If you’re an Apple fan and General Motors owner (or thinking about becoming one), the company’s recent product announcements have probably rubbed you the wrong way, but for once, we have a tiny nugget of good news. GM is rolling out a native Apple Music app for its models that don’t offer Apple CarPlay.
This may not sound like much, but for owners who have been stuck poking at their phones to control their road trip playlists, it’s a welcome development—and even better, you won’t have to pay extra for the privilege. Going forward, it will be included in the company’s free “Onstar Basics” package. Nope, it’s still not CarPlay, but at least it’s something.
“OnStar Basics is standard in all 2025 and newer vehicles,” a GM spokesperson told The Drive via email. “There is no additional cost with vehicle purchase. It includes automatic crash response, standard connectivity for voice assistance and navigation, remote commands through the mobile app like lock/unlock, and now audio streaming apps. It’s included for 8 years.”
It won’t be available on every model right away, we were cautioned:
“This will be a phased rollout, and we will list [see below] the specific models in this first phase,” the spokesperson said. “The intent is rolling it out to all eligible GM vehicles—ICE and EVs across brands—with the latest software.”
Eligible Cadillac vehicles will also get Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos; they’re the only models with the required hardware and software to support it, we’re told. All eligible vehicles will receive their respective software updates via an over-the-air-update.
Here’s a full list of GM cars with the necessary hardware for native Apple Music. This was copied verbatim from the company’s announcement:
- Cadillac
- 2025 and 2026 CT5
- 2025 ESCALADE IQ
- 2026 VISTIQ, featuring Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos
- More vehicles on the way with immersive audio
- Chevrolet
- 2025 and 2026 Blazer EV, Equinox EV and Silverado EV
- 2026 Corvette, Suburban and Tahoe
- More vehicles on the way, including the 2027 Chevrolet Bolt
- Buick & GMC
- Vehicles coming soon
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