Everything is a service now. Whether it's music streaming (Spotify and Google Music), productivity (using Microsoft Office online) or even the upcoming Stadia game streaming service, companies are realizing they need to meet people where they live: on a web browser. Apple is reluctantly dragging themselves into that mindset with Apple Music. Previously available as part of macOS or by separately installing iTunes on Windows, Apple has finally made their subscription music service available right from your browser. That means one less barrier for those of you who still want to easily use iTunes and Linux simultaneously.
Until this week, Linux users needed to use Wine (an emulation layer for installing Windows software on Linux). While that's a solution that does work, it's far from being simple to implement for the average user.
Sure, maybe it seems a bit blasphemous to talk about desktop Linux and a locked down ecosystem like Apple in the same breath, but I'm a happy Spotify Premium user on Linux, and it's a Snap to install. We exist! At any rate, for those of you who have acquired some or all of your music collection through iTunes / Apple Music, enjoying it on Linux (or, really, on any device) is now a piece of cake.
Apple Music on the web is in Beta, and it's available at beta.music.apple.com. I played around with it a bit on Firefox and it works well, though without a subscription or free trial you'll be limited to short previews of tracks. Still, it's an accessible way to browse or discover some new music, and I've always found the "Editor's Notes" attached to certain albums pretty entertaining.
The only caveat is that you'll need to use a modern browser that supports DRM.
