So, Apple Music has two problems:
- The Windows app kinda sucks.
- There’s no app for Linux.
The Linux part, I can understand. The Windows part, however, I don’t – right now I’ve got a problem where it says “An unknown error occurred”, and I think it’s because I had to briefly use Wi-Fi instead of Ethernet. I’ve run into an issue where it took 30+ seconds to boot. I don’t know if Apple or Microsoft is to blame here, but the client is not in a good state. Some people will say to use Cider, but I’m not sure if they’ve even apologised for the shit they said that made me avoid them in the first place. Nonetheless, the technical issues were enough that a former maintainer for Ubuntu MATE decided enough was enough, and made Sidra, a wrapper for the web client.
The approach taken by Sidra is to let Apple handle the actual service part – the UI, the playback, you get the idea. Sidra only adds functionality, such as implementing media controls, themes, and Discord Rich Presence. I can’t really speak for Linux, but on Windows 11 it’s working as well as the web client does, including the word-by-word lyric support. I can listen to albums, mixes, and navigate Apple Music, and it’s snappier than the Windows client, even! Apple has massively improved the web client as well, making it cromulent for album listening.
It’s also open-source, so anyone who uses FOSS but makes exception to Apple Music for some reason are landed. People got mad at Cider Collective for moving to proprietary releases when Cider 2 was released, but that wasn’t an issue for me.
However, there are some issues, and it’s not exactly Sidra’s fault, but rather Apple’s. If a playlist has 1,000+ songs it’s slow to populate (Favourite Songs can go up to 100,000, btw). Unless you’ve got the patience of a saint (and I don’t) you’re gonna be waiting a good few seconds. Smart Playlists are also not implemented but this is only on desktop anyways, you’re basically getting near enough the same experience as an iPad user. One thing I would love is for scrobbling support, however Music Presence will likely fill the gap when its scrobbling feature is released.
If you can get by with the limitations of the web client, then it’s perfectly fine. If you’re on Windows or Linux, you practically need it given the notorious instability of the Windows client and the lack of any official client for Linux. At the moment, it is basically playing backup for when the Windows client decides to shit itself, but it may become my main way of accessing Apple Music. Should Apple just make an Electron/CEF client just like Spotify has? Given how bad the Windows client is that I have to use this, maybe.