Likelihood of Music.app changes through iOS 9 betas

[Joseph C]

Now Apple Music is out, does anyone think that Apple will be changing/tweaking the Music app in iOS 9 betas ahead of its September launch, to iron out bugs and improve the experience from 8.4?

Welcomed changes would, for me, include:


1. A "loved" playlist which contains all loved songs AND includes songs not in My Music, and ability to love songs without playing them

2. Ability to automatically save new songs added to playlist offline, or all songs automatically

3. Ability to SORT PLAYLIST ORDER so newly added tracks are ON TOP, or at least copy sync settings from iTunes (major major deal for me)

4. Improved sharing of playlists, and collaboration on playlists, ability to add descriptions to playlists

5. Ability to easily shuffle ALL songs by an artist not in your library

6. Wild card - Crossfade support for songs available offline!


I hope Apple does use the iOS 9 beta process to refine Apple Music as it's such a great product but there are some gaping issues that really need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

 

[0000757]

All those (minus the last) are definite possibilities.

For downloading all music/saving new music, you can make a smart playlist where Media is Music to easily have a playlist that has all your saved songs, though I don't think it will auto download those.

I'd like to see the option to control the quality of downloaded music (I don't have the space for 6GB of music, but I don't have the data to stream 6GB either...)

 

[ZEEN0j]

Totally agree with 2-5. Wouldn't mind nr 1 but I already have a way to sort my music. If apple fixes this and the app randomly stops playing music, battery drain, sluggishness when closing the app when streaming music. Then I will switch from spotify.

I just switched back to spotify after jumping into apple music. They have some fixing to do before it becomes a reliable music player.

 

[JPeggle]

For number 3 (atleast in ios 8.4 on ipad air) to sort a playlist just open it, press edit then hold the lines to the right of the track lengths and drag up and down.

 

[Traverse]

Customize bottom bar and hide "Recently added" is all I want. I shouldn't' have to scroll through 108 albums to get to that top drop menu and select artists.

 

[sniffies]

Ability to go to artist's page and shuffle their entire discography.

 

[sniffies]

Hope they change the icon and make it look like Spotify.

 

[hojx]

1. A "loved" playlist which contains all loved songs AND includes songs not in My Music, and ability to love songs without playing them

2. Ability to automatically save new songs added to playlist offline, or all songs automatically

3. Ability to SORT PLAYLIST ORDER so newly added tracks are ON TOP, or at least copy sync settings from iTunes (major major deal for me)

4. Improved sharing of playlists, and collaboration on playlists, ability to add descriptions to playlists

5. Ability to easily shuffle ALL songs by an artist not in your library

2. When I set a playlist to Make Available Offline, any new songs I add into the playlist are automatically downloaded… A bug in your case I guess?

3. I believe this is a bug introduced with iTunes 12.2 and iOS 8.4. I used to be able to sort my playlist in iTunes by Album Artist and have it the same in Music.app (meaning you can have it in Manual Order and Descending) but the iTunes 12.2 update seems to break this function.

4. You can already add descriptions to playlists can't you?

Customize bottom bar and hide "Recently added" is all I want. I shouldn't' have to scroll through 108 albums to get to that top drop menu and select artists.

You can tap the status bar to scroll to top?

 

[Traverse]

You can tap the status bar to scroll to top?

I can, but it's still an unnecessary step. Now I only have 3 icons in the bottom bar. I used to have 5.

 

[campyguy]

I found one unexpected change - the Music app's ability to stream higher quality music over cellular connections. That's "money" for me as I'm often on the road. My VZW UL data plan will be my new bestest friend!

I tested several tunes that I like, from Rush to Brooks & Dunn to Nina Simone to Queens of the Stone Age with my Beyerdynamic t51i and Grado SR 325e cans and my trusty old Yamaha monitors. I heard kick drums and guitar chords and cowbells I'd not heard before with Apple's options. I'm sold, no need for Tidal for me now and I can leave my DAC at home.

 

[LordQ]

I hope they use the betas to tweak some stuff here and there, it's their perfect chance. Like show the full artist's profile or album when you come across a song on Radio or a playlist.

 

[joeszef1]

In time Apple will overhaul the Music app... just need to wait though

 

[Hustler1337]

I've long been wanting Smart Playlists to be added to the Music app, I hate having to manually find songs and edit/update playlists every time I add a new track.

Also, they need to add a horizontal view with player controls for those that mount their device horizontally when playing music, e.g. in the car. They've removed that annoying cover art wall, but need to add a horizontal view to the Music player.

 

[Hustler1337]

I'd like to see the option to control the quality of downloaded music (I don't have the space for 6GB of music, but I don't have the data to stream 6GB either...)

There is an option in Settings > Music > High Quality over Mobile Network for playback quality. By default, its not set to the highest quality.

 

[0000757]

There is an option in Settings > Music > High Quality over Mobile Network for playback quality. By default, its not set to the highest quality.

Yeah. That option didn't exist when I wrote that though. I meant control over what it downloads (I would like to have the lower 96kbs saved on my phone instead of the 256kbs saved).

 

[hojx]

Yeah. That option didn't exist when I wrote that though. I meant control over what it downloads (I would like to have the lower 96kbs saved on my phone instead of the 256kbs saved).

Why would you want to have 96kbps songs? That is not going to sound good even if its AAC. I doubt Apple will ever compromise themselves and offer something subpar.

 

[0000757]

Why would you want to have 96kbps songs? That is not going to sound good even if its AAC. I doubt Apple will ever compromise themselves and offer something subpar.

Because I only have 16GB of storage and a data cap.

 

[hojx]

Because I only have 16GB of storage and a data cap.

About the data cap you just have to make sure you only make available offline your songs when you are on Wi-Fi.
About the 16GB storage hence wanting low quality tracks… I can't help you but I think I can safely promise that there will never be such this sort of option. You can achieve it though by manual syncing encoded tracks from iTunes.

 

[0000757]

About the data cap you just have to make sure you only make available offline your songs when you are on Wi-Fi.
About the 16GB storage hence wanting low quality tracks… I can't help you but I think I can safely promise that there will never be such this sort of option. You can achieve it though by manual syncing encoded tracks from iTunes.

Except I can't with Apple Music (sync with iTunes). Spotify offers the option and I'm not into audio enough to tell the difference.

 

[gforce216]

The Loved playlist exists if you have iTunes with Apple Music. You just need to get the newest version of iTunes. It's one of their standard Smart Playlists.

 

[Suckfest 9001]

Why would you want to have 96kbps songs? That is not going to sound good even if its AAC. I doubt Apple will ever compromise themselves and offer something subpar.

Sounds pretty good on Spotify due to the .ogg format.

But yeah unfortunately Apple would never use ogg because it's not their format.