iTunes.
For some of you, that name may conjure up nostalgic memories of lovingly connecting your old, treasured iPod via the legendary 30-pin cable and loading on your beautifully curated library of music and ripped CDs. For others, you may be reminded of this:
Or this:
Or this:
Or any other of the litany of errors or bugs that might show up in day-to-day use (here’s a couple more for good measure):
Frankly, iTunes is a broken mess. From the sluggish, laggy navigation to the outdated, unoptimized UI (let alone the lack of support for AM Lossless and Spatial Audio), the app is really starting to show its age. So what’s the solution?
Apple Music Electron
Here’s where Apple Music Electron comes in. AME installs just like any other app on your computer, and it runs the Apple Music web client inside of an Electron container. You might have heard of Electron apps before, usually in unfavourable contexts, but unlike other Electron apps, AME is both lightweight and resource-efficient.
So what are the benefits of AME over iTunes? Well, for one, it’s faster and is much more responsive in browsing and playing music. That’s just the Apple Music website you say? Well, you know, it also has:
- Discord Rich Presence Support
- Linux Support
- Acrylic Support (W10)
- Custom Themes
- Language Detection
- Customizable CSS
- Media Controls
- Song Notifications
- Taskbar Minimization/Background Play
- Auto-Updating
- An Open-Source GitHub page
and more. (Lossless coming soon!)
Because the project is open-source, not only can you view and modify the source code of the application, but you can also submit feature and bug requests. The developers are extremely active, and if you’re a developer yourself, you can get involved and add new features to the app!
For anyone on Windows, Linux or even macOS, Apple Music Electron is a welcome breath of fresh air that solves many of the issues with Apple’s programs and adds many features of its own. It’s simply the best way to listen to Apple Music, and is improving every day. Check it out here and find the GitHub project here. Just want to download?
Author: Noah Grose
Student from London. Interested in all things tech. Twitter handle is @noah_grose.
