Well, That Was Quick - Bored Already, Not Going To Keep Apple Music

[johngordon]

Not old enough to have amassed a large iTunes collection via download. The only redeeming feature of Apple Music is it's Spotify feature, so if you don't have any Whitney Houston, Abba, or Doobie Brothers you're all set now.

BJ

I'm 44 with a collection of over 1,000 albums. Small fry for a lot of people I'm sure, but is that old enough, or a large enough collection?

It doesn't matter how old someone is, or how large their library is, if the person is interested in new music to even a modest degree.

Would you argue that Apple as a whole was flawed because it charges as much as it does for computers when the average spend on a new computer is $300? Or because it charges so much for phones when the average spend on mobile phone is $50?

 

[johngordon]

I've used Apple Music for the better part of two weeks and I'm unimpressed.

It's simply not a good service. I'm glad it works for you though.

BJ

Oh.

I thought it wasn't for you because you weren't that interested in new music because pretty much all new music is awful, and you would never get value from not personally for $120 a year.

Why the change of tune?

(Because that reasoning does not make it a bad service, it just means its not for you.)

 

[Pagemakers]

Exactly. I've read a lot about it being a mess and confusing, but I'm not sure what the fuss is about.

Five tabs at the bottom:

For You - stuff recommended based on my library and likes
New - new stuff
Radio - radio
Connect - the social aspect where artists can upload / post stuff
My Music - my music library, including stuff I have added from Apple Music

Am I supposed to believe I am unusually intelligent because I don't find that confusing at all?

Maybe I should be flattered, but really?

I'm sure its like a lot of things though - what you get out of it depends on what effort you put in to it.

If only it was that easy.

It's slow. Very slow compared to Deezer.

It's messy. The red ball choosing thing is just terrible.

Playlists are messed up.

What does the "heart" icon do?

Connect. OMG. Terrible. 90% of all the messages I have seen on it say "Hi". "Hello". "You're gorgeous". "You're ugly". It's like a 12 year old's Facebook page.

On the iphone the TINY play/pause buttons couldn't have been placed anywhere worse.

Downloaded music doesn't stay downloaded.

Siri doesn't play music correctly. UK Bug.

New tab is not New music. It's ALL music.

Music you have downloaded isn't easily displayed or distinguished from what isn't downloaded for offline play.

Synching between devices is slow slow slow or doesn't work.

General layout is poor. I hate pages where I have to scroll vertically and horizontally.

If it's so easy to use why is there so much confusion about it? Confusion that Deezer or Spotify doesn't have.

The bugs are inexcusable from the world's biggest company.

I've been a Deezer user for years and was so excited about Apple Music because of it's tighter iOS integration. As much as I've tried to like Apple Music, it just doesn't do it for me.

This review perfectly sums up Apple Music.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...review-clunky-fussy-confusing-and-flawed.html

 

[johngordon]

If only it was that easy.

It's slow. Very slow compared to Deezer.

Agreed - it does seem a little slow starting music. That's different to confusing though.

It's messy. The red ball choosing thing is just terrible.

Didn't see any problem with it - it is what it is, a way of giving some brief likes and dislikes.

Playlists are messed up.

All I have noticed is that the 2x2 grid of album covers for a lot of the playlists show albums that aren't featured in the playlist.

What does the "heart" icon do?

As far as i know it helps fine tune recommendations that appear in the For You section.

Connect. OMG. Terrible. 90% of all the messages I have seen on it say "Hi". "Hello". "You're gorgeous". "You're ugly". It's like a 12 year old's Facebook page.

Who was posting that? I guess it depends who you follow and what they post. All Apple can do is provide the platform, but it will depend on how much artists choose to engage with it.

On the iphone the TINY play/pause buttons couldn't have been placed anywhere worse.

I assume you mean on the mini player in the strip at the bottom just above the five tabs? Try tapping anywhere in the middle of that, over the track name....

[QUOTEDownloaded music doesn't stay downloaded.[/QUOTE]

I haven't noticed this.

Siri doesn't play music correctly. UK Bug.

I haven't used it with Siri.

New tab is not New music. It's ALL music.

It looks like new music on my phone. The UI is a bit off though - album cover on the left, with blank space to its right, with the title and artist under both.

Music you have downloaded isn't easily displayed or distinguished from what isn't downloaded for offline play.

A little phone icon on a grey triangle to the right of the track distinguishes it as having been downloaded.

Synching between devices is slow slow slow or doesn't work.

