Spotify Users: First impression of Apple Music?

[Peepo]

I agree with how spotify is better in regards to keeping playlists separate from the main library. Even when downloading for offline use it keeps separate. Apple music places all of songs in the iCloud music library which over time would become cluttered.

Not sure how they can fix this easily unless they make a separate database for playlists. Then what happens if you have a playlist which happens to have some songs that are actually in your library?

 

[Razeus]

I agree with how spotify is better in regards to keeping playlists separate from the main library. Even when downloading for offline use it keeps separate. Apple music places all of songs in the iCloud music library which over time would become cluttered.

Not sure how they can fix this easily unless they make a separate database for playlists. Then what happens if you have a playlist which happens to have some songs that are actually in your library?

Ya, Beats separated playlists from the main library too (I think Rdio did when I did their trial) so I'm hoping they fix this. Hopefully the Beats users are being vocal about this.

It doesn't make since for it to be in the main library. Why would someone listen to an album with song. Logic would state this is a playlist item, not a main library item.

 

[AdonisSMU]

I agree with how spotify is better in regards to keeping playlists separate from the main library. Even when downloading for offline use it keeps separate. Apple music places all of songs in the iCloud music library which over time would become cluttered.

Not sure how they can fix this easily unless they make a separate database for playlists. Then what happens if you have a playlist which happens to have some songs that are actually in your library?

You can have it display only downloaded files. If you click on the library and the artist you get the option to show only music that is available offline (otherwise known as music stored on the phone itself). There is also a playlists tab on the phone app.

 

[Peepo]

You can have it display only downloaded files. If you click on the library and the artist you get the option to show only music that is available offline (otherwise known as music stored on the phone itself). There is also a playlists tab on the phone app.

I want my playlists to be downloaded/offline. They show up in my library still.

 

[Peepo]

I did notice that if you pick an Apple Playlist from within iTunes or iPhone that it adds a special "Apple Music Playlist" which does not show the songs in your library. These playlists are different than ones you create and can be found in the For You section.

The problem is that when you make the playlist available offline then it still adds the songs to library. Sometimes it doesn't make them offline if selecting the playlist and instead have to choose individual songs. I had problems removing the songs from my library in some cases and also and had to reset my iPhone once by logging out of iTunes music and logging in again. I made a thread about this but nobody followed up or answered. I just tried again and seems to work if I select the individual songs but that doesn't seem much good because it still adds to the library.

Now here is the weird part... if i remove the playlist after the songs in it are made offline, I cannot seem to remove the songs/albums from my music and the are stuck there. To fix, I figured out that if I re-add the playlist again and make available offline - again, let it download again, then after delete the downloads it fixes. I wish someone else could try this to make sure I am not imagining this.

So Apple is part way there, they have to make us be able to create these Apple Music Playlists and still hide them when made offline.

 

[0000757]

I only have 3 issues with Apple Music that Spotify did not have:

1) Music you add to playlists is automatically added to your Library. I do not like this.
2) There's no easy way to download your entire library.
3) There's no way to control the quality of the library you download. I would much rather have lower quality files on my phone for saving space.

 

[JuryDuty]

Right now I'm up in the air.

Apple Music:
+ Siri integration
+ Videos
+ My own library uploaded
+ Better integration with iTunes and iOS

Spotify:
+ WAY better playlists + social playlists
+ Better navigation
+ New Music Tuesday playlist with all new music each week
+ Far fewer bugs (but also a more mature product)
+ Higher quality streaming

Neither has all the music I want. I was surprised when moving a 250+ song playlist over from Spotify to Apple Music that 20 of the songs weren't in Apple Music. But Apple has several songs I don't see in Spotify, so...

 

[Loke2112]

My biggest beef so far is the inability to thumbs up /thumbs down so to speak. I know I can hit the heart button but I want a get the heck off my station button. My primary set up is my iMac wired to my receiver. Other services have IOS apps that can give feedback to the stream running on my Mac. Is this an issue for anyone else? Rdio and Spotify do a great job of this. Also I'd like to point out Spotify's sound quality is far superior to all of the above. That said I only pay for Rdio as its the best of both on demand and low maintenance let it play radio mode. Siri integration is the one hook trying to real me in but thats not enough.

