Apple is preparing to launch web support for Apple Music, allowing users to play back full tracks without the need for iTunes or an iOS device.
As first noticed by reddit user fani123q, Apple accidentally enabled certain features of its Apple Music web player early, allowing some users to begin streaming full tracks from embeddable widgets like the one below. Until now, these embeddable widgets and online track listings only allowed for the playback of 30-second samples. Users with Apple Music subscriptions were required to launch iTunes or the iOS Music app to gain access to full songs.
As Apple’s new feature, likely to be announced today at WWDC, starts to roll out, some users are seeing a “sign in” button appear in these widgets. Signing in reveals a notice from Apple that users can now “play full tracks on the web.”
Since the feature is not yet fully implemented, however, success using it is currently inconsistent. In some cases, users who sign in are told they don’t have an Apple Music subscription (even if they do). In other cases, the sign in is successful, but web tracks continue to play 30-second samples.
It’s not yet clear if Apple is planning a full-fledged web client capable of most Apple Music features such as browsing, creating and sharing playlists, and organizing your music library, or if the company’s first step will be to just allow users to stream full songs from the embeddable widgets (similar to Spotify’s embedded playlists). With the timing of this feature’s arrival, however, it’s a safe bet that we’ll hear more about it later today during Apple’s WWDC keynote address.