Seems pretty good here - if I add music to My Music on my Mac it pops up on my phone almost instantly.

General layout is poor. I hate pages where I have to scroll vertically and horizontally.

Hadn't noticed - which pages are they?

If it's so easy to use why is there so much confusion about it? Confusion that Deezer or Spotify doesn't have.

So no-one is confused to any degree about anything in Deezer or Spotify? Or if we want to compare like with like, no-one was confused about any aspect of Deezer or Spotify the week they launched?

 

[shandyman]

If only it was that easy.

It's slow. Very slow compared to Deezer.

It's messy. The red ball choosing thing is just terrible.

Playlists are messed up.

What does the "heart" icon do?

Connect. OMG. Terrible. 90% of all the messages I have seen on it say "Hi". "Hello". "You're gorgeous". "You're ugly". It's like a 12 year old's Facebook page.

On the iphone the TINY play/pause buttons couldn't have been placed anywhere worse.

Downloaded music doesn't stay downloaded.

Siri doesn't play music correctly. UK Bug.

New tab is not New music. It's ALL music.

Music you have downloaded isn't easily displayed or distinguished from what isn't downloaded for offline play.

Synching between devices is slow slow slow or doesn't work.

General layout is poor. I hate pages where I have to scroll vertically and horizontally.

If it's so easy to use why is there so much confusion about it? Confusion that Deezer or Spotify doesn't have.

The bugs are inexcusable from the world's biggest company.

I've been a Deezer user for years and was so excited about Apple Music because of it's tighter iOS integration. As much as I've tried to like Apple Music, it just doesn't do it for me.

This review perfectly sums up Apple Music.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...review-clunky-fussy-confusing-and-flawed.html

I've had no delay on it, any song I played, it was instant. Even in spotty 3G here in Newbury.

I've not seen messed up playlists. Examples?

The heart icon is 'like', same as last.fm and other apps.

Connect, I've not really used, if you don't like the social aspect, don't use it.

It's easy to see what's downloaded as it has a little icon on each track.

How does Siri not play music correctly? I've had no errors.

Syncing seems instant for me. I've started a station on my iPhone based on a song, then gone to my iPad and it's there.

I've not lost and downloaded music.

No company, big or small, has a perfect bug free release, that statement is easily the daftest thing I've read.

Also, the Telegraph? Haha. They're so trustworthy with their reviews. You can tell from the start they were going in to hate it.

 

[Pagemakers]

I've had no delay on it, any song I played, it was instant. Even in spotty 3G here in Newbury.

I've not seen messed up playlists. Examples?

The heart icon is 'like', same as last.fm and other apps.

Connect, I've not really used, if you don't like the social aspect, don't use it.

It's easy to see what's downloaded as it has a little icon on each track.

How does Siri not play music correctly? I've had no errors.

Syncing seems instant for me. I've started a station on my iPhone based on a song, then gone to my iPad and it's there.

I've not lost and downloaded music.

No company, big or small, has a perfect bug free release, that statement is easily the daftest thing I've read.

Also, the Telegraph? Haha. They're so trustworthy with their reviews. You can tell from the start they were going in to hate it.

I’m glad it’s working for you and as liking something is subjective so I won’t respond further because we just go round and round in circles. One thing you could do for me is ask Siri “play queen, another one bites the dust”. Siri tells me it’s playing and it doesn’t. Happens on my iPhone, iPad and my colleagues too. It will work via the apple watch though. Happens with lots of songs. I think it’s a UK issue.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

I’m glad it’s working for you and as liking something is subjective so I won’t respond further because we just go round and round in circles. One thing you could do for me is ask Siri “play queen, another one bites the dust”. Siri tells me it’s playing and it doesn’t. Happens on my iPhone, iPad and my colleagues too. It will work via the apple watch though. Happens with lots of songs. I think it’s a UK issue.

Siri has bitten the dust.

 

[johngordon]

Are we going round in circles though? At least some of your points have been addressed and you have ignored them.

For example, the icon to show a track has been downloaded, or that you can tap to expand the mini player.

Some things might be people having different experiences with, such as speed of syncing and playing.

But others I'm not so sure about - New shouldn't be showing all music, and isn't here. And I don't know about screens where you have to scroll horizontally and vertically?

I tried the Siri thing out and it worked for the couple I tried. I just asked for artists though, and its first choice of popular Killers tracks was the B side Get Trashed - a song so bad and unlike the Killers I thought it was playing the wrong band!

