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Confirmed: New iPod nano and shuffle won’t get Apple Music to prevent piracy

You might have heard some discussing the state of Apple Music on the iPod nano and shuffle, two products that just got a minor facelift alongside a larger refresh for their bigger brother, the iPod touch. And you might have already guessed that streaming to the devices was a no-go from the lack of Wi-Fi capabilities, but it turns out you won’t even be able to store your offline Apple Music collection on the devices either.

The reason, according to sources, is simply to prevent piracy…

By not allowing users to sync their offline songs to the iPod nano and shuffle, Apple can guarantee that users aren’t able to keep a collection of songs on their device after cancelling their Apple Music subscription. That’s unlike other iOS devices that have access to the iOS Music app and Wi-Fi that Apple can use to authenticate an active Apple Music subscription.

So, if you try to sync offline Apple Music tracks to your iPod nano or shuffle, you’ll simply get a warning from iTunes that “Apple Music songs cannot be copied to an iPod.”

It seems like Apple could have worked around this problem with new software to accommodate authentication of Apple Music subscriptions through iTunes once a month, at least for users that want to take that step to get their offline tracks into their new iPod nano or shuffle.

But for now, your non-touch iPod will be limited to your purchased iTunes or DRM-free music, and Apple Music won’t be much use if you’re planning on keeping the nano or shuffle alive by picking up one of the refreshed units in new colors launched this week.

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Comments

  1. Andrew Messenger - 9 years ago

    Apple should’ve added Apple Music and wifi to the iPod nano and overhauled the UI. Obviously, adding apps and games would make it an iPod touch but there’s no reason they couldn’t have put a modified OS and wifi on it to give it streaming and offline capabilities other than just not really wanting to bother with it.

    • taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

      Lack of engineers at Apple.

      • taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

        John Gruber
        UPDATE: Word from a few little birdies is that what remains of the iPod software team is now working on Apple Watch — the Nano UI wasn’t updated to look like iOS 7 because there’s no one left to do it.

      • daniesy - 9 years ago

        How the fk a company as big as Apple lacks engineers? And how the fk do they come up with such crippled and lazy products and charge money for them? Parts of iOS 9 seem like they’ve been designed by monkeys. Do they hire monkeys?

      • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

        @daniesy you just don’t get how Apple works and that’s fine. Apple focuses on a few things and if the nano isn’t on that list they just don’t touch in internally and that’s it. Let’s presume the biggest company in the world know what it’s doing.

    • rogifan - 9 years ago

      Obviously not enough people are buying the nano to warrant putting much effort into it. What’s the point of a nano when you can get an iPod touch or a hand-me-down iPhone with a lot more capability?

      • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

        True. I actually think a nano-sized version of smtn like a touch would be a more compelling product than the touch because the iPhone is a better touch and old iPhone models fill the gap. I personally think they should have killed the touch.

  2. Tejinder (@tejinder134) - 9 years ago

    I got this error/message when trying to sync Apple Music songs to my iPhone 4S!

    • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

      Contact Apple

    • appgarlaschelli - 9 years ago

      Have you updated your 4S to iOS 8.4?

    • AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

      You need to be running iOS 8.4, and you need to turn on Apple Music on that device (yeah, you have to activate Apple Music per device). If it is updated and turned on, turn it off, sign out of iCloud, shut down, restart, sign in, and turn on. (Now) it just works!

      • But I’m facing problems even syncing my iPod Touch 5th Gen, It says that Apple Music cannot be transferred to an iPod. I have no clue what to do. I tried doing what you said above, reset my iPod too, but still no luck.. Can you please help me.

      • AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

        Hmm… Have you launched the Music app for the first time on that device? You have to go through an initial setup screen. Are you signed into the same Apple ID on that device that your iTunes is signed into?

      • No, I have been using Apple Music on iTunes from day 1. Yes, I’m signed in with the same Apple ID, so there was no setup screen for me. Also my device isn’t jailbroken.
        Nothing helped me, I even restored the device. Even deleted iTunes from my PC and reinstalled it. Nothing at all. Still that error.
        Any help would be great!

        Regards

      • AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

        Is the region on your phone set to a country other than one of the 100 Apple Music is currently available in? Are you able to use Apple Music through iTunes?

      • Yes, I can access Apple Music from my iTunes. I have about 510 songs saved on my PC via Apple Music. I live in India (Apple Music Available Here).

      • AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

        I would make a backup of the phone and then wipe it and completely restore it. I honestly don’t know what’s going on and I wish I could be there to see how things are happening. But if that doesn’t work you need to contact Apple and have them troubleshoot it or go to an authorized service center. Good luck.

  3. crichton007 - 9 years ago

    I still don’t understand why  couldn’t require one of these iPods to be plugged into a computer and synchronized at least every 30 days. This feel like a problem that was solved in the late 90s.

    • rogifan - 9 years ago

      Plugging a device into a computer for authentication sounds like something from the 90s. I’ll bet a lot of people that own iPhones these days don’t even have iTunes installed on the computer.

      • rahhbriley - 9 years ago

        I’m with you for the first sentence….but this is for people with iPods…who had to use iTunes to sync their music in the first place. The people this problem would affect…100% of them have iTunes installed on a computer. Inelegant, absolutely. Better than nothing, sounds like it.

    • Dr. Light (@pc_doc80) - 9 years ago

      As a shuffle user I would have been 100% okay with having to plug in every 30 days. Hoping for this feature is why I signed up for Apple Music in the first place. Back to spottily I go.

      • stevelawrence - 9 years ago

        Because you sync your Spotify account to a Shuffle.

    • daitenshe - 9 years ago

      I think you guys aren’t differentiating between those of us that browse tech sites and those who haven’t backed up their iPods in months/years and have no idea how to do so.

    • AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

      …and it was promptly left there. :P

  4. chrisl84 - 9 years ago

    Not surprising and fair……I also wasnt able to access the Apple Music I saved to for offlice use in other apps like Jam Up to slow the audio down to learn guitar solos, which I was slightly disappointed to see. Not sure if that was Jam Up issue or if Apple is locking them to Music app.

  5. Apple Music isn’t going to sell more low-end iPods as it’s intended to sell high-margin iPhones. I’m good with this decision, the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

  6. smithydll - 9 years ago

    The thing is that PlaysForSure is able to expire DRM protected music offline. The Zune pass was able to expire songs without being connected to the internet. Surely Fairplay DRM is able to do the same. We have this technology already, you just expire at the billing cycle and the user has to sync every billing cycle.

  7. cjt3007 - 9 years ago

    But… if you sync offline music onto a supported device, turn off wifi & LTE, then you can do the same thing they are trying to prevent.

    • I might be wrong but I don’t think it works that way…

      The funny thing is that the record industry actually thinks people would want to do such a thing. In a world where it’s both easy and convenient to download pretty much any song off of the Internet for nothing nobody in their right mind is going to resort to stupid hacks like that just to keep music on their device(s) without paying.

  8. jrv6 - 9 years ago

    Terrible news
    No Apple music for me
    I guess I’ll just go back to ripping used CDs.
    This decision also kills the utility of family memberships ( can’t load up the kids’ nanos or shuffles). It would clearly be trivial to lock up non-owned music on any device that hasn’t been synced in 30 days. If the firmware of old shuffles can’t be fixed, I’m sure I could spring for $49 for a new one. Even though Apple isn’t selling many iPods, lots of old ones are in use. It’s foolish to piss all these people off.. More importantly, it’s stupid not to sell them access to music.
    I hate listening to music on my connected device. Some notification is always interrupting the listening experience, and what if I want to play music at a party… Buzz, sorry everybody, gotta stop the music because jack is calling to say he’ll be late…. Or I could put the phone in airplane mode… And not have a phone. Of course, I could buy an iPod touch… But I already have an iPhone. I just want to plug my shuffle into my sound system. Since my internet provider is useless (lots of pauses) and I don’t want to reward AT&T to buy more data (they’d throttle it anyway).. I don’t need to listen to streaming music (except when I’m deciding what to keep local. An iPod shuffle or nano is the best solution to listen to music seriously…. How about my MacBook?… Again. Lots of alerts, and it ties up a laptop just to play music. Not very elegant

  9. galley99 - 9 years ago

    I don’t think the shuffle even has a clock.

  10. This is fine by me. I’m not using Apple Music (or any other service). When I want music I buy it on iTunes. I also use an iPod nano exclusively for workouts. It’s the best! I like the fact that the Nano is basic and simple. It’s perfect for workouts. No notifications constantly interrupting the music causing me to lose focus on my workouts. Not to mention the perfect size for strapping on my arm.

