Is this really how owned music works with AM?

[mellofello]

I honestly don't listen to all that much music these days. However I have about 150gb of music in my iTunes library, from my younger days. I went to go load stuff onto my phone for a big road trip through New Zealand, and it will no longer allow me to add music in iTunes.

Ok so I turn on iCloud library on my iMac. It allows me to then download for offline play, but a lot of my music (that I own legally) will now not play, and shows up as greyed out. Also a lot of albums only transferred 2 or 3 tracks. Insult to injury the tracks are on my phones hard drive, but are unplayable without data.

What the hell.

Do I need to choose between having Apple Music, or having easy access to my own music? If so how is this not a huge scandal? Is their model that you should only stream music? No big deal in the states but I travel a lot international, and mobile data is precious on tour.

Please tell me there is some setting I'm not seeing that allows me total local control of my phones music library.

If not I am going back to Spotify yesterday.

 

[robotica]

I would I would also like these questions answered. I opened my music app for the first time in months and everything has changed for the worse wtf is going on

 

[Tech198]

Apple music offline i thought would by the same... as in "completely offline" as in no prior connection at all.

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. That's what Apple tells me. Kinda dumb.

https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204839


"You can download songs, albums, or playlists to your device so that you can listen to them when you're not connected to the Internet.* You must download songs, albums, or playlists on each device that you want to use for offline listening.


*You can download music on up to 10 devices. These songs are accessible only during your Apple Music membership"

This implies that you must have internet connection to download and prior to *moving* offline, but move out of the "internet connected" area and in theory u should still be able to play offline.

This is how Apple defines it as "offline music"

Note 1: if i right click and choose "make available offline" it will download the song... i can play it locally, and it does not "stream" which is the difference Apple is saying.

The fact it plays locally means to Apple "it's offline" BUT u must be signed into iTunes prior to this. Thus the "move" to offline.

Note 2: You can test this yourself like i did.. On your Mac on internet connection make available offline a song... then disconnect from internet.. You can still play this as its being played from the storage u downloaded it too, it does Not stream it.

If songs are greyed out go up to File menu >>Library "update iCloud Music Library."

 

[mellofello]

What is frustrating is that I followed those directions to a T, and downloaded about 10gb of songs to my phone. They are on there in storage, but I was not able to play them offline. Really put a damper on my 30 hour drive. Thank god for podcasts.

I'm out after this. I don't want to ask permission to access my own music. Spotify lives totally separate. I just hope this doesn't mess anything up after I cancel.

 

[robotica]

Imo music and Apple Music should have been two completely separate apps.

 

[S.B.G]

Spotify lives totally separate.

I never was impressed very much with Apple Music during the free trial. I have been using Spotify exclusively for both online and offline play and haven't been disappointed. I haven't looked at my iTunes music library in months.

 

[riverfreak]

Apple Music is and remains a frustrating mess. Just like manic depression.

I've enabled iCloud Muisc Library since the 25k track limit was uploaded.

About 75% of my personal music collection also appeared in Apple Music. These are now all labeled as Apple Music tracks, completely indistinguishable from tracks I do not own but have added from Apple Music.

This thread on offline access is disturbing. I am definitely going to have to test it out.

 

[robotica]

I just can't believe Apple have forced me to download a subpar App Store app to enable me to enjoy my music.

Why are you trying to torpedo what you spend 15+ years trying to perfect just to try and take some market share away from other more rubbish steaming music services?

Everything doesn't have to be a competition especially when your already on top!!

 

[riverfreak]

Here's just one example of the bizarre behavior of Apple Music.

This is a song from Brian Eno's Apollo album. I own it, ripped from CD.

Apple Music found it in its collection. Great! Except now the track is labeled as an "Apple Music" track. It's location is now on iCloud, not on my hard drive.

If I want to listen to it, I now need to either stream it or download it. I understand that it will replace my copy with a 256k AAC but a) it sucks that I have to download all my music again and b) I'm concerned about all of my purchased music transmogrifying into something I need to pay a subscription for in perpetuity to listen to.

