Hi,
I’m building a free educational ear-training app for social dancers (Education category, no ads, no in-app purchases).
In this dance tradition, recognising the orchestra by ear is a practical skill, not trivia. Each historical orchestra has its own rhythm, phrasing and character, and dancers adapt their movement to it: crisp and rhythmic for one, smooth and flowing for another, with dramatic pauses for a third. At social dance events, the music is played in sets by a single orchestra, so identifying it in the first seconds tells dancers how to move. This skill cannot be learned from text, notation or descriptions alone. It is acquired only by listening to the actual recordings and repeatedly practising recognising them, which is why authentic audio is essential. Teachers train this skill in class, and the app makes it practicable at home.
Users learn through a catalogue of orchestras with style descriptions (what to listen for and how it affects the dance), A/B listening comparisons and short exercises with spaced repetition. After each answer the app explains which musical features identify the orchestra.
As listening material, the app plays the official 30-second previews from the iTunes Search API:
- streamed only, never downloaded, saved or cached,
- each preview shows “provided courtesy of iTunes”,
- each preview has the official “Listen on Apple Music” badge linking to the exact recording, so users can listen to the full track and add it to their library,
- previews are never used as background music.
The Search API terms say previews may be used “only to promote store content and not for entertainment purposes”. Is an educational exercise like this acceptable promotional use under these terms, or is MusicKit required for this kind of app?
Apple Developer Support (case 103008374208) suggested I ask here.
Thank you!