 

[Phoenixx]

Had you never used iTunes Match before? It was a big prelude to all the issues many have been having since the launch of Apple Music. Once you figure out the servers take forever to load up and you've changed it 10 times I think they just get confused and it goes into breakdown mode. I've seriously had to walk away from a system updating your iTunes Match changes many times. It is unintuitive and slow, but when Match works it is great. It is the Jeckyll/Hyde of Apple!

So, Apple has taken a service that barely works, and forced it on all users of Apple Music, as an integral part of their music subscription service. I can see the effect this is likely to have; it will drive users away. Personally, unless they fix all the problems with Apple Music before the three month trial period ends, I'll be sticking with Spotify.

 

[tmanto02]

So far I think I prefer apple music as I love the integration into the music app. However spotify definitely has better playlists and sub-genre support. I listen to mainly electronic music of the garage and house varieties, but I also hate a lot of "main room" house music which is difficult to avoid in apple music

 

[linuslh1996]

I did notice that if you pick an Apple Playlist from within iTunes or iPhone that it adds a special "Apple Music Playlist" which does not show the songs in your library. These playlists are different than ones you create and can be found in the For You section.

The problem is that when you make the playlist available offline then it still adds the songs to library. Sometimes it doesn't make them offline if selecting the playlist and instead have to choose individual songs. I had problems removing the songs from my library in some cases and also and had to reset my iPhone once by logging out of iTunes music and logging in again. I made a thread about this but nobody followed up or answered. I just tried again and seems to work if I select the individual songs but that doesn't seem much good because it still adds to the library.

Now here is the weird part... if i remove the playlist after the songs in it are made offline, I cannot seem to remove the songs/albums from my music and the are stuck there. To fix, I figured out that if I re-add the playlist again and make available offline - again, let it download again, then after delete the downloads it fixes. I wish someone else could try this to make sure I am not imagining this.

So Apple is part way there, they have to make us be able to create these Apple Music Playlists and still hide them when made offline.

Yes, I've got exactly the same problem! My solution at the moment consists of not making the Apple playlists offline..
I tried disabling and re-enabling iCloud music library on my iOS device, which worked for me, but is maybe a bit inelegant.

 

[LaurieAnn]

My biggest beef so far is the inability to thumbs up /thumbs down so to speak. I know I can hit the heart button but I want a get the heck off my station button. My primary set up is my iMac wired to my receiver. Other services have IOS apps that can give feedback to the stream running on my Mac. Is this an issue for anyone else?

Yes, I want a 'thumbs down' or 'don't play this again'. I also want a way to see the history of all the things that I 'liked/hearted' and a way to remove them if I change my mind.

 

[joethemobile]

For now for me Spotify is still the best or that suis for me.

I currently rely on the offerings such as when I wake up or when Im chilling. Right now Apple Music has this but only has 10-20 songs on a playlist.

 

[bobr1952]

I've been a paid Spotify subscriber since MOG was purchased by Beats. My Spotify renews the middle of the month so I decided to cancel the paid subscription and give Apple Music the 3 month try. So far I am happy enough with it that I don't miss Spotify. Spotify has some great playlists but I don't really need all that much to choose from. I used to like listening to particular artists and their entire album when they released new music. Now I am content to just listen to music--whatever particular genre I am in the mood to listen to--much of the time it is alternative music and I am pretty happy right now listening to "Preview of Summer Attractions" I like the Apple Radio too--so it seems there will be plenty for me to enjoy.

 

[JuryDuty]

For now for me Spotify is still the best or that suis for me.

I currently rely on the offerings such as when I wake up or when Im chilling. Right now Apple Music has this but only has 10-20 songs on a playlist.

I'm also disappointed how short Apple Music playlists are. But that said, I've discovered they have TONS of playlists. I'm amazed at how specific many of them are and focused on the music I like to listen to. I think that's no longer bothering me much. Besides, when I hear a good song, I just push it to a playlist of my own at this point.

 

[whsbuss]

I'm also disappointed how short Apple Music playlists are. But that said, I've discovered they have TONS of playlists. I'm amazed at how specific many of them are and focused on the music I like to listen to. I think that's no longer bothering me much. Besides, when I hear a good song, I just push it to a playlist of my own at this point.

