Apple Promotes New Apple Music API Introduced in iOS 9.3

With the launch of iOS 9.3, Apple introduced a new Apple Music API, which is today being promoted through Apple's Affiliate Program Newsletter. The Apple Music API gives developers the resources to expand Apple Music functionality in their apps, through the following features:

- Developers can see if a user is currently a member
- Developers can see which country the users account is based
- Developers can queue up the next song or songs based on a song ID for playback
- Developers can inspect playlists already in My Music or create a new playlists with a title and description (see App Store Review Guidelines for limitation)

The iOS 9.3 Apple Music API has already been built into several music-related apps, such as Shazam. The API is what enables Shazam and other music apps to do things like add songs to Apple Music playlists from directly within the Shazam app.

shazamapplemusic
As noted by MacStories, Apple has also launched a new Apple Music Best Practices webpage for app developers and expanded App Store Review Guidelines for Apple Music. According to Apple's guidelines, apps using the Apple Music API are subject to the following restrictions:

- Apps using the Apple Music API that trigger playback without explicit user action will be rejected
- Apps using the Apple Music API must expose and respect standard media controls such as "play," pause," and "skip"
- Apps using the Apple Music API may not require payment or otherwise monetize access to the Apple Music service (e.g. in-app purchase, advertising, requesting user info)

Apple's developer page on Apple Music also includes technical documentation on using the new Apple Music APIs, a link to the Apple Music Toolbox for finding embeddable widgets, and guidelines on how to refer to Apple Music and portray the Apple Music service within apps.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Monday June 30, 2025 1:08 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are less than three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max in September this year. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
A18 Pro Chip

New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip Spotted in Apple Code

Monday June 30, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is developing a MacBook with the A18 Pro chip, according to findings in backend code uncovered by MacRumors. Earlier today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip. The machine is expected to feature a 13-inch display, the A18 Pro chip, and color options that include silver, blue, pink, and yellow. MacRumors...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
macbook air spacegray purple

Apple Planning to Launch Low-Cost MacBook Powered By iPhone Chip

Monday June 30, 2025 3:20 am PDT by
Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In an article published on X, Kuo explained that the device will feature a 13-inch display and the A18 Pro chip, making it the first Mac powered by an iPhone chip. The A18 Pro chip debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro last year. To date, all Apple silicon Macs have contained M-series...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
maxresdefault

Five Features Coming to AirPods Pro 3

Friday June 27, 2025 10:52 am PDT by
Apple hasn't updated the AirPods Pro since 2022, and the earbuds are due for a refresh. We're counting on a new model this year, and we've seen several hints of new AirPods tucked away in Apple's code. Rumors suggest that Apple has some exciting new features planned that will make it worthwhile to upgrade to the latest model. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Heal...
replay all time playlist apple music

Apple Music Debuts All-New Personalized Playlist

Monday June 30, 2025 7:16 am PDT by
As part of its 10-year celebrations of Apple Music, Apple today released an all-new personalized playlist that collates your entire listening history. The playlist, called "Replay All Time," expands on Apple Music's existing Replay features. Previously, users could only see their top songs for each individual calendar year that they've been subscribed to Apple Music, but now, Replay All...

Top Rated Comments

SpectatorHere Avatar
120 months ago
Apple's own music player is so god awful. Unintuitive, terrible UI...it's almost unusable. Itunes is
Would like to see them make a simple MP3 player that doesn't require a degree to use.
There current one is god awful. I don't, for the life of me, understand why they think it's close to ok. It's unintuitive, the UI sucks...half my music is now in the cloud for some reason and not natively on my phone (can't say if that's the app's fault). When advancing through a song it is very annoying to accidentally click the share button. It's soooo bad.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Saucesome2000 Avatar
120 months ago
Would like to see them make a simple MP3 player that doesn't require a degree to use.
I'm not trying to be a smartass, but am I missing something? Sure, there is room for improvement, but I use the music app daily and never had to "figure anything out". It's pretty cut and dry. Hell, I can now not even touch my phone and just say, "Hey Siri, play Deftones" from across the room.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ericgtr12 Avatar
120 months ago
I'm not trying to be a smartass, but am I missing something? Sure, there is room for improvement, but I use the music app daily and never had to "figure anything out". It's pretty cut and dry. Hell, I can now not even touch my phone and just say, "Hey Siri, play Deftones" from across the room.
Copying songs, playing songs from from my library without all the store integration, etc. Frankly, it's very convoluted and forces you to use a bunch of functions that are overkill for a basic player. Glad it's worked out so well for you but read through the boards here, on Apple and elsewhere, I'm not the only one with this complaint. I downloaded a simple player for $5 and it works like a charm without having to jump through a bunch of unnecessary hoops. IMO they've made this app useless for the average user.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
abrasbr Avatar
120 months ago
They need to add a notification system and add collaborative playlists
Any improvements with Connect?
I used these APIs inside my app and will release it next week. It's called SoundShare. It's a Social Music Network that allows every single Apple Music user to see and play what their friends are listening to, like their songs, add a comment, mention another friend, and of course, the most important feature, build collaborative playlists. But it won't stop there. SoundShare will also allow cross platform collaboration and interaction. Meaning that an Apple Music user can collaborate on a playlist with a Spotify user and a Deezer user. It's incredibly powerful.

It's so deeply integrated that you can simply replace the Apple Music app with SoundShare. You'll still have access to all your playlists, will be able to add songs to them, save songs to your library, plus all the benefits I described above.

Below are the two teasers for the app:

Apple Music User:
[MEDIA=vimeo]164294611[/MEDIA]

Spotify User:
[MEDIA=vimeo]164338765[/MEDIA]


Matt
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tdale Avatar
120 months ago
They need to make the Music app work on a 6 Plus. No landscape. Miserable fail.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ericgtr12 Avatar
120 months ago
Would like to see them make a simple MP3 player that doesn't require a degree to use.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)