Some bugs and annoyances, but I like it. I hate how it "converts" any live material to studio tracks when it doesn't have the original. Meh.
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How would you judge your overall experience with Apple Music?
- Thread starter navaira
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Yes, I realize that. But that really messes with my smart playlists. I mean, I could just make the effort to "fully delete" every song in the cloud that I don't ever want again. But that's a pain, and my point is, why do I even have to turn on cloud music just so I can (temporarily) download songs onto my phone? I realize there are work arounds, and there are also benefits to having the cloud music for some people. But why is this even something anyone has to deal with? If they just want to save some music on their phone because they don't want to stream later, just let them do it. Don't muck things up.
If I had the problems mentioned in the last two posts, I'd vote "Absolute hellish nightmare". I have a lot of remixes, edits, live versions, unreleased versions of albums. If Apple Music turned this all into album versions I'd nuke the thing. Luckily the Android app still doesn't exist and my library was too large for iCloud.
I fully agree that those workarounds shouldn't be necessary. This is why I will stick with Spotify. Apple Music had potential to be great. I still can't understand why it didn't get proper beta testing outside their campuses. A lot of those bugs could have been squashed before general release. Hard to say how many millions of users this will cost them – those who didn't sign up because they heard about the pile of errors, and those who will not continue using the service because they had enough of disappearing songs, magical album versions, etc.
I fully agree that those workarounds shouldn't be necessary. This is why I will stick with Spotify. Apple Music had potential to be great. I still can't understand why it didn't get proper beta testing outside their campuses. A lot of those bugs could have been squashed before general release. Hard to say how many millions of users this will cost them – those who didn't sign up because they heard about the pile of errors, and those who will not continue using the service because they had enough of disappearing songs, magical album versions, etc.
Doesn't having ten songs on the device one day and 30 different songs the next day keep your playlists on iOS in flux anyway? I think the reason they made the choice of putting all your songs in the cloud is for uniformity across Apple Music on the computer and iOS. Everything mingles together to make it more of a singular experience.
I am not sure they won't add more features like you want with Home Sharing already being announced as an iOS9 feature, but I do see what they were trying to do with the experience in the initial release.
As for Spotify vs Apple Music. It comes down to how you use the service. I prefer Apple Music and Rdio to Spotify and I have used all of them for months at a time. I preferred Spotify's computer app with apps like Blue Note/jazzify, but I couldn't get them on iOS...which was a downside to having two separate experiences from the same service.
For my use, Rdio beat Spotify by a mile. The radio slider, the ability to play music based on music label, the continue play feature, and the fact that it worked perfectly in my car via Bluetooth Audio and Spotify had tons of issues. Actually, I still prefer many features on Rdio to Apple Music, but I weigh things like having all my music available in one app and the ability to use Siri higher than the benefits of Rdio. However, I am not saying that my preferences apply to everyone. Just saying that there are different ways people use these apps and for my needs Apple Music is a much more complete service on iOS than Spotify.
Spotify > Apple Music and it's not close.
better experience, better servers, never NEVER freezes or has a delay in playback, sure it has less music selection but atleast I can click on a song and it plays. Seriously one of the most disapointing things Apple has ever came out with. I dropped Spotify immediately for it and it's been a nightmare.
better experience, better servers, never NEVER freezes or has a delay in playback, sure it has less music selection but atleast I can click on a song and it plays. Seriously one of the most disapointing things Apple has ever came out with. I dropped Spotify immediately for it and it's been a nightmare.
Yes, good points. But not having close to 10% of music not available on Spotify is my deal breaker. I can deal with slight start delays (as I hope AM improves over time).
I can live with a few bugs, as well. I also have bugs with Spotify (it doesn't work properly with my car's Bluetooth), so they aren't exactly perfect, either.
WTF. Now, for some reason, certain playlists aren't even showing up. When I look at the playlist on my computer, it says "Playlist can't be added to your iCloud music library." Um, OK. So let me sync them manually like I always do! Or just skip the ineligible songs, then!
W.T.F.!!!
W.T.F.!!!
I'm not sure why I see all these issues other are having. Nothing like that here. At most some delayed song starts.
That is the issue with some of the bugs, they aren't across the board, so Apple didn't know about them until the service was released to millions of people. When Spotify came to the US, they were already established. However, even then, they rolled out the service very slowly, by invitation only (I had to join some stupid service with Facebook to get an invite). Apple could have done this, but since it is Apple, many would have complained about not being on the invitation list (I know I would have). I think they should have just called it a beta, made it available to the masses, and let people know that they would work on bugs as they were made aware of them.
I had an issue where it would not let me play any music at all last Friday and I had to reboot the phone and re-sign in to Apple Music to get it to work. It has worked fine since then, but I never had that type of issue on Spotify or Rdio.
