Apple Music”
Bugs · 3
Users report memory leaks, lossless tracks stopping after 15 seconds on Windows, videos playing on their own and a broken Siri favourites command.
“Apple Music not leaking memory.”
“Apple Music stops playing (lossless) tracks after 15 seconds.”
Show 1 more
“Apple Music generally does the trick but stuff like this kind of kills me.”
Recommendations · 1
One Spotify switcher finds its recommendations lousy for discovering new artists.
“Since I’ve switched from Spotify to Apple Music, Apple’s recommendations are lousy”
UX · 2
Even a happy switcher says the UX isn't great, and one user says it pesters them to subscribe.
“I switched to Apple Music and haven't looked back.”
“Apple Music decides that what I actually want is for it to steal focus for 5 seconds while it loads”
iTunes replacement · 1
One commenter lost trust in Apple when Apple Music replaced iTunes for their local library.
“in favor of...whatever Apple Music is, I knew I'd never trust them again”
Scrobbling · 1
One user finds last.fm scrobbling harder to set up after switching from Spotify.
“since I switched from Spotify to Apple Music”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Stop the Apple Music app from launching 7 mentions
- Apple routed a graphite pipe through the iPhone Duo's hinge to dissipate heat 2 mentions
- Spotify just hit 300M Premium subscribers 2 mentions
- Apple broke an essential presentation feature of iPads 1 mention
- macOS 15.8.2 Breaks OpenGL 1 mention
- 15-year search for a band that charted once and vanished 1 mention
Data: apple-music.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 25
“Apple Music has a dedicated button to add a song to favourites, which I use.”
“Apple Music is still a decent media player”
“I mostly use Music on macOS. I use Photos a lot on iOS. Both work very well for me”
“Apple Music not leaking memory.”
“I use Apple Music now for Japanese bands. It's quite good for that.”
“Switched to Apple music and won't go back.”
“i use apple music. love it way more than spotify.”
“Apple Music generally does the trick but stuff like this kind of kills me.”
“I switched to Apple Music and haven't looked back.”
“I absolutely love Apple Music. The new music playlist it gives me each week has introduced me to hundreds of new artists”
“I hate how MacOS would start Apple Music every time I accidentally tapped my earbuds.”
“I've only ever used Apple Music with local content.”
“causing Music to launch and begin playing audio out of my default output device”
“in favor of...whatever Apple Music is, I knew I'd never trust them again”
“normally use the former in the car because it resumes its state from the last shutdown”
“every time I'd start a google meet call (IIRC) or otherwise interact with audio on my MacBook it would bring up Apple Music”
“Apple Music decides that what I actually want is for it to steal focus for 5 seconds while it loads”
“since I switched from Spotify to Apple Music”
“The power management and convenient things like Apple Music, too.”
“I pay for Apple Music and hate YouTube Music a lot.”
“Since I’ve switched from Spotify to Apple Music, Apple’s recommendations are lousy”
“Apple Music stops playing (lossless) tracks after 15 seconds.”
“I don't think it's nearly as good but I use Apple Music streaming since it's bundled”
“i use apple music the way you suggest for long time”
“I use Apple Music streaming for stuff I don’t care about potentially vanishing”