How would you judge your overall experience with Apple Music?

[RickyW64]

Good

Curated playlists by humans.

Not So Good

No 320k or lossless files.
ITunes Match 'issues' integrated into this product.
Offline use only if you subject your library (and sanity) to iCloud.
Missed opportunity to move away from iTunes bloatware and create a much better product.
It doesn't 'just work', it's a confusing mess.

 

[tomekosiowy]

AAC is not mp3.

 

[yg17]

Complete dumpster fire.

 

[keeper]

I was happy, then I started looking at my files, then i released I had no control.
I tried adding album artist, and iCloud would just remove what i'd put in.
Then it started to add duplicate files because Apple had named the file slightly differently.

So, if I want control over my tagging and files, I have to turn off iCloud.
If I turn off iCloud I can't download music locally.
So really if you want any type of control it just does not work.

I've turned it off and i've gone back to a Qobuz basic streaming account at £4.99 a month.

Shame really what happened to 'It just works'?
Apple really need to get some quality control back.

 

[navaira]

Personally, I downgraded to iTunes 12.1. It's slower somehow, but at least it allows me to search for artist name and album title at the same time, and it doesn't play songs in random order when it's bored. As for streaming, I'm staying with Spotify.

I might change my mind if Apple manage to release a new version of iTunes before September 30, but it doesn't look like that is on their priority list.

 

[keeper]

I turned off iCloud yesterday on my mac, and iPhone & IPad.
This morning I turned it on on the mac, updated all my tags.
Switched on iPhone & IPad and got it to re-build rather than merge, so far so good.
Will leave it a few days and see what happens.

If this does not work I will put my local music in jRiver and I plan to build a pure Apple Music library
and download to content i want to fully sync across mobiles.

 

[jammybastard]

Ease of use.
How fast can I search for a song and start playing it?
How fast can I add it to a playlist?
How fast can I call up playlists to play music?
Now consider trying to do this while stopped at a light, waiting for mass transit, on the exercise bike, etc...
because the the kind of things I'm doing 80% of the time I'm listening to music.


IMHO Spotify wins that criteria, and that's why I'm sticking with it despite having a Match account and being an all Apple personal/business user.
Apple Music may have the same music, Beats 1, curated playlists, etc...
but it's not easy to navigate and use as I need it to be.

 

[CEmajr]

I like it so far. Anytime I hear a song somewhere that I like, I can now search for it in Apple Music and have it instantly added to one of my iTunes playlists. That ability to have almost every song imaginable at my fingertips instantly is what's making me debate whether or not to keep it. Some of the playlists and suggested albums in the 'For You' section are pretty good too.

 

[markhort]

Went for - Some bugs that irritate me, but nothing extremely serious. Much better now since the latest iTunes update. Still a few issues. Apart from that I'm okay with Apple Music. I've now cancelled Spotify.

 

[Smartass]

I like the service, but i really really REALLY hate the annoying bug that eats up all of my free space on the phone so i have to run iexplorer and delete those stupid files every week just so i can use my camera.

 

[Uofmtiger]

Ease of use.
How fast can I search for a song and start playing it?
How fast can I add it to a playlist?
How fast can I call up playlists to play music?
Now consider trying to do this while stopped at a light, waiting for mass transit, on the exercise bike, etc...
because the the kind of things I'm doing 80% of the time I'm listening to music.

In my car, I simply use Siri to play albums, artists, songs, radio, and playlists. If I plug the iPhone in, I don't even have to touch the phone. I just say something like "Hey Siri, play Rubber Soul" and the album plays. Siri integration is great and having 25,000 songs from my music collection available, including The Beatles, is another reason I like it.

The downside for me right now is the bugs. However, I would also like to be able to control Apple Music on a Mac with the Apple Music iOS app (Rdio and Spotify already have a remote feature).

 

[PhiLLoW]

Just deleted a few songs before a run (deleted offline data ) and made a few new available offline.

Somehow Apple Music decided to ignore my choice and I was stuck with the old music/playlist.

2/10 Great feature. It just works.

 

[Tech198]

Everything "just works", till u break it, or someone else does, then "it just doesn't work"

I don't mind AM, after i figured out how to "force" upload my own songs even though they exist on Apple music itself, and its a drama, to go through, but i'm still at this stage, on the fence.

 

[Sanlitun]

No 320k or lossless files.

This is perhaps the biggest issue for me, even more so than the library issues. Spotify sounds better, especially on my best gear. The difference is not necessarily a function of bitrate, but I assume it is part of the story. Despite the possible advantages of AAC I cannot dismiss the extra 60k of resolution.

I had assumed that the day after Apple Music's launch I would be cancelling my Spotify subscription, but here we are closing on two months and if nothing is changing I will not continue with Apple Music.

 

[skiltrip]

I started off loving it. I fell hard for the For You section. It was a very slick mix of stuff I obviously love, classics that I don't frequently listen to but love all the same, and new stuff just outside of my direct familiarity. It's done very well and it's very obvious that these playlists are put together by humans who have a pretty good knowledge of the genre they are working with.

One side note is I have ZERO use for the music played on Beats 1. I've tuned in many, many times only to hear music I'd never feel the desire to listen to in a million years. I won't count that against them, as it's obviously not geared toward a middle aged indie/punk rock listener.

