Apple Music
Great that Apple Music is now integrated with BluOs as of today, but could someone please confirm whether streams are lossless and whether Hi-Res is available?
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Our implementation represents another option and convenience for Apple Music fans to enjoy. This implementation sits nicely alongside our longtime support of Airplay 2, capable of Lossless CD Quality, depending on the source. BluOS will always advocate for the highest quality experience and we will also comply with the rules and guidance of the music services available on BluOS. The BluOS app displays the bitrate and format of the audio being streamed (tap the indicator on the bottom left of the cover art on the Now Playing screen). Our integration uses the same toolset made available to the broader 3rd party developer community. Currently, these tools provide lossy versions of the audio.
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I just saw this news… well done everyone who is involved with BluOS!
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Just wanted to say thanks!
I successfully set up Apple Music on my Node 2i after updating the 2i and the Desktop app
I was getting an error when trying to Login to apple Music.
It worked after I allowed a HTTP connection instead of HTTPS in Safari on Mac OS 26.6.2
Is there a way to tell if it's using Lossless?
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I erroneously posted to the wrong thread, but it's not working on my NAD M33, though the Apple Music app says BluOS is authorized. I've been contacted by support who has requested further information. Standing by.
https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/community/topics/200545488-Controllers-iPad-and-iPhone
Separately, the OPs question is still open...
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I can confirm that with the new firmware, my Node Icon is now (according to the BluOS app) streaming Apple Music at 256kb/s AAC. There is no stream quality setting in the Apple Music management screen, so it would appear that we are currently limited to the same compressed audio quality as Airplay 2. Hopefully work will continue on this interface and we will get lossless and hi-res lossless options at some point. It would be great to be able to ditch the Tidal subscription and use Apple Music for everything.
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I'm an Apple Developer so I checked the developer documentation and forums. MusicKit JS is used for non-Apple platforms and is limited to AAC 256kb. Hi-res has been an outstanding request in the developer forums since 2021.
That said, it can still deliver Spatial/ATMOS which does enhance the experience.
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Success. But I’m not sure what fixed it. In response to some requests from Support I toggled Safari Advanced Tracking from All to Private, which did not fix the problem. However, I made a second attempt.
Advanced tracking was still on “Private”, but BluOS still wasn’t showing Apple Music. I quit Safari, launched Safari, cleared caches, quit BluOS, launched BluOS, and there was Apple Music.I then set Advanced tracking to “All”, repeated the sequence, and Apple Music is still there.On my phone, I made no changes, but quit and relaunched BluOS, and it also is showing Apple Music.Smart playlists are not visible. I’ll have to spend some time with it to learn how my Apple Music playlists interact with the BluOS queues, but we’re past the first problem.0 -
Now that I have it working, I don't see any use for it. The audio quality is no better than playing off my computer with the Apple Remote app, and the access to my own playlists is worse as "smart" playlists are not accessible. Or just playing off my phone which, with respect to Apple Music, has more features than the BluOS app.
So what am I missing?
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Haven't been able to add Apple Music as a service, but sounds like I may not be missing much. Updated my BluOS app, along with my player, but no luck. I have Tidal now and looks like I'll be keeping it a little longer.
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@Wade M. do you not have Apple Music as option under Music Services?
Music Sources > Music Services > Manage
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No. Apple not showing up in the list.
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Does this integration just use Apple’s MusicKit, like all the Android based components available from Chinese manufacturers, and thus support lossy streams only?
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Unfortunately, it looks like your instincts are correct -
https://darko.audio/2026/10/bluesound-confirms-apple-music-on-bluos-is-lossy-blame-apple/
Apparently, it’s not Bluesound’s fault - Apple currently only makes the lossy AAC stream available to third parties via this API :(3 -
I was able to get Apple Music after unplugging my Powernode 2i, along with changing my WiFi,and holding my mouth a certain way.
After seeing the comments above from Rob E and reading the John Darko article (best source for everything). I’ll be keeping my Tidal subscription. I have Apple everything but cancelled my Apple Music subscription some time ago until they can get their hi-res act together.
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@Russ the only advantage I can see is battery savings on your mobile device. Since now it will just monitor the Node's activity rather than needing to relay the stream to it.
As for whether Apple will ever support lossless for third party apps I don't think they will. They sell hardware like the Homepods that they want to give a leg up to. Unless regulators ever force their hand they will do nothing. This is a pattern Apple follows everywhere. Unfortunately audio streaming quality is not going to attract regulators' attention on its own, and companies like Bluesound and Sonos are too small to amass the needed lobbying or lawsuit strength. :-(
EDIT: I was wrong about Sonos, see below. Though it sounds like something grandfathered (from Steve Jobs days?) that Apple would not support today for any new third-party device providers.
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I believe Apple Music is lossless on sonos, so why cant bluos implement it too?
We have waited years for bluos to finally give us apple music, wonder if they just got claude to vibe code it.
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To answer my own question, the Apple integration is indeed limited to 256 kps:
https://darko.audio/2026/10/bluesound-confirms-apple-music-on-bluos-is-lossy-blame-apple/
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Sonos have a “special” arrangement that goes back years and they don’t use Apple’s MusicKit which is the limitation, there is as yet no other method available to integrate. Apple could if they wanted to update MusicKit and then lossless / hires would be available,
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A couple of items:
--There are some random albums streaming at 320 KPS AAC, with Santana's Abraxas being one of them. Although 44.1 would be ideal given Apple's closed system, I was impressed with how 320 sounded.
--More importantly, when searching an artist on the Apple app, they separately group albums by studio, live, and compilations. They also show their curated playlists for that artist (Essential, Deep, etc.). When searching that artist on BluOS, they DO NOT include the live and compilation albums.
--We can temporarily work around this by typing the artist's name and clicking on Albums rather than the Artist but the listing is unorganized, as it is non-chronological and mixes in albums, singles, and other artist's albums where there was perhaps a guest appearance. Flagging this to Support as a significant area to fix.
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Thanks for the feedback Rich. It has been passed along to our Product Development Team but may simply be a limit of the Apple Music Kit and how it returns queries. A lot of times, Music Streaming Services have options they develop in their native App that they do not make available in their APIs or SDKs for a few iterations.
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Thanks for the reply Tony, curious as to what the Team learns.
On a positive note, I’ll add that the albums listing is in chronological order, starting with the most recent release (similar to BluOS album listing for Tidal subscribers.
I don’t know if it’s across the board for everyone or if it’s tied to my personal Apple Music login.
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I would like to link my apple music profile to bluos but when i try to do so from the app on my iphone or ipad it says the webpage is not safe and not to enter passwords
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Please ensure Private Browsing is (at least temporarily) disabled on your phone. If you continue to have issues, please select Send Support Request in the BluOS App.
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Thanks Tony. Private browsing is off. It seems the web page is unencrypted and is http rather then https. I dont want to enter my apple password into a site that is not encrypted. Any chance of this being chnged. I see another comment about the same issue
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