Theme songs support for tvOS/AppleTV App

[RobbieBott 6]

I am new to Emby, I am trying to migrate from Plex. (I am missing some Plex features with Emby right now.)
I thought theme song support was a premier feature so I purchased a lifetime premiere license, but don't think it is now.

Adding theme songs to Emby was way harder than it was with Plex, with Plex it's just built in and worked on all my devices, with no added cost. With Emby you have to purchase plugins from a third party, etc... with that pitfall out of the way.

Can we please get support for theme songs in the AppleTV app? Theme songs work in the web browser.

[Luke 43418]

HI, yes this is planned for an upcoming update to the Emby Apple Tv app. Thanks.

[RobbieBott 6]

4 minutes ago, Luke said:

HI, yes this is planned for an upcoming update to the Emby Apple Tv app. Thanks.

Thank you for the information @Luke. Would you be able to give a possible/expected release timeframe?

[Luke 43418]

I don't have an eta but it's in our plans.

[RobbieBott 6]

@LukeThank you. Is there a public facing roadmap for Emby?

[ebr 16946]

42 minutes ago, RobbieBott said:

Is there a public facing roadmap for Emby?

Hi.  You can follow progress in beta releases but we don't publish our plans to the world (competition).

Thanks.

[polaris70 24]

On 2/6/2024 at 11:20 AM, ebr said:

Hi.  You can follow progress in beta releases but we don't publish our plans to the world (competition).

Thanks.

still did not see in the beta

[JelloLabs 18]

still not there  

[Luke 43418]

On 10/31/2025 at 10:28 PM, JelloLabs said:

still not there  

HI, yes this is on our to do list for the app. Thanks.

[Shonters 0]

Hello Luke,

any news here?

 

[Luke 43418]

Hi, not yet. It’s on the todo list for the app. Thanks.

[te5s3rakt 18]

Hi Luke,

Following up on theme song support for the Apple TV / tvOS app. On 6 Feb 2024 you said this was planned for an upcoming update. That was over two and a half years ago. In that time the App Store build has shipped 26 versions: 1major (2.0.0), 1 minor (1.9.0), and 24 patches. If “upcoming” meant anything under normal ALM practice, the next minor (1.9) or the next major (2.0) would have been the obvious slots. Both shipped. Theme songs did not.

The rest of the ecosystem already has this. Theater, the web app, and Roku have had theme songs since around 2014(about twelve years). iOS and Android mobile have had them since at least 2017 (about nine years). Android TV and Fire TV got them in 1.6.00 in June 2018 (about eight years; the release notes literally say “Support theme songs while browsing”). Apple TV is still the odd one out: roughly eight years behind the other living-room apps, and about twelve behind everyone else, even though theme media is a documented server feature and there are paid Premiere plugins (TV / Movie Theme Songs) that exist specifically to fill those files.

In fact, I just personally paid for that plugin today. Apple TV is the only Emby client I use, so I have no way to use what I just bought, and no idea when that changes. I’m seriously looking at asking for a refund, because I don’t feel the need to keep a plugin for a feature I have no idea when I’ll be able to use. That puts the plugin author in a bad spot for something that isn’t their fault. The failing here is Emby.

What is actually happening with this feature on Apple TV, and when do you expect users to be able to turn it on?

Thanks

[visproduction 376]

The sites you metnioned pay licensing fees. Audio themes are content and require copyright policing, per track. Any music or performance might have playback limits or even be completely blocked and can not be offered.  A company that violates this, does so at their own risk. Emby does not supply any content at all.  That is up to the user.  Any use, outside of personal playback, requires license payemts.  Any company supplying any audio conent needs licensing and payments per item use.  Your examples are paying for this and it might well be into 6 figures of dollars every year.  It's wrong to assume that there are no restrictions and that everything is free.  See: https://www.universalproductionmusic.com/en-us/news/how-to-use-music-in-videos-legally

[te5s3rakt 18]

3 hours ago, visproduction said:

The sites you metnioned pay licensing fees. Audio themes are content and require copyright policing, per track. Any music or performance might have playback limits or even be completely blocked and can not be offered.  A company that violates this, does so at their own risk. Emby does not supply any content at all.  That is up to the user.  Any use, outside of personal playback, requires license payemts.  Any company supplying any audio conent needs licensing and payments per item use.  Your examples are paying for this and it might well be into 6 figures of dollars every year.  It's wrong to assume that there are no restrictions and that everything is free.  See: https://www.universalproductionmusic.com/en-us/news/how-to-use-music-in-videos-legally

