Some Lucky LG Smart TV Owners Can Now Enjoy Apple Music on Their Sets

Although Apple has made great strides in bringing Apple TV+ to just about every third-party smart TV, set-top box, and even some cable boxes, the rollout of Apple Music in the living room has gone more slowly.

Apple Music has been available on Android since almost the very beginning, which made it pretty clear that Apple wanted to extend the music service beyond its hardware. However, it took a few more years before it took the next big step, landing on the Amazon Echo in late 2018. Apple also offered an integrated Apple Music experience on a few luxury cars, but it’s fair to say this was a pretty niche audience.

It would be almost two years more before the first smart TV platform joined the part, with Samsung’s smart TVs gaining Apple Music early last year. It wasn’t all that surprising that Samsung was first in line, since despite being Apple’s biggest rival in the smartphone market, it was the first smart TV maker to offer the full iTunes and Apple TV experience back in early 2019. Back then, most other smart TV brands were only getting AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support.

This year, Apple Music has been reaching even further, launching on Sony’s PlayStation 5 last month, with reports that the Xbox is likely to follow, and now it looks like it’s coming to another smart TV platform too.

Which LG TVs Get Apple Music?

LG Electronics announced last night that the Apple Music app is now available for all models running webOS 4.0 and higher, which should cover most sets manufactured in the past 3–4 years.

The Apple Music app itself appears to be very similar to the tvOS app, and offers the full Apple Music experience. This includes access to your existing library, along with the full set of curated playlists, and even 4K music videos. There’s even support for real-time lyrics in Apple Music, so you sing along from the Now Playing screen.

The smart TV maker has also begun promoting both Apple Music and Apple TV+ within its smart TV ecosystem, with banners and notifications offering a three-month free trial to any new subscribers who sign up from their LG TV.

What About Dolby Atmos?

Unfortunately, the one thing that does appear to be missing right now is support for Dolby Atmos playback, so you’ll get the same audio experience by streaming Apple Music from your iPhone to your LG TV via AirPlay 2. However, the native app does provide an easier way for the whole family to browse through Apple Music and follow along with lyrics on the big screen.

The lack of Dolby Atmos support isn’t all that surprising, as it is fairly resource-intensive, and many smart TVs simply don’t have that kind of processing power. It’s unclear if higher-end LG TVs may offer this, but we’ve confirmed it’s not coming through on our 2020 LG CX model.

How Can I Check for Apple Music?

LG hasn’t provided a specific list of which of its TV models are compatible, although you can check if yours is simply by searching for “Apple Music” in the on-device store, or going to LG’s Apple Music app page and signing in with your account in the “Device Compatibility” section.

While there are still many other benefits to using Apple’s set-top box that go beyond just listening to music or watching videos, the addition of Apple Music to LG’s and Samsung’s smart TV platforms are certainly closing the gap for those who are primarily concerned about streaming entertainment services and don’t feel the need to take advantage of Apple’s more advanced integration features.