The iTunes Store abandoned DRM for music many years ago. They started offering DRM-free music in 2007 as an additional offering and by 2009 they stopped selling DRM-ed music. You can play any purchased song on an any computer without any restrictions.
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Jim Dalrymple: Apple Music is a nightmare and I'm done with it
- Thread starter Rogifan
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You can listen to any playlist without adding the songs in it to 'My Music'. Only if you save the playlist to 'My Music', does it add the songs to 'My Music' as well (or even then it might not, though that is probably a bug).
You might be running into a bug here, I don't see that happening at all. I assume you mean 'Start Station' with 'getting similar music to an album'.
Again doesn't happen with me. It remembers my last selection, if I switch the search scope to Apple Music, search keeps starting there whenever I go to search and vice versa. This even sticks when I switch between 'For You' and 'New' to 'My Music'. Maybe that is what is bothering you, that you expect the search scope to switch when you switch between 'For You'/'New' and 'My Music'.
In theory, whatever was on your phone when you switch on iCML on the phone for the first time should get that label because it actually is already 'physically' on the phone. But the whole offline availability is so buggy and inconsistent for me that I cannot really criticise how it was designed to work because I don't really know what that is.
For songs as well as albums, you just select 'Remove Download'. You can also select 'Remove from My Music' which should remove the downloads as well (in addition to removing the song(s) from 'My Music').
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Very eventually compared to streaming movies. It often doesn't clear those from the caches either (and sometime I can clear it with third-party software). Stream a few HD movies and most people's iPads will very quickly run out of space.
I think at the moment it is wise to completely disable cellular for Music on iOS devices (Settings > Cellular > 'Use Cellular Data For' > Music).
Not in Europe, you usually pay a license fee that goes to the public broadcaster (or the public broadcaster might be funded from general tax income). In the US, if you listen to Public Radio, you essentially also pay (or your neighbour is paying for you).
Here's something strange I only noticed today. Apologies if this has already been mentioned.
On my iPhone, if I go to "For You" and search Apple Music for "John Lennon", then go to "New" and search Apple Music for "Paul McCartney", I have two different searches I can tab back and forth between. I can continue and search under "Radio" for "George Harrison", under "Connect" for "Ringo Starr", and under "My Music" for, I don't know, "Eric Clapton". At that point I have five different searches going at the same time. And they're all functionally the same, with "Top Results", "Stations", etc.
That doesn't happen using iTunes on OS X. The same search spans all the tabs.
On my iPhone, if I go to "For You" and search Apple Music for "John Lennon", then go to "New" and search Apple Music for "Paul McCartney", I have two different searches I can tab back and forth between. I can continue and search under "Radio" for "George Harrison", under "Connect" for "Ringo Starr", and under "My Music" for, I don't know, "Eric Clapton". At that point I have five different searches going at the same time. And they're all functionally the same, with "Top Results", "Stations", etc.
That doesn't happen using iTunes on OS X. The same search spans all the tabs.
Thanks for the helpful input. Apple music still stinks though
I think in many cases Apple regard iTunes in a different way than what is user friendly and seems logical.
I like to add a bunch of playlists from Apple to my list of playlist just for variation. But once I hit play on any of them I suddenly get a ton of new albums with 1 song into my music library. So I don't add it deliberately, it's just a broken system.
No I don't mean start station. I mean I find the best recommendations in iTunes when I click one of the albums in "my music" it lists the songs of the album and a few covers of other music I might like or people with the same taste listens too. These recommendations take me directly to Apple Store where I must buy the albums.
The default search on my music instead of Apple music is for me in iTunes on OS X.
The offline availability as you say is just a big bug. I wonder if Apple even tried what they made here. I want offline media only when I'm on holiday and need a few albums available for my workout. But that's it. But when I want to access these I need to remember what I made offline because Apple gives you no options or filters.
