For those of us complaining about Music app...

[Jayson A]

Perhaps you're like me and you hate the new music app design based on screenshots.

I just saw the new Music app in MOTION (video) and it looks WAY better and the big fat controls help match the big fat fonts they use now.

Also, I didn't know that you can scroll the "Now Playing" screen. That changes my perception of the Music app quite a bit.

I think that if I got to play around with it for a few days, I'd actually start preferring it over the old design.

The animations REALLY help make it look elegant and well thought-out. The way the album art POPS out when you start playing is a really nice visual cue that ties that design in.

Here's the video I watched:

I think the bold fonts and large sizes are here to stay though. Apple wouldn't have done all that work if they weren't very proud of the new look. It's very unlikely that they'll change it much at all, so it's best to just start getting your eyes used to it now so that when September rolls around, you won't be disappointed by it.

Again, it looks MUCH better when you see it in action.

 

[bilibug]

So far, the update sucks. Functionality is removed. Where are my track times? Most changes are cosmetic, and it is aesthetically horrible. More seriously, it still hoses your local library - there is no improvement to the match algorithm at all. Supposedly, the huge fonts are an outstanding bug, as they do not respond to regular system-wide text size options correctly. There are other bug related issues, especially regarding downloads and playlists, which I will excuse based on the beta status of this build.

This is a hands-on opinion.

 

[lagwagon]

So far, the update sucks. Functionality is removed. Where are my track times? Most changes are cosmetic, and it is aesthetically horrible. More seriously, it still hoses your local library - there is no improvement to the match algorithm at all. Supposedly, the huge fonts are an outstanding bug, as they do not respond to regular system-wide text size options correctly. There are other bug related issues, especially regarding downloads and playlists, which I will excuse based on the beta status of this build.

This is a hands-on opinion.

You mention functionality is removed, but do you not realize that the app isn't finished? 8.4 beta 1 was the same thing. Went through a redesign and was missing a lot of things due to it being a beta 1 version and not complete. Same things here. It's beta 1 and being redesigned, so it is not complete and everything hasn't been added "back" in yet.

Not sure why this has to be repeated numerous times.

 

[bilibug]

You mention functionality is removed, but do you not realize that the app isn't finished? 8.4 beta 1 was the same thing. Went through a redesign and was missing a lot of things due to it being a beta 1 version and not complete. Same things here. It's beta 1 and being redesigned, so it is not complete and everything hasn't been added "back" in yet.

Not sure why this has to be repeated numerous times.

No one asked you to, though you seem to often have your personal soapbox.

I was clear in my original post in acknowledging that this is a beta version and that things would change as development progresses. However, I am also entitled to express that I don't care for the new direction the app is going in at all - mostly because I fear that Apple is trying to find ways to "dumb it down".

My view is that AM needs to become more sophisticated if they really expect it to be the desired superior experience. Some of the missing features seem to be design choices, in an effort to simplify the app since so many complained that it was too complicated. I think that Apple is missing the fact that many end users want more control of their libraries, not less, and that many of the complaints are based on the complicated processes and workarounds required to achieve some semblance of that. Instead, the new AM seems to further push an oversimplified "Apple way" as the "right way".

As a direct response to the OP, who is basing his opinion solely on screenshots and videos, rather than hands-on experience, I was expressing that throbbing album artwork is not going to win me over if more of the major functional deficiencies in AM are not addressed. The intention of my post was to emphasize that he should not to be fooled by the painted pig.

My opinion is that Apple Music has been a mess since release, and for all the attempts of creating excitement at WWDC about the app and service being redesigned from the ground up to improve user experience, none of that work is evident in the current beta version despite all of the pretty pictures being sent around to the media. I hope the final version is as dazzling as the hype is setting it up to be. But, currently, no. I do not find a single major functional improvement in the new beta.

 

[lagwagon]

No one asked you to, though you seem to often have your personal soapbox.

I was clear in my original post in acknowledging that this is a beta version and that things would change as development progresses. However, I am also entitled to express that I don't care for the new direction the app is going in at all - mostly because I fear that Apple is trying to find ways to "dumb it down".

My view is that AM needs to become more sophisticated if they really expect it to be the desired superior experience. Some of the missing features seem to be design choices, in an effort to simplify the app since so many complained that it was too complicated. I think that Apple is missing the fact that many end users want more control of their libraries, not less, and that many of the complaints are based on the complicated processes and workarounds required to achieve some semblance of that. Instead, the new AM seems to further push an oversimplified "Apple way" as the "right way".

