Music app feels like beta software not worth release

[RobbyIdol]

It's amazing how Apple's Music app feels so buggy and unintuitive compared to the bloated iTunes. I thought separating all the apps out individually was supposed to make things easier/smoother?

Every day I deal with inane issues like album artwork not loading, the Music app blanking out white, getting stuck in this "Saving music library" loop that requires a Force Quit to stop. It drops album art often, even on new purchases from the iTunes Store.

I remember when Apple used to pride themselves on creating a unique and sleek music playing experience. It seemed to be a focus for Steve Jobs since the inception of the iPod. Now the Music app just feels like an afterthought.

I love my M1 MBP, so I deal with the Music app as it is. Safari has some unnecessary issues as well. Funny, I expected problems on M1 Macs from third party apps, but so far only the native Apple apps have given me trouble!

 

[lpuerto]

I feel it's lacking functionality… there is also sluggishness sometimes. I hope they update soon. It's not the first time the music app is not ready to go on the first release of an OS.

 

[Geoff777]

I became fed up with iTunes and have never given Music much of a chance (those "sign up and get 3 months free" ads every time you flash it up were just too much.)
Now using a super app from the App Store called Fidelia - simple but sounds great. Plays high-quality formats too. There's a free trial ( http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/fidelia/ ). Only worry is it could become abandon-ware (not updated for a year but works with Big Sur).
For run-of-the-mill daily stuff I'm signed up to Spotify, which isn't bad.

 

[fisherking]

It's amazing how Apple's Music app feels so buggy and unintuitive compared to the bloated iTunes. I thought separating all the apps out individually was supposed to make things easier/smoother?

Every day I deal with inane issues like album artwork not loading, the Music app blanking out white, getting stuck in this "Saving music library" loop that requires a Force Quit to stop. It drops album art often, even on new purchases from the iTunes Store.

I remember when Apple used to pride themselves on creating a unique and sleek music playing experience. It seemed to be a focus for Steve Jobs since the inception of the iPod. Now the Music app just feels like an afterthought.

I love my M1 MBP, so I deal with the Music app as it is. Safari has some unnecessary issues as well. Funny, I expected problems on M1 Macs from third party apps, but so far only the native Apple apps have given me trouble!

these are not problems we're all having, so worth getting help (ie asking here on the forum).

itunes got so much hate over the years; now we have the simpler, more focused music app. you'd think that would make people happy, yet...

anyway, music works fine here; i use it to... play music. & all my artwork shows.

fixing the issues might be far-more rewarding than simply complaining about them. just a suggestion.

 

[Airsculpture]

Or go back to iTunes. So much more useable, speedier and way more functionality imho.

YMMV.

 

[fisherking]

Or go back to iTunes. So much more useable, speedier and way more functionality imho.

YMMV.

sure, but remember how much whining happened on the macrumors forums about itunes? the complaints about it being 'bloated' are exactly what you seem to like about it ("way more functionality").

can't please everyone. but i much prefer the music app, which (for me) is more usable, and speedier. it's a music-playing app that plays music.

 

[Airsculpture]

Yeah you're right I do and again you're right, you can't please everyone.

I rarely had any complaints about iTunes. I spent a few days with Music and TV apps and decided to go back and use iTunes on Big Sur.

Each to their own I guess. I haven't found a reasonably priced alternative which I like the look of so far.

 

[Jack Neill]

Music on Cat/Big has been absolute trash. Laggy af on a 4000+ library. I used Retroactive to get 12.9.5.5 to smooth scrolling back. I have found if you make the music app as small as it can go, it will work better but iTunes is still much faster with larger library’s.

 

[Jack Neill]

I feel it's lacking functionality… there is also sluggishness sometimes. I hope they update soon. It's not the first time the music app is not ready to go on the first release of an OS.

Agreed. It hasnt been ready from 10.15.0 through 11.1.

 

[lpuerto]

sure, but remember how much whining happened on the macrumors forums about itunes? the complaints about it being 'bloated' are exactly what you seem to like about it ("way more functionality").

can't please everyone. but i much prefer the music app, which (for me) is more usable, and speedier. it's a music-playing app that plays music.

I agree with you related to the complains and that the grass was/is always greener somewhere else. Anyhow, my main complain is I feel music app doesn't work as smooth on macOS BS as on iOS 14 and it doesn't even have the same functionalities. I'm talking something very basic like "play next" it's not always showing and I really don't know the reason. Just today I was trying to make a list with some songs and on some of the the context menu wasn't popping up. Also the app is beachballing from time to time.

I'm not talking about a huge music library… I'm talking just about Apple Music Service.

 

[fisherking]

I agree with you related to the complains and that the grass was/is always greener somewhere else. Anyhow, my main complain is I feel music app doesn't work as smooth on macOS BS as on iOS 14 and it doesn't even have the same functionalities. I'm talking something very basic like "play next" it's not always showing and I really don't know the reason. Just today I was trying to make a list with some songs and on some of the the context menu wasn't popping up. Also the app is beachballing from time to time.

I'm not talking about a huge music library… I'm talking just about Apple Music Service.

hmm, don't know about that. i only use Music to playback my library, and everything else i do on spotify. but it is funny to me how people complained about itunes doing too much, and now Music does too little 😂

 

[Airsculpture]

I for one didn't complain about iTunes doing too much. I liked the fact that all my media was in one place and have continued to use iTunes on Catalina and Big Sur and still very happy with the organization, functionality and compared to Music and other media apps....speed.

