You don't have to use roaming data. Most streaming services allow you to save up to 10,000 songs locally on your phone, for offline playback. And they don't just have mainstream music.
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Let's talk about the steaming pile that is the Music App
- Thread starter Zwhaler
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You don't have to use roaming data. Most streaming services allow you to save up to 10,000 songs locally on your phone, for offline playback. And they don't just have mainstream music.
Yup, and I have T-Mobile too so streaming from the Music app is not a worry at all.
This has been entertaining reading this thread. But thanks for keeping the conversation sane on your end......I'm wondering if they fixed the annoying "flashing" when exiting and entering artist view on iPhone. And for what its worth. Everyone complaining about the "My Music" section is grasping at straws in many respects. How often do you switch views anyway. Most people either always browse in "artist" or "album " mode. And in regard to the iPad. The music app is light years ahead of what it was in iOS 7/8(literally a blown up iPhone app). So the my music section on an iPad is amazing in comparison.
My chief issues are just little graphical glitches and annoying tiny bugs that sometimes make me cringe. Design wise the app is fine. I ran an experiment and tried out Spotify, Apple Music and Rdio last summer to finally dip into the streaming game. Spotify actually takes far more scrolling and taps for certain things and very easy to lose ones place at times. But it had a great discovery engine. But then Rdio had a beautiful, simple interface. In the end I felt Apple Music was enough of a mix of the two and was convinced enough to go with Apple music since Spotify integration seems complicated at best if you don't use a computer to manage your music library. Theres no easy automatic way I know of that will let Spotify just import my thousands of iTunes songs and make it work on mobile. Thankfully my issues were fixed with Apple Music in the update that fixed a lot of the iCloud music library craziness.
Now with Pandora buying Rdio...its gonna get very interesting. Spotify had its hayday and will soon drop its FREE tier. No matter how many people gush over Spotify, it's NOT A SUSTAINABLE business model. So get ready to pony up one way or another. And Apple is still fighting for $7.99 for Apple Music. If that happens. BYE BYE.
Another good indicator is that Apple music has over 8 million followers on Twitter compared to Spotify's 1.6 Million. Like it or not Apple has the marketing power to eventually destroy them. But I hope not because I like the competition. We all win in the end.
In the mean time I'll sit back and enjoy my Apple Music with Siri integration
(the other killer feature everyone forgets)
This has been entertaining reading this thread. But thanks for keeping the conversation sane on your end......I'm wondering if they fixed the annoying "flashing" when exiting and entering artist view on iPhone. And for what its worth. Everyone complaining about the "My Music" section is grasping at straws in many respects. How often do you switch views anyway. Most people either always browse in "artist" or "album " mode. And in regard to the iPad. The music app is light years ahead of what it was in iOS 7/8(literally a blown up iPhone app). So the my music section on an iPad is amazing in comparison.
My chief issues are just little graphical glitches and annoying tiny bugs that sometimes make me cringe. Design wise the app is fine. I ran an experiment and tried out Spotify, Apple Music and Rdio last summer to finally dip into the streaming game. Spotify actually takes far more scrolling and taps for certain things and very easy to lose ones place at times. But it had a great discovery engine. But then Rdio had a beautiful, simple interface. In the end I felt Apple Music was enough of a mix of the two and was convinced enough to go with Apple music since Spotify integration seems complicated at best if you don't use a computer to manage your music library. Theres no easy automatic way I know of that will let Spotify just import my thousands of iTunes songs and make it work on mobile. Thankfully my issues were fixed with Apple Music in the update that fixed a lot of the iCloud music library craziness.
Now with Pandora buying Rdio...its gonna get very interesting. Spotify had its hayday and will soon drop its FREE tier. No matter how many people gush over Spotify, it's NOT A SUSTAINABLE business model. So get ready to pony up one way or another. And Apple is still fighting for $7.99 for Apple Music. If that happens. BYE BYE.
Another good indicator is that Apple music has over 8 million followers on Twitter compared to Spotify's 1.6 Million. Like it or not Apple has the marketing power to eventually destroy them. But I hope not because I like the competition. We all win in the end.
In the mean time I'll sit back and enjoy my Apple Music with Siri integration
Unfortunately the flashing is still there in 9.3 beta 3 that came out yesterday. I report it in the feedback app nearly every update.
