@wwdrew/expo-apple-music

Cross-platform Apple Music API for Expo (SDK 56 · iOS 16.4+ · Android · Web).

Inspired by @lomray/react-native-apple-music — not a drop-in replacement. See ATTRIBUTION.md.

Android: Apple's SDK is your responsibility

If you target Android, you must obtain Apple's MusicKit SDK binaries yourself. This package does not include them, cannot ship them on npm, and there is no way to skip this step.

Apple's MusicKit for Android is distributed as two proprietary .aar files (authentication + playback). They are gated behind an Apple Developer login and cannot be redistributed by third-party libraries. npx expo install @wwdrew/expo-apple-music alone is not enough for Android — prebuild will fail until you:

1. Download the MusicKit SDK for Android from Apple (Developer account required).
2. Store both .aar files in a directory inside your app repo (for example ./vendor/apple-musickit-android/ — typically gitignored).
3. Configure the config plugin with androidMusicKitAarDir pointing at that directory.

At npx expo prebuild for Android, the plugin copies those files into the native build. If the directory is missing or either file is absent, the build stops with an error. There is no stub mode, no automatic download, and no fallback.

File	Purpose
musickitauth-release-1.1.2.aar	Apple Music sign-in
mediaplayback-release-1.1.1.aar	Playback

iOS and web are unaffected — this requirement applies only to Android native builds. Full setup: docs/GETTING_STARTED.md.

Install

npx expo install @wwdrew/expo-apple-music

Add the config plugin and enable MusicKit on your App ID in the Apple Developer portal. See docs/GETTING_STARTED.md for the full checklist (JWT, iOS entitlements, web origin, etc.).

// app.config.ts
import expoAppleMusic from '@wwdrew/expo-apple-music/plugin';

export default {
  plugins: [
    expoAppleMusic({
      musicUsageDescription: 'We use Apple Music in this app.',
      // Required for Android prebuild — see "Android: Apple's SDK is your responsibility" above
      androidMusicKitAarDir: './vendor/apple-musickit-android',
    }),
  ],
};

Quick example

import { Auth, AuthStatus, Catalog, CatalogSearchType, Player } from '@wwdrew/expo-apple-music';

const developerToken = await fetchDeveloperJwtFromYourApp(); // required on Android & web

const { status, musicUserToken } = await Auth.authorize(developerToken);
if (status === AuthStatus.AUTHORIZED && musicUserToken) {
  await Catalog.search('Beatles', [CatalogSearchType.SONGS]);
  await Player.play();
}

Developer JWT: your app signs and serves it — not included in this package. Local dev: clone the repo and use yarn dev-token (docs/CLI.md).

Documentation

All guides live in docs/ (browse on GitHub):

Getting started	Install → authorize → search → play
Building locally	Clone, example app, Android .aar setup
Auth	JWT, AuthStatus, platform requirements
iOS setup	Portal, signing, entitlements
API coverage	Per-method iOS / Android / web matrix
Doc index	Full list

Platform parity (summary)

Same TypeScript API everywhere; a few features differ on Android and web.

	iOS	Android	Web
Auth.authorize()	✅	✅ (JWT required)	✅ (JWT required)
Catalog / Library / History	✅	✅	✅
Player playback	✅	✅	⚠️ verify in Safari + Chrome
Player.setQueue() station	✅	❌	⚠️
Auth.checkSubscription()	✅	⚠️ inferred	⚠️ inferred

Details: docs/APPLE_MUSIC_API.md.

Building locally (repo clone)

Clone this repo to run the example app or contribute. The same Android SDK requirement applies: place Apple's .aar files in example/vendor/apple-musickit-android/ before Android prebuild. See docs/BUILDING_LOCALLY.md.

yarn dev-token -- --write-env example/.env.local
cd example && npx expo start

License

Apache-2.0 — LICENSE · NOTICE