Apple Music, is finally available on Android, at least as a beta. The music streaming service went live slightly over 4 months ago and has only been available on iOS, Mac and PCs (via iTunes). In that period alone, Apple has managed to net in about 15 million subscribers of which 6.5 million are already paying the company for access to the service’s over 30 million songs. Apple started looking for beta testers just over a month ago and the first screen grabs of the then unreleased application leaked on the internet a few days ago.
Apple Music for Android is not any different from its counterpart on iOS (read our review of that here). If anything, it borrows heavily from it on what is essentially a totally different playground. While there are no hints of Material Design principles being applied, all is not lost as a few elements associated with Android are available for familiarity’s sake. The hamburger menu for instance. Even then, for a first look, the application is likeable and like everything Apple usually does (eer bar iTunes on Windows), it’s simple, uncluttered and does what it sets out to do: grant you access to tens of millions of songs and many hours of unlimited radio chatter.
Apple Music for Android is available in all regions that the music service is already available in except China where it will be available in coming days. This may be partly due to the fact that access to the Google Play Store, where the app is available at the moment, is restricted, among other reasons.
Apple Music is Apple’s third application to arrive on the Google Play Store after the two-star-rated Move to iOS which serves Android device users making the switch to Apple’s ecosystem (and it received it’s fair share of bashing from Android fans thanks to that mission statement) and Beats Pill+, an application meant to make it easier for users of Beats’ first hardware product since it was acquired by Cupertino to manage their units. Beats Pill+ also received its dose of the troll-bashing on the Play Store.
Here are several screen grabs of Apple Music beta in action on an Android device:
One needs an Apple ID in order to access Apple Music on their Android device. After signing in, one is taken straight to the For You tab that features music recommended by Apple’s panel of music curators. Without signing in, one can only access Beats 1 Radio. Just like it did with iOS users at the end of July, Apple is also giving Android users a free 3 month trial of Apple Music. After that period is over, one will be charged using the credit card Apple has on file even though users have the option to turn off automatic renewal before that time comes. You can download Apple Music for Android on the Play Store. [Sidenote: once you’re done setting up, listen to the Techweez Playlist, please. You’ll like it.]
As much as Apple Music on Android is meant to be a totally Android experience, there are still a few things that require one to use Apple devices. Like managing the Family Sharing account option. If you opt to subscribe to Apple Music’s Family Sharing option, you need access to Apple devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) running newer versions of their operating systems (Yosemite or iOS 8 and up) in order to do manage it.
Apple Music has several things going for it like its flexible pricing depending on which country you’re in, it’s availability in over 100 countries as compared to competitors like Spotify which are only accessible in a handful of country and the availability of music from the likes of the Beatles and Taylor Swift which is not available on competing services. The big question is, will it be able to do as well as Apple hopes it will? Android has the numbers and probably it will help it get there. Probably.
