Bad news for all you iPod Nano and Shuffle users out there, you won’t be able to use Apple Music on your devices. While this doesn’t seem all that surprising considering how the two devices lacked Wi-Fi capabilities anyway, but it turns out you won’t even be able to use the Apple Music tracks that you’ve downloaded for offline playback. This is, of course, 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.”