Loving Apple Music.

[tonyr6]

I don't understand all the hate here about Apple Music. So far I am trialing it and I am already going to cancel my Play Music subscription. First thing is that songs load quicker and to me sound better even though Apple Music uses only 256kbps and Play Music uses 320kbps the difference is that Apple Music uses AAC the far superior codec over the dated MP3.

I am using the Android app which is bit rough on the edges with crashes if I search and add albums to fast as it is beta but it still works good. It is easier on the battery life than Play Music was and much easier to add music. Also it works great with my new Apple TV I really had no way to play a music service on there. It even works fine on my old iPod Touch.

The main reason though I guess for the switch is true blocking of explicit music. I know many of you like that filth but I hate it and I am glad Apple Music lets you truly block it. Google Play Music pathetic blocking of explicit music does not work. You can still search for it and it displays the vulgar titles clear as day. Apple Music actually censors the really bad 4 letter words believe it or not even when you have explicit music on unlike Play Music just shows them for anyone to see.

The only question is though I am looking for playlist stations like 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, real Salsa music (not that romantic or Mexican crap) with unlimited playlists of random songs? I am only able to find stations with about 15 songs. Play Music gave me a unlimited playlist.

 

[whsbuss]

Takes lots of courage posting your love for AM. The Apple critics will come in droves to knock down your opinion. Personally, been doing AM since its release and love it too.

PS: nice avatar

 

[maxsix]

I don't understand all the hate here about Apple Music. So far I am trialing it and I am already going to cancel my Play Music subscription. First thing is that songs load quicker and to me sound better even though Apple Music uses only 256kbps and Play Music uses 320kbps the difference is that Apple Music uses AAC the far superior codec over the dated MP3.

I am using the Android app which is bit rough on the edges with crashes if I search and add albums to fast as it is beta but it still works good. It is easier on the battery life than Play Music was and much easier to add music. Also it works great with my new Apple TV I really had no way to play a music service on there. It even works fine on my old iPod Touch.

The main reason though I guess for the switch is true blocking of explicit music. I know many of you like that filth but I hate it and I am glad Apple Music lets you truly block it. Google Play Music pathetic blocking of explicit music does not work. You can still search for it and it displays the vulgar titles clear as day. Apple Music actually censors the really bad 4 letter words believe it or not even when you have explicit music on unlike Play Music just shows them for anyone to see.

The only question is though I am looking for playlist stations like 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, real Salsa music (not that romantic or Mexican crap) with unlimited playlists of random songs? I am only able to find stations with about 15 songs. Play Music gave me a unlimited playlist.

You're Android / Google hate is showing.

I use Google Play Music on both Android and iPhone, it's been an excellent 100% trouble free experience over the last few years.

I dislike Apple Music, yet I have no desire to use your tactics to trash it. I simply avoid it.

It's as simple as that...

 

[tonyr6]

I love Android but I do really hate Google. However Android is annoying me with there 3 months before you get a update junk. Battery life issues and pathetic backup. I might go back to Apple at least get a iPad.

I really don't use there search engine anymore it sucks with so much ad and irrelevant links. I am using Bing more a Microsoft product. Even YouTube search sucks more I search for tech videos and I getting more videos from Germany and eastern Europe where they don't even speak English even though I searched here in the USA.

As I said I liked Play Music but there lack of real parental controls turned me off. I had to avoid going into the new music page in the app because of all the vulgar titles there. Also searching for music I had to be very careful. This is also why I never tried Spotify after reading the stories there.

Also forgot that my Nexus 7 was not compatible which is bunch of bull as I side loaded it and it works fine.

 

[tonyr6]

Takes lots of courage posting your love for AM. The Apple critics will come in droves to knock down your opinion. Personally, been doing AM since its release and love it too.

PS: nice avatar

Thanks his name is Socks.

I understand why many have issues. Most users here are from Europe mainly UK where they don't have as many songs and have more streaming issues. Just saying so far here in the US from NYC it works great and so far all the albums that I have in my library on Play Music Apple Music has them too.

 

[12vElectronics]

I really like my Apple Music as well. I was hooked from the day I started my free trial. I don't think I've ever had an issue finding a song I was looking for.

If there was one thing I wish they would do, it would be to bump up to 320kbps instead of 256. I can hear a difference.

 

[tonyr6]

If there was one thing I wish they would do, it would be to bump up to 320kbps instead of 256. I can hear a difference.

Only if it is AAC not that mess that is MP3. However I am happy with 256kbps AAC because it uses less bandwidth. Heck I have my music CD's ripped from iTunes in 192k AAC and they still sound great.

 

[Julien]

...If there was one thing I wish they would do, it would be to bump up to 320kbps instead of 256. I can hear a difference.

AAC (MP4) is a technically superior (newer version) codec (more efficient and better perceptual algorithms) than MP3. So ACC generally will provide equal or better encoding/decoding results than MP3, even at a slightly lower bit rate. So technically 256Kbps AAC (MP4) is at least equal to or superior to 320Kbps MP3. However both are so efficient and throw away so little actual info that in DBTs (double blind test) they are virtually indistinguishable from each other or the source and require lots of audio training to distinguish.

