The rest of the app feels like a hybrid of the old iTunes, the Music app for Mac, and Music for iPad: Apple rewrote Music for Windows as a UWP app (even though, technically, it has been deprecated by Microsoft), and it features a sidebar with links to Listen Now, Browse, Radio, Library, and Playlists. This section is the same as the Listen Now page on my iPhone and iPad, and it lets me drill down into the Recently Played area to get a longer list of albums, just like I can on other devices. at first, with more countries to follow at some point in the future.Īfter signing in with my Apple ID, I was presented with the usual Listen Now page that displayed featured items, my recently played albums, and recommendations based on my listening habits. I’m assuming “preview” means Apple rolled these apps out in the U.S.

I figured that was due to the “preview” status of the app, and after some research, I came across a Reddit thread that suggested changing Windows’ region settings to United States to get access to the download from the Microsoft Store. The first thing I noticed when trying to install Apple Music for Windows was that I couldn’t click the ‘Download’ button from the Microsoft Store. I suppose the apps are also part of a broader strategy from Apple to establish a stronger presence of their services on Windows, as we saw last year with the launch of Apple Music on Xbox and iCloud Photos on Windows (which joined the existing iCloud configuration panel for Windows devices).Īs an Apple Music subscriber and owner of a Windows gaming laptop, I thought it’d be fun to take Apple Music for a spin and see how it compares to Spotify on Windows as well as the existing Apple Music experience for Apple’s platforms, which I know very well and enjoy on a daily basis.

The apps, which are available on the Microsoft Store, are labeled as “previews”, and they’re meant to eventually serve as replacements for iTunes for Windows, which is the only flavor of iTunes Apple still distributes after they transitioned to standalone media apps a few years ago. Last week, Apple released native versions of Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Devices for Windows.

Microsoft store itunes