Cider is a free and open source Apple Music client for Windows. It lets you play or stream songs from your Apple Music account and supports playing videos as well. You can create new playlists or play existing ones. It offers you all the features of Apple Music right on a Windows PC with a beautiful interface. Also, not just Windows but you can use it on Linux and macOS as well.
We have covered online Apple Music client before that works in the browser. But if you need one that can run natively on PC, then you can use Cider. You will get all the features and functionalities of Apple Music and a pleasant music experience. Even though Apple Music can be used on Windows via iTunes, but its UI is a bit clunky.
Cider brings a refreshing experience to a user on Windows PC. You only have to sign up using your Apple account and that’s all. See the list of following features that Cider offers.
- Queuing Music: You can push songs to the now playing queue. From the playlist or from the search results, you just right-click on a song and then push it to the queue.
- Search Songs: Cider supports songs search. You can find songs by album, artist or title. After finding a song, you can play it or add it to the liked list.
- Create and Play Playlists: After finding songs that you like, you can push them in different playlists. You can manage those playlists easily and even remove them when you no longer need them.
- Lyrics: Cider can show lyrics when a song is playing. You can toggle lyrics easily in case you want to sing along with the song.
- Play Videos: On Cider, you can play music videos just like you play them on iPhone. If music videos are available, then you can just tap on the play button to play it. The video player supports picture in picture mode too.
- Compact Mode: If you don’t want to see the maximized windows, then you can use the compact mode. By doing that, you will turn Cider in a small desktop widget that you can place anywhere.
Free Apple Music Client for Windows to Play Songs and Videos: Cider
You can download it for Windows from this GitHub release. It is also available on Windows Store, but there it costs around 99 cents. You can use this GitHub link to download it for macOS. And if you want to use it on Linux, then you will have to build it manually. The build process is not that complicated as there are a couple commands, mentioned on its GitHub repository.
The main UI of this Apple Music client looks like this. After it loads, you can just start playing songs in it.
There is a search tool in the main UI. Use that to find songs and new albums. Or, you can also start the radio to play top songs from the trending lists.
The player supports queuing. So, whenever you are in a playlist, in search results, or inside an artist’s profile, just right-click on a song and then use the “Play Later” option to queue that music.
The player has all the music controls and you can find them at the top. You can play, pause, stop, and fast-forward songs easily.
Click on the album art in the player, and then it will take the whole player to full screen. Here you will have the maximized version of the player. In this mode, you can see lyrics as well.
If you think the UI of the software is occupying too much screen, then you can always switch to the compact mode. In compact mode, the player will shrink down to the size of a small desktop widget.
In the same way, you can play videos. You can find music videos in artists’ profiles and there is a play button there which you can use to play them. The videos can be played in the app itself. You can use full screen mode for video as well, or have it as a widget on the screen by turning on the picture-in-picture mode.
This is how you can use to play and manage music using Cider. Just download and install it on Windows and then use it the way you want. It will change the whole experience of listening songs on Apple Music on Windows PC. The UI is pretty sleek and animations in the UI are smooth too.
Closing thoughts:
If you are looking for an Apple Music client, then Cider is no doubt the best desktop app available for that. The best part is that it is open source. You can just grab its source code to build yourself or if you are programmer then you can take part in its development. So, if you were using iTunes to play songs from Apple Music on Windows, then stop doing that and give Cider a go. I am sure that it will not disappoint you in any way.