I am using it on a 30k music, 1000 movie and 400 TV show database, not even mentioning the podcasts and audiobooks I have organized in there.

 

[lpuerto]

hmm, don't know about that. i only use Music to playback my library, and everything else i do on spotify. but it is funny to me how people complained about itunes doing too much, and now Music does too little 😂

There are two different things here… iTunes was a one for all related to media. They split their functions, which I think was the smart thing to do, across different apps and the OS itself. Again, it had/has a lot of sense.
The problem here the function related to MUSIC, is inferior on the Music app to that part on iTunes app. Also, it's inferior to the equivalent app on iOS, at least on my impression.

Of course, if you are just playing music and not doing anything else, the app is probably fine. I'm not doing much either, but I'm also feeling that things are missing and the app it's a little bit buggy and not as snappy as it should be.

 

[fisherking]

There are two different things here… iTunes was a one for all related to media. They split their functions, which I think was the smart thing to do, across different apps and the OS itself. Again, it had/has a lot of sense.
The problem here the function related to MUSIC, is inferior on the Music app to that part on iTunes app. Also, it's inferior to the equivalent app on iOS, at least on my impression.

Of course, if you are just playing music and not doing anything else, the app is probably fine. I'm not doing much either, but I'm also feeling that things are missing and the app it's a little bit buggy and not as snappy as it should be.

i hear you. but for me, the app doesn't seem buggy, it's snappy, and am not missing anything. but to be fair, that's just me. either way, am fine with the app... as i was with itunes.

 

[Airsculpture]

It was poor for me. Large library, missing and inconsistent display of album artwork, slow scrolling, clumsy UX.

I had to go back to iTunes and very happy I did. Gladly move over again when I think it's ok.

I also like having all my media in one place to manage. Also, not having to open several apps for Home Sharing to work on the 4 Apple TVs I have in the house.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I feel it's lacking functionality… there is also sluggishness sometimes. I hope they update soon. It's not the first time the music app is not ready to go on the first release of an OS.

I agree in regards to functionality. It also is clunky and not very intuitive. It could be a lot more streamlined than it is.

 

[retta283]

Unusable for me on my 2020 iMac. Music comes in so crackly it's not functional. I'm assuming this is a problem with my particular install or something because on the MBP I got to try it's not an issue. I'm probably going to try a reinstall to see if that fixes it.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

The problem here the function related to MUSIC, is inferior on the Music app to that part on iTunes app. Also, it's inferior to the equivalent app on iOS, at least on my impression.

Of course, if you are just playing music and not doing anything else, the app is probably fine. I'm not doing much either, but I'm also feeling that things are missing and the app it's a little bit buggy and not as snappy as it should be.

I haven’t seen any “bugginess” in the Music app. I don’t feel like there’s anything missing. I import music with it. I make and manage playlists with it. I don’t pay for streaming services and canceled last year’s Apple Music six-month free demo when the demo ended because I didn’t use its features.

The iOS Music app is not something I’d use to manage playlists. It’s a good music player, but that’s really all it’s good for.

If it’s not as snappy as iTunes was when my Mac mini was new … well, my Mac is 6½ years old, these things happen, and it’s still not as laggy as any other 6½-year-old computer I’ve ever used. It’s not even close to being the most annoying Apple app as far as lagginess on an older computer in my current experience — Safari wins that race to the bottom, and it’s still good enough for me.

I think the problem is your Mac. Have you tried cleanly reinstalling macOS?

 

[Airsculpture]

Mine was a clean install of Big Sur on a freshly formatted SSD drive. No issues at all with anything in Big Sur, even Safari is running speedily but Music Urrrrgh. I won't repeat the issues above as they have already been stated and the iMac is only 3 years old.

Definitely not my favourite app in performance, UX or UI looks.

 

[lpuerto]

I haven’t seen any “bugginess” in the Music app. I don’t feel like there’s anything missing. I import music with it. I make and manage playlists with it. I don’t pay for streaming services and canceled last year’s Apple Music six-month free demo when the demo ended because I didn’t use its features.

The iOS Music app is not something I’d use to manage playlists. It’s a good music player, but that’s really all it’s good for.

If it’s not as snappy as iTunes was when my Mac mini was new … well, my Mac is 6½ years old, these things happen, and it’s still not as laggy as any other 6½-year-old computer I’ve ever used. It’s not even close to being the most annoying Apple app as far as lagginess on an older computer in my current experience — Safari wins that race to the bottom, and it’s still good enough for me.

I think the problem is your Mac. Have you tried cleanly reinstalling macOS?

It's the only app that I have "problems" with… the rest work much better than before.

Perhaps the problem is not Music itself, but Apple Music service on macOS.

 

[Geoff777]

I mentioned earlier that I was concerned Fidelia might become abandonware ------ but no, updated today! Yay!

 

[colourfastt]

hmm, don't know about that. i only use Music to playback my library, and everything else i do on spotify. but it is funny to me how people complained about itunes doing too much, and now Music does too little 😂

That seems to be common these days. I made a comment similar to yours in a forum thread about system preferences.

 

[Airsculpture]

Has it got any better in 11.1 ?

I dare not go back to it in case it causes issues with iTunes which I have running perfectly on Big Sur.

 

[greenmeanie]

The Minute I stopped using the cloud service and went to wanting to SYNC locally all hell broke loose.
I have many of the same problems now.

 

[Pork-Maestro]

RobbyIdol, did you happen to find any answers to the aforementioned saving music library loop? Dealing with same problem here and it has significantly hampered my work. Thanks