And don't even get me started on the sort order. "Brian Eno" not "Eno, Brian"? I guess these people have never been in a record store (or library for that matter)

 

[Tech198]

This DRM is really confussing everyone isn't it,,, i can tell.

 

[Paco II]

You had a local copy in iTunes and when you enabled Apple Music it deleted it?

Here's just one example of the bizarre behavior of Apple Music.

This is a song from Brian Eno's Apollo album. I own it, ripped from CD.

Apple Music found it in its collection. Great! Except now the track is labeled as an "Apple Music" track. It's location is now on iCloud, not on my hard drive.

If I want to listen to it, I now need to either stream it or download it. I understand that it will replace my copy with a 256k AAC but a) it sucks that I have to download all my music again and b) I'm concerned about all of my purchased music transmogrifying into something I need to pay a subscription for in perpetuity to listen to.

And don't even get me started on the sort order. "Brian Eno" not "Eno, Brian"? I guess these people have never been in a record store (or library for that matter)

View attachment 606779

 

[riverfreak]

No. I had a local copy. That song was matched to one that existed in the Apple Music catalog. At that point, iTunes decided that the Applemusic version was the canonical variant. If you get info on the track, it no longer refers to the local file.

 

[Paco II]

Out of curiosity, if you turn off Apple Music, what happens to the track?

No. I had a local copy. That song was matched to one that existed in the Apple Music catalog. At that point, iTunes decided that the Applemusic version was the canonical variant. If you get info on the track, it no longer refers to the local file.

 

[mellofello]

Damn my time machine hard drive corrupted. If I turn off AM will it restore my originals?

 

[riverfreak]

Damn my time machine hard drive corrupted. If I turn off AM will it restore my originals?

NO IT WILL NOT RESTORE YOUR ORIGINALS.

1. If it is a song that did not match and was uploaded, it will be downloaded without DRM.

2. If it was a song matched to AM, it will be downloaded with DRM, possibly at a higher bitrate. And probably with different metadata.

Thus it does not function as a (complete) backup service.

If you try to delete a song and remove the file from your library, iTunes will prompt you with something like "this is the original copy of this file. Are you sure you want to delete it? Other copies may not exist."

 

[riverfreak]

Out of curiosity, if you turn off Apple Music, what happens to the track?

Good question. For clarity, you mean iCloud Music Library?

I am slightly afraid to try this as it literally took weeks to match and upload my library. It's working tolerably well now with aforementioned quirks.

 

[rugmankc]

Not heavy into music on a daily basis. Only around 350 songs total on my iPhone. I am playing around with a free Spotify. Not sure I will ever subscribe to it or AM. For awhile now I have been buying all music and movies from iTunes. Just easier for me to work with. I just ask for iTune cards for birthdays and holidays. So, kinda free. But, if I ever buy AM, I will still have copies of my owned music already saved to a folder on my macbook. I even copy my Playlists to the macbook and and backup to other external devices. Isn't that the answer to not losing any owned music if you go AM. Just asking--

 

[yep-sure]

I had similar issues on my phone. When I got my 6S, I ensured iCloud Music library was turned off, then I copied all my music from my computer to my phone, and then turned iCloud Music Library back on. This allowed me to have all my music that I ripped from CD's, live albums, and everything else that's not in ITunes on my phone, and also allowed me to save Apple Music albums to my library for offline playing.

 

[Tech198]

perhaps Apple should have used the term 'iTunes Match' and just added Apple music service to it.... users already know how iTunes match works... but u come out with a new name and everyone goes crazy since no one ones how it works if there is no "match" word in the name..

 

[Paco II]

I am an iTunes match subscriber and have been bouncing between Apple Music and Spotify to see which I prefer. Normally I like full integration, but when I cancelled Apple Music I was left with playlists I had added from AM now full of unplayable songs. I am guessing that is because I have iCloud music library enabled due to iTunes match. In this case I think Apple has done a poor job dealing with integration of services.