Apple debuts Apple Music ad touting revamped UI, custom playlists, Beats 1
Apple on Wednesday shared a fresh ad spot focusing on new and refined features included in the revamped Apple Music app, which launched in September as part of iOS 10.
Aptly titled "Explore the All-New Apple Music," the part how-to guide, part promotional commercial is set to the upbeat track "Where You At" by the Bohicas. At 1 minute and 21 seconds, the ad is longer than most recent Apple Music spots, allowing time to dive deeper into the app's user interface and updated feature set.
In the ad, Apple uses the app's bottom row of navigation icons as a scene template, offering a brief look at the features included in Library, For You, Browse, Radio and Search.
First up is Library, where users get quick access to all their music, whether it's stored in the cloud or downloaded locally on iPhone. Apple shows off the Contacts-esque Artists view and album cover grid before switching over to curated mixes. Interestingly, the Downloaded music section, highly touted during Apple's iPhone 7 event and subsequent TV commercials, is not featured in today's ad.
Apple instead opts to delve deeper into For You, and provides an example of how to set up the music curation function by tapping on floating bubbles containing genres and artists. Borrowed from the old Beats Music app, the setup procedure generates a taste profile that combines with iTunes listening data to deliver user-specific customized playlists. With iOS 10, Apple Music adds two new options in My Favorites Mix and My New Music Mix, both of which incorporate a blend of human and algorithmically curated content.
Next up, Apple previews music sharing and offline listening accessed through the three-dot contextual menu that appears throughout Apple Music. Search and Browse are quickly glossed over to get to nearly 20 seconds' worth of Beats 1 radio promotion.
The ad cuts between Apple Music's Radio UI and video footage of interviews with big-name musical acts. Also featured are shows from Beats 1 DJs Zane Lowe and Julie Adenuga, as well as those hosted by celebrities. Apple reminds viewers that Radio content can be streamed live or replayed in-app at a later time.
Apple is making a concerted effort to expose its subscription Apple Music streaming service to a wider audience. Last month, for example, the company enlisted the help of James Corden to create a humorous ad starring execs Eddy Cue, Jimmy Iovine and Bozoma Saint John.
Aptly titled "Explore the All-New Apple Music," the part how-to guide, part promotional commercial is set to the upbeat track "Where You At" by the Bohicas. At 1 minute and 21 seconds, the ad is longer than most recent Apple Music spots, allowing time to dive deeper into the app's user interface and updated feature set.
In the ad, Apple uses the app's bottom row of navigation icons as a scene template, offering a brief look at the features included in Library, For You, Browse, Radio and Search.
First up is Library, where users get quick access to all their music, whether it's stored in the cloud or downloaded locally on iPhone. Apple shows off the Contacts-esque Artists view and album cover grid before switching over to curated mixes. Interestingly, the Downloaded music section, highly touted during Apple's iPhone 7 event and subsequent TV commercials, is not featured in today's ad.
Apple instead opts to delve deeper into For You, and provides an example of how to set up the music curation function by tapping on floating bubbles containing genres and artists. Borrowed from the old Beats Music app, the setup procedure generates a taste profile that combines with iTunes listening data to deliver user-specific customized playlists. With iOS 10, Apple Music adds two new options in My Favorites Mix and My New Music Mix, both of which incorporate a blend of human and algorithmically curated content.
Next up, Apple previews music sharing and offline listening accessed through the three-dot contextual menu that appears throughout Apple Music. Search and Browse are quickly glossed over to get to nearly 20 seconds' worth of Beats 1 radio promotion.
The ad cuts between Apple Music's Radio UI and video footage of interviews with big-name musical acts. Also featured are shows from Beats 1 DJs Zane Lowe and Julie Adenuga, as well as those hosted by celebrities. Apple reminds viewers that Radio content can be streamed live or replayed in-app at a later time.
Apple is making a concerted effort to expose its subscription Apple Music streaming service to a wider audience. Last month, for example, the company enlisted the help of James Corden to create a humorous ad starring execs Eddy Cue, Jimmy Iovine and Bozoma Saint John.
Comments
In many ways Apple Music is such a fundamental change to the way that we manage our music that it's hard to tell at times what exactly is going to happen when you hit the play button. It used to be that all of your music was managed via iTunes and what ended up on your device was totally subservient to what you decided in iTunes. With Apple Music this is no longer the case and you can no longer assume that what shows up in your device's music library will actually playback on your device whether there is a cloud icon on the track or not!
In a perfectly connected world where everyone had unlimited universal high speed connectivity the uncertainty and ambiguity would probably go away. But with many current consumers this is not the case so we're stuck in a situation where the assumed operating mode does not always work and "funny" things happen even when you have a big-memory device with 128 GB or more of storage. It's more than a bit frustrating but not a show stopper. I only wish it was more deterministic with fewer unwelcome surprises. I suspect the Apple engineers haven't worked out all of the kinks quite yet and the music storage optimization feature doesn't really work as intended in all scenarios.
"Every song, album, and playlist you’ve ever added to your iTunes library is in your Apple Music library — whether it was purchased from the iTunes Store, imported from a CD, or downloaded from a music blog."
In other words, whether you own it or not you still have to download it to your iPhone. I am a subscriber on a family plan so I have no idea what happens if you are not a subscriber. I also haven't synched to a computer via cable for seemingly ever, so I am not sure how that works either.
Among many issues, why isn't there a way to see what is NOT downloaded? I can see what is downloaded, but beyond that I don't know what I don't know....so provide a Cloud-Only button or whatever they want to call it. Any why disable local syncing from iTunes if iCloud Music Library is on (which I am forced to enable if I simply want to download some Apple Music streams to listen to offline, since streaming really sucks on the commute from NJ to NY every day).
Apple is really trying to force this combination of your own music and leased Apple Music, and it's not right or comfortable. If all you do is stream, I assume its fine. But they are not accommodating the many millions of users that have developed their own library from CD's
In any case, the music storage optimization feature is still an unreliable mystery to me and I'm no technology neophyte.
And where has the "repeat" button gone? And still no equaliser in 2016?
Come on!
I love Apple but Spotify are getting it right. Beautiful interface and you can keep your streaming library separate to your standard one.
It's actually worth subscribing monthly because of what a great music player the app is.