AMExclusive

Make Apple Music on Windows a “Pro” Hi-Fi Player

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Description

AMExclusive (AME) is an open-source project designed specifically for Apple Music on Windows. It adds WASAPI exclusive audio output and forces Apple Music to use the highest available audio quality, with the goal of turning Apple Music into a more capable Hi-Fi player that can achieve bit-perfect output on supported hardware and configurations.

Development and Test Environment

• Windows 11 x64
• Apple Music for Windows file version 1.6.4.90
• Verified package/framework build 1.1540.23042.0 x64

This project has only been validated with the development and test versions listed above. Its behavior on other Apple Music versions is not guaranteed.

Features

1. WASAPI exclusive output
   Sends audio directly to the selected Windows output device in exclusive mode, avoiding the normal shared-mode Windows audio mixing path.

2. Forced highest audio quality
   Removes Apple Music's native low-bandwidth quality downgrade behavior and keeps waiting for the highest available lossless stream instead of automatically falling back to a lower audio specification.

3. Bit-perfect output
   Preserves the source sample format through the supported playback path and submits integer PCM directly to WASAPI, allowing bit-perfect playback when the source, device, and supported output format match.

4. Optional sample-rate and bit-depth conversion for device compatibility

   The optional compatibility switch first tries lossless output at the original rate, then permits up/downsampling, bit-depth conversion and float32 output while retaining WASAPI exclusive output and the existing quality lock. For example, both 44.1 kHz/24-bit and 96 kHz/24-bit sources can use a 48 kHz/16-bit-only endpoint. Each output format must pass the driver's exclusive support check and initialization; shared-mode output is never a fallback. The probe includes common integer containers, float32, alternate WAVEFORMATEX/EXTENSIBLE declarations and the device's mix rate as a candidate only.

   Among rates at or above 44.1 kHz (or the source rate if lower), source precision is preferred, then float32/24-bit, then 16-bit. Within each precision group, try the original rate, the nearest higher rates, then descending lower rates. Lower-bandwidth outputs are the last resort. Upsampling uses a band-limited interpolation filter to suppress spectral images; downsampling suppresses aliasing. Depth reduction uses TPDF dither and saturating rounding. Compatibility mode also accepts local int32 audio through Apple's decoded float32 stream without claiming original int32 bit-perfect recovery. Converted output is labelled explicitly. With the switch off, the existing lossless format policy and PCM path are unchanged.

Recommended Settings

In Apple Music, open Settings > Playback and use the following settings:

• Turn Crossfade off.
• Turn Sound Enhancer off.
• Turn Sound Check off.
• Turn Lossless Audio on.
• Set both audio-quality selectors below Lossless Audio to Hi-Res Lossless (ALAC).
• Turn Dolby Atmos off.
• Turn Exclusive Mode on.
• Enter an integer from 1 through 100 milliseconds in Hardware buffer field and select Apply. The setting is used when exclusive output opens for the next song. The default is 20 ms; try a higher value if encountering playback problems.
• Enable Allow compatible format conversion for unsupported formats if your device cannot play the original format. The setting applies when the next song opens.
• Turn Spatial sound off.

With a separate DAC and amplifier, keep the Apple Music app volume, Windows output volume, and DAC output volume at maximum, and adjust listening volume only on the amplifier. With an integrated DAC/amp, keep the Apple Music app volume and Windows output volume at maximum, and adjust listening volume using the DAC/amp hardware control. Before applying these settings for the first time, lower the amplifier or DAC/amp hardware volume to avoid an unexpectedly high sound level.

Build and Install

Build with GitHub Actions

1. Open Actions → Build Setup. To build your own changes, fork the repository and enable Actions in your fork first.
2. Select Run workflow, choose the branch, and run it.
3. When the run succeeds, download AMExclusive-Setup-x64 from Artifacts and unzip it to obtain AMExclusive-Setup.exe.

The workflow runs only when manually triggered. It builds Windows x64 Release and checks the embedded installer payload; it does not publish a GitHub Release. No Apple Music installation is needed on the runner: it downloads pinned Microsoft Windows App SDK / WinUI metadata packages from NuGet and verifies Microsoft.UI.Xaml.winmd against a pinned SHA-256 before building. Apple Music is still required on the PC where you install AMExclusive. Artifacts are retained for 14 days; downloading them requires signing in to GitHub.

Build locally

To build from source, install Visual Studio 2022 or newer MSVC Build Tools, a Windows 11 SDK, CMake 3.24 or newer, and PowerShell. By default, the build script reads the required WinUI metadata from the locally installed Apple Music package:

cd mod
.\scripts\Build-Mod.ps1 -Configuration Release

Apple Music does not need to be installed on the build machine if you provide standalone metadata instead:

cd mod
.\scripts\Get-WinUIMetadata.ps1 -OutputDirectory .\build\winui-metadata
.\scripts\Build-Mod.ps1 -Configuration Release -WinUIMetadataDirectory .\build\winui-metadata

The installer will be generated at:

mod\build\dist\AMExclusive-Setup.exe

To install or upgrade, run AMExclusive-Setup.exe and choose 1. Then open Apple Music, go to Settings > Playback, and enable Exclusive mode.

To uninstall, run the same setup and choose 2, or uninstall AMExclusive from Windows Settings > Apps > Installed apps.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the LINUX DO community for the discussion, support, and feedback provided during the development and testing of this project.

This project uses the following open-source projects:

• MinHook — provides the Windows x64/x86 API hooking foundation.
• rigtorp/SPSCQueue — provides the bounded single-producer, single-consumer queue used on the real-time audio path.

Thanks to these projects and their contributors. Complete version, copyright, and license information is available in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

License and Disclaimer

Project-authored source code is released under the MIT License. Third-party components retain their respective upstream licenses; see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

AMExclusive is an independent and unofficial open-source project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or licensed by Apple Inc. Apple Music is a trademark of Apple Inc.

This project is not guaranteed to operate correctly across different software, hardware, driver, or audio-device configurations. Its use may cause unforeseen consequences, and users assume the associated risks.

This project does not distribute Apple software, Apple binaries, decrypted media, or DRM-free reference files, and it does not provide functionality intended to bypass DRM protection.