Samsung is trying to make its TVs more useful during the global pandemic that is keeping us inside our houses, first with free fitness apps from popular boutique fitness studios and now with an Apple Music app—and free 90-day trial to stream tunes from your Samsung TV.
I admit that I didn’t see this coming, but it’s a welcome change. I am a person who owns a 6-year-old Samsung dumb TV, and I use an Apple TV to stream Apple Music through my Sonos soundbar while I work. (Sonos supports Apple Music through its app, but I prefer the Apple Music interface on the TV.) I’ve been thinking about upgrading to a smart TV eventually, and the ability to stream music through my preferred service would be nice.
If you own a Samsung smart TV from 2018 through the present, you’ll get both the fitness apps and Apple Music, for free. You can download the apps from Samsung’s Smart TV App Store, which sounds easy enough (though we haven’t yet been able to try it out).
Samsung had planned to roll out six fitness apps as part of its Samsung Health suite on TVs later this year, but moved up that launch because of the global quarantine. You can now stream more than 250 workout classes (ranging from barre to yoga) from your TV for free, which is an alternative to braving the outdoors and trying to maintain six feet of distance from runners and pedestrians on busy city streets.
These additions might not inspire you to buy a Samsung smart TV if you don’t already own one—I personally plan to hold on to my dumb TV til this economic crisis is well behind us—but if you happen to have a new-model smart TV already, these additions are a good way to stay entertained at home.