  11. What different does it make if people decide to use an iPad Mini instead?
    They could still do piracy. It really makes no sense. Just setup an expiration date for the music not owned, and problem solved.

  12. loungebob - 9 years ago

    Time for someone else to come up with a decent nano-style music player since Apple obviously doesnt care or cater to that market segment anymore, just squeezing the last bit out of it before letting it die.
    Do people seriously carry an ipod touch or iphone to their workouts or go running with them?

    • Povilas Griškevičius - 9 years ago

      Yes. To be honest i saw just one guy with iPod Shuffle in my gym. At least here in Denmark most just use their iPhone since its very popular here. Almost everyone has one.

      • loungebob - 9 years ago

        I get the popularity issue. There’s no country in the world with a higher iPhone (or any apple device) penetration than Switzerland. The question was more, why? Why carry an oversized (for the intended usage) device, that’s too heavy and could break or take water/sweat damage. You’d lose all other functions that you weren’t even needing in the first place because you only wanted to listen to music while working out. It’s like showing up with a grenade launcher to a knife fight.

      • rick gregory (@rickg) - 9 years ago

        They have a small device that you can use to listen to music in the gym. It’s new. It’s the Apple Watch. Yes, you can sync to Watch and then use it to play music to Bluetooth headphones even if your iPhone is in your locker, etc. The only limitation is that you have to use Bluetooth headphone, not wired ones.

        But I’ll bet that’s why they aren’t jumping through hoops to make the Shuffle and Nano work. The intersection of people who a) want to listen offline, b) do that on a Nano/Shuffle, c) want to listen to tunes from Apple Music vs their own music and d) don’t have Watch is probably small and going to get smaller.

  13. Povilas Griškevičius - 9 years ago

    Prevent piracy? How? Its not preventing anything.

    • AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

      Prevents piracy of APPLE MUSIC files, as per the agreements they made to get the music in the first place. If you want Apple to bless your pirated music, copy everything into iTunes and pay for only one month of iTunes Match.

  14. Joseph Frye - 9 years ago

    Can’t use Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, etc with these iPods? And they wonder why sales for them aren’t doing so well.

  15. Roy Tucker - 9 years ago

    Slacker Radio allows for download of music, including ALL stations, on any device. They make you refresh the download every few days. Simple, just make the Nano refresh to continue playing.

  16. But I’m facing problems even syncing my iPod Touch 5th Gen, It says that Apple Music cannot be transferred to this iPod. I have no clue what to do.

  17. Lapsusone (@Lapsusone) - 9 years ago

    They could set a 30 days limit to reconnect the iPod to iTunes to keep listening to Apple Music songs… That’s what Spotify does with offline mode. Now I’m curious if you load Music songs to an iPhone and disconnect it from all the networks, how long will the songs stay listenable?

  18. The crazy thing is that you can download music into your iPod devices from Spotify, even if you don’t own it, so why is that possible but Apple can’t do it? I’m going to cancel my Apple Music before the three months is up and just keep Spotify specifically for that very reason. It’s crazy because it’s an Apple device!

  19. Tomek O. - 9 years ago

    Apple’s design sucks. The design of iPods sucks too. It is cleary noticeable for all now. It is not for entertainment and music at all. It even does not look attractive for music fans and lovers. Steve Jobs died becouse of frustration and reality-loss. Walkman was the 1st music portable device and will be the last one.

  20. Siteadda (@siteadda) - 9 years ago

    Apple is limited sometimes, its not flexible.

  21. It’s a shame. I would have bought a ipod nano if I could have used it with apple music. But since you can’t i didn’t buy any and I don’t longer have a subscription to apple music.

  22. Steve Kruckheimmer - 8 years ago

    The Nano is a great size for a phone. And it should have Apple Music capabilities, and the ability to download apps.

  23. David Consford - 8 years ago

    I use an iPod Shuffle that has been waterproofed for swimming, so As far as I’m concerned it still has plenty of uses. I am under my free trial for Apple Music, but think I will be cancelling, as I have to purchase any song I want to put on my shuffle anyway.

  24. Daniel Van - 7 years ago

    Well there’s one thing they could do. Update the OS on the Nano and allow Apple Music. Have it force to sync the device once a month. If you don’t sync you can only play those songs which you own, the others will be skipped.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.