First look: Apple's revamped Music app in iOS 8.4
The launch of Apple Music on Tuesday brought with it a nearly all-new Music app, with a host of new functionality that blends the best of Beats Music with Apple's long-standing iTunes platform.
After configuring Apple Music --?choosing artists and genres that you like from a Beats-like bubble menu -- you're presented with For You, a new addition that mimics similar functionality from Beats. For You contains a selection of playlists and albums tailored to your tastes, which Apple says are chosen both algorithmically and by real people.
Tapping a playlist or album will list the tracks within, while tapping the small "play" icon that floats above the cover photo will unsurprisingly play your selection. You can quickly add content to your music library, "like" it, share it, or create a new radio station based on it from this detail view.
The new New section shows the latest additions to Apple Music's collection, both in terms of artists and songs as well as playlists and music videos. You can choose to view all genres at once, or select a single specific genre from a pull-down menu at the top.
While Beats's "The Sentence" feature has been removed, a series of activity-based playlists can still be accessed via the New section. Apple has provided tracks for everything from "Breaking Up" to "Getting It On."
Playlists created by Apple's own in-house editors are available via "Apple Music Editors," while those made by outsiders --?like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone --?are housed under "Curators."
The Radio tab is much the same as its previous incarnation, though channels have been rearranged and renamed. Beats 1 occupies a prime position at the top of the list, and tapping on its logo reveals a complete schedule and station lineup.
Connect, Apple's new social network for music, is presented much like Tumblr. A stream of posts is included from artists you follow --?which is by default built from artists in your library --?and can include images, songs, or videos.
The final My Music tab combines your local music library, songs stored in iTunes Match, and any Apple Music playlists that you're subscribed to. It's divided into two sections --?Library and Playlists --?and a universal search feature can be used to search through playlists, local tracks, or Apple Music content.
After configuring Apple Music --?choosing artists and genres that you like from a Beats-like bubble menu -- you're presented with For You, a new addition that mimics similar functionality from Beats. For You contains a selection of playlists and albums tailored to your tastes, which Apple says are chosen both algorithmically and by real people.
Tapping a playlist or album will list the tracks within, while tapping the small "play" icon that floats above the cover photo will unsurprisingly play your selection. You can quickly add content to your music library, "like" it, share it, or create a new radio station based on it from this detail view.
The new New section shows the latest additions to Apple Music's collection, both in terms of artists and songs as well as playlists and music videos. You can choose to view all genres at once, or select a single specific genre from a pull-down menu at the top.
While Beats's "The Sentence" feature has been removed, a series of activity-based playlists can still be accessed via the New section. Apple has provided tracks for everything from "Breaking Up" to "Getting It On."
Playlists created by Apple's own in-house editors are available via "Apple Music Editors," while those made by outsiders --?like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone --?are housed under "Curators."
The Radio tab is much the same as its previous incarnation, though channels have been rearranged and renamed. Beats 1 occupies a prime position at the top of the list, and tapping on its logo reveals a complete schedule and station lineup.
Connect, Apple's new social network for music, is presented much like Tumblr. A stream of posts is included from artists you follow --?which is by default built from artists in your library --?and can include images, songs, or videos.
The final My Music tab combines your local music library, songs stored in iTunes Match, and any Apple Music playlists that you're subscribed to. It's divided into two sections --?Library and Playlists --?and a universal search feature can be used to search through playlists, local tracks, or Apple Music content.
Comments
The other thing that was not clear to me is that the Family Plan allows everyone to charge music to my credit card! I had hoped to include my married son and his wife who live 30 minutes away on my subscription, but I certainly don't want to pick up the tab for all their music purchases!
Finally, it's not clear how to add my wife who is already on Family Share. Does she use my Apple ID to log in when prompted to join? Or her own?
I presume she would use hers as that's the whole point of Family Sharing - that youre not passing around your user /passwords!
Yes, absolutely. Only I have logged in so far but if my family have to sign in as me it completely defeats the point of everyone having their own playlists and collections. That was the point of the family plan. The point was also that there was one person paying so Robin Huber, I am not sure what you were thinking.
I was thinking that I was paying once for everyone's Apple Music service, not for everyone else's songs, books, movies, etc.
The app is leaps and bounds better than the one from iOS 7-8.3. The scrubbing bar works, the translucency is beautiful, and overall I find the layout better than before. (not sure why they default to "sort Album by Artist Name" but at least it's fixable). I do think the iPad version could stand a little more tweaking but it definitely uses the screen real estate much better than it did before.
I presume she would use hers as that's the whole point of Family Sharing - that youre not passing around your user /passwords!
When she opens Apple Music on her phone, it asks her to purchase a plan. Well, I have already done that on mine. How does she get past this challenge without setting up a completely separate account under her own name instead of joining the Family Plan I signed up for. It's not clear.
So far, I'm happy with it.. seeing a few hiccups with it, but seems to have smoothed out. Probably just a ton of people joining it at once. lol
Occasionally it lags when opening, especially on my iPad; I expect that will get fixed in a .1 update.
Also, the "bubble-like" menu kept insisting I keep Taylor Swift. I would hold on her bubble for the countdown and she would disappear, only to reappear later when I moved on to deal with other bubbles. Maybe she got a no-cut clause in her contract. After deleting her for the last time, I quickly moved to the next screen, but when I finished and went to my recommendations, there was a Taylor Swift channel right on top! Really annoying because I really don't like her.
The trick is this: you must actually choose a song in your song list to play. Then, once it is playing, click on the title and then you'll be able to choose a shuffle icon for subsequent random songs.
I hope Apple puts the shuffle button back where people can find it easily. This was _not_ a GUI improvement.
(Yo, Jonathan Ive!)
(Yo, Jonathan Ive!)
Jony doesn't handle UI anymore. And I suspect Apple feels shuffle is a dying feature because they're removing Shake to Shuffle too (it may even be gone in 8.4, it's definitely gone in 9.0)
When Apple Music is integrated into MacOSX (where all 8300 songs - 95% of which were loaded from CDs - resides in iTunes on my HD), then it'll make sense for me to try the 3-month free trial period. I only have about 100 songs on my iPhone, and I do not have anything in the Cloud or with Match. I think there would be a better and quicker assessment of my likes and dislikes by knowing what's in my 8300 song list vs my 100 song list.
12.2 should be out soon, ideally today.
And I suspect Apple feels shuffle is a dying feature because they're removing Shake to Shuffle too (it may even be gone in 8.4, it's definitely gone in 9.0)
I wonder if Apple feels that shuffle mode is a little too much like their radio genre playlists in the paid Apple Music, so they want to frustrate users who want to listen to their own music lists randomly.
It's better but I still think the UI is a bit cluttered and cramped and some of the targets are quite small. I'd like to see everything a little bit bigger.
It's better but I still think the UI is a bit cluttered and cramped and some of the targets are quite small. I'd like to see everything a little bit bigger.
I keep hitting the pause button on the mini player instead of the For You button.
I think that's the point -- it's for immediate and actual family. it's not just a general discount program.
You can set up the desired members of your family plan in Settings > iCloud > Family.
Alan Dye the person promotd to VP of user interface (and who was involved in iOS 7/8, and heavily involved in Yosemite and Apple Watch) still reports to Jony Ive. Ive didn't lose anything he previously had, just two employees who were already working for him were promoted to handle the day to day stuff.
Yeah the mini player is too small IMO. They definitely need to make it bigger. It's small in Spotify too but there's nothing below or above it that you could accidentally hit. Anyone with fat fingers will be frustrated.
iTunes 12.2 is now available. 10.7 is still supported.