As much as I was disappointed with the music app in iOS 7-8.3, I'd take it over the new version any day. At least it had a nicer-looking icon, better Now Playing screen, customizable tabs and an emphasis on locally-stored music.
The one advantage the newer app has over the more recent versions is the fact that collapsing albums under artist view has returned. But that's something that should never have been removed in the first place.
Actually, the music app on the iPad is still not fully optimized for the iPad. For example, there's a lot of wasted screen real estate on the top. The mini-player looks really clunky and awkward on the iPad, it's a blown-up very of the iPhone in that regard. The Now Playing display also has a lot of wasted space as well, why is the album artwork so tiny? What's the point of Apple making iOS devices with larger displays if the UI doesn't even take advantage of them?
Not sure how the now playing bar is wasted space on iPad since you can skip tracks and use up next which you cant use on the iPhone when its collapsed. Also album view in my music is back to where it was pre ios 7 on iPad. Artist view is a split view and was just a giant list in iOS 7/8.
Ill only concede to the now playing screen on the iPad pro. But many apps look like a joke on the iPad pro. But thats another thread.......
The Connect tab is a joke.
If they removed that and made Library one tab and Playlists another (side by side), the music app would be a lot better.
If they removed that and made Library one tab and Playlists another (side by side), the music app would be a lot better.
Nearly half the time I launch the Music app the Connect tab is replaced with a Playlist tab. (It's been happening for a couple week at least now that I know of.)
Not sure why, but it does.
In regards to the mini player, it's definitely somewhat of downgrade from the more iTunes-esque layout at the top. It doesn't even have a thumbnail of the album art anymore. It looks so dull and half-assed like most of the current UI designs at Apple nowadays. The album art on the now playing screen is so small compared to what we had before but at least on the iPad, the status bar doesn't partially obscure the album art like it does on the iPhone.
Right now I have: My Music, For You, New, Radio, and Connect.
God I hope Apple removes it though or at least let me swipe left and right between Library and Playlists. The design for My Music just seems kinda squished.
You can permanently remove Connect in Settings > General > Restrictions
(I personally haven't tried it, because I'm not annoyed by extra tabs when my Music app lives in the My Music tab 99% of the time. So I don't know if using Restrictions replaces it with Playlist or you just end up with 4 instead of 5 tabs.)
The thing about the whole Connect feature is that it's essentially the same thing as Ping, which was a complete failure. So why did Apple think it would work a second time around?
Pay for Apple Music then change to T-Mobile and the data is free to stream. Done
No thanks! I'll stick with VZW and Spotify. No need for streaming.
I not surprised by that kind of response on these forums anymore.
Person 1: "I hate "X" thing, I want it gone"
Person 2: "You do can remove "X" thing by doing "Y" and have it how you want"
Person 1: "That's not good enough"
Either way it just shows how much people appreciated the little customization the app used to have. Now there is practically no customization whatsoever, I really hate the fixed tabs like most people. Before, the music app was designed for the user and their own music library, now it's designed to sell a streaming service and the locally-stored music is just stuffed in to a corner essentially. Before, the apps were very straightforward and intuitive and not geared toward pushing you to subscribe to a service or pay for extra storage which the current Photos app is guilty of. We get it Apple, you're shoving streaming and cloud services down our throat. However, local storage is just as important and should be able to co-exist peacefully with online. That's Apple problem, they focus on one aspect way too much and sideline everything else, because the future or something. There is a proper balance but it's obvious Apple couldn't care less about finding that sweet spot.
As I've said before, the lack of customization is one of the biggest complaints about iOS and while there was never much to begin with, taking it away altogether is a step backwards. iOS 7 is the first release of iOS that I can remember where features were actually removed and that trend has obviously continued. Yeah a lot more features were also added but before, every iOS release built upon the previous and made it better. The last solid iOS version was 6.1: great design, great performance and a great music app and I would love Apple to top that but they haven't.
Well, its not actually good enough because its still part of Apple Music/Music app...and it still sucks.
Just a shame Apple has lost some focus on design and usability.
