Can You Use Apple Music Offline?

We’ve all been there, where we want to listen to our music, but for some reason don’t have internet access. 

Whether you’re on a flight with no available WiFi or are in a no-signal area, you’ve longed for your life’s soundtrack. 

The question inevitably arises, does Apple Music have an offline mode?

Can You Use Apple Music Offline?

You can listen to Apple Music without having an internet connection. It’s possible to download your favorite songs and store them so that they are available even if you have no internet connection, as long as your device has power.

How you listen to your music depends on what kind of device you’re using, and whether you’re listening with an Apple Music subscription or not. 

Keep reading for everything you need to know about how to listen to your Apple Music offline, and also how to manage your device’s storage while doing so.

How Do I Listen to Apple Music Offline?

It may seem like a redundant statement, but to listen to Apple Music offline, you must download it in advance while you do have a connection. 

This is fairly similar from one device to another, though there are a few nuanced differences. 

Let’s look at the specifics of how to download your music, how long you can keep it on your device.

How Long Can You Listen to Apple Music Offline?

How long you can listen to music while in offline mode depends upon whether you’ve purchased your music or you’re using the Apple Music subscription. 

Regardless of how you obtain the rights, there are no limits in terms of the number of times you can listen to a particular track or album.

If you’ve purchased the music, you can listen to these tracks indefinitely, they are yours. 

The only requirement from Apple is that you listen to them on an authorized device running the Apple Music app. 

They do this to help cut down on copyright violations and unauthorized sharing.

If you’re using the Apple Music subscription, then you’ll have access to the songs as long as you have an active subscription. 

If you cancel your subscription, or it lapses, the music will become inaccessible the next time your device connects to the Internet for any reason.

Listening to Apple Music Offline With a Subscription

For mobile devices, the only limitation to the songs you can download with your subscription is the amount of space available. 

However, if you have a large library and a massive hard drive on your computer, iTunes can only support 100,000 offline songs at a time, or roughly 8 TB.

How you’ll download the music will vary a little, depending on whether you’re on a mobile device or on a computer. 

Here are the details for both situations.

On a Mobile Device

The Apple Music app is pretty similar on both Android and iOS devices. 

Unfortunately, Apple Music is not currently available on Amazon Fire tablets. 

Downloading songs can consume a lot of data, so be sure you’re connected to a WiFi network unless you have unlimited data available.

It’s easy to download music from the Apple Music app. 

You can easily do this for individual tracks, entire albums, or for playlists you develop.

The first step is to add the song, album, or playlist to your library. 

Simply tap and hold, and then choose Add to Library.

Once you do this, tap and hold again, then tap Download.

It will then start downloading the requested files.

On a Mac or PC

Any updated Mac system will no longer have iTunes, but the feature of iTunes is built into various apps. 

For music, this will be the Music app and does include access to the iTunes store. 

For PC, you’ll continue using iTunes as you have for years. 

Next to the track, album, or playlist is a “+” button. 

Simply click that to add it to your library.

Anything in your library, but not downloaded, will have a cloud symbol next to it. 

Simply click that icon, and it will start downloading. 

Listening to Apple Music Offline Without a Subscription

You don’t have to be an Apple Music subscriber to listen to music offline. 

You can purchase the music, playlist, or album, and then have access to download it. 

However, this only works on Apple devices and PCs. 

Unfortunately, to listen to anything from Apple Music on an Android device, you must have an Apple Music subscription.

On an iOS Mobile Device

From your iPhone, iPad, or iPod, you can easily download the music you’ve purchased from iTunes. 

If you find a new song or album you want to purchase from within the Music app, there’s a link that will take you to iTunes to complete the purchase.

Once you’ve purchased the track or album, simply visit your Library in the Music app with the button at the bottom of the app. 

Then simply tap and hold the song or album, and click download.

On a Computer

Open either Music on a Mac or iTunes on a PC, click the iTunes store button, and search or browse for music. 

Once you find it, click on the price next to it, and once the purchase is complete, it’ll be added to your library.

To download anything you have purchased already, click on Your Library, and find the songs you want to be downloaded.

Just like with the subscription, click the cloud icon next to the song or album, and it will start downloading.

Automatic Downloads

You can enable automatic downloads so that you don’t have to try to remember to download your favorite tracks before finding yourself working offline. 

You can set your device to automatically download any music you add to your library.

On your iOS device, go into your Settings > Music, then toggle on the Automatic Downloads setting. 

Automatic downloads are not currently available on Android devices.

On your computer, using either the Music app or iTunes, go into Preferences. 

Once there, simply check Automatic Downloads. 

While in there, check the Sync Library option to ensure any purchases made on your computer are available on your mobile devices.

Managing Space

If you have a wide taste in music, with a lot of various artists and songs you like to listen to, you’ll need to consider your storage constraints. 

This is especially important if you use your device for anything other than listening to music.

You can easily delete individual songs and albums, much like you would download them. 

If you purchased them, or if you keep your Apple Music subscription current, you’ll be able to download them again in the future.

If you subscribe to Apple Music, you can have your device automatically manage your music library and the space it consumes. 

Go to Settings > Music, and toggle on Optimize Storage. 

This will automatically delete songs you haven’t listened to frequently.

Don’t worry, you can still stream them or download them anew if you want to listen to them again.

Without an Apple Music Subscription, it’s a bit more manual, but you can still do it without going through one song at a time. 

Go to Settings > Music > Downloaded Music. 

You can then see each artist you have stored. 

From there you can either delete entire artists, or tap on the artist to see the albums, and then tap to see the individual songs. 

Whatever level you want to work at, when you decide to delete something, simple swipe it to the left, and it’ll delete it.