
Show HN: Musish – Web client for Apple Music - pplonski86
https://musi.sh
======
benkaiser
(self-plug here) If you're interested in web-based music players, I actually
author one that's open source. It uses youtube/soundcloud iframes to play the
tracks themselves, but allows for syncing playlists across from spotify as
well as browsing top charts and syncing libraries between devices.

[https://next.kaiserapps.com/discover](https://next.kaiserapps.com/discover)

[https://github.com/benkaiser/stretto/tree/next](https://github.com/benkaiser/stretto/tree/next)

~~~
wuliwong
i made www.muusical.com a few years ago. i haven't been maintaining much
lately but I'm still quite interested in meeting people with similar
interests.

------
elwell
The code is very well-written.

Some highlights:

[https://github.com/Musish/Musish/blob/master/src/app/service...](https://github.com/Musish/Musish/blob/master/src/app/services/MusicPlayerApi.js)

[https://github.com/Musish/Musish/blob/master/src/app/utils/U...](https://github.com/Musish/Musish/blob/master/src/app/utils/Utils.js#L20)

[https://github.com/Musish/Musish/blob/master/src/app/utils/C...](https://github.com/Musish/Musish/blob/master/src/app/utils/Constants/DragDropType.js)

~~~
victorantos
What about this horrible code section:
[https://github.com/Musish/Musish/blob/74a1a0c570c002d5980f15...](https://github.com/Musish/Musish/blob/74a1a0c570c002d5980f15defd38e5a322b162db/src/app/services/MusicApi.js#L119)

~~~
elwell
Well it _is_ JavaScript...

------
snek
Seems like spotify and apple music both do the same thing here. the js api
creates an iframe to their "embedded player" which is just their full player
without a ui which will respond to rpc commands from the page.

[https://embed.music.apple.com/](https://embed.music.apple.com/)
[https://sdk.scdn.co/embedded/index.html](https://sdk.scdn.co/embedded/index.html)

Would be nice if paying users could access actual streams, although that would
probably violate the drm or something.

~~~
jtl999
Spotify DRM _has_ been cracked before (extraction 320kbps Vorbis streams
without recompression), but for obvious reasons there are no ready-made public
PoC's.

~~~
kingosticks
Doesn't librespot count?

~~~
jtl999
Possibly. I haven't looked into it though.

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sonaltr
This is amazing! One of the main reasons I went with Spotify after 3 yrs of
Apple Music is because I moved to use Linux as my primary desktop and I didn't
have an Apple Music client there. This is making me reconsider getting Apple
Music subscription again!

I'm going to see if there's a Github link or maybe reverse engineer the API
and make it into a desktop app (mainly for Media key controls and Desktop
integration to be honest).

~~~
jklein11
It looks like Apple has a public API for this.[1] No need to reverse engineer.

1\.
[https://developer.apple.com/documentation/applemusicapi](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/applemusicapi)

------
e1ven
Has Apple said anything about why they aren't releasing their own web player?

With the API integration it seems pretty straight-forward to make one, so
there's got to be a strategic reason they don't want to?

Maybe they want to encourage people to use native apps wherever possible,
since they have more advantage over Chromebooks there?

~~~
aylmao
In the short-term, micro context, like most exclusive Apple apps, it's one
more reason to buy Apple devices and lock existing users into upgrading to
Apple devices. Switching apps is a hassle, especially if there's no easy ways
to migrate data.

In the broader context and rough terms, it's against Apple's interests that
web apps in general take off over native apps. In theory, there's no reason
web apps shouldn't be as capable as native apps for 90% of workflows (playing
music being well in that 90%).

If web apps, at large, take off:

1\. The App Store loses relevance, and so Apple loses influence over
developers, distribution, and 30% piece of the cake. 2\. Apple loses platform
lock-in, since web apps run everywhere. It'd be a no-brainer for companies to
have one team developing for the web, instead of one for the web and one or
two for mobile.

