I'm not big on streaming music, but I gave iTunes Radio a try. I've tried several channels (both Apple-curated and indie), both on iTunes and on my AppleTV.
iTunes Radio stops playing after 1-2 songs. The fact that it behaves the same across channels and across devices leads me to believe it's not a problem on my end. (Yes, my network is fine.)
This confuses me. I can't believe that pandora is wide spread enough where both the people who like iTunes radio better and the people who have never used Pandora fits in a 8% window
I've put a lot of time and effort into tooling my Pandora stations, so I still go to them first. But as soon as I hear a pro-fracking commercial on Pandora, I move over to iTunes Radio.
People who likely spent a large number of time building custom stations are probably less inclined to move for what seems like the same thing at the end of the day just because Apple is behind it, especially since most are using the free version anyway. Doesn't mean they won't eventually, or that there is anything wrong with iTunes Radio. Streaming audio is just a near commodity and a passive media these days, that most just toss on the background.
You can tell iTunes Radio wether you like to Play More Like This or Never Play This Song (Star Icon). You can also set weather the radio station plays Hits, Variety, or Discovery (Info Icon at Top).
I'm not big on streaming music, but I gave iTunes Radio a try. I've tried several channels (both Apple-curated and indie), both on iTunes and on my AppleTV.
iTunes Radio stops playing after 1-2 songs. The fact that it behaves the same across channels and across devices leads me to believe it's not a problem on my end. (Yes, my network is fine.)
I'd be more inclined to use it if it worked.
It's unlikely the servers are stopping each time one user plays three songs don't you think? Something is wrong your end I'd suspect. Weird though I admit. I assume your Netflix and iTunes TV all play normally.
BTW: Not that iTunes radio is on this yet but this link shows all the other on line services, I wonder if iTunes Radio is going to be added? ... : http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/
There is a contact support link there for other issues you might try.
It's unlikely the servers are stopping each time one user plays three songs don't you think? Something is wrong your end I'd suspect. Weird though I admit. I assume your Netflix and iTunes TV all play normally.
For the reasons I outlined, no, I do not think that to be the case. Proof: the channels don't stop playing in the middle of a song. They play to the end of a song, and then stop as if the Radio channel has reached the end of its playlist. All other Apple and net-related services are in the green.
So no, it's not me. I'm happy to keep listening to my own library while Apple work out the bugs.
For the reasons I outlined, no, I do not think that to be the case. Proof: the channels don't stop playing in the middle of a song. They play to the end of a song, and then stop as if the Radio channel has reached the end of its playlist. All other Apple and net-related services are in the green.
So no, it's not me. I'm happy to keep listening to my own library while Apple work out the bugs.
Have you seen others reporting this? I haven't heard if this before.
Edit, OK I see some reports now. There seem to be many folks solving this in various ways. But I now agree there seems to be a bug in some users' experiences.
e.g.:
"I had the same issue with the songs stopping. I looked and I found that I had 20 identified artists in my selection. After I paired down to 10 - the player immediately started with a new song. There is evidently a threshold for the number of artists one can add to a station.
It would be nice for some kind of validation, though."
Although using iTunes Radio is easy to find, setup, and use, customizing the stations is a little more buried. In addition to adding additional songs and artists (besides using Favorites button), you can modify the station to play more hits or to wander off into more variety. I've found on a couple of my stations that were repeating the same songs or artists often, that moving off "hits" helped get more variety on the stations that I was having issues with. Perhaps Apple can provide better guidance into customizing these stations to generate more customer satisfaction and a more comparable experience to Pandora.
Not surprising. iTunes radio is nice and all, but I still use Pandora, Songza, and StereoMood for the majority of my music streaming. Most people I've talked to about it use at least two streaming apps, as no one has the perfect catalog or feature set.
I've found on a couple of my stations that were repeating the same songs or artists often, that moving off "hits" helped get more variety on the stations that I was having issues with. Perhaps Apple can provide better guidance into customizing these stations to generate more customer satisfaction and a more comparable experience to Pandora.
I ran into a similar situation last weekend. The station kept playing the same song over and over again, regardless of being thumbed down or skipped. I guess there are still some bugs to work out.
iTunes Radio was one of the first things I tried when iOS 7 came out. It was great at first but quickly descended afterwards. It's recommendations always tend to drift towards top 100 hip-hop regardless of the genres I was listening to. Voting down the recommended songs to "train" iTunes Radio didn't seem to work at all. In fact, there were several times that after I instructed iTunes Radio never to play a particular song that it stopped the current song, played an ad, then started playing the exact same song again that I specifically requested iTunes Radio never to play again.
iTunes Radio did teach me something I didn't know before. I didn't know U-2 has at least one song containing the f-word in their lyrics. I wasn't sure I'd heard it correctly so I decided to google the lyrics (which iTunes Radio also doesn't do) just to be sure. The funny thing is, I had the 'allow explicit' set to off but I couldn't find any way to let Apple know they let one through.
It's been a couple weeks since I tried iTunes Radio. So I just fired it up and clicked on one of the Featured Stations and... nothing happened. I click on the play button for the station and it acts like it wasn't clicked at all. So while I'm happy for the 8% who are pleased enough with iTunes Radio to ditch Pandora and other services, it's been a completely dissatisfactory experience for me.
If iTunes Radio didn't keep playing the same 12 songs, maybe I'd go back to iTunes radio!
I loved iTunes radio but once you start playing it for over 2 hours, you hear the exact same songs that you started with. Pandora is a new experience ongoing for hours. It's like as soon as you click "play more like this" or "don't play this song" iTunes only chooses from the same small database of songs.