As a direct response to the OP, who is basing his opinion solely on screenshots and videos, rather than hands-on experience, I was expressing that throbbing album artwork is not going to win me over if more of the major functional deficiencies in AM are not addressed. The intention of my post was to emphasize that he should not to be fooled by the painted pig.

My opinion is that Apple Music has been a mess since release, and for all the attempts of creating excitement at WWDC about the app and service being redesigned from the ground up to improve user experience, none of that work is evident in the current beta version despite all of the pretty pictures being sent around to the media. I hope the final version is as dazzling as the hype is setting it up to be. But, currently, no. I do not find a single major functional improvement in the new beta.

I was more or less commenting on your comment of "functionality is removed. where are my track times?" Obviously something missing due to it not being a finished app. If you needed to ask where your track times are, then you clearly weren't contributing that to beta (when you do later in your post about bugs)

 

[Jayson A]

I made this thread so that people could actually see the music app in motion. It makes much more sense when you see it being used vs just looking at screenshots.

Once I saw it being used, the old music app seems inferior in comparison.

 

[lagwagon]

I made this thread so that people could actually see the music app in motion. It makes much more sense when you see it being used vs just looking at screenshots.

Once I saw it being used, the old music app seems inferior in comparison.

It's good to see that someone can admit they maybe have reacted too soon by only seeing static screenshots.

One of my favourite things is that animations no long stutter like crazy when tapping an artist to view their albums and back out . Plus no more text blink when you go back into the artist list from the artist page(their albums)

I also like the album animation while in the player screen. I noticed the drop shadow takes on hints of the album art colours. Which is a nice touch IMO.

 

[RobbyIdol]

I don't see anything in that video that makes the larger font and other Music app changes look elegant or even redeemable. Yes, lagwagon, it's Beta 1. Hopefully by launch time, it looks like a completely different app.

 

[Jayson A]

I don't see anything in that video that makes the larger font and other Music app changes look elegant or even redeemable. Yes, lagwagon, it's Beta 1. Hopefully by launch time, it looks like a completely different app.

It won't. They may tweak things subtly, but this is the app we're getting. Mark my words.

 

[iOSUser7]

It's good to see that someone can admit they maybe have reacted too soon by only seeing static screenshots.

Most people on this forum have actually tried the beta so I don't think they reacted "too soon by only seeing static screenshots" and also there are a lot of Youtube video reviews on the web.

One of my favourite things is that animations no long stutter like crazy when tapping an artist to view their albums and back out .

For real ? Weren't you one of the guys who almost swore they have absolutely never seen a single stutter or lag on iOS 9 ?

 

[Feenician]

Most people on this forum have actually tried the beta so I don't think they reacted "too soon by only seeing static screenshots" and also there are a lot of Youtube video reviews on the web.

Lagwagon responded to the OP - who specifically said he'd reacted to screenshots and then changed his view based on video - and commended the same person for altering their view based on something other than screenshots. What do "most people on this forum" have to do with the post you're responding to?

The majority of the criticism I've seen here or elsewhere pertain to font sizes in music.app and there's clearly currently a bug there as they tend to get larger as you set dynamic font size lower, doing the opposite of what people who would even bother to set that setting wanted. It's obviously a bug in a dev beta but of course it won't stop the usual crying

 

[lagwagon]

Most people on this forum have actually tried the beta so I don't think they reacted "too soon by only seeing static screenshots" and also there are a lot of Youtube video reviews on the web.


For real ? Weren't you one of the guys who almost swore they have absolutely never seen a single stutter or lag on iOS 9 ?

Good for them. The OP said he reacted too soon to just screenshots and such before seeing it in action. And I guarantee he isn't/wasn't the only one.

No, I never said or swore iOS 9 was a perfect utopia of performance. It never was terrible on my iPhone 6 either though. In some areas it struggled sometimes (keyword, sometimes) , but overall it was definitely no where near as bad as the same 10 people made it sound with their 1 year long endless rants.

Music animations was one area where it consistently struggled on my phone (moving from artist list to album list and back again.) And the artist name and number of albums for that artist text blinking when going back from artist albums to artist list. All that is gone.

 

[oldmacs]

Can we just have the option to re-enable the iOS 8.3 version but with up next + Playlists from the iOS 8.4 version + the 'minimising' now playing window?