After nine months in beta, Apple Music is finally hitting version 1.0 on Android. It’s the third app that Apple has published to the Google Play Store.
It hasn’t been nine months of nothing, though — Apple’s developers have been adding features that make Apple Music unique for the Android operating system. In February, an update allowed subscribers to play music from the SD card; in March, another update introduced a widget; and in April, the music service also began offering up music videos and the ability to sign up for the Apple Music family plan.
Differentiating between services on the iOS and Android platform is key if Apple wants to steal users from rivals such as Google Play Music and Spotify. But there’s still a long way to go — the app is currently rated at 3.3 stars out of 5 on the Play Store. People are pointing to bugs, lack of Chromecast support, an inability to stream music, and crashes as big issues. Google Play Music has 3.9 stars, and Spotify reigns at an impressive 4.5 stars out of 5 rating.
Apple launched its music service last year at its Worldwide Developer Conference with a three-month free trial. The service is quite similar to rivals like Google Play Music and Spotify — you can stream music and discover new tunes thanks to human-curated playlists. More importantly, Apple landed several exclusive deals with major pop stars like Britney Spears and Taylor Swift, allowing subscribers to gain access to their latest albums on Apple’s platform first.
Apple Music is also getting a massive redesign when iOS 10 rolls out this fall, but it’s unclear if the Cupertino, California-based company will bring the visual tweaks to Android. The official version of Apple Music is now available for download on the Play Store.
Apple says its music service has 15 million subscribers — that’s impressive for its first year, but the service still lags far behind Spotify. The Swedish music streaming service has 30 million subscribers.
