Roku devices are getting the Apple Music app

Roku users can now play songs and videos from Apple Music on their TV, streaming players or Roku soundbar. Roku announced on Monday that “the app will be available for download later today.”

It’s been a while since Apple’s music service became one of the most popular smart TV platforms. It was ported to Amazon’s Fire TV in 2019 and has since been built into at least one game console: the PS5 (although it doesn’t appear to be supported on Xbox or Switch). In my opinion, though, streaming music services are very meaningful on TV. If someone has a nice set of speakers, they are likely to be connected to a TV, and displaying album art on such a large screen is a gift for most of us who usually only look at thumbnails.

Unfortunately, Apple Music on Roku “does not currently support features like lossless or special audio,” Roku spokeswoman Sophia Economo told The Verge in an email. Apple does not keep these features locked on its own platform (they are available on the Android Apple Music app), they do not seem very common on platforms connected to the TV. (I didn’t find any mention of them in the PS5 version of the Apple Music app.) Of course, they are supported on Apple TV 4K, although the box has some limitations when it comes to high-resolution lossless files. .

On the one hand, this makes sense, given the variety of hardware that can run on Roku apps and the fact that both features will be wasted on TV speakers. But, on the other hand, it can be annoying for those who have a sound system connected to their Roku device.

Roku users will be able to sign in to the app if they have an existing Apple Music subscription or subscribe to the service through the Roku Channel Store.