Can I listen to iTunes music on Linux? Although it’s not something extremely easy and straightforward, we’re going to go through this procedure in this article. iTunes is the primary means by which iPhone and iPod owners use to sync media such as movies, music, and other data between devices.
iTunes music on Linux? Apple doesn’t seem to want to make things any easier…
Unlike Spotify which has a native Linux client, Apple does not have a native version of iTunes for this platform. What’s worse, you can’t even transfer songs from Apple Music, since they’re DRM protected. Finally, Apple has not shown any interest in doing so. Fortunately, however, there are three alternative methods that we have identified to use Apple Music on Linux.
Removing DRM protection
Like other Apple digital instruments sold on iTunes, Apple Music is locked by DRM (Digital Rights Management). With this type of protection, you can only play music with an Apple ID on authorized devices. This means that if you want to listen to tracks on other platforms, you must ignore DRM protection and copy unprotected tracks to Linux without installing iTunes.
To do this, you’ll need to:
- a tool for removing the protection of Apple Music DRM such as TunesKit Apple Music Converter
- the latest version of iTunes installed on your computer
- a device running Windows or Mac OS and a portable USB flash drive.
How to use TunesKit
TunesKit is available on Windows and macOS and can convert Apple music tracks blocked by DRM (without loss of quality) to common formats such as MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC. To remove DRM protection you need:
- Start TunesKit Apple Music Converter on your computer
- Click on the + at the top of the center or drag and drop the files into the conversion window
- click on Format, (bottom left)
- select the desired output format
- adjust parameters such as channel, codec, sample or bit rate as needed
- Click Convert for TunesKit to convert Apple DRM music tracks to unprotected formats
- go to the History folder to find tracks without DRM
- connect a USB stick to the device
- then copy the tracks without DRM to Linux.
Once you’ve done that, you can comfortably enjoy Apple Music without iTunes on your Linux computer.
Using iTunes on Linux via VirtualBox
To use Apple Music on Linux without removing protections or performing similar actions, there is still an interesting alternative such as emulation. This device requires the installation and use of VirtualBox. To run iTunes on Linux using this tool, you will need a version of Windows to install in VirtualBox and you will need to follow these steps:
It should be available in the repository or Software Manager
- start and follow the on-screen instructions to create a virtual computer with a Windows operating system (You may need the Windows installation disc)
- Once Windows is installed, start your favorite web browser from the newly emulated operating system
- download and install iTunes on
Windows
Once this is done, you can play your music on a Linux computer even if by emulation.
Using Wine
Wine is another very interesting emulator. Thanks to some of its particular features it can cancel out the penalties related to memory and performance that other emulators face, allowing you to integrate Windows applications in a much cleaner way.
To install iTunes on Linux using Wine, it is necessary to use Ubuntu 18.04 and follow the instructions listed here
- open a terminal and type sudo apt installs wine-stable
- access your browser and download the 64-bit iTunes installation file
- in the terminal type wine /path/to/iTunes64Setup.exe
- This will start the installation and then the software will be freely usable.
Although they are not particularly tortuous methods, they are the only ones that guarantee a concrete result so far. Of course, in the future, Apple may decide to release a real version of iTunes for Linux.