Audi owners can now play Apple Music through their infotainment systems without having to connect it to their iPhones via Bluetooth or USB. The luxury automaker has rolled out Apple Music integration for almost all of its newer vehicles in Europe, North America and Japan, starting with the 2022 model year. Even cars already on the road will get the feature through an automatic over-the-air update.
After getting the app on their infotainment systems, Audi owners simply need to fire it up, follow the onscreen instructions and type in the Apple ID login they use for Apple Music. The system will send a verification code to their phones that they have to key in, but that's pretty much it for the setup process. In Europe, owners can enjoy the first 3GB of streaming free of charge and will be billed the subsequent cellular data streaming costs through a data package available from Cubic-Telekom.
Audi vehicles already come with Apple's CarPlay — it started bundling the software with its European vehicles in 2015 and with its North American vehicles a year later. Through CarPlay, users can connect their phones to their infotainment systems to get directions optimized for traffic, make calls, send and receive messages and play Apple Music onscreen. This standalone Apple Music rollout, however, makes it a lot easier to access their playlists and all the other available tracks on the service.