I don't doubt if Apple wanted they could form a team with enough expertise to
build solid web apps and make their services gain marketshare, but the
experience would either have to be subpar vs native (like iCloud.com is IMO)
or solid enough that they would unwittingly prove web apps are equally capable
to native apps, and so create demand for more web apps, more progress in that
space, and stray away from an advantageous position for them.

~~~
artimaeis
Apple Music is not an exclusive app though:

Android:

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.andr...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.android.music&hl=en)

Windows 10:

[https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/p/itunes/9pb2mz1zmb1s](https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/p/itunes/9pb2mz1zmb1s)

~~~
aylmao
Oh, go figure. I stand corrected on my first point about immediate platform
lock-in. Longer-term, I still believe Apple is refraining of heavily
supporting the web to keep overall control of its platforms.

------
ashraful
I had created something similar using Spotify and Youtube to replace a need
for a spotify subscription -
[https://www.livejam.com](https://www.livejam.com)

Now I'm thinking about turning it into a desktop app coz its a pain to keep a
tab open for playing music.

~~~
degenerate
Maybe you could fork FreeTube to save some time:

[https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube](https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube)

------
yankcrime
This is great, thanks! As someone who previously listened to Apple Music on
Linux via the Windows edition of iTunes running using Wine in a Docker
container (lol), a proper alternative is massively appreciated.

~~~
jdillaaa
May I ask why all of the effort to use Apple Music? Why not switch over to
Spotify which has a ton more open libraries / APIs?

~~~
ghostly_s
Personally I don't use Spotify because the interface is hostile to people who
prefer listening to full albums, and I don't want to support a monoculture if
I have an alternative (not that Apple is some great panacea for artists, of
course).

~~~
news_to_me
I listen to music that way too, but I'm toughing it out on Spotify still. I'm
curious, how do you feel Apple Music's interface is better in that regard?

I was too late for rdio, but from what I hear it sounds like the music service
I really want :/

~~~
publicfig
Not OP: I really like how (especially on the mobile app) it's always pretty
easy to see which albums each track is associated with no matter what
direction I get to the Artist from. In Spotify, I have issues where from some
directions, it just lists all of the songs that I have saved from an artist,
ignoring the album information. It also will sometimes end up with the songs
in alphabetical order, making it difficult to listen to the album. While
there's always a way to end up seeing a view that I want, it usually ends up
with me clicking though a bunch of links to get to the Artists default page,
and on things like CarPlay, that's not really an option either making it more
difficult.

That was one of my main reasons for switching to Rdio when it was out, and
while I really liked Rdio for its UI, it definitely had enough bugs/delays in
song starting that I ended up moving (reluctantly) back to Spotify until Apple
Music was released. Now, with that handled along with cloud uploads of my
local media (I buy a lot off of bandcamp), it feels like a much more whole
offering. I wish social and discovery features were up to Spotify's levels,
but I personally have moved away from those for various reasons anyway, so
it's not as much of an issue for me as it is for users who really utilize
those features.

~~~
jdillaaa
Yeah, I have found Apple Music to be better than Spotify for the curation of
music libraries.

> it just lists all of the songs that I have saved from an artist, ignoring
> the album information

AM definitely has Spotify beat here. Click an artist, see their albums, choose
an album to listen to. All in one view. It seems so natural ... I wonder if
this is because I learned to curate my music on iTunes, and it is just a
habit?

But for music discovery, open development practices (this is the biggest
reason I switched from AM to Spotify - knowing that no matter what kind of
thing I want to hack together, Raspberry Pi connected to BT speaker connected
to projector, I would be able connect Spotify to it somehow), and social music
experience, I think Spotify has AM beat.

~~~
hackmiester
> AM definitely has Spotify beat here. Click an artist, see their albums,
> choose an album to listen to.

Maybe I am missing something, but it seems like the flow you describe is
exactly how it works in Spotify. Here is an artist page with the album list
prominently featured:
[https://i.imgur.com/wNAjoCa.png](https://i.imgur.com/wNAjoCa.png)

~~~
jdillaaa
Sorry, I was referring to your curated music library, not searching.

