I wanted Discord to show what I was listening to
When I used Apple Music on Linux, I wanted my friends to see what I was listening to in Discord, the way they could with Spotify. I used Apple Music on the web because there was no official Linux app, and that integration was missing.
I built amusic to handle it. It’s a Linux desktop app that opens the web version of Apple Music and shares playback activity with Discord.
Apple Music web, Rust and MPRIS
On Linux, MPRIS lets you query what a media player is playing and its playback state. I used that information to connect Apple Music to Discord.
I wrote the logic in Rust and wrapped Apple Music web in a WebView. The Discord integration uses an SDK to show a “Listening to Apple Music” activity with the track, artwork and playback progress.
It also responds to track changes, pauses and resumed playback. I wanted the activity to follow what I was listening to without having to update anything manually.
My own app for a couple of years
I used amusic as my Apple Music app on Linux for a couple of years. I built it for myself, shared it, and other people who wanted the same integration used it too.
I’ve since switched to YouTube Music, so I no longer use amusic day to day. While I did, it handled exactly what I needed.