Also unless you are ripping your own CD's in ACC and MP3 and then doing a DBT the sources, dynamic compression and or attenuation levels would likely be different making any comparison meaningless. In a nutshell you can't directly compare the same track from 2 different music services because of all the technical unknowns.

Hear (here) is a good site to test differences. http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

 

[navaira]

Google Play Music works amazing as a sync app and terribly bad as streaming. The worst thing is that it decided to replace my files with its (incorrect) ones, same as Apple Music does. It also doesn't support gapless play.

Apple Music would be my poison of choice if I could manually sync my files to the device and only add files for offline listening that I didn't sync by myself yet. So, as I posted elsewhere, give me option not to use iCloud.

 

[tonyr6]

Google Play Music works amazing as a sync app and terribly bad as streaming. The worst thing is that it decided to replace my files with its (incorrect) ones, same as Apple Music does. It also doesn't support gapless play.

My music matched fine I guess because I have no explicit music. For many months all I used Play Music for was to play my own local music CD's I uploaded when out and about. What I hated about Play Music was the lack of parental controls which were none and the fact how easy it was to find offensive music.

I guess one thing I do hate about Apple Music is using there POS iTunes when on the computer. One thing that Pandora, Slacker, Spotify and Play Music does right is that you can listen using a web browser. I already had iTunes lock up a few times. However on mobile devices the app works better.

 

[navaira]

My music matched fine I guess because I have no explicit music.

Or remixes, bootlegs, concerts, alternative edits and demoes.

 

[tonyr6]

Or remixes, bootlegs, concerts, alternative edits and demoes.

I forgot. Yes I hate live tracks except with Salsa music. As for albums I have no live concert tracks and I would only rip the actual songs not the remixes demos so that is why it did not affect me.

 

[tonyr6]

I decided to still keep Play Music too. There playlist stations are better as they have many more. Also I still will get ad free YouTube.

However I am also keeping Apple Music too but I cancelling Slacker with is same 20 songs playlist stations.

 

[Uofmtiger]

Only if it is AAC not that mess that is MP3. However I am happy with 256kbps AAC because it uses less bandwidth. Heck I have my music CD's ripped from iTunes in 192k AAC and they still sound great.

Apple Music has a lot of "mastered for iTunes" music which can give it an advantage over much of the competition because it helps the engineer avoid clipping which is prevalent on so many albums. To quote Bob Ludwig, when discussing Mastered for iTunes:

"It is a complicated answer, but a 24-bit AAC encoded file can thus sound better and measure better in certain cases than a normal 16-bit Compact Disc, which unfortunately has been regarded as the gold standard for sound in these comparisons."

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue58/ludwig.htm

Personally, I could care less about 320 vs 256 ( I have my doubts that anyone can ABX a difference between them coded from the same master). I would prefer lossless, but if Apple doesn't want to offer lossless, I wish they would tag the "mastered for iTunes" stuff to make it easier to recognize. For a while, they had a special "mastered for iTunes" section at the bottom of the New page, but they are inconsistent about putting it there. This week they have essential jazz albums mastered for iTunes in that section, but they have had pop, rock, alternative, classical, singer/songwriter, etc.

 

[kentsydney]

i like Apple Music too. I haven't tried any others apart from a brief dabble with Spotify but I wanted something inter grated with my existing iTunes music so for me Apple Music was s no brainer.

I was spending say $30 s month on new albums in iTunes so the $10 a month is a bargain. Ok I don't "own" the music anymore but I plan to keep my subscription long term.

I like the playlist suggestions the for you section and I have a soft spot for Beats 1 but it does tend to pay the same sort of ultra cool hip music which just inst me.

Anyway my only concern is the long term future of music - I struggle to see that if I can listen offline and unlimited number of times to all the new albums released today how will the artists get paid enough to cover the production costs?? I can't blame adele as she has ok made squill ions from 25 but if it could be streamed she would make $4.34

This has already started to have an effect ( ok years of pirating too) as I read an article about the demise of the great British band. Record companies would rather invest in solo artists who are dominating right now as it's cheaper to pay for one person in a studio than a whole band.

Shame if we don't see any more Beatles , led Zeps , floyds, oasis 's.

I'm s bit over Taylor Swift and Ed sheeran but I'd better get use to these highly polished solo acts!!

 

[Tech198]

I dunno, but Apple still cannot get their own songs correctly... I add several Apple music albums, then the next day instead of 20 tracks i get 40 most of which are doubled up songs...

Doesn't happen for all albums, but and i can can live with accept this would still be an issue with uploaded music, but never Apple music from it's own catalog...

Not about to switch, because I have my taste, and while is annoying, it still works.... I'm just wondering weather Apple will Apple ever get this down right... I would like to see that day, but somehow don't think it will be anytime soon based on history has shown..

Of course adding the album from iOS only, kind of works (but really only extends the time), and i am out about to sift though 23,000 songs just to see which ones have been duplicated IF these are all from the Apple music catalog. Apple should know what is right... After all, its their music... And if they can't it right, i give up on trying to make them fix stuff...

