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RickyCMC

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 16, 2020
15
6
I try to download a song I have in my Apple Music library so I can listen to it on a flight and it won’t download. The circle just sits there and spins and doesn’t do anything. Any ideas?
 
I do not think that Apple Music songs can be downloaded. Only the ones that you purchase form the download part of the iTunes Store can.
 
I do not think that Apple Music songs can be downloaded. Only the ones that you purchase form the download part of the iTunes Store can.
Not true I used to download them all the time. If you can’t download them why would there be a download option?
 
Yeah, definitely downloadable.

So just one song is doing this, is that right? Or any song you've tried?

Up to date? Restarted?
 
I try to download a song I have in my Apple Music library so I can listen to it on a flight and it won’t download. The circle just sits there and spins and doesn’t do anything. Any ideas?

I've had this before. For me, it was cured by removing the Music app, signing out of Apple ID, then back in, then re-installing Music.
 
The whole system is seriously broken. I have a very long playlist, the first song of which is No Woman, No Cry by Bob Marley. It plays fine, but I've been trying to download it for days. No joy. Suddenly, and just now, I was able to download it.

Another song on the playlist is Don't Think Twice by Susan Tedeschi. It won't play from the playlist, but if I search for Susan Tedeschi it will display her songs and I will be able to play it from there.

IMG_7589.jpeg


So, not available in my country (Thailand) when played from a playlist but very available when played from a search. Does that make any sense?
 
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You have to understand the total crapola mess music publishing (playing) rights are. If the holder of the copyright/publishing rights in the US has not "published" a song it cannot be played on a US streaming service. The internet being what it is you can always find it somewhere. Sometimes you can find song/album on iTunes but most of the time what I do is go to Discogs and purchase the CD. You can often find them on Amazon at outrageous prices if the CD is out of print. Discogs is your best choice. If you have the CD Apple Music will transcribe it to Apple Lossless for you and catalog it in your Apple Music. Another thing to do is load the App Equalize Pro, have used this App for almost 10 years. I allows you to directly load music tracks to your device. I have about 70 GB's of music loaded into it in my iPhone. With this loaded it does not matter if you have any external connections you have your music. The player also enables OGG playback.


IMG_0001.png
 
Discogs is a real treasure if you are looking for a specific release that is out of print, or CD's not available stateside. I just opened it for the first time on my iPad and it is not sized for the screen it is designed for the iPhone. This makes since because the app incorporates a barcode scanner so you scan the barcodes of Album in thrift stores. You can sometime find LP's that are worth a lot of money.


IMG_0002.png
 
You have to understand the total crapola mess music publishing (playing) rights are.
The entertainment industry did this to themselves with ridiculous measures like DVD Region Codes. All they did was encourage piracy and ways of circumventing the codes (thanks Apple).

My mantra has always been that I'm happy to pay for my entertainment, but if you won't let me buy it I'll get it another way.
 
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Today I noticed that an album that I own is not in my library. No worries, just add it. This is a double album with 42 songs called "Will the Circle be Unbroken" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. (Yeah, I'm old.)

So, let's download the entire album.

IMG_8289.jpeg


Oops. Can't do it. Let's try one song. Downloads OK. Let's try downloading all 42 songs one-by-one.

Surprise! It works fine.

So, Apple won't let you download the entire album, but you can download the complete album if you're willing to go to the hassle of downloading the songs one at a time.

What a mess.
 
Today I noticed that an album that I own is not in my library. No worries, just add it. This is a double album with 42 songs called "Will the Circle be Unbroken" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. (Yeah, I'm old.)

So, let's download the entire album.

View attachment 2396418

Oops. Can't do it. Let's try one song. Downloads OK. Let's try downloading all 42 songs one-by-one.

Surprise! It works fine.

So, Apple won't let you download the entire album, but you can download the complete album if you're willing to go to the hassle of downloading the songs one at a time.

What a mess.
If you look at the album tracks there will be one or more that cannot be downloaded if you can see that in the tracks that will block the download of the album.
 
If you look at the album tracks there will be one or more that cannot be downloaded if you can see that in the tracks that will block the download of the album.
All the tracks on both albums in the set downloaded. Not one of them could not be downloaded individually. Every single track is downloaded.
 
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Today I noticed that an album that I own is not in my library. No worries, just add it. This is a double album with 42 songs called "Will the Circle be Unbroken" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. (Yeah, I'm old.)

So, let's download the entire album.

View attachment 2396418

Oops. Can't do it. Let's try one song. Downloads OK. Let's try downloading all 42 songs one-by-one.

Surprise! It works fine.

So, Apple won't let you download the entire album, but you can download the complete album if you're willing to go to the hassle of downloading the songs one at a time.

What a mess.
OK took a look at this double album. This one suffers from the rule of 3. I have no idea why Apple music does this but some album especially the double and triple releases will only download 3 at a time. It seem to happen with older releases. If you are loading it from a original source expect double track entries.
 
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