I think they keep them short so offline listening is easy to download and needs minimal space.

 

[johngordon]

I agree with how spotify is better in regards to keeping playlists separate from the main library. Even when downloading for offline use it keeps separate. Apple music places all of songs in the iCloud music library which over time would become cluttered.

Not sure how they can fix this easily unless they make a separate database for playlists. Then what happens if you have a playlist which happens to have some songs that are actually in your library?

This isn't really something I thought of until people mentioned it here.

But it actually seems like a good idea to tuck away a lot of odd tracks into playlists, rather than a library of mostly albums.

I noticed a track went AWOL from my library - a remix of Dancing On My Own by Robyn. I found it in AM, and was able to add it to a playlist, but not to my library.

I have made it available offline, and sure enough it appears in a playlist as offline, but doesn't appear in my library.

Mind you, it has the wrong song title (Flow, possibly a Brandon Flowers track), and wrong artist (Laurie Anderson).

Which I thought was the sort of stuff 12.2.1 was supposed to fix. Does have the right album art on my phone, but has a Laurie Anderson album cover in iTunes.

 

[zhenya]

My biggest beef so far is the inability to thumbs up /thumbs down so to speak. I know I can hit the heart button but I want a get the heck off my station button. My primary set up is my iMac wired to my receiver. Other services have IOS apps that can give feedback to the stream running on my Mac. Is this an issue for anyone else? Rdio and Spotify do a great job of this. Also I'd like to point out Spotify's sound quality is far superior to all of the above. That said I only pay for Rdio as its the best of both on demand and low maintenance let it play radio mode. Siri integration is the one hook trying to real me in but thats not enough.

I think this is a misunderstanding of the different radio services. Apple's genre stations are not intended to be 'tuned' to your liking. They play a certain playlist. You can still 'heart' a song because that tunes your overall taste, not the specific station. Stations you create yourself are intended to be tuned to you, so you have the option to like a song or never play it again. On a custom station, a 'Play more like this' is different than clicking the heart. The former tunes the station, the latter tunes your overall preference.

Spotify's sound quality should be no better than Apple's - one is a max of 320kbps OGG (and only for paid subscribers) the other 256kbps AAC which is widely considered to be a more efficient encoding mechanism. I would bet good money that very few people, if anyone, could actually tell the difference between the two under controlled playback.

 

[zhenya]

I only have 3 issues with Apple Music that Spotify did not have:

1) Music you add to playlists is automatically added to your Library. I do not like this.
2) There's no easy way to download your entire library.
3) There's no way to control the quality of the library you download. I would much rather have lower quality files on my phone for saving space.

Number 1 is an essential component of Apple Music and it's not about to change. There are ways to make playlists to keep separate views, but things you add to your library are all going to be merged. As a longtime Spotify and Beats subscriber, I much prefer this. Previously we had separate libraries and we had to keep track of which service a particular song or album was located in. This way everything is in one place.

Number 2, make a playlist of all songs and download it.

Number 3, not yet, I guess, although Beats had it, and I think Apple just added the ability to manually choose streaming bitrate, so I wouldn't be surprised to see this come soon.

 

[0000757]

Number 1 is an essential component of Apple Music and it's not about to change. There are ways to make playlists to keep separate views, but things you add to your library are all going to be merged. As a longtime Spotify and Beats subscriber, I much prefer this. Previously we had separate libraries and we had to keep track of which service a particular song or album was located in. This way everything is in one place.

Number 2, make a playlist of all songs and download it.

Number 3, not yet, I guess, although Beats had it, and I think Apple just added the ability to manually choose streaming bitrate, so I wouldn't be surprised to see this come soon.

I know it's like that, but now I can't save playlists that I'm interested in without all that music going into my library. Maybe I want to listen to a playlist my friend made, but that doesn't mean I want all of that in my library. I just have to basically bookmark the link in the notes.

As far as 2 is concerned, there's currently a bug on both 8.4 and 9 where downloading large playlists crashes the phone (not to mention downloading already is bugged).

 

[zhenya]

If you save a playlist, when you delete it, doesn't the music get removed from your library? (I'm not sure of this).