 

[navaira]

Anyway my only concern is the long term future of music - I struggle to see that if I can listen offline and unlimited number of times to all the new albums released today how will the artists get paid enough to cover the production costs?? I can't blame adele as she has ok made squill ions from 25 but if it could be streamed she would make $4.34

This is unfortunately completely correct. A drummer of one of my favourite metal bands just quit because he couldn't figure out how to work a full time job, do rehearsals and tour. This shouldn't happen.

There's a lot of people who say "I would normally download music for free but now I use [streaming service here] so I pay!". Yes. $0.007 per play. 100 streams = 1 purchase. And there's another lot of people who used to buy everything, and now they don't because they don't need to. Including myself. I bought four records last year (for the pleasure of owning a physical/vinyl copy) and the rest I was happy to stream. There was maybe one I streamed 100 times.

The only way musicians can survive is by touring nowadays. But only people like Madonna or Beyonce actually earn lots of music thanks to that. Groups that are just starting often lose money on everything: playing live, recording, paying for a website even. The metal band in question is amazing, but so what. $0.007, even multiplied by 100000, doesn't pay your bills. And there are STILL people who say "9.90 per month is way too much, I can pay 4.90" – who then go to Starbucks and spend more than that on a frappuccino.

 

[Tech198]

u don't listen to music unlimited offline.. If you could, no artist would ever get paid....

In this case, u still need an activate Apple music subscription, why ? well when u next get back online, what u have listened to offline, gets recorded by Apple.

So, i can only assume when u get internet connection up, iTunes reports back to server what songs u have listened, and those artists would get paid then. Or artists get paid when u make available offline songs...

Either way,,,, if they never got paid for offline songs,they'd loose more money. There is more than behind the scenes than "needing an active music subscription" .. Apple won't tell u this, but it pretty easy to figure it out.

 

[tonyr6]

Anyway after using Apple Music for a few weeks I turned off the auto renewal and went back to Play Music because of all the bugs. Playing Apple Music on my phone the music pauses quite often where I have to hit play again. Annoying enough considering it is not a connection issue. Then iTunes on the computer is a pile of crap, skipping songs and freezing quite often.

If Apple Music would fix the music pausing which is not limited to Android as I read people with iPhones having the issues too and they came out with a web player I will renew but since these complaints have been ignored by Apple since launch I doubt I will keep it.

 

[sunapple]

Anyway after using Apple Music for a few weeks I turned off the auto renewal and went back to Play Music because of all the bugs. Playing Apple Music on my phone the music pauses quite often where I have to hit play again. Annoying enough considering it is not a connection issue. Then iTunes on the computer is a pile of crap, skipping songs and freezing quite often.

If Apple Music would fix the music pausing which is not limited to Android as I read people with iPhones having the issues too and they came out with a web player I will renew but since these complaints have been ignored by Apple since launch I doubt I will keep it.

I started my own topic on how I loved Apple Music, and I still use it every day.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/i-like-apple-music.1908579/

I've had problems with AM which were quite annoying, but almost all of them are gone now. I do recognize the pause-bug, seems to happen sometimes when I'm on weak public Wi-Fi, connecting and disconnecting, while playing offline music (I don't have data on my iPhone). Cant remember the last time it happened, certainly not something I have every day.

 

[whsbuss]

I started my own topic on how I loved Apple Music, and I still use it every day.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/i-like-apple-music.1908579/

I've had problems with AM which were quite annoying, but almost all of them are gone now. I do recognize the pause-bug, seems to happen sometimes when I'm on weak public Wi-Fi, connecting and disconnecting, while playing offline music (I don't have data on my iPhone). Cant remember the last time it happened, certainly not something I have every day.

Unless I am switching between a wifi network and LTE, I don't ever remember the pause problem. It happened once months ago when it switched - nothing since.

 

[tonyr6]

One good thing about Apple Music is that using for a week it recommended much music I like. Play Music took nearly 6 months before it stopped recommended rap and new music crap.

 

[whsbuss]

One good thing about Apple Music is that using for a week it recommended much music I like. Play Music took nearly 6 months before it stopped recommended rap and new music crap.

I've noticed since Apple radio changed its free policy, I get many more newly discovered tracks I like.

 

[Noble Actual]

One good thing about Apple Music is that using for a week it recommended much music I like. Play Music took nearly 6 months before it stopped recommended rap and new music crap.

Strange as it was opposite for me. Spotify gave me super new and different songs that I liked.

Apple Music barely gave any and most of the time was filled with just songs from popular artists.

I tried tuning it as much as possible during the 3 month trial period.

 

[navaira]

Ooh my new Discover Weekly playlist is... like always... 29 songs out of 30 amazing.

And then U2 in the middle. Leave U2 to Apple, please.

I have one more family member that hasn't used an AM trial. I hope they get the local file sync fixed in some reasonable period so I can check if it works with that account. If it does, I'll probably switch. But I am not holding my breath. The updated iTunes will probably be the whitest (and thinnest) iTunes ever.