For example, in Spotify they just list all the tracks

[https://i.imgur.com/Bse9J7z.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Bse9J7z.jpg)

In Apple Music, they list the albums, year, artwork, etc.

[https://i.imgur.com/jyktt7R.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/jyktt7R.jpg)

I definitely prefer Apple's for browsing my current music.

------
lisowski
I did kinda that same thing for soundcloud a few years ago with meteor <3\.
It's been awhile since this code was touched.

I stopped developing it because soundcloud's UI started to really match my
design and feature set.

but:

\- my search is faster (just a long startup time) \- it will actually shuffle
all your songs and not just the last 20-ish

[https://sctunes.herokuapp.com/](https://sctunes.herokuapp.com/)
[https://github.com/hipstersmoothie/sctunes.meteor](https://github.com/hipstersmoothie/sctunes.meteor)

------
artellectual
I'm perplexed as to why the web client is so much better than the native
itunes client. This was completely unexpected. I have to say the web platform
has come a very long way.

~~~
grogenaut
Apple has little motivation to improve the music player and has a massive
megalith in iTunes to support. It does so much it’s likely quite difficult to
work on. I mean I think it still installs bonjour on windows for some reason.

~~~
accatyyc
That reason is probably to discover AirPlay speakers on the network, right?
Sounds useful to me

~~~
grogenaut
I’m just listing out all the baggage that monolith drags with it. The pct that
wants to just listen to music or sync their phone is way hire than those with
the expensive air speakers no one is buying. But they all get bonjour by
default.

~~~
accatyyc
Most people may not buy specific AirPlay speakers, but for example if you have
an AppleTV or AirPort-express they can be used for this as well. I use it a
lot and I'm glad iTunes can find them!

------
jdillaaa
Lovely design. Question, why would we not just use Apple's official site? For
example, search for something on [https://tools.applemusic.com/en-
us](https://tools.applemusic.com/en-us), then just click sign in on the top
right once you select your music. I believe there is a way to see your current
library too.

Great work.

Edit: Changed link.

~~~
ghostly_s
I've never heard of that site, and it clearly doesn't look like it's intended
for use by subscribers. I can't get it to play a full song even after signing
in.

------
yantrams
Great job! Thank you. I'll see if I can add support to this for the last.fm
scrobbler extension that I use.

PS: For those of you who use Apple music and are into Indie / Alternative
music, here's a 2018 mixtape I made recently.

[http://linkdot.link/2018-mixtape.html](http://linkdot.link/2018-mixtape.html)

Edit: Added playlist

------
sjroot
Looks very well done! Is the source code available anywhere? I was planning on
working on an Apple Music web client myself and would be happy to contribute.

Edit: Musish github repo:
[https://github.com/Musish/Musish](https://github.com/Musish/Musish)

------
darkstar_16
This is actually pretty nice. I was expecting a heavy bloated web app but its
not. Good work.

------
buzzert
Very cool! Would be incredible if you could access your iCloud Music Library
as well.

------
coob
This is really well put together, works flawlessly for me.

------
rglover
Really well done. Design was a nice surprise :)

------
magic5227
This is amazing!

How did one person make a client that is 100x faster and more stable than
Apple's?

~~~
mockdev
Yeah I don't think it is any faster or more stable than the actual Apple web
client. They probably use the same API's. Plus lots of considerations that
applies to any website. Is it available in multiple languages? How accessible
is it? Does it work on older browsers? Also, digging around, the Apple web
client seems pretty up to date. Isn't old software. I like the search feature
though on this.

~~~
mockdev
Yeah looks like you can get Chinese pages as well.
[https://itunes.apple.com/cn/artist/taylor-
swift/159260351](https://itunes.apple.com/cn/artist/taylor-swift/159260351)

------
eloy
Please change the title so it includes that this is about an Apple Music
webclient

~~~
sctb
Updated from “Unofficial Open-Source Web Client my friends and I created”.

------
jolmg
Title is very misleading. I came here thinking it was a new web browser (an
http client).

