Like many of you, I’m sure, I’ve signed up for my 3 month free trial of Apple Music and Mr Ian Tunes will be banking on me, and millions of others forgetting to cancel so he gets his £9.99 a month. So far, I have to say I’m a bit underwhelmed. The catalogue seems comparable to Spotify, and works well enough, sounds fine..once you’ve found it. The interface is confusing – took some time before I figured out where you go to stream music (Radio? For You? New?). However I was interested to see the additional whistles and bells that might give it the edge over Spotify, Deezer or just good old YouTube.
The ‘Connect’ feature seems like a complete white elephant. I presumed it would find bands I’ve already got in my library and give me access to the latest news and exclusives – but of the 1,300 artists it seems only Animal Collective, Underworld and..er..The Lancashire Hotpots wish to ‘connect’ with any content. For the time being this doesn’t look like it’s going to squash Facebook or Twitter as the way for bands to ‘reach’ you.
There is a recommendation engine which attempts to analyse your music taste via a series of floating bubbles which you click according to your likes and dislikes. Why it doesn’t just scan your library and hazard a guess as to what you like I’ve no idea. Instead you’re asked to wade through a seemingly endless process while Apple figure out whether you like folk, electronica, hip hop, classical etc. This is pointless, I’m not a huge Hip Hop fan for example but that doesn’t mean I will scoff at a recommendation I might like. I’m not sure I want to dismiss entire musical genres at the click of a mouse. I found this process frustrating and soon got bored clicking and dismissing increasingly old suggestions – No I don’t like The Eagles. yes I do like The Kinks and so on… ad infinitum.
The Radio I haven’t been sampled to be honest but it all looks a bit universal and generic. Choose from such tantalisiing options as ‘Classic Alternative- from Arcade Fire to The Zutons’ or ‘Chill – electronic sounds and ambient textures’ – I’ll see what’s on 6 Music thanks (and at least Zane Lowe won’t be on)
Clicking ‘New’ again just suggests I stream Florence and The Machine or whatever is in the charts and ‘For You’ is uselss – based on my reductive bubble clicking (see above) to recommend I listen to The Orb (er…been listening to them for 25 years thanks).
So all in all, it’s a decent enough streaming service but the promised ‘added value’ and recommendation engine just doesn’t cut it for me. I’m interested to know what others think. Am I missing something?
Not signed up, not going to. Enough already.
Me neither Have hardly used Spotify and Apple seem to be just producing stuff that fanboys are going to get excited about rather than the general public. Now followers and refiners rather than innovators.
And I am sick of messing around with iTunes, why does everything have to go through this hideous software? Anything that does work well they change and new things are introduced just for the sake of it.
I’m quite enjoying it. The initial pink bubbles stage is a bit silly, but I’ve used the new Music app features a lot while commuting. Beats1 is pretty enjoyable and I’ve found myself listening to more music in the last couple of weeks than I had in the previous few months.
I hated the Spotify interface when I tried it, but this seems to work fine for me. Main gripe: the recommendations aren’t what you’d call eclectic. I still enjoyed listening to Sweating Bullets by Megadeth in the car yesterday, though – that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
I’m a big fan of Spotify and totally buy into the streaming concept. My initial experience with apple was confusing as I dabbled with setting up family access which I quickly removed when I noted that I’d be losing control of my Apple account in a way that doesn’t feel comfortable to me.
The range of material available seems wider than does Spotify but it might just be different. For example Steven Wilson appears on Apple but not Spotify.
At present Apple Music doesn’t talk to SONOS which I use in a big way and so that would have to be sorted if i were to start paying. Streaming rates (I think) are lower with Apple (256 compared to 320 on Spotify) which also has an influence with SONOS
Will I subscribe to both once it becomes chargeable? Doubt it.
I have been using it for a couple of weeks. Its matching what my Rhapsody account was doing for streaming and the ability to make playlists of music in my account/cloud and stream allows some flexibility. I find the recommendations accurate and seem to be getting better the more I use it. I can see myself dropping Rhapsody and moving to Apple – just because in integrates with my collection.
The interface to iTunes now seems much better – particularly with phone or iPad – speed/ease of making playlists etc.
I still find myself using Pandora for the “shuffle/driving” mix. Their ability to shuffle between up to a hundred personal radio stations is not possible with Apple – #firstworldproblems
If they could invent an app that just boils down your entire musical taste to recommend just one sole album you’ve never heard before and then leave me in peace? I’d buy that for a dollar.
Two weeks in and I find it to be just ‘okay’ As mentioned above it doesn’t link to Sonos so that is a big minus point for me. I also don’t find it particularly easy to use compared to Spotify or Napster.
The really annoying thing, for me, is that I expected much more content to be available but that isn’t the case and in that respect it is no better than the other streaming services.
I will not be renewing at the end of the 3 month period but I probably will come back to it once it links to Sonos