mcp-apple-music 🎵

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives Claude full access to your Apple Music account — search the catalog, browse your personal library, manage playlists, and explore your listening history and recommendations.

Ask Claude things like:

"Based on what I've been listening to lately, recommend 15 songs I don't have yet and add them to a new playlist"

"Show me all my playlists and tell me which artists appear most"

"Search for albums by Nick Cave and add my three favourites to a playlist called Dark Picks"

Features

Tool	Description
`search_catalog`	Search Apple Music catalog (songs, albums, artists, playlists)
`search_library`	Search within your personal library
`get_library_songs`	List songs saved in your library (paginated)
`get_library_albums`	List albums in your library (paginated)
`get_library_artists`	List artists in your library
`get_library_playlists`	List all your playlists with IDs
`get_playlist_tracks`	Get tracks inside a specific playlist
`create_playlist`	Create a new playlist
`add_tracks_to_playlist`	Add songs to a playlist (library or catalog tracks)
`get_recently_played`	See recently played albums/playlists/stations
`get_recommendations`	Get personalised Apple Music picks

Requirements

Python 3.10+
uv (recommended) or pip
An Apple Developer account (free tier is fine) with a MusicKit key
An active Apple Music subscription

Setup

1. Create a MusicKit Key

Go to developer.apple.com → Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles
Under Keys, click + to create a new key
Give it any name, enable MusicKit, and click Continue → Register
Download the .p8 file — you can only download it once, keep it safe!
Note your Key ID (e.g. ABC123DEF4) and your Team ID (found under Membership Details)

⚠️ The Key ID is the alphanumeric code shown next to the key name — not the filename of the .p8 file.

2. Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/marioinghilleri/mcp-apple-music
cd mcp-apple-music

# with uv (recommended)
uv sync

# or with pip
pip install -e .

3. Run the one-time setup wizard

# with uv
uv run mcp-apple-music-setup

# or directly
python -m mcp_apple_music.setup

The wizard will ask for your Team ID, Key ID, and the path to your .p8 file. It then opens a browser page where you click "Authorise Apple Music" — this uses Apple's official MusicKit JS to obtain your Music User Token, which is stored securely at ~/.config/mcp-apple-music/config.json (file permissions: 600).

4. Add to Claude Desktop

Open your Claude Desktop config:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-music": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--directory",
        "/absolute/path/to/mcp-apple-music",
        "mcp-apple-music"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop — you should see the apple-music tools available in the toolbar.

How it works

Apple Music requires two separate tokens:

Developer Token — a JWT you sign locally with your .p8 private key. Valid up to 6 months; the server regenerates it automatically before expiry. Your key never leaves your machine.
Music User Token — obtained once via MusicKit JS OAuth in the browser (the setup wizard handles this). Stored locally at ~/.config/mcp-apple-music/config.json.

Your .p8 key  ──►  Developer Token (JWT, auto-renewed)  ─┐
                                                           ├──► Apple Music API
Browser OAuth ──►  Music User Token (stored locally)    ─┘

⚠️ Playback control (play/pause/skip) is not available via Apple's REST API. It requires native MusicKit frameworks (iOS/macOS app) or MusicKit JS running in a browser context.

Project structure

mcp-apple-music/
├── src/
│   └── mcp_apple_music/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── auth.py      — Developer Token generation + User Token management
│       ├── client.py    — Async HTTP client for api.music.apple.com
│       ├── server.py    — FastMCP server with all 11 tools
│       └── setup.py     — One-time setup wizard (browser-based OAuth)
├── config.example.json  — Example config structure (no secrets)
├── pyproject.toml
└── README.md

Example prompts

Once connected, you can ask Claude:

"What have I been listening to this week? Based on that, find 10 songs
 I don't own yet that I'd probably enjoy and create a playlist with them."

"Search for all albums by Joni Mitchell and tell me which ones
 I already have in my library."

"List my playlists, pick the one that looks most like a workout mix,
 and add 5 high-energy songs from the catalog to it."

"Create a playlist called 'Rainy Sunday' with the 10 most mellow tracks
 you can find from my library."

Authors

Built by Cifero74 and Claude (Anthropic) as part of a personal MCP ecosystem for Claude Desktop.

This project was conceived, designed, debugged, and shipped entirely through a collaborative conversation between Mario and Claude — from API research and auth flow design, through the setup wizard, to live testing with a real Apple Music library.

Contributions, issues and PRs are welcome!

License

MIT — use it, fork it, build on it.

mcp-apple-music