Apple Music and waterproof swimming players

October 20, 2020 3:42 PM

Seemingly simple question to which I cannot find the answer: Can I put Apple Music songs from my monthly subscription on any MP3 player like the SYRYN?

I have the Family Apple Music subscription. I know that for the few songs I have purchased in iTunes, I can convert those to MP3 and put them on any MP3 player. I also know that I can download songs from Apple Music which I have not individually purchased onto my iPhone for listening offline.

What I can't find is if I can download songs and podcasts which I have not purchased (and so only have access to through the Apple Music subscription) as MP3s and put them on a MP3 player. I want to listen to podcasts and music while I swim, and bluetooth doesn't work very well through water (so I can't stream from my phone to a bluetooth headset). The SYRYN is the low-cost good quality waterproof MP3 player, but there's also a waterproof iPod Shuffle which I'd be happy to purchase (but if I'm going to spend that money I'd like to know I can put Apple Music music on it, which brings us back to this question. It's an Apple ouroboros.)

Thanks!

posted by BeeDo to Technology (4 answers total)

Best answer: You can only download tracks to an iOS device or Android phone. (edit: or a Mac or PC with iTunes)
posted by GuyZero at 3:52 PM on October 20, 2020

Best answer: I should note: you can buy third-party apps that will take offline tracks from Apple Music stored in iTunes on a computer and, uh, "convert" them so you can load them onto a generic MP3 player. But it is not a core product feature.
posted by GuyZero at 3:54 PM on October 20, 2020

Response by poster: Thanks! One clarification on the question: if I download a track to my Mac with iTunes per that link, can I put it on an iPod Shuffle?
posted by BeeDo at 4:08 PM on October 20, 2020

Best answer: Apple doesn’t enable any Apple Music track to be used with an iPod shuffle, although there are workarounds. Podcasts worked fine on the shuffle in the latest version I used, but that was a few years ago.
posted by skewed at 4:11 PM on October 20, 2020