2 hours?? I've had it happen to me consistently over the course of just 30-45 minutes. If you just want hits, iTR is the way to go. As a music "discovery" service, I think there's still a ways to go.
Same here! I tried iTunes Radio but ended up back using my own. One thing they don't advertise is the ability to stream your personal collection from iCloud. I deleted all of my purchased songs from my iPhone for space then realized they were still showing up with the cloud button. selected an artist and played as song. To my surprise when the song ended it played the next song. It was just like the album was still on my device.
Comments
I'm not big on streaming music, but I gave iTunes Radio a try. I've tried several channels (both Apple-curated and indie), both on iTunes and on my AppleTV.
iTunes Radio stops playing after 1-2 songs. The fact that it behaves the same across channels and across devices leads me to believe it's not a problem on my end. (Yes, my network is fine.)
I'd be more inclined to use it if it worked.
This confuses me. I can't believe that pandora is wide spread enough where both the people who like iTunes radio better and the people who have never used Pandora fits in a 8% window
I've put a lot of time and effort into tooling my Pandora stations, so I still go to them first. But as soon as I hear a pro-fracking commercial on Pandora, I move over to iTunes Radio.
800 people is hardly data worth publishing, much less re-reporting.
Me too, I never went back to pandora and use iTunes radio every time I am on the beach or by the pool.
People who likely spent a large number of time building custom stations are probably less inclined to move for what seems like the same thing at the end of the day just because Apple is behind it, especially since most are using the free version anyway. Doesn't mean they won't eventually, or that there is anything wrong with iTunes Radio. Streaming audio is just a near commodity and a passive media these days, that most just toss on the background.
It's unlikely the servers are stopping each time one user plays three songs don't you think? Something is wrong your end I'd suspect. Weird though I admit. I assume your Netflix and iTunes TV all play normally.
BTW: Not that iTunes radio is on this yet but this link shows all the other on line services, I wonder if iTunes Radio is going to be added? ... : http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/
There is a contact support link there for other issues you might try.
I use Pandora at work because it runs on a browser. I do not have iTunes is not installed on my work computer.
It's unlikely the servers are stopping each time one user plays three songs don't you think? Something is wrong your end I'd suspect. Weird though I admit. I assume your Netflix and iTunes TV all play normally.
For the reasons I outlined, no, I do not think that to be the case. Proof: the channels don't stop playing in the middle of a song. They play to the end of a song, and then stop as if the Radio channel has reached the end of its playlist. All other Apple and net-related services are in the green.
So no, it's not me. I'm happy to keep listening to my own library while Apple work out the bugs.
Have you seen others reporting this? I haven't heard if this before.
Edit, OK I see some reports now. There seem to be many folks solving this in various ways. But I now agree there seems to be a bug in some users' experiences.
e.g.:
"I had the same issue with the songs stopping. I looked and I found that I had 20 identified artists in my selection. After I paired down to 10 - the player immediately started with a new song. There is evidently a threshold for the number of artists one can add to a station.
It would be nice for some kind of validation, though."
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5318239?start=15&tstart=0
Although using iTunes Radio is easy to find, setup, and use, customizing the stations is a little more buried. In addition to adding additional songs and artists (besides using Favorites button), you can modify the station to play more hits or to wander off into more variety. I've found on a couple of my stations that were repeating the same songs or artists often, that moving off "hits" helped get more variety on the stations that I was having issues with. Perhaps Apple can provide better guidance into customizing these stations to generate more customer satisfaction and a more comparable experience to Pandora.
Not surprising. iTunes radio is nice and all, but I still use Pandora, Songza, and StereoMood for the majority of my music streaming. Most people I've talked to about it use at least two streaming apps, as no one has the perfect catalog or feature set.
I've found on a couple of my stations that were repeating the same songs or artists often, that moving off "hits" helped get more variety on the stations that I was having issues with. Perhaps Apple can provide better guidance into customizing these stations to generate more customer satisfaction and a more comparable experience to Pandora.
I ran into a similar situation last weekend. The station kept playing the same song over and over again, regardless of being thumbed down or skipped. I guess there are still some bugs to work out.
iTunes Radio did teach me something I didn't know before. I didn't know U-2 has at least one song containing the f-word in their lyrics. I wasn't sure I'd heard it correctly so I decided to google the lyrics (which iTunes Radio also doesn't do) just to be sure. The funny thing is, I had the 'allow explicit' set to off but I couldn't find any way to let Apple know they let one through.
It's been a couple weeks since I tried iTunes Radio. So I just fired it up and clicked on one of the Featured Stations and... nothing happened. I click on the play button for the station and it acts like it wasn't clicked at all. So while I'm happy for the 8% who are pleased enough with iTunes Radio to ditch Pandora and other services, it's been a completely dissatisfactory experience for me.
If iTunes Radio didn't keep playing the same 12 songs, maybe I'd go back to iTunes radio!
I loved iTunes radio but once you start playing it for over 2 hours, you hear the exact same songs that you started with. Pandora is a new experience ongoing for hours. It's like as soon as you click "play more like this" or "don't play this song" iTunes only chooses from the same small database of songs.
2 hours?? I've had it happen to me consistently over the course of just 30-45 minutes. If you just want hits, iTR is the way to go. As a music "discovery" service, I think there's still a ways to go.
I prefer to listen to my own music.
Commercial free.
Same here! I tried iTunes Radio but ended up back using my own. One thing they don't advertise is the ability to stream your personal collection from iCloud. I deleted all of my purchased songs from my iPhone for space then realized they were still showing up with the cloud button. selected an artist and played as song. To my surprise when the song ended it played the next song. It was just like the album was still on my device.