Song meant to spoof car audio systems climbs into top 50 on Apple's iTunes charts
A track consisting of nothing but 9 minutes and 58 seconds of silence is currently sitting at 49th place in Apple's iTunes charts, apparently out of frustration with the way many car audio systems work.
Called "A a a a a Very Good Song," the 99-cent track -- released by Samir Mezrahi on Wednesday -- copes with the fact that many audio systems will simply play tracks in alphabetical order whenever an iPhone connects via USB. With a regular music library this can be annoying, since the same song will play automatically until a person can select their own playlist.
The issue is unlikely to affect people who who depend solely on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.
The track's popularity may be a sign that many people are not only using USB in their vehicles but still relying on locally-stored music. iTunes sales have been on the decline for several years with the rise of streaming -- but the Mac and Windows iTunes clients also let people import files from third-party sources, whether legal or otherwise.
Indeed the same effect as Mezrahi's song can be achieved for free by recording a silent track, properly naming and importing it, and then syncing with an iPhone.
The Mezrahi track is performing so well that it's beating out songs by well-established pop artists like Macklemore, Bruno Mars, and Selena Gomez.
Called "A a a a a Very Good Song," the 99-cent track -- released by Samir Mezrahi on Wednesday -- copes with the fact that many audio systems will simply play tracks in alphabetical order whenever an iPhone connects via USB. With a regular music library this can be annoying, since the same song will play automatically until a person can select their own playlist.
The issue is unlikely to affect people who who depend solely on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.
The track's popularity may be a sign that many people are not only using USB in their vehicles but still relying on locally-stored music. iTunes sales have been on the decline for several years with the rise of streaming -- but the Mac and Windows iTunes clients also let people import files from third-party sources, whether legal or otherwise.
Indeed the same effect as Mezrahi's song can be achieved for free by recording a silent track, properly naming and importing it, and then syncing with an iPhone.
The Mezrahi track is performing so well that it's beating out songs by well-established pop artists like Macklemore, Bruno Mars, and Selena Gomez.
Comments
http://osxdaily.com/2017/07/29/stop-autoplaying-music-iphone-car-bluetooth/
It really shocked me that Apple haven't issued a fix - must be driving (excuse the pun) so many people completely round the bend!
I actually created a 4 hr blank track. Not only because it is annoying to have the song start playing every time. When trying to use Siri or Maps, you would get no voice through the car speakers unless there was an audio track already playing. Solved that by having a long silent track always playing - unless of course playing other music.
Her number 1 was that it autoplayed the first song on her list, she was infuriated which is unusual for her.
Number 2, she said it regularly wouldn't read a text, just 'dead air' when it should have been reading a text.
Finally, she said that the music shuts off when you try and do anything on your phone, which of course texting-while-driving-is-a-problem, but even if a passenger was playing music they couldn't do anything else b/c it would stop the music.
Of course, she had a map issue as well, Apple Maps didn't re-route her around construction it just kept sending her the wrong way...she had to use Waze/Google to get to her location and Waze showed the construction and routed correctly.
She says she doesn't want it in her car now.
I don't know, but it sounds awful,
This new track has hit a nerve. I have often wanted to throw my iPhone out the window because of this stupid, useless behavior.
After 30 years of computing I can say they don't seem that "intuitive" to me and I see a reasonably high learning curve that doesn't appeal to me as much as such challenges did back in the '80s..... ...and if Androids are prone to malware, after 6 years, you can't prove it by me, nor do I have to reboot my (15 month old) phone and it's nearly as fast as when I got it.
....but then I get interested again - they're pretty, they do some things truly elegantly - and T-Mobile has a $60 two lines unlimited deal going, so thinking about finally trying one - while not giving up what I know.
And then I read articles like this, and know Apple's is just another approach to making widgets - and that no one's produced a "kinkless" experience. Hmmmm. So maybe.....
I complained about this about two years ago on these very boards when I rented a Ford Escape for a weekend. I got the typical nasty "well its your fault, check the settings" type response. Oh well. Glad someone agrees and that their workaround outsells major label pop music. I'm not going to pay for a crappy CarPlay implementation... so its AUX jack for me on my month-old 2017 Jeep.
To stop this behavior I deleted the album. Now that Apple Music is empty it defaults to Podcasts and just starts playing something I'm subscribed to.
I have a third party app I use for music but I can't find a way to make it the default.
But sure, hate on Apple. (I especially got a chuckle at your claim about Apple dictating to you. Got a link to their dictation!?)
Nonsense. This issue has absolutely nothing to do with Apple's streaming service, and everything to do with the car maker's media player sending instructions to the iPhone's iPod interface.
As usual, the auto makers have no idea what they're doing. They're probably just excited that they can get it to play music at all.
Has absolutely nothing to do with CarPlay, Android, Apple Music, Google Music, Spotify, or anything.