 

[Pagemakers]

Are we going round in circles though? At least some of your points have been addressed and you have ignored them.

For example, the icon to show a track has been downloaded, or that you can tap to expand the mini player.

Some things might be people having different experiences with, such as speed of syncing and playing.

But others I'm not so sure about - New shouldn't be showing all music, and isn't here. And I don't know about screens where you have to scroll horizontally and vertically?

I tried the Siri thing out and it worked for the couple I tried. I just asked for artists though, and its first choice of popular Killers tracks was the B side Get Trashed - a song so bad and unlike the Killers I thought it was playing the wrong band!

If I want to pause I have to try and hit that stupid 3mm high pause icon. If I have to tap the mini player to open the larger player and pause it's just more faff.

As for the icon to show that the music is downloaded it does not show in this view. As you can see... This have downloaded for offline play.

We are going round in circles!

 

[johngordon]

If I want to pause I have to try and hit that stupid 3mm high pause icon. If I have to tap the mini player to open the larger player and pause it's just more faff.

As for the icon to show that the music is downloaded it does not show in this view. As you can see... This have downloaded for offline play.

We are going round in circles!

Well, its not that much of a faff. Or, if you think you will want to pause music a lot, just get in the habit of using the larger player. It really doesn't seem like that big a deal.

It wouldn't make any sense to show it in that view, because any given artist would likely have a mix of downloaded tracks, and tracks that are not downloaded. So its only going to work in a view that lists tracks, not artists.

So for example, if you had two Ed Sheeran albums, but had only downloaded one for offline listening. What would you expect to see there?

We might end up going round in circles, but we weren't after you posting some things you thought were issue, and people posting reasons they didn't think they were issues.

 

[Pagemakers]

Well, its not that much of a faff. Or, if you think you will want to pause music a lot, just get in the habit of using the larger player. It really doesn't seem like that big a deal.

Of course the icon doesn't show in that view, because any given artist would likely have a mix of downloaded tracks, and tracks that are not downloaded. So its only going to work in a view that lists tracks, not artists.

We might end up going round in circles, but we weren't after you posting some things you thought were issue, and people posting reasons they didn't think they were issues.

It is a faff because you have to hit the same area to play, pause, rewind, fast forward. I keep hitting the button below because the stupid icons are so dammed small and so close the what’s below it

This is simplicity…

No more. Can’t stand those circles

 

[shandyman]

It is a faff because you have to hit the same area to play, pause, rewind, fast forward. I keep hitting the button below because the stupid icons are so dammed small and so close the what’s below it

I have fat fingers and I've not once had a problem pausing/playing on that button...

I'll try your Siri request later, can't do it whilst I'm at work.

 

[Pagemakers]

...

 

[johngordon]

...

Thanks for clarifying what a circle looks like.

But I'm not sure we've been round in a single circle yet.

It is a faff because you have to hit the same area to play, pause, rewind, fast forward. I keep hitting the button below because the stupid icons are so dammed small and so close the what’s below it

This is simplicity…

No more. Can’t stand those circles

What does it show if some tracks have been downloaded, and some haven't been?

There's a download toggle for the album, but I assume you can still download individual tracks. In which case what does it show on the album view if you have only downloaded some of the album tracks?

 

[GlenK]

I'm going with the rest of the trial period but without some improvement in the bugs I'll be gone too. It's still not reliable creating and syncing playlists. Added a playlist yesterday on my iPhone, it never showed up. Gave it over night and still nothing. Just used iTunes to create and add the same playlist. Now that playlist in in iTunes and synced with my iPad, but still the band or playlist is not on my iPhone.

Just don't need to be constantly checking to see if what I did shows up and syncs. I love the concept but the execution is lacking for me. Hopefully they can clean up these issues in the next couple months. Would love to keep it but not heading in that direction.

 

[shandyman]

I'm going with the rest of the trial period but without some improvement in the bugs I'll be gone too. It's still not reliable creating and syncing playlists. Added a playlist yesterday on my iPhone, it never showed up. Gave it over night and still nothing. Just used iTunes to create and add the same playlist. Now that playlist in in iTunes and synced with my iPad, but still the band or playlist is not on my iPhone.

Just don't need to be constantly checking to see if what I did shows up and syncs. I love the concept but the execution is lacking for me. Hopefully they can clean up these issues in the next couple months. Would love to keep it but not heading in that direction.

Might be worth checking you have iCloud music library enabled on all devices? That might be why. Otherwise, report bug to Apple.