After a month of bliss, the weirdness set in.

Random stopping of the music.

Downloaded music was showing lots of doubles, triples, or even more of one song. Tried multiple ways to correct it, clearing all downloads and redownloading but nothing would correct it.

Then there was the Unable to Download error.

There is the showing only offline music not working correctly.

The issues with offline music have rendered AM unusable for me.

For now I've disabled AM and put the Music app in my Crapple folder.

The upside is Apple Music's shortcomings have driven me to check out Google Music again, which is pretty fantastic and has lots of albums that AM (and Spotify) are missing, namely the Dead Kennedys, 7 Seconds, Youth Brigade (and any BYO Records stuff).

I do really miss the For You section but I'll make do for now. If Apple Music is fixed before my 3 month trial is up I'll seriously consider keeping my subscription active. If it's still a mess it looks as if Google will be getting my loot.

 

[Julien]

This is perhaps the biggest issue for me, even more so than the library issues. Spotify sounds better, especially on my best gear. The difference is not necessarily a function of bitrate, but I assume it is part of the story. Despite the possible advantages of AAC I cannot dismiss the extra 60k of resolution.

I had assumed that the day after Apple Music's launch I would be cancelling my Spotify subscription, but here we are closing on two months and if nothing is changing I will not continue with Apple Music.

Spotify (like most services) uses more loudness compression which 'appears' to sound better. Read below for an understanding of the loudness wars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

http://www.npr.org/2009/12/31/122114058/the-loudness-wars-why-music-sounds-worse


Apple fighting the loudness war.
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2013/10/28/itunesloudness/

 

[iAmRenzo]

I have realy no idea what Apple was thinking.

+ I like to GUI, more than Spotify. Spotify is dark, black, lots of blackspace and just no 'handy'.
+ I like the integration with my iTunes Library.

- Why is every song in a playlist added to my library if I add a playlist? Workaround: add a new Apple ID to my family, import Spotify playlists into that account and share them to me, to subscribe to that playlist.
- If an artitst's song is played, I can go to the iTunes Store (to do what?), but I cannot go to a page with all his music in Apple Music. This makes Apple Music static or like an analog record collection.
- User generated playlist, like in Spotify, don't excist. Or better: are hard to share (you have to know the person).
- Apple's playlist are very short.
- I'm Dutch, so is my Siri. But songs and artists are mostly English. Do the math: this doesn't work.

So to conclude: it's ok, I prefer it over Spotify (interface) but Apple has to do a lot more. If it fails? I will go back to spotify.

 

[Tech198]

interesting read :- http://www.mcelhearn.com/apple-music-matches-files-with-metadata-only-not-acoustic-fingerprinting/

this is exactly my experience. And if true, would actually make iTunes Match more accurate.. Since i don't have Match I can't see results.

 

[navaira]

Out of the people with AM problems, has anyone seen any improvement with the new iOS/iTunes that would make you want to change your vote?

 

[keeper]

Out of the people with AM problems, has anyone seen any improvement with the new iOS/iTunes that would make you want to change your vote?

No, looks like they tried to add a few shiney bits rather than fixing core issues, nothing to want me pay for it over my £4.99 Qobuz account.

 

[Easttime]

I wanted an easy way to find new music while I work at my desktop, listening to background music while I work and downloading tracks to my music library for offline listening on my iDevices. I am not among those who put proper dedicated effort into their music collections. Part A (listening while I work and snagging tracks to my library) is working fine. Part B (sorting into playlists and marking for offline) is confusing and I still have not figured it out.

 

[Kapybarus]

My biggest problem is slow start of song in cimpare with spotify and unable to create playlist without adding song to my music. Except this it is good

 

[Uofmtiger]

Out of the people with AM problems, has anyone seen any improvement with the new iOS/iTunes that would make you want to change your vote?

I am not changing my vote because I still think it lacks some features, but I am sticking with it, anyway.

It did fix an issue I was having when I would start a playlist and try to pull up the album of a song. It would often give me an "unknow artist" page. I haven't had that issue since the update (however, it has only been a day, so if I see it, I will come back and edit this post).

 

[yg17]

Out of the people with AM problems, has anyone seen any improvement with the new iOS/iTunes that would make you want to change your vote?

Nope, it's still **** in the new iOS and iTunes versions. I don't think they actually fixed anything.

 

[skiltrip]

Out of the people with AM problems, has anyone seen any improvement with the new iOS/iTunes that would make you want to change your vote?

No. Nothing changed at all. Not that I notice anyway. Any issues I was experiencing are all still there.

The one thing mentioned in update notes, the creating new playlists from a song, still doesn't work. There's no new playlist option.

I want to love Apple Music. I really do. They need to seriously rethink a few things. Google, Spotify, and Rdio all have well thought out interfaces. I've been using Google Music more and more lately and loving it. All Apple needs to do is borrow a few ideas and fix those bugs.

The place where Apple Music shines is their curated playlists. Google Music and Spotify radio stations suck in comparison. Yes, you can train Google and Spotify with your thumbs up and downs, but Apple is already dishing out playlists to me that I would likely have created myself.