You said you wanted the Connect tab out and replaced with a Playlist tab. Turning it off in Restrictions does that and gives you exactly what you asked. So a solution to what you asked for isn't good enough? That doesn't makes sense one bit and you're just being difficult for the sake of being difficult.
It's only your opinion focus has been lost on design and usability. The thing about design is that some like it, some don't, and the rest just don't care one way or another. Your opinion of it being terrible doesn't make it fact. It just doesn't suit your taste or needs.
Lucky for you and others, there have been music player apps on the App Store long before Apple Music started and I'm sure even before iOS 7 came out. So you have options that can suit exactly what you want in a music player. It's quite simply a don't like it, don't use it. Because you DO have other options available to you. You're just choosing not to do it and complain instead.
It's like having a rock in your shoe. You complain it's uncomfortable but won't put in the effort to remove it.
Or maybe Apple should make its UI designs more intuitive and attractive to its customers again. Just saying...
Meanwhile in Apple's UI design lab:
How about if I just want to simply play a .mp3 file? Imagine if Apple took all the same roadblocks they force us through on the music app and applied them to the actual phone app. Just to dial a number would take a tutorial and even then they by the time you started dialing they would have you signed up for some monthly service you had no idea what it was for.
This. The UI is poorly designed by Apple's standards.Or maybe Apple should make its UI designs more intuitive and attractive to its customers again. Just saying...
Meanwhile in Apple's UI design lab:
Apple's standards.
Apple's standards.
Its like some guy wanted more social features, someone wanted more disovery not in iTunes but in the app itself, some wanted to keep old elements of the app, and some just wanted to push whatever the **** they could make to get it within launch of iOS 7.
Literally just throwing ideas on the wall to see how they can generate more music sales.
It's just ironic because of all the music themed events Apple has held in the past few years, they literally care more about having Coldplay or The Weekend perform at the keynote than Apple Music.
If Apple really cared about music as much as they say they do, we'd have a much better designed iOS Music app and a streamlined iTunes for OS X that doesn't try to do everything under the sun. Also, Apple would try to make an effort to keep the iPod relevant.
Tim Cook sounds so phony when he tries to emulate the genuine passion that Steve had for music and pretty much every product of theirs in general.
I'm gonna pull out the "Steve wouldn't have done that" card here because Steve did not like streaming music. He came from the LP era where owning and listening to records front to back was the best way to experience music. I think it's safe to say the Beats deal wouldn't have happened under him because the whole point of hiring people such as Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre was to bring people into Apple who understand music because Tim Cook clearly doesn't. Jobs would have no use for them, it would be redundant actually.
The current music app on iOS is one of the worst pieces of software Apple has designed since the trainwreck of a redesign that was iOS 7. It's no longer an app where you can go to simply listen to and enjoy the music you've stored on your device. It's designed as an advertisement to coerce you into subscribing to a streaming service that most are not interested in using. That's a strategy I'd expect from the likes of Microsoft, not Apple. Then again, bloatware has become the new normal under Tim Cook.
My personal gripes with the Music app comes from the many taps and menus it takes to get to Curated Playlists not located in the For You tab for when I just want to discover some new great music (Spotify has this on lock whichever way with Discover Weekly and daily playlists that comes up on the home screen waiting for you and your music tastes). The New tab is always filled with hype tracks and while sometimes those are good, most of the time it's not, just hyped stuff Apple Music is pushing and I'm not interested. I wish that tab could be changed simply to Curated Playlists from the various publications they've gotten to create playlists. Secondly, these playlists are crazy short. My Spotify Discover Weekly playlist is over 90 minutes of new music, deep cuts, and old favs. Many of Apple's are 12 tracks that while may be cohesive, is done in about 30 minutes and you'll have to find another. That needs a change.
I find myself using Siri a lot to play things I know I want to hear so I don't even have to enter the Music app, which keeps me from being mad at it before I drive or when I'm lesson planning. Nonetheless, this app needs at the very least customization features to allow us to tailor it to what we want to see vs. what Apple thinks we want to see.
I find myself using Siri a lot to play things I know I want to hear so I don't even have to enter the Music app, which keeps me from being mad at it before I drive or when I'm lesson planning. Nonetheless, this app needs at the very least customization features to allow us to tailor it to what we want to see vs. what Apple thinks we want to see.