How To Use the New Music App On the Mac Without Subscribing To Apple Music

After upgrading to macOS Catalina, many users mistakenly believe that the new Music app requires that you subscribe to Apple Music. In fact, you can use the Music app just like you used the old iTunes app. You can ignore Apple Music and listen to songs in yoru own library, import new music just like you did before, and also buy music in the iTunes Store. You can also disable Apple Music entirely in the app.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi this is Gary with MacMost.com. If you're frustrated by the new Music App on the Mac and think that you need to be a subscriber to Apple Music in order to use it then watch this video and I'll explain what's going on.
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Since the release of macOS Catalina back in October I've seen a lot of people comment that it seems like the new Music app, which replaces the iTunes app, requires that you be an Apple Music subscriber in order to use it. People are frustrated when they try to search for something in their library or try to buy a song or an album that they can't seem to do it. Everything comes up with Apple Music results and when you click on those you're asked to signup for the free trial. Well, you don't need to subscribe to the Apple Music service at all in order to use the new Music app. You can keep using the Music that you had in your library before and you can buy new music from iTunes, rip it from CDs, or buy from other sources and import it into the Music app. 
So even though I am an Apple Music user this is a test account so I'm not signed into Apple Music here. I just have some songs in my music library here just as you would if you ripped some CDs or purchased things from the iTunes store. Now notice in the left sidebar here I see Apple Music here at the top even though I'm not signed into Apple Music. If I were to go to one of these I would basically be getting a preview of Apple Music. It would give me some information about it and I can browse the Apple Music catalog which is useful if I'm thinking of joining I could see what's available. 
I also have my Library here and I could look at Artists, Albums, and Songs of the music that I have stored locally. Now where people get tripped up is when they use Search. Say you want to search for something so you search for Beatles and the results are tons of things that are part of Apple Music. If I actually tried to use any of these things I'm going to get prompted to signup for Apple Music. This is what causes some people to believe that using the new Music App forces you to join Apple Music and there's no way to use it otherwise. That's completely not true.
So we'll Dismiss this and let's look closely at my search here. I searched for Beatles over here and I got results in Apple Music. But here's where you need to look. This shows you where you are searching and there are three choices. Apple Music, Your Library, and iTunes Store. This is the problem. If you have Apple Music selected here the results are going to be things in Apple Music. If you want to see results from your Library switch to Your Library and here I'll see the Beatles album that's in my Library. Once I've switched it it will stay switched. So it's not going to switch back to Apple Music. I don't need to do this every time. I just need to switch to Your Library this one time. 
You can also switch to iTunes Store and this shows me the iTunes Music Store just like in the iTunes app in macOS Mojave and earlier. Here I can preview songs. I can buy albums from Apple. I don't have to join Apple Music to buy music from Apple. I can buy it just like before from the iTunes Store. If you've heard reports that iTunes is dead that's not really true. It's the iTunes app on the Mac that is gone. The iTunes Store is still here. So if you're not using Apple Music then you really are just going to be switching between iTunes Store and Your Library when doing searches. 
Now if you're definitely not going to be using Apple Music anytime soon there's a way to even actually get rid of it so it's not there and you don't see it here on the left. You want to go to Music and Preferences and then go to Restriction. Under that you can see the Disable things like Apple Music. So if I turn off Apple Music and hit Okay then you'll see that it disappears here from the left sidebar. In fact if I were to Quit the Music app and relaunch it and then do a Search you could see Apple Music no longer appears here under Search either. You can accomplish the same thing by simply switching to another view like looking at Your Library and going to a new search.
So now you can use the Music app without any sign of the Apple Music service. I also want to point out that here on the left you should see iTunes Store and be able to click on that and then you can browse the iTunes Store as you may have been used to doing using the iTunes app in previous versions of macOS. However, if you don't see iTunes Store here on the left then there are two things that you need to look for. Under Preferences you want to make sure you have not disabled iTunes Store here in Restrictions. But also make sure that under General under Show you have iTunes Store checked. 
On the other hand you may want to remove it here or even disable it under Restrictions if you're using Apple Music and find occasionally you accidentally end up searching the iTunes Store instead of in Apple Music. 
All of the ways that you could get music into iTunes in macOS Mojave and earlier exist in the Music app. You can still rip CDs if you have an optical drive. You can still drag and drop music files into the Music app to add them to Your Library. You could buy from iTunes and you can buy from other services and take those files and drag them into the Music app as well. So if you don't want to subscribe to a music service just disable Apple Music and continue to use the Music app just like you used the iTunes app before.

Comments: 6 Responses to “How To Use the New Music App On the Mac Without Subscribing To Apple Music”

Jennifer

5 years ago

Thank you so much for the info about the new music app on my mac. I was one of those that thought I had to have Apple Music to play or find my music.

Marcia Christ

Thank you for this. I still don't understand why my Mac book and my iMac that are signed up with the same Apple ID are not showing all my music on my Mac book.

Gary Rosenzweig

Marcia: Music syncs across your devices automatically only if you are using Apple Music or iTunes Match. Otherwise, you can use Home Sharing to access your iMac's music on your MacBook.

Once again Gary, thanks for such a clear and concise explanation. If you have the time/inclination a similar tutorial on the new Podcast system would be good. Very best wishes. Al

Jon Tardiff

Hi Gary, Thanks for this SUPER-helpful explanation! Can you do a podcast about the iPhone too? When I search on my music it always brings me to the Apple store. Cheers, -Jon

Jon: It is the same thing in the Music app on the iPhone. Do a search and you'll see "Apple Music" and "Your Library" at the top. Tap "Your Library" to switch to that.

Comments Closed.

How To Use the New Music App On the Mac Without Subscribing To Apple Music

Comments: 6 Responses to “How To Use the New Music App On the Mac Without Subscribing To Apple Music”

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