Apple Music team working on fixes, improvements through end of 2015, says iTunes VP
Apple still has "a bit of homework to be done" throughout the rest of 2015 to improve Apple Music, including fixing problems with the service's interface and handling of local iTunes libraries, an iTunes International VP said on Thursday.
The company's current focus is on "editorial and playlists," Oliver Schusser told U.K. newspaper The Guardian. The company is also said to be working on adding features and cleaning up different aspects of the service, though Schusser did not elaborate on details.
The executive specifically said little to address the most serious complaints about Apple Music, which have included an awkward interface, and iCloud Music Library mislabeling or even erasing local iTunes libraries.
"The product is always our priority, and we are getting a lot of feedback," Schusser responded. "Remember, this was a very big launch in 110 markets instantly, so we get a ton of feedback. We're obviously trying to make it better every day."
He noted that the company is still planning to bring the service to Android and Sonos devices sometime this fall.
More information could be announced as soon as Apple's Sept. 9 press event, although the focus is expected to be on new iPhones and an updated Apple TV, the latter of which should get Apple Music as well. Alternately, Apple commonly hosts a second press event in October.
The company's current focus is on "editorial and playlists," Oliver Schusser told U.K. newspaper The Guardian. The company is also said to be working on adding features and cleaning up different aspects of the service, though Schusser did not elaborate on details.
The executive specifically said little to address the most serious complaints about Apple Music, which have included an awkward interface, and iCloud Music Library mislabeling or even erasing local iTunes libraries.
"The product is always our priority, and we are getting a lot of feedback," Schusser responded. "Remember, this was a very big launch in 110 markets instantly, so we get a ton of feedback. We're obviously trying to make it better every day."
He noted that the company is still planning to bring the service to Android and Sonos devices sometime this fall.
More information could be announced as soon as Apple's Sept. 9 press event, although the focus is expected to be on new iPhones and an updated Apple TV, the latter of which should get Apple Music as well. Alternately, Apple commonly hosts a second press event in October.
Comments
For me the ability to be able to play mosts songs from Siri is super. And certain things about the UI for the Music app I like a lot. I like the mini player and the animations.
On my iMac 5K I can't get Apple Music to show up on iTunes, on my MBA is shows up fine. It's telling me to update iTunes on the 5K to see Apple Music but it is up to date.
You should never judge a company's brand new product on either 1) the way it works on day one, or 2) it's potential. The first error assumes that a new product ought to be perfect right off the bat when it's introduced into the wild (or its doomed to fail), and the second error assumes that the company will inevitably get it right. If you want to know why Apple has developed such great products outside of its original product line (since Steve Jobs took over again in the 90s), look at all of its brand-new products 2-3 years out from their introduction.
iPod? Worked only with Macs at the outset, within a few years was by far the best and most popular (and really, the only serious) portable music device on the market. iPhone? Limited apps and slow data speeds on day one, blew everyone away within a few years. iPad? Ridiculed by many day one, now look where it is. It will be the same with Apple Music.
It isn't. It's just as lousy in iOS 9 as it was on 8.
Wasn't ready for primetime.
Care to list something by any vendor that was?
Just add a buy botton on songs i discover.
Reduce the clutter.., looks too stuffed and rushed... And all over the place .
Allow me to buy music directly from the player.. Why route me to itunes app to buy something ?
Just add a buy botton on songs i discover.
Agreed. You should also be able to go the opposite way—if I'm shopping for music and have an Apple Music subscription, pressing play in the store should play the whole song, not a short preview.
Apple Music really needs to be one seamless interface for subscribers across all of Apple's music properties and devices, including a shared Up Next list as Rdio has implemented. Then it will be great! Right now it's not better than Rdio for my interests.
That all said Beats1 is fantastic, and I'm thrilled they put that together.
Duh.
To all those crybabies: Apple will fix it. Its a first generation product, don't expect perfection.
By next year AppleMusic will be the leader in paid streaming music
I thought it was Google's job to deliver things in beta form, not Apple.
Agree. Still wondering why Apple releases such half-baked product, though. It is VERY buggy: duplicates, playlists, greyed out songs, lost music, the list is long and serious.
These products had limited functionalities, but they worked. Music has tons of functionality, but they don't work well.
If you like Beats 1, may I recommend BBC Radio 1 on TuneIn. I hope you will like that, too.
I wish he'd been more specific and would have said
something along "listen, this feature and that function is not there yet. And this is how it will look like in a few weeks".
This would be the more important now as trial periods expire and it's would be harder to get people back on board after they left than keeping the indecisive on board by letting them know what will be fixed how.
Unfortunately that has been my experience as well
And now that it's baked into the OS I have a bad feeling it won't be until OS 12 before it's worked out.
Wish Apple would issue more frequent, incremental updates to their apps rather than waiting several months for a major update, leaving the users to suffer the bugs while we wait.
Doing that would risk more bugs, not less; they do need to be tested extensively for regressions. Apple Music has been launched for a few months. How often do you think they should issue updates?