Apple Music and Linux
Quick PSA for fellow Linux users on Apple Music.
When I moved from Windows 11 to Linux last year, the first thing I noticed was that music.apple.com sounded noticeably quieter than the native Windows app I'd been using. Same account, same tracks, same DAC, just weaker. Easy to A/B against my MacBook Air running the native app, and the web player consistently lost. Since there's no native Apple Music client for Linux, the browser is the only first-party option, so I've been stuck with it, compensating with system gain to get back to a usable level.
Checked today and the loudness is finally in line with what the native clients produce. Whatever was holding the browser version back has been fixed.
If you're on Linux and have been:
- Running pipewire/pulse loudness boosts to compensate
- Using a browser extension for the same reason
Go re-test and back the compensation off. Genuinely a noticeable quality-of-life improvement for anyone using the web player as their daily driver.