Connect Apple Music for live tracking
Connecting
- Go to Settings → Connections.
- Click Connect Apple Music. Apple's own sign-in window opens (this is Apple's MusicKit, Stick never sees your Apple ID password).
- Sign in with the Apple ID that has your Apple Music subscription and approve access.
That's it. From now on Stick checks in with Apple about once a minute and records anything new you've played. You need an active Apple Music subscription for this to work, the connection reads your "recently played" history, which only exists for subscribers.
Timestamps
Apple's API has a significant gap: it returns your recently played tracks in order, but with no timestamps. Stick knows what you played and in what order, but not exactly when. It reconstructs plausible times by working backwards from the moment it saw each new track, using song durations, good enough for "what did I listen to today", but an approximation, and clearly marked as such.
There's a second limitation: Apple only exposes your 30 most recent tracks. Listen offline for a long stretch, a flight, say, and plays beyond the last 30 can be missed entirely.
The fix: let file imports correct the record
This is why the live connection and the Play Activity export are designed as a pair. Every few months, request a fresh export from privacy.apple.com and import it. Apple's file contains the authoritative timestamps for every play, so during the import Stick seeks out the live-recorded plays it matches and corrects their times in place, no duplicates, no manual cleanup. Plays the live poller may have missed are added from the file. Live plays the file can't vouch for are quietly retired. After each import, your history is exactly as accurate as Apple's own record.
In short: the live connection gives you immediacy, the file gives you accuracy, and Stick merges the two automatically. Use both.
Keeping the connection healthy
Apple Music connections don't last forever, the authorization Apple grants typically needs renewing about every six months. Stick tracks this and emails you a heads-up before the estimated expiry (a week out, then closer to the date), so the connection doesn't silently die. If the connection does break, Stick detects the failure, emails you once, and shows a reconnect prompt in Settings. Reconnecting is the same two clicks as connecting the first time.
You can disconnect at any time from Settings → Connections. Disconnecting stops the polling; everything already recorded stays in your library.
What about Spotify?
Stick shipped Spotify live tracking, but Spotify has since locked down the API access it depended on for new integrations (more on that here), so the connect button is currently disabled. Your Spotify history is still fully importable, request the extended streaming history for the past.
Where live plays show up
Live-tracked plays land in your library like any other play: they count toward your stats, feed your streaks, appear in your recent plays, and get matched against MusicBrainz for art and genres. If you share your profile with friends, live plays are what make your timeline feel alive, see following friends and sharing your profile.