I think you may have the wrong thread. There was never any mention of sites or supply of content by Emby here 

Edited September 26 by te5s3rakt
clarity

[visproduction 376]

Te5, 
Ok, sorry.  I have a habit of not reading everything.  Just ignore my entry and carry on
I also like having themes and have found a long list of around 2000 titles and composers of music to match content. Often, I like my selection better than the original music.  I thought about just posting the list without the files, but I don't think anyone would be interested.

[te5s3rakt 18]

I've noticed a pattern. A short, generic post usually gets a quick 'it's planned' from the team. But when someone lays out actual evidence, like the timeline above showing Apple TV has gone through 26 releases without theme songs while every other client has had them for years, there's no reply at all.

That makes it hard not to read 'it's planned' as a way to silence a thread rather than a real commitment. If theme songs are still planned for tvOS, a short status update would go a long way. If it isn't happening in the short term, or at all, it's better to just say so, and we can look at other options.

Thanks.

[JelloLabs 18]

4 minutes ago, te5s3rakt said:

I've noticed a pattern. A short, generic post usually gets a quick 'it's planned' from the team. But when someone lays out actual evidence, like the timeline above showing Apple TV has gone through 26 releases without theme songs while every other client has had them for years, there's no reply at all.

That makes it hard not to read 'it's planned' as a way to silence a thread rather than a real commitment. If theme songs are still planned for tvOS, a short status update would go a long way. If it isn't happening in the short term, or at all, it's better to just say so, and we can look at other options.

Thanks.

I would rather get a "we gave up on it" or "no plan at all" then be blue balled 

[Luke 43418]

17 minutes ago, JelloLabs said:

I would rather get a "we gave up on it" or "no plan at all" then be blue balled 

Hi, neither of those is true. It is on our to do list for the app. Thanks.

[te5s3rakt 18]

That reply is exactly my point. "It's on our to do list" is the same answer we got two and a half years ago, and 26 releases have gone by since then, on top of Apple TV already being about eight years behind the other TV clients. Without a rough timeframe or any sign of progress, it's hard to read this as anything other than an attempt to silence the thread.

From where I'm standing, we need to accept this isn't happening and look at other hardware.

Emby is the only app I use on my Apple TV, so personally I'm going to look into replacing it.

[Luke 43418]

11 hours ago, te5s3rakt said:

That reply is exactly my point. "It's on our to do list" is the same answer we got two and a half years ago, and 26 releases have gone by since then, on top of Apple TV already being about eight years behind the other TV clients. Without a rough timeframe or any sign of progress, it's hard to read this as anything other than an attempt to silence the thread.

From where I'm standing, we need to accept this isn't happening and look at other hardware.

Emby is the only app I use on my Apple TV, so personally I'm going to look into replacing it.

In what other areas do you think it's behind?

[te5s3rakt 18]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

In what other areas do you think it's behind?

I posted a detailed summary above of the release history.

Theme support was released in other Emby platform apps eight years ago.

[te5s3rakt 18]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

In what other areas do you think it's behind?

My point isn't that Emby is behind in general. It's this one feature. As I laid out above, theme songs reached the other Emby apps about eight years ago, and Apple TV still doesn't have them.

To be clear, no one here is angry or trying to be combative. You have a business to run, and we get that. All we're asking for is honesty and a bit of transparency, and "it's on the to-do list" isn't that.

At work I have a backlog of about a thousand items, enough for ten years even if nothing new came in. If I told everyone their request was "on the list" and then delivered it a decade later, I wouldn't last long. So I tell people where their item sits, what's involved in delivering it, and most importantly, why it's at number 500 and not in the top 10.

We also understand that timelines change, and that some work can't be shared for commercial reasons. But we're all here because we love the platform. There's a way to communicate that respects the passion and intelligence of the community while still protecting what needs to stay private. That's all we're asking for.

[JelloLabs 18]

New apple tv about to come out, please lets get theme songs on it, testflight version hasn't received an update since August  and I really iphone the iPhone Duo doesn't get left behind , could make a great media consumption device with some updates.