Just about ready to throw in the towel and crawl back to Spotify...

[Agent OrangeZ]

This launch has been a disaster. Songs from library do not all play on my iPhone. Changes made to playlists on my Mac in iTunes are not synced to the iPhone. Songs added to library randomly "greying out" and not playing. Confusing layout.

I am thinking about just giving up and give my $15/mo to Spotify.

 

[Unhyper]

I'm sure the service will improve (well, it better) before the trial runs out, but this launch is indeed a disaster. I just want to listen to music, and not deal with this incoherent mess of a system. On the other hand, I wasn't there when Spotify originally launched; it has years under its belt so obviously it is a more mature system in general.

The only big draw for me in Apple Music is using Siri to play music, and being easily sync my local music files with my phone on the fly. The first one works somewhat well, the sync not at all. This isn't a particularly strong show from Apple, and frankly in its current state it is not a contender at all for Spotify.

 

[whsbuss]

I remember when Spotify first came out..... not a disaster but had lots of bugs. I'm sure Apple will be addressing them. I believe their 3-month free trial was to see what needs to be fixed..... nice being beta testers, right?

 

[Unhyper]

I think had they actually labelled it as a free public beta as opposed to a trial period, many people would be not so pissed off.

 

[mpayne2k]

Many of these issues seem magnified from all the iTunes Match issues I've been having for the last few weeks/month. This is very shameful of them to launch a service and just expect everyone to just be bumpin' Beats Radio for the next three months. At least with Spotify the desktop and iPhone versions sync up and quickly. With Apple Music it has been so frustrating to the point of utter confusion to what I'm doing and when. I can't verify if a playlist will sync between devices and OS/iOS and many albums I add to my collection from Apple Music add just a selection of the whole album, not the whole thing. This smells of ineptitude on Apple's part. They're so lucky its free for 90 days. I'm sure I'll be keeping Spotify for this duration. Apple better get their "s" together in the next month.

 

[SDAVE]

I think had they actually labelled it as a free public beta as opposed to a trial period, many people would be not so pissed off.

Not everyone of the Apple's 800 million users know what a beta is. Apple knows what they're doing.

 

[johngordon]

I noticed some tracks not playing when I was out - I had to check the 'use cellular data' slider in the iTunes and App Stores section.

 

[zhenya]

So far it's working exactly as expected for me, although I expect that's in part because I was already using Match, and I was already a Beats subscriber. There are still some quirks in how everything is integrated, but so far so good. I will say that I have not yet updated my home iMac which houses my main iTunes library as I've been away from the house this week, and yes, I would be pissed if it messed up that library that I have been carefully managing for more than a decade, but given my experience so far across a couple of iPhones, Macs, and iPads, it looks to be operating exactly as I'd expect.

It will be interesting to get my wife's feedback as she starts to use it though. She has been mainly a Spotify user for the last couple of years (we share a subscription with her being the primary user). Still, Spotify has had plenty of it's own UI oddities to get used to, and I have to say that her playlists are a complete mess, and often finding things in the various UI's is no picnic. Still, she is often a reality check for me with these things as she represents a much more average user.

 

[Sanlitun]

This launch has been a disaster. Songs from library do not all play on my iPhone. Changes made to playlists on my Mac in iTunes are not synced to the iPhone. Songs added to library randomly "greying out" and not playing. Confusing layout.

I am thinking about just giving up and give my $15/mo to Spotify.

I am a bit baffled by a lot of this as well. Shouldn't the Apple Music playlists we add while listening in iTunes show up automatically without a sync? Actually in my case they don't show even after a sync.

 

[MentalFloss]

I am a bit baffled by a lot of this as well. Shouldn't the Apple Music playlists we add while listening in iTunes show up automatically without a sync?

Yes, that's exactly how it works for me. Whatever I do to a playlist in iTunes appears immediately also on my iPhone/iPad and vice versa. I just created a playlist with 50 songs on iTunes, and... yes, there it is on my iPhone.

So the bad new is that yes, apparently you're dealing with a bug, but the good news is that yes, it is a bug and not a feature. The standard behaviour is actually that everything gets synched automatically.

 

[C DM]

Not everyone of the Apple's 800 million users know what a beta is. Apple knows what they're doing.

But what is likely billions of Google users somehow do given their use of beta over time, including years of having Gmail in beta. ;-)

 

[queshy]

Initially I was surprised to find some new content on Apple Music that Spotify does not have, but the experience is nowhere close. With Spotify, the songs load instantly. Apple Music is slow and clunky, and is not as intuitive. Part of this may be because I'm not used to it, but at this time for me it is not better than Spotify.

 

[SDAVE]

Initially I was surprised to find some new content on Apple Music that Spotify does not have, but the experience is nowhere close. With Spotify, the songs load instantly. Apple Music is slow and clunky, and is not as intuitive. Part of this may be because I'm not used to it, but at this time for me it is not better than Spotify.

Spotify has been doing this for over 5 years. I agree, though, Spotify is better at the moment in general. Also their Facebook integration is bar none, I can see what my friends are playing and the friends I have have good taste and it's usually the good stuff.

 

[AdonisSMU]

I dont know guys... The search is so terrible on Spotify I gave up on it. Apple's search and discovery >>>> Spotify. However there are bugs in Apple Music such as when I am underground and the cellular on my phone goes in and out it stops the app. I liked being able to control offline mode via a switch which exists on both Spotify and Beats App.

 

[maxsix]

Apple may be struggling to get up to speed on their attempt to compete. I believe they'll sort it out as they gain experience.

 

[SDAVE]

I dont know guys... The search is so terrible on Spotify I gave up on it. Apple's search and discovery >>>> Spotify. However there are bugs in Apple Music such as when I am underground and the cellular on my phone goes in and out it stops the app. I liked being able to control offline mode via a switch which exists on both Spotify and Beats App.

Yes Apple has better curated discovery, but if you want to control your music like I do, Spotify is better. iTunes is just a weird application. They should make a separate application for Apple Music.

 

[karmamule]

Initially I was surprised to find some new content on Apple Music that Spotify does not have, but the experience is nowhere close. With Spotify, the songs load instantly. Apple Music is slow and clunky, and is not as intuitive. Part of this may be because I'm not used to it, but at this time for me it is not better than Spotify.

I got the same impression too in terms of content, and have found a few things in their library that Spotify doesn't have. A good library selection is critical for me, and was one reason I did not like Beats when it first launched as it was missing many indie albums and artists I really liked, but fortunately that isn't the case with Apple Music.

You're not the only person saying how slow it is, but for whatever reason I'm having the exact opposite experience and have been pleasantly surprised at how fast it is. I especially notice that it seems to handle scrubbing forward in a song better than Spotify. At least the good news is that it is capable of really good performance, so I hope it improves for you soon.

The UI definitely needs some refinement, but I'm sure that will come with time. One thing I'm increasingly happy about with Apple Music are the stations it's generating for me based on particular artists or songs. Especially with a couple days worth of my ratings under its belt it is serving up some really good stuff. On the other hand Spotify does a pretty good job too, and I really like that Spotify can also generate radio stations from playlists of mine.

It's going to be a tough call for me in 3 months whether I go with this or Spotify. Ultimately I think it'll depend on which service feels like it's doing the best job at music discovery for me.