Earlier today, Apple released iOS 8.4 along with iTunes 12.2 and OS X 10.10.4. The biggest feature coming from this update is the new streaming service called Apple Music. It offers 3-months trial for every Apple user, then we can choose between personal subscription (for 1 Apple ID) that costs AUD 11.99 per month, or family membership (for up to 6 users) that costs AUD 17.99. By paying the monthly cost, we get access to stream lots and lots of music anytime from all our devices.
I tried Spotify music streaming service a while ago and did not quite like it. I still have my account, but never used it for months. When Apple announced they were going to launch their own version of music streaming service, I was curious to try.
After updating iOS 8.4 and iTunes 12.2, opening the Music app (or iTunes app in Mac) will automatically bring us to the introduction screen of Apple Music. Since we can try it for free with 3-months trial, there is really no reason not to. So I signed up. First it asked for our preference of music, starting from the genre, then favorite artists. The preference dialog uses lots of bouncy circles that somewhat gave me the impression that such design might be inspired by Apple Watch interface.
Since I primarily use iPhone for music listening, the first device I set up was my iPhone 6. The Music app is completely redesigned. We now get 5 menus at the bottom: For You, New, Radio, Connect and My Music. It’s rather strange that the menu to access my own music that I have the files locally become the last available menu, but well, it’s still there, so I can’t really complain much.
First, the For You section is a menu where Apple will suggest songs and playlists to us based on our earlier selections. Basically, the service is trying to figure out what kind of music that we usually like, and suggest some music for us. There are ways to “influence” their recommendation. Our initial selections of music genre and artists are just some of the things they use. As we listen to any music in Apple Music, we can always hit heart-shaped icon to tell Apple that we “love” this song. The more song we “love”, the more it will learn our music taste. Alternatively, all songs in our iTunes library also get the same “love” icon. So I quickly set all my favorite songs as loved songs.
The result? Well, basically Apple suggested other songs from the same artists that I usually like, plus few other artists from the same genre. I have tried their recommendations for few hours now and so far the songs being offered are either I already have, or I don’t have the songs but I don’t like them anyway. I have not discovered a single song I like that I previously didn’t know about. Maybe just not a lucky day and maybe I will discover many in the future, who knows?
Music suggestion is a very important feature for me because I honestly don’t like the idea of streaming my music on-the-go, eating my previous 4G data allowance. Therefore I can only use music streaming in places where I have WiFi, and my primary intention of usage is mainly for music discovery, so I know what’s good, and I will obtain the song.
New section allows us to play new music. Basically, even more ways to offer us more music. This section was a bit more useful as I finally found some new music that I like. Radio section has various stations, including the Beats 1 station. I tried listening for a while and not a single song I like was played there. Again, maybe just a coincidence.
Connect section allows to “follow” our favorite artists and somehow get the latest updates from them. This could be very interesting if the artists are actually using this channel to communicate with their fans. Otherwise, this will just become empty feature.
My Music section has the music from my iTunes library. I generally like the new design of Music app. I think it looks much cleaner. I approve that they finally use icons again for repeat and shuffle functions. However, displaying the music artwork on top of the screen is a really really bad idea. It made the clock and battery indicator on top almost unreadable, and when the artwork is somewhat “colorful and detailed”, mixing them with top bar text and icons created some ugly results. Bad design choice.
Since this is something from Apple, I have really high expectations on the user experience. And so far my experience was not bad, but also nothing impressive as well. Too many ways to browse songs to the point it was a bit overwhelming and confusing. I know this is an online service and they can always improve it on-the-go. But so far, I am not impressed.
The good part, I can basically listen to millions of songs as long as I know something about the song (the title, the artist, or the album). Music streaming is fast and the sound quality is good. This is not a bad deal for AUD 12 per month. Some of the playlists provided are actually not bad, even though most of the songs that I like are already in my library.
The bad part, music recommendation needs to be improved, a lot. I think they need to make special section for music discovery, a section where they would offer us music that we might like, without including any music that are already in our iTunes library.
When I tried to play some songs from my own library, I noticed that some of my playlists have unknown songs. I do not know how and why, but there are songs that I am sure they should not appear in some smart playlists created in iTunes. Somehow I solved this by turning off iCloud music library from Settings > Music > iCloud Music Library. Then I connected my iPhone to the computer, removed all songs from iPhone and re-added them again. All my playlists were back to how I wanted them to be.
Luckily, I choose NOT to activate iCloud Music Library when I first opened iTunes 12.2 in my Mac computer. I read later that turning on iCloud Music Library could create some chaos with our iTunes library. However, it could be devastating for people that spend years building their iTunes library in a way they like, then suddenly getting destroyed by an automatic algorithm.
Another issue worth to mention is that upgrading iTunes to 12.2 would automatically remove Home Sharing feature. Now, there is no way to share our music to other devices at home unless we use iCloud Music Library. For me, this is not a big deal since I’ve never used Home Sharing. But some people would definitely miss this feature.
Overall, Apple Music is a decent music streaming service that would surely got many people interested. For me, I am still not convinced to spend 12 per month for a service that is not very good (yet) for music discovery.
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