This setup isn’t entirely necessary because you can just use Apple Music’s web player in any browser that supports playing DRM protected content. However, I like having a more native experience with Apple Music on Linux (and Windows) so I will provide a short snippet on how to create an Electron app for Apple Music using Nativefier. On top of that, I use Nativefier all the time and I don’t think it’s as popular or widely-used as it could be.

P.S. you can use this method for any web application that doesn’t have a native app and you can use nativefier on any platform.

Install Nativefier: #

Install Nativefier using npm:

sudo npm install -g nativefier

Create an Electron wrapper for Apple Music: #

Use the following command to create an application bundle for Apple Music:

nativefier --name "apple-music" --widevine https://music.apple.com

Let’s move the newly created application bundle to the /opt directory:

sudo mv apple-music* /opt/apple-music

Create a desktop file for Apple Music: #

Now, let’s create a .desktop file for the Apple Music bundle so that way your desktop environment can pick it up and launch it.

Create a new file in /usr/share/applications/apple-music.desktop with the following content:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name="Apple Music"
GenericName=music
Exec=/opt/apple-music/apple-music
Categories=Music;Entertainment;

You can also create a symlink to place the apple-music executable in your $PATH:

sudo ln -s /opt/apple-music/apple-music /usr/local/bin/apple-music

Launch the app: #

Use your preferred launcher to open the Apple Music or run the executable from the command line:

apple-music

Here’s what Apple Music via Nativefier looks like on GNOME 40: