There are many streaming music services, but two of them stand out from the rest: Spotify and Apple Music. Spotify is, of the two, the one that has been with us the longest and that is one of the reasons why it has the largest number of users. Another reason why the Finnish option is the one chosen by the majority is that it is available on practically any platform, something that the apple proposal has approached when launching Apple Music Website.
Currently in beta, Apple Music Web it's like the Music app in macOS Catalina, unveiled in early summer and will be officially released in early fall. And it is that the company directed by Tim Cook has decided to "kill" iTunes after almost two decades of existence, separating it into two apps (Music and Podcasts) and moving the management of iOS devices to the Finder, its file manager .
Apple Music Web is like Catalina's Music
And what does Apple Music Web offer us? Well, if something is not lost on me, everything that the Apple Music apps offer:
- For you: the section where Apple Music proposes what we can listen to.
- Explore- A look at what's new and Apple lists.
- Radio: from here we can listen to Beats live radios or others based on music styles, hits and more. The iOS 13 version allows you to listen to national radios, something that is not currently available in the web version.
- Our complete library, where we can access artists, lists (I have covered mine simply so as not to show the "weird" names that I give them), and so on.
- Play options from which we can advance / rewind with the buttons or from the «slider» or make it be played randomly with or without repetition. We can also raise and lower the volume ("slider" on the right).
- Now,: from the icon to the left of the person, we can see what comes next.
- Video clips available.
Apple Music Web is supports dark mode, but it is something that I have not been able to verify because it seems not to be compatible with Linux, at least now that it is in beta. It also has a button, deactivated if we don't use macOS Catalina, that will take us to the Music app directly (I can't imagine what it can do, that is, why I want to visit the web version from macOS).
Regarding its operation, despite being in beta phase it works perfectly. This is the good thing about using something official, that everything fits better and we did not experience small bugs such as, for example, a certain delay when going from song to song. This is something that did happen in services like Musi.sh from which we talk to you at the beginning of this year.
How to fill some of your gaps
iTunes does have an equalizer and the Catalina Music app will also have it, but the web version does not. I find it difficult to imagine that I will have it in the future, so those of us who like to listen to music with some equalization have a "problem". I've gotten very heavy with it equalizer I have always talked about music software, and this time it was not going to be less. Fortunately, the most popular browsers have many extensions available, such as Sound Equalizer in Firefox or Equalizer for Chrome.
Once an equalizer extension is installed, its use is no different from other equalizers: in both Firefox and Chrome, a new icon will appear in the upper right from which we can control up to 10 different bands. There are also some presets available, but I personally don't like any on Linux (not these or any app).
The other deficiency that we cannot solve now or in the future is that music cannot be downloaded for offline listening. This is possible from apps that download an m4p file that is nothing more than an AAC with protection. The songs are stored in the apps and cannot be played outside of them, so it seems impossible that they add something like Apple Music Web. As has always been said, "no one is perfect."
You can enjoy Apple Music Web from this link.