I've also noticed that the music app for me keep changing volume while I'm running. The screen gets activated and starts doing weird stuff. Even when I hold my phone in my hand and don't touch the screen or any of the buttons it does random volume changes. I never had this issue with spotify.
I truly hope it will improve but I have my doubts. Maps have been broken for me ever since it was launched to the point of uselessness. According to Apple I live out in the ocean. I have reported it multiple times, a long time ago but nothing happens. My whole neighborhood is still in the ocean according to Apple. And half the times I tried the turn by turn I end up in the wrong places and even forced to drive dangerous illegal places. Luckily There's a company called google that delivers a proper map app for the iPhone, if not I don't know if I would want to own an iPhone anymore.
I totally agree that Apple needs to provide a better way of indicating what's downloaded for offline. Even with the option to show offline you have to open any playlist to see the "wee" phone icon. And a few times I had to restart my iPhone 6 because the earphone volume was lower than normal. Sure hope it gets better (I always submit bug and/or improvement feedback to Apple)
I would really like to hear one good argument from Apple or anyone that explains the reason for adding songs from playlists into your library. From what I've read Apple has about 200 people that works solely on making playlists. This probably means Apple is cramming out thousands of playlists every week. So eventually if you want to listen to many of these, your personal music library will have hundreds or even thousands of 1 song albums in you library. Seems pretty counter intuitive to me.
Right now I avoid playing any of the playlists because I prefer my music album clean and focused. If Apple want people to actually discover new music and artists they need to fix this.
Right now I avoid playing any of the playlists because I prefer my music album clean and focused. If Apple want people to actually discover new music and artists they need to fix this.
I don't understand why anybody would want to have it any other way. I already had hundreds of 1-song albums in my library before Apple Music. Why would I want to have all songs of an album in my library if I only ever listen to one (or handful) of songs in an album? What is the problem with 1-song albums? Singles existed pretty much since the beginning of recorded music.
If I like a playlist, it means I like the songs in the playlist (at least most of them). Which means I of course want them in my library. If there are a few songs I don't like in the playlist, I delete them again. If there are only a few songs in a playlist I like, I only add those few songs individually. One of my most listened to playlist is a smart playlist of the most recently added songs (I think currently set to added in the last six months). It contains all the great new stuff I've discovered recently, all the songs I discovered via the radio, music podcasts, or now playlists from Apple Music. Why wouldn't I want to have all the individual songs I discovered via playlists in it? Why wouldn't I want to have all the artists I discovered listed in the list of artists in 'My Music'?
Well, playing the playlists doesn't add them to your library, so I don't understand why you would avoid even just merely playing them.
Focussed on what? The only thing I can think of is that you want keep the library of the stuff you own separate from the stuff you are renting, the stuff you have 'bookmarked'. But that doesn't explain your dislike of 1-song albums.
So you want to add yet another layer in this? On top of playlists and songs presented to you (in 'For Your' and 'New'), you want a layer of songs and playlists you like, and then a layer of songs you like enough to be listed under 'My Music'.
The main point was and is...
The big model for Music forever has been "same old content, repackaged in new quality or format"....
That train is basically over.
Now they have "the final product" (quality wise) and are just trying to find ways to repackage and repurpose it that are even remotely as gouging as all new formats were in the past. It's going to be a tough road ahead with different financials for them. Will be painful.
I can install and run Amazon Music and Google Play Music on any of my devices (phones, tablets, notebooks) but cannot do this with iTunes.
Maybe for you.
What a strange statement. You seem to assume that everybody already has all the music they will ever listen to, and just kept buying what they already had in new formats. I think both of those assumptions are complete nonsense. New music is being released all the time, people's tastes change over time, and they discover things they didn't know before.
What "all the new formats" are you talking about? I haven't re-bought anything on any new format since switching from LPs to CDs in the 80s. And even then I only re-bought a few selected albums. But I have bought plenty of new and newly discovered music since and am still doing that. I also have used various streaming services mostly to find new things.