 

[GlenK]

Might be worth checking you have iCloud music library enabled on all devices? That might be why. Otherwise, report bug to Apple.

I have all the settings correct and it has already been reported. If it's not corrected I just won't continue with AM. Just a waste of time to continually check behind this system.

 

[Pagemakers]

I have all the settings correct and it has already been reported. If it's not corrected I just won't continue with AM. Just a waste of time to continually check behind this system.

Many many people have this problem. You are not alone, nor doing anything wrong.

 

[zhenya]

The Promise: Fantastic new music discovery.

The Reality: Exposure is through "stations" and "playlists" that are just as narrow-minded and pre-selected as AM radio in 1965.

No. Just no.

Radio stations must be made appealing to a mass-audience in order to remain viable. There are a few niche stations that are generally supported by funding by say, a university or a church where profit is not the main goal, but the vast majority of stations are commercial and are looking to be as mainstream as possible in order to maximize their advertising revenue. Streaming with a service like Spotify or Apple Music offers me (as only one option out of many, it should be said, again, unfortunately) content that is tailored to my taste and my taste alone. This is so fundamentally different from regular radio that for you to not see it can only have one reason behind it - that you are being purposely obtuse in order to continue an argument.

The mods should shut this thread down. It has run its course.

 

[johngordon]

Many many people have this problem. You are not alone, nor doing anything wrong.

Wonder what might be causing that for some but not others - time of day, temporary overload on the servers. Even then, it should resolve itself at some point rather than not at all.

I've noticed its slow to start playing tracks compared to Spotify, but what syncing I've done with playlists tor adding music had been almost instant.

Agree completely that if you keep having to check and not see what you expect to see its exactly the sort of thing that makes you not want to use it.

 

[shandyman]

I have all the settings correct and it has already been reported. If it's not corrected I just won't continue with AM. Just a waste of time to continually check behind this system.

Weird. I've not encountered this myself. Tho for months on Spotify, I had things that would never sync up. Nothing's perfect, but if enough people report it, Apple will fix it.

 

[blasto2236]

Weird. I've not encountered this myself. Tho for months on Spotify, I had things that would never sync up. Nothing's perfect, but if enough people report it, Apple will fix it.

I wouldn't be so sure. It seems like most of these issues (syncing across devices, issues getting stuff that's been saved for offline listening to stay that way) are problems related to Apple using iTunes Match on the backend. And Match has been a notoriously buggy mess since its launch several years ago.

I'm hopeful that Apple will garner a vastly larger user base for AM than they ever had for Match, though, so maybe more people paying more money will be able to sway them towards patching it up.

 

[shandyman]

I wouldn't be so sure. It seems like most of these issues (syncing across devices, issues getting stuff that's been saved for offline listening to stay that way) are problems related to Apple using iTunes Match on the backend. And Match has been a notoriously buggy mess since its launch several years ago.

I'm hopeful that Apple will garner a vastly larger user base for AM than they ever had for Match, though, so maybe more people paying more money will be able to sway them towards patching it up.

I used iTunes Match since it was available in the U.K, along with a few other friends, never had any problems with it. Always worked perfectly. What were the problems?

 

[blasto2236]

I used iTunes Match since it was available in the U.K, along with a few other friends, never had any problems with it. Always worked perfectly. What were the problems?

I could spend the rest of the afternoon listing more examples than the two listed in my post, but a cursory Google search of "iTunes Match issues" shows that people have been having a multitude of issues with the service since launch, which only multiplied with the launch of Apple Music. Seems like they've recently addressed issues with it wrecking people's carefully curated libraries, which had been ongoing since the launch of Match.

Perhaps this does bode well for them addressing other major issues such as syncing consistently across all devices and downloaded songs for offline playback randomly disappearing from devices.

Edited to add: It really does seem like most of the bugs and issues people are having with AM all tie back to Match, so I am pretty optimistic there will be some fixes coming on down the road.

 

[Supermallet]

Disagree. Apple Music is not a good product at the moment. It's very buggy, confusing, messy, illogical. Not very good.

That's two different arguments. Boltjames is saying that the very concept of a streaming music service, where you do not own the music you listen to, is a bad service. That covers Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play All Access, Deezer, Rdio, etc. etc.

You're complaining about the specifics of the app interface. Those complaints are separate from Boltjames's argument. Even if Apple Music were the smoothest, most beautiful, useful, and intuitive app in the history of computing, Boltjames would still consider it a bad service because the idea of paying to stream music that you don't own is a bad value proposition to him.