Apple Music-All information provided here

The service itself has been fine for me but iTunes is still very buggy. I really thought we'd see massive improvements in both iTunes and the iOS Music app by now, but nope, it seems Apple pulled most of the engineers off both as soon as Apple Music launched.

9to5Mac reports that Apple Music will getting a UI revamp at WWDC, including the demotion of Connect. We already knew that Apple were working on iTunes but it seems they are changing the iOS Music app as well.

While I don't hate the current Music app UI, it could certainly be better. Some of my current annoyances:

- The way search is accessible from all of the tabs instead of being its own tab. It feels like I'm in Safari. When I tap on My Music or Playlists I want to go there, not to whatever search results I was previously looking at.
- The way search results are split into Apple Music and My Music tabs - I'm tired of all the tapping, just integrate them please.
- The way the display activates when you adjust the volume using the headphone controls. While this has been around for several versions of iOS, it's extremely dumb and is a potentially major drain on battery life depending on how often to adjust the volume on your commute. My phone is in my pocket, I'm using the headphone controls, there's no reason for the display to be on!
- The grey text for album/artist info on the lock-screen is practically indecipherable. I usually have to hold the phone up to my face to make it out.

I'm sure I'll think of more.

I guess it hasn't signed up to UNiDAYS's scheme. Is it on Campus.ie?

Catherine! wrote: »

I used the 3-month free trial of Apple Music from September to December last year. I liked having my music library integrated with my streaming tracks, but the main turn-off for me was the fact that when I had Apple Music switched on, I could no longer add tracks to my iPod Touch by ripping a CD.

If Apple Music is enabled in iTunes and on the iPod Touch this is very straight-forward. You rip the CD in iTunes, it automatically adds it to your iCloud Music Library. Then you can stream it or download it on your iPod Touch. No need to connect the Touch to iTunes.

I'm not so sure the revamp is going to be that extensive anymore, at least if what Macrumors reports about iTunes is anything to go by. Sounds like damage control rather than a substantial rethinking of the interface. Unless they have bigger plans for iTunes down the road.

Apple should bite the bullet and phase out Windows support since that's what's holding iTunes back. Windows users hate iTunes anyway. No reason to continue to punish Mac users.

They can't just drop Windows support on a dime, I agree, but they could start to phase it out. Leave Windows users with the current version and just release bug fixes. The Mac version probably have undergone a major upgrade years ago if not for Windows support. I mean, had iPhoto been a Windows app would Apple have been able to just scrap it and start from scratch with the new Photos app? Not a chance. They'd still be dithering over it like they are iTunes.

I've become sceptical of the benefits of splitting iTunes into different apps. The music player/library, iTunes Store and Apple Music catalogue should all be integrated in the one app. Any proposed redesigns I've seen that have suggested splitting Apple Music and/or the iTunes Store into separate apps really aren't thinking the implications of that through. If there's a problem with iTunes at the moment, it's that these three things aren't integrated enough.

They could take out the video player/library functionality and the device management, I guess, but I'm not convinced that either of those things are adding that much bloat to the app. And device management seems like something that will eventually be handled by iCloud anyway. It's already basically redundant for most users, except those with older devices or no WiFi.

DubDJ wrote: »

I'd just prefer an app that plays music, and not have apps tethered, as well as all the other features iTunes supports. A strategic rethinking of the whole app situation is needed by Apple imo. Mac, has few apps trying to do everything, iOS has separate apps for everything that can't be removed.
In general I like Apple Music, I don't see the whole problem with the layout needing a redesign. It's working almost flawlessly for me now too. I agree with the connect tab being demoted though.

Connect is awful and I don't know how anyone approved it.

Apple's traditional problem with services (as per Steve) is that they didn't view services as being services. They viewed them as features. That's starting to change. The question is are they now viewing services as services or are they viewing them as ways of generating more money from their existing user base. Hopefully the former for our sake.

Albert_Camus wrote: »

Why what's the story here, how is Windows holding iTunes back?

Because it's a cross-platform app and anything they want to do to iTunes on the Mac they have to do for iTunes on Windows. So a ground-up re-write or splitting it into multiple apps becomes a much bigger deal and something that might not be practical with the Windows version. It's easier to just keep doing what they've been doing: give it a new dash of paint every other version and keep cramming features in, hence the bloat.

I'm speculating, of course. But turning iTunes into a suite of of apps doesn't seem particularly practical on Windows.

One thing I really miss about Spotify: being able to remotely control what music is playing on my Mac from another device. Very handy when you have wireless headphones. Apple's Remote app on iOS still hasn't been updated for Apple Music and is kind of crap anyway. I assume Apple is planning to integrate this remote functionality into iTunes and iOS's Music app at some point. Hopefully in the forthcoming update.

I don't have the patience to listen to that guy's Youtube diary. But I assume he's talking about what iMore have been writing about.

These "Apple Music deleted my library" claims have been around since the service launched. At least 75 percent of them are due to user error. Basically the user matches their library with Apple Music and then deletes their local files. Don't ask me how. iMore suggest the people are confused by Apple's on-screen warnings and click the wrong button. Then they disable Apple Music and forget to re-enable it. This is what happened to Jim Dalrymple, though it took him quite a while to admit it. More recently it seems there's a database bug in the latest version of iTunes that actually can cause lost data, though I don't really understand the technicalities.

iCloud Music Library is a buggy mess, however. Apple built it on the iTunes Match backend. iTunes Match was a paid-for beta service that never worked properly but Apple thought it was wonderful and made it the basis for Apple Music with disastrous results. Especially for former iTunes Match subscribers who let their subscriptions expire.

My local files are intact but I have loads of tracks that are currently showing as "no longer available" in iCloud and won't upload either. Meaning I can see but not play them on anything but my main library. A lot of them are Neil Young or Radiohead. Young isn't available on Apple Music but is on the iTunes Store and my iTunes Match subscription recently expired and it seems iCloud Music Library doesn't know what to do. Radiohead recently switched their catalogue over to another label which resulted in everything being pulled and re-added to Apple Music. Once again iCloud Music Library doesn't know what to do and has decided the safest course of action is to do nothing. Silent failure - which is very common problem with Apple these days.

I'm probably going to have to manually reset my iCloud Music Library, which is a big job since Apple no longer give you an option to do it. Probably because they are afraid what would happen.

FourFourFM wrote: »

Previously ripped mp3's are now DRM protected after they are "matched" with the Apple Music catalogue.

This should not happen unless your your local files were deleted, either deliberately, accidentally or by this recent iTunes database bug.

I just checked and all my ripped files are intact and have not been DRM'd.

Apple Music cannot DRM local files that were previously DRM-free.