Formats like SACD and DVD-A never really caught on, which disproves your point. Sure, people have switched to digital files for convenience (ripping their CDs in the process), but that had nothing to do with audio quality which has remained mostly the same for decades now. For the same reason, many are now switching to streaming services, since that gives them access to large amounts of music at their fingertips without having to bother managing and copying files around.
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Your original comment was about purchased music. You can't play iTunes purchased songs on all your devices? Why not?
No I want it to work like spotify. You can listen to any playlist. Make any playlist simply by dragging music from apples entire library. Only when there's and album I want to listen to separately from all singles and songs I want to add that into my library. As an album.
Right now I have tried 4-5 apple playlists. Some of them I liked but not all. But my music library now have about 10 albums Of artists I don't even know who is because they were part of the Apple playlists. If I listened to 40-50 playlists I would have so many 1 single albums that I wouldn't even know how to find my own music anymore. How on earth can this be convenient to anyone? What is then the point of your own album anyway then your album could just as well be apples entire music library but with the stuff you play highlighted at the top.
But you are right, no point making it more complicated than necessary. If Apple allowed people to simply drag albums and songs from the full Apple library into playlists I wouldn't even need the "my music" tab. I feel that tab is only their to accommodate those that have used iTunes in the past and collected a library of bought albums. But even those people I assume wouldn't want to clutter their collection with a bunch of music they don't like. Funny thing that Apple don't even think playlists are the main way to make collections, it's not even a default button on the iPhone app.
Probably the best would be to separate Apple music into a separate app entirely and let iTunes live its own life. If you used spotify it's pretty obvious that Apple hasn't nailed how streaming music collections should work.
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Correct.
This is such a foolish industry. Who else gives away their product for free and then complains that they aren't making enough money? Back in the 1960's AM radio sounded like crap, stereophonic sound was a huge leap forward, and to be able to play an artist or a genre on demand you needed to buy the physical media. Radio advertised the aritst, the record store made the transaction. Today, what we call "Radio" isn't really radio, it's a better version of a mixtape or a playlist and, in almost every instance, is better than buying the media to begin with.
Shut down FM radio, Pandora, iTunes Radio, iHeart Radio, YouTube and the rest and then perhaps there is a compelling reason to pay $120 a year for the same thing.
BJ
"New music" is a bunch of singles, no one makes great albums anymore, I can't remember the last time I listened to a complete album from start to finish. Today, people purchase songs, they put them in playlists, and they play the playlist.
Apple Music and it's claim to have "30 Million Songs!" is a bunch of crap because with only 3 songs worth listening to on every 15 song album it just means that Apple Music gets paid to offer you the filler, the songs that no one wanted, the songs that weren't strong enough to bubble up to become a hit single.
BJ
You are missing my point. I can transfer it and play it. My playlists, song catalog, and any other aspect I have to build. That is a one to one relationship.
I like the one to many. Arrange and build in one place and use anywhere: web or app. The ability to transfer is an additional plus. iTunes does not give me that ability. Amazon and Google do.
Apple Music is available on iOS, via iTunes on the Mac and Windows and will be released on Android this fall. I know this doesn't cover Windows Phone but otherwise this sounds pretty comprehensive to me.
If you are someone that doesn't add much new music per year, and/or is very organized in how you like to add songs, what's more convenient, mobile and easy to access (your words) than always having your owned full quality copies of the songs you love on your device, all the time?
(hint: the answer isn't a streaming connection)
...which is fine if that's how you like to enjoy your music. For me there is no "bother" in managing my collection, in fact I really like my collection and playlists being a certain way (track order, metadata and content, etc).
I'm in the camp that adds under 50 songs a year to my owned collection these days and the management of that is simply no issue at all.
The free streaming and radio options are all I (and many like me) need for any discovery (which is usually just re-affirmation to go enjoy the songs I already have and love)
Had nothing to do with me - I was trying to highlight what the original poster that you replied to was trying to say.