Apple Promotes New Apple Music API Introduced in iOS 9.3 - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Promotes New Apple Music API Introduced in iOS 9.3

by

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.

Tag: Apple Music Guide

Popular Stories

apple music

Apple Music Is Down for Some Users

Monday April 20, 2026 12:18 pm PDT by
If Apple Music isn't working for you, you're not alone. According to Apple's System Status page, there's currently an Apple Music outage. Apple says that users may be experiencing intermittent issues with the service. The outage started at 2:38 p.m. Eastern Time, and it is ongoing. We'll update this article when the outage has been...
Read Full Article • 23 comments
iOS 26

iOS 26.5 Features: Everything New in iOS 26.5

Monday May 11, 2026 5:09 pm PDT by
Apple released iOS 26.5 after a few months of beta testing, and while it doesn't have the Siri features we were hoping for since those are being held until iOS 27, there are a handful of useful changes worth knowing about. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. End-to-End Encryption for RCS Support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages between iPhone and...
Read Full Article • 65 comments
Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

11 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 18 Pro

Monday May 11, 2026 9:01 am PDT by
We're only four months out from the launch of Apple's premium next-generation smartphone lineup, and while we're not expecting a sea change in terms of functionality, there are still several enhancements rumored to be coming to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth noting is that Apple is reportedly planning a major change to its iPhone release cycle this year, adopting a...
Read Full Article • 40 comments

Top Rated Comments

SpectatorHere Avatar
SpectatorHere
131 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
Saucesome2000
131 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)
A
abrasbr
131 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)
ericgtr12 Avatar
ericgtr12
131 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)
MacFrag Avatar
MacFrag
131 months ago
To much Apple Music/Radio clutter on my iPhone6s trying to play my own (paid) tracks.

I just want to play my own (payed) songs in Music app :mad:
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Juicy Box Avatar
Juicy Box
131 months ago
These people are just whiners.
It is sad that valid complaints get these responses.

I find myself using the music app less and less. I really don't like the new UI on it. I barely use it now that iTunes Radio is gone.


Why is the place button so tiny on the music app? It is impossible to press it quickly if you are moving.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments