MusicKit on HarmonyOS — playback approach for a platform without an official SDK, licensing question
Hello Apple Developer community,
I'm building an Apple Music client for HarmonyOS (Huawei's operating system) and would like to clarify the licensing and technical approach before submitting to a third-party app store (Huawei AppGallery). I've read the Apple Developer Program License Agreement and App Store Review Guideline 4.5.2, but there are platform-specific constraints I'd like to discuss.
Background
Apple currently does not provide a MusicKit SDK for HarmonyOS. The available options are:
MusicKit for iOS/macOS — not applicable (different OS)
MusicKit for Android — ships as proprietary .aar binaries that cannot be redistributed and are not compatible with HarmonyOS's runtime
MusicKit JS — available, but HarmonyOS WebView does not support FairPlay or Widevine EME, so full-song DRM playback through MusicKit JS does not work on this platform
The only Apple Music API access path available to a HarmonyOS app is the REST API (api.music.apple.com) with a Developer Token (JWT, ES256) and a Music User Token obtained through the MusicKit JS authorization flow running inside a WebView.
The technical constraint
To deliver full-song playback for subscribed Apple Music users on HarmonyOS, our app retrieves the HLS playback URL via the Apple Music API, downloads the encrypted media segments, and decrypts them using HarmonyOS's native DRM system (WisePlay, the only CDM available on the platform). MusicKit JS's FairPlay/Widevine CDM is not compatible with HarmonyOS — WisePlay is the sole DRM implementation the OS exposes.
We are aware that Section 4.5.2 states:
"You may not, and You may not permit Your end users to, download, upload, or modify any MusicKit Content"
and
"You may play MusicKit Content only as rendered by the MusicKit APIs or MusicKit JS"
What we want to clarify
Our playback implementation works as follows, and we want to confirm whether it is acceptable under the license terms:
No download service is offered to users. The download is purely an internal playback mechanism — the app fetches encrypted segments, decrypts them in memory / a protected sandbox, and plays them via the system AVPlayer. There is no "download button," no offline library, no user-facing download feature.
Decrypted files are ephemeral and protected. Decrypted media is written to the app's private sandbox (not accessible to users or other apps), played immediately, and deleted as soon as playback ends or the song is skipped. The decrypted file never persists beyond the current playback session.
No file leakage. The decrypted content is never exposed via any sharing mechanism, file picker, or external storage. It exists only within the app's protected data directory for the duration of playback.
Standard playback controls are preserved. Users initiate playback and can use play / pause / skip / seek — the same controls required by 4.5.2(i).
No monetization of Apple Music access. The app does not charge for Apple Music playback, does not show ads around it, and does not collect or share user data.
Our question
Given that:
Apple has no SDK presence on HarmonyOS,
MusicKit JS DRM is technically non-functional on HarmonyOS WebView,
the only way to deliver full-song playback to Apple Music subscribers on this platform is to decrypt the stream using the OS's native DRM (WisePlay) with strict ephemeral handling,
is this playback approach acceptable under the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, provided that:
decrypted content is never persisted, shared, or exposed to users,
the app only serves subscribed Apple Music users with valid Music User Tokens,
all usage remains within the scope of facilitating access to the user's own Apple Music subscription?
We fully respect Apple's content protection requirements and are happy to adjust the implementation (e.g., stricter deletion timing, additional sandboxing, attestation) to comply. We just want to understand whether the fundamental approach — decrypting via the host OS's DRM because Apple's own CDMs are unavailable on this platform — is permissible, or whether Apple considers HarmonyOS out of scope for full-song playback entirely.
Any guidance from the MusicKit team or community members who have dealt with non-Apple-platform constraints would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
0
0
4