As I mentioned, people have different ways to listen to music, so I may not run across issues mentioned in the thread, while others run into bugs every time. I am not a "playlist" person. I would generally rather listen to full albums or radio mode on a streaming service (which Rdio excelled at). I use Apple's suggested playlists, the same way I used to listen to radio. Also, I rarely use the computer for music. I mainly use Airplay from my iPhone or iPad. As a result, it would be unusual for me to run into the bug he is having. However, I do have some playlists I created a long time ago and they are still on my phone.
My main point is that this service, with the current bugs, may not be for everyone right now. I can live with the small bugs I have run across, but I am still hoping iOS9 clears most of them up. I still like it a lot more than I like Spotify, but I like to listen to music in my car (about 2 hours a day) and Spotify is miles behind Apple in that respect. (which is probably something that others don't run into on a daily basis - hence, the way we listen to music affects our happiness with a service).
I wish Slacker would do the exact opposite. I freaking hate live tracks. I skip all them. The only live tracks I can bare is Salsa music.
Also how much music is actually missing from albums. I also hate this crap too. It reminds me when Netflix use to have seasons of shows and some episodes were disc only. Use to really tick me off. What is the point of showing something that you can't play. Ether get all the songs, episodes or don't bother adding it at all. At least Netflix fixed this annoyance with the newer shows it added.
I have several live albums... I checked several of them and they all came over as live albums. Not sure why they wouldn't, they have unique names that have nothing in common with studio albums. If it is coming over that way, it is most likely a bug. I would rescan the original library after the next update.
Damn, still undecided. Apple works great in car, has some nice UI, but is so slow when streaming both on phone and mac. I like spotify suggests better, it is faster, has better playlist management, but third party app has it s disadvantages, like keeping app in ram.
I have mixed experiences with AM. Some albums (for example Vikings soundtrack) don't have all tracks available (in this case, the Fever Ray song, "If I Had A Heart"). However if you seek out the Fever Ray song, it's available elsewhere both as album and single track. Some albums change as time goes by, for instance Mike Oldfield's Two Sides compilation which had tracks missing for a week or so and then the rest re-appeared. (Those tracks were also available elsewhere, just not on Two Sides.) Another member wrote that Bombay Bicycle Club's So Long, See You Tomorrow was available, then disappeared, I just checked and it's available again. Michael Jackson's Xscape is finally on AM, but when you to to the deluxe version of the album the documentary and outtakes are dimmed out. Spotify doesn't have them, but then Spotify doesn't have any videos. (By the way, by doing some searches for this post I discovered I can't play any AM videos. They buffer, then proceed to not playing.)
The only time I had problems with certain tracks not being available in Spotify was when Say Lou Lou's album came out in Sweden only at first. I had a full album listed, but only four tracks – from singles – were playable. AM wasn't around then so I couldn't cross-check.
Out of curiosity @whsbuss, what kind of music you can't find on Spotify that is available on Apple Music? Pretty much everything I looked up was on Spotify, but that's probably because of my taste.
PS. For fun, type "Prince" in the search box of Apple Music, then in Similar Artists click on "Prince & The Revolution" and watch what happens.
The only time I had problems with certain tracks not being available in Spotify was when Say Lou Lou's album came out in Sweden only at first. I had a full album listed, but only four tracks – from singles – were playable. AM wasn't around then so I couldn't cross-check.
Out of curiosity @whsbuss, what kind of music you can't find on Spotify that is available on Apple Music? Pretty much everything I looked up was on Spotify, but that's probably because of my taste.
PS. For fun, type "Prince" in the search box of Apple Music, then in Similar Artists click on "Prince & The Revolution" and watch what happens.
What part is unbearably slow? When I start a song, album, playlist it takes less than three seconds to start (usually ranges from a second to two seconds). It isn't usually instantaneous, but it isn't like it takes twenty seconds, either.
In the car, which I know can be different from person to person, there isn't another service that comes close. I was driving home from work last night and said "hey Siri, play AC/DC". A couple seconds later, it loaded a list of 50 songs and started playing. Right on the Nav screen, I could navigate to any of the songs and start playing them at the touch of a button.
If the suggestions aren't working, you can redo the balloon process. On iOS, you can also hold down the album cover and you can tell it you don't like a suggestion. Those processes should help.
I saw someone mention video. That is another bonus to Apple Music that will be even better when they add the app to the Appletv.
Jazz, R&B - what I find is certain albums where I have a few tracks saved in AM do not appear on Spotify. AM has more artist's than Spotify. And believe it or not Pandora has some tracks not available anywhere. Figure that out.
That's very interesting if some bugs affect some people and not others. I'm still very disappointed in this product so far, but I will give it the full 3 months, unlike what I said earlier. And, considering I signed up almost 2 months after AM was introduced, that means AM will have been out almost 5 months by then. Quirks, I can deal with. Full blown bugs, no.
