Apple rebuilding Apple Music in macOS Monterey 12.2 as a full native app

AppleInsider · December 16, 2021 9:55PM

Apple is rebuilding the Apple Music app for macOS Monterey 12.2 as a fully native application based on AppKit -- something that it has already done with the Apple TV app.

Apple Music for macOS

On Thursday, Apple seeded the first macOS Monterey12.2 beta to developers. As first noted by Twitter user Luming Yin, the beta contains a new version of Apple Music backed by AppKit instead of web views.

The difference should be a faster experience that's both more fluid and more responsive. This is because the macOS Catalina version of Apple Music retained the iTunes backend, which relied on web content displayed within the app. The AppKit viewing will do away with that, making Apple Music a fully-fledged native application.

Additionally, Yin said that a similar rebuilding of the Apple TV app for macOS would be taking place. However, 9to5Mac found that the Apple TV app in macOS Monterey 12.1 -- released on Monday -- has already been rebuilt with new AppKit.

Along with the changes to the Apple Music app, macOS 12.2 also features smoother scrolling in Safari on MacBook Pro models with ProMotion. There also appears to be signs that Apple is still working on Universal Control in the background, though the feature is not currently available to test in the beta version.

Read on AppleInsider

jkmutah · December 16, 2021 10:29PM

This makes me really happy as I've had nothing but issues with Apple Music on Monterey so far. I'm hoping this clears things up.

dix99 · December 16, 2021 11:23PM

Oh no, it’s probably gonna be assigned to the Zune team. Oh wait, it can’t get any worse than it is, so maybe it’s a good thing.

scampercom · December 16, 2021 11:53PM

Well imagine that. An Apple app for Macs that’s actually native to the Mac. I could never have imagined such a thing.

winstoner71 · December 17, 2021 3:02AM

dix99 said:

Oh no, it’s probably gonna be assigned to the Zune team. Oh wait, it can’t get any worse than it is, so maybe it’s a good thing.

Never got all the whining about the Apple Music app. Whatever issues I’ve had with it were always addressed, but I mostly use it on iOS. It does several things Spotify doesn’t, namely I can play all of hundreds of gigabytes of bootlegs and live music. Something you’ll never see on Spotify. Just odd to see all the crap people give it.

2stepbay · December 17, 2021 3:28AM

If this resembles in any fashion the woeful Apple TV app on IOS/iPadOS, it will be a massive downgrade. Apple TV's woeful search function and overall GUI had to be developed by rubes. Apple can do so much better.

Hank2.0 · December 17, 2021 3:40AM

Well, my favorite gripe wasn't fixed. I do a lot of song management in list view and I hate it when I have to constantly invoke the "Filter Field" after every little change. At least give me the option to keep Filter Field persistent or not.

elijahg · December 17, 2021 4:51AM

winstoner71 said:

dix99 said:

Oh no, it’s probably gonna be assigned to the Zune team. Oh wait, it can’t get any worse than it is, so maybe it’s a good thing.

Never got all the whining about the Apple Music app. Whatever issues I’ve had with it were always addressed, but I mostly use it on iOS. It does several things Spotify doesn’t, namely I can play all of hundreds of gigabytes of bootlegs and live music. Something you’ll never see on Spotify. Just odd to see all the crap people give it.

Because especially on iOS, it's crap?

It follows none of the UI guidelines
has a confusing, clunky, slow, inconsistent interface
randomly stops playing for no reason
sometimes refuses to play a particular song entirely
intermittently does and does not work with Airplay or Airpods
stops playing when you choose to "create station" on a song via the ellipsis on a currently playing song,
doesn't reliably list play history
plays the same f*cking song every time I plug it into my car, rather than playing where it left off, which was fixed years ago but came back in some update since.
shows entirely irrelevant crap in the "browse" section and obsessively pushes modern "progressive" junk that I have no interest in despite hitting dislike on hundreds of R&B/rap tracks that Apple Music decides I should listen to

Those are just off the top of my head, or do you need more reasons?

Occasionally the selection is absolutely great, but it is only ever great when it's playing existing music in my library. It's very rare for me to like a "new" song it's suggested/played.

georgi0 · December 17, 2021 6:10AM

I miss the old fluent and working iTunes from Steve’s era

in my opinion search results and display was ruined

neoncat · December 17, 2021 3:15PM

winstoner71 said:

dix99 said:

Oh no, it’s probably gonna be assigned to the Zune team. Oh wait, it can’t get any worse than it is, so maybe it’s a good thing.

Never got all the whining about the Apple Music app. Whatever issues I’ve had with it were always addressed, but I mostly use it on iOS. It does several things Spotify doesn’t, namely I can play all of hundreds of gigabytes of bootlegs and live music. Something you’ll never see on Spotify. Just odd to see all the crap people give it.

You can sync local music to Spotify's iOS clients, and you can incorporate a local library into the desktop client. It's not a particularly obvious process (see? It's not just Apple, UI/UX is hard for everyone), and there is no equivalent to the 'iTunes Match' function of Apple Music where you can sync your own music/bootlegs/etc. to the cloud, but the two services are far more alike than they are different. Spotify's recommendation engine is so far beyond Apple's it's not even a contest, which is valuable to me, but not everyone is into new music discovery. Totally fine, use the service that makes sense to you. But judge them fairly on real information, not conjecture.

