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Apple Music on the web exits beta and readies for the One World concert

Allison Matyus
Simon Cohen
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After wrapping up a seven-month beta period, Apple Music is now formally available on the web through the streaming service’s web app. 

Apple Music subscribers can use the web version by signing in with their Apple ID at music.apple.com. The web version has access to all of the same content as the mobile app, including radio, browsing, curated playlists, and genres — but you can use it on your computer without having to install anything.

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The interface allows subscribers to stream their favorite music from their internet browser rather than installing iTunes or the separate Apple Music app.

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The general release of Apple Music on the web comes at an important moment: Apple Music is one of the platforms that will host Lady Gaga’s One World: Together At Home livestreaming concert.

Donations are being encouraged and will be given to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. President Donald Trump recently decided to withhold U.S. funding for the WHO, pending a review of the organization’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a decision that has drawn sharp criticism.

“Apple Music for the Web is part of our wider overall strategy to bring Apple Music everywhere our customers are listening to music,” an Apple spokesperson told Digital Trends in 2019m when the company launched the beta version of the web app.

Apple officially started the process of retiring the iconic iTunes app in 2019, and the software has been reborn within MacOS as Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Podcasts.

Since Apple has slowly begun to phase out iTunes, its main focus for music lovers has been on Apple Music. The company has been steadily adding new features to it to compete with other popular music streaming services like Spotify and Pandora. Both of these companies already have web-based interfaces for streaming music.

In fall 2019, Apple Music rolled out New Music Daily to keep subscribers updated with the new songs released by popular artists around the world. The feature offers subscribers a new playlist every day — not unlike Spotify’s own Daily Mixes. 

Around the same time, Apple also bought Shazam. The Shazam app can identify any song that’s being played by name ans artist, so we’ll likely see some further integration with Apple Music as well.

The streaming service also offers certain artists or albums that you can’t find on any other music streaming platform. For example, Dr. Dre’s albums The Chronic and Compton can only be found on Apple Music.

Apple Music offers about 50 million songs on-demand, as well as live radio stations. The streaming service costs $10 per month. In comparison, Spotify has 30 million songs in its library and offers subscriptions for $10 a month, ad-free. 

Apple Music made some big gains in 2019, with a 36% increase in subscription numbers. It’s still in second place to Spotify, which has 31% of the music streaming industry’s total revenue and 35% of total paid subscriptions. Apple Music has24% of total revenue and 19% of total paid subscriptions.

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Allison Matyus
Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
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