And, TBH, I do wonder if this is for me. I like having more control of my music. Let's conservatively say I'm half of a family plan. That's $7.5 per month. Because of my, ahem, "advanced age", I haven't spent $90 per year on music in quite a few years. (And, no, that's NOT because I've been illegally downloading.) If I spent $90, or heck, even $60 a year on music every year from now own, I'd probably be OK with that.
OTOH, I would not be able to play that album of Hawaiian music I just played. That's the huge benefit of the streaming plans (AM, Spotify, whatever). You can play some obscure thing you would never buy fully. Ugh. Still undecided.
EDIT: Forgot to mention the most recent bug. As I mentioned upthread, I use smart playlists. One of the sorting factors I use is play count. In fact, "number of plays" is probably the single biggest impactor of my smart playlists. Well, somehow Apple Music has mucked around with my play count. I don't know if maybe this happened during the several times I went back and forth with cloud music or whatever. Doesn't matter. This should not have happened. This is not a big deal in and of itself, but it is annoying to have a song come up that I know I've listened to many times, but it is appearing on my "Least Played" playlist. Sux.
And, TBH, I do wonder if this is for me. I like having more control of my music. Let's conservatively say I'm half of a family plan. That's $7.5 per month. Because of my, ahem, "advanced age", I haven't spent $90 per year on music in quite a few years. (And, no, that's NOT because I've been illegally downloading.) If I spent $90, or heck, even $60 a year on music every year from now own, I'd probably be OK with that.
OTOH, I would not be able to play that album of Hawaiian music I just played. That's the huge benefit of the streaming plans (AM, Spotify, whatever). You can play some obscure thing you would never buy fully. Ugh. Still undecided.
EDIT: Forgot to mention the most recent bug. As I mentioned upthread, I use smart playlists. One of the sorting factors I use is play count. In fact, "number of plays" is probably the single biggest impactor of my smart playlists. Well, somehow Apple Music has mucked around with my play count. I don't know if maybe this happened during the several times I went back and forth with cloud music or whatever. Doesn't matter. This should not have happened. This is not a big deal in and of itself, but it is annoying to have a song come up that I know I've listened to many times, but it is appearing on my "Least Played" playlist. Sux.
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Frankly even though I've personally witnessed and experienced Apples decline in consistency, quality, and attention to the user experience. Apple Music is surprisingly awful. It's as though it was shoved out early before it was ready. The only reason it wasn't a total surprise is because Apples new track record especially with maps is also dreadful.
But then again when you're as arrogant and self serving as Apple you can ship crappy product and consumers keep buying.
But then again when you're as arrogant and self serving as Apple you can ship crappy product and consumers keep buying.
AM have literally overnight changed the "loading" problem. Yesterday buffering a track took 5 seconds (desktop). This morning I saw a comment someone left under a post I made elsewhere on Disqus saying that this has improved. I was like "yeah right", then I checked. Now buffering is almost instant.
They are working on it. I'm still not switching, not unless I hear people praising the new matching function that doesn't destroy libraries, but the AM team is actually doing something else than randomly removing songs from the catalogue and putting them back in
They are working on it. I'm still not switching, not unless I hear people praising the new matching function that doesn't destroy libraries, but the AM team is actually doing something else than randomly removing songs from the catalogue and putting them back in
Not sure I agree 100% with the rest of your post, but this part is something I briefly touched on. Like I said, did Jony Ive have ANYTHING to do with the design? I hope not. Dieter Rams would be appalled.
I have a lot of live albums in my collection. All of them were uploaded via iTunes Match prior to the launch of Apple Music. Most of the time I have no issues but occasionally the phone will suddenly display 30 live albums with only a single track and it plays the studio album. I never have these issues when using iTunes though but it makes the iOS experience frustrating.
If you turn off iCloud, you lose access to important aspects of AM, such as syncing playlists between devices (say an iPhone and an iMac), and having an offline library. It's the way iCloud overwrites your library data that is the wrench in the machine here--without that, it's fine, even preferable in certain ways (music discovery, activity playlists). Basically, it's Match redux, and Match was a disaster for me and a bunch of other people.
I wish Apple would just make iCloud a passive storage/syncing service.
I think it lacks Apple's trademark ease of use, it has a cluttered and inelegant interface, it is riddled with bugs and offers nothing of substance over the competition.
It could be great, but right now it is not impressing me. I much prefer Spotify.
Sorry to have to say this as an Apple devotee, but if it ain't good enough, it ain't good enough.
It could be great, but right now it is not impressing me. I much prefer Spotify.
Sorry to have to say this as an Apple devotee, but if it ain't good enough, it ain't good enough.