Mitty · December 17, 2021 5:43PM

They should've differentiated between iTunes and Apple Music. I still buy my music instead of renting it and I would've preferred to use iTunes. What I would rather see is an option to download FLAC so I can listen to lossless on any device.

jbishop1039 · December 17, 2021 5:45PM

This is definitely good news to me. Of all the Apple Music apps, the one on Mac is by far the one I dislike the most. I know the iOS version has its own share of issues, but the Mac one drives me crazy. With all of the issues it has, the battery consumption is the one that gets me the most. It consistently tops the list for energy impact in Activity Monitor and decimates my battery life when in use. So I'm hoping being a native app addresses that.

dymmas · December 17, 2021 9:19PM

I wish I had the ability to customise / limit the categories that appear in Browse. Or just more persistent custom settings….

mattinoz · December 17, 2021 10:48PM

elijahg said:

winstoner71 said:

dix99 said:

Oh no, it’s probably gonna be assigned to the Zune team. Oh wait, it can’t get any worse than it is, so maybe it’s a good thing.

Never got all the whining about the Apple Music app. Whatever issues I’ve had with it were always addressed, but I mostly use it on iOS. It does several things Spotify doesn’t, namely I can play all of hundreds of gigabytes of bootlegs and live music. Something you’ll never see on Spotify. Just odd to see all the crap people give it.

Because especially on iOS, it's crap?
It follows none of the UI guidelines
has a confusing, clunky, slow, inconsistent interface
randomly stops playing for no reason
sometimes refuses to play a particular song entirely
intermittently does and does not work with Airplay or Airpods
stops playing when you choose to "create station" on a song via the ellipsis on a currently playing song,
doesn't reliably list play history
plays the same f*cking song every time I plug it into my car, rather than playing where it left off, which was fixed years ago but came back in some update since.
shows entirely irrelevant crap in the "browse" section and obsessively pushes modern "progressive" junk that I have no interest in despite hitting dislike on hundreds of R&B/rap tracks that Apple Music decides I should listen to
Those are just off the top of my head, or do you need more reasons?

Occasionally the selection is absolutely great, but it is only ever great when it's playing existing music in my library. It's very rare for me to like a "new" song it's suggested/played.

Random stopping to me seems connected to notifications on any device you share your iCloud account on. Even if notifications are silent it still stops the music.

polymnia · December 18, 2021 5:09PM

elijahg said:

winstoner71 said:

dix99 said:

Oh no, it’s probably gonna be assigned to the Zune team. Oh wait, it can’t get any worse than it is, so maybe it’s a good thing.

Never got all the whining about the Apple Music app. Whatever issues I’ve had with it were always addressed, but I mostly use it on iOS. It does several things Spotify doesn’t, namely I can play all of hundreds of gigabytes of bootlegs and live music. Something you’ll never see on Spotify. Just odd to see all the crap people give it.

Because especially on iOS, it's crap?
It follows none of the UI guidelines
has a confusing, clunky, slow, inconsistent interface
randomly stops playing for no reason
sometimes refuses to play a particular song entirely
intermittently does and does not work with Airplay or Airpods
stops playing when you choose to "create station" on a song via the ellipsis on a currently playing song,
doesn't reliably list play history
plays the same f*cking song every time I plug it into my car, rather than playing where it left off, which was fixed years ago but came back in some update since.
shows entirely irrelevant crap in the "browse" section and obsessively pushes modern "progressive" junk that I have no interest in despite hitting dislike on hundreds of R&B/rap tracks that Apple Music decides I should listen to
Those are just off the top of my head, or do you need more reasons?

Occasionally the selection is absolutely great, but it is only ever great when it's playing existing music in my library. It's very rare for me to like a "new" song it's suggested/played.

I sure hope you didn’t miss the chance to yell at any kids who may have been on your lawn while typing all that up. That would be a sadly missed opportunity.

ravnorodom · December 19, 2021 1:52PM

elijahg said:

winstoner71 said:

dix99 said:

Oh no, it’s probably gonna be assigned to the Zune team. Oh wait, it can’t get any worse than it is, so maybe it’s a good thing.

Never got all the whining about the Apple Music app. Whatever issues I’ve had with it were always addressed, but I mostly use it on iOS. It does several things Spotify doesn’t, namely I can play all of hundreds of gigabytes of bootlegs and live music. Something you’ll never see on Spotify. Just odd to see all the crap people give it.

Because especially on iOS, it's crap?
It follows none of the UI guidelines
has a confusing, clunky, slow, inconsistent interface
randomly stops playing for no reason
sometimes refuses to play a particular song entirely
intermittently does and does not work with Airplay or Airpods
stops playing when you choose to "create station" on a song via the ellipsis on a currently playing song,
doesn't reliably list play history
plays the same f*cking song every time I plug it into my car, rather than playing where it left off, which was fixed years ago but came back in some update since.
shows entirely irrelevant crap in the "browse" section and obsessively pushes modern "progressive" junk that I have no interest in despite hitting dislike on hundreds of R&B/rap tracks that Apple Music decides I should listen to
Those are just off the top of my head, or do you need more reasons?

Occasionally the selection is absolutely great, but it is only ever great when it's playing existing music in my library. It's very rare for me to like a "new" song it's suggested/played.

My random stopping or halfway playing issue is due to codec format such as MP3. MP3 doesn’t handle long song very well on Apple Music. I usually open it with QuickTime and export it as M4A. Apple’s proprietary M4A solves that issue.

Apple rebuilding Apple Music in macOS Monterey 12.2 as a full native app

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