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Apple Music |OT| Apple Invents Music, Time To Party Like It's 1989!

Sean

Banned
Still a beta, I'm sure they'll throw back in the stars. It's such a big part of iTunes.

Also they will probably make adjustments to the font sizes/weight. Used it for a bit and I got over the big fonts but they can definitely be smaller. Like the way they've organized it. For a bit I wasn't sure if it was actually an improvement but I think it's because I spent a year getting used to how the iOS9 app works.

The black/white interface seems to be a precursor for a dark mode next year which I'll welcome.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. One of the common criticisms was that the UI was confusing, and having two different ways of rating songs (stars/likes) contributed to that confusion.

I can see them keeping it in iTunes on Desktop, but I'd think they are probably gone for good from the Music app.
 
You might be right :(

That might be okay as the hearts are good for the subscription service itself to feed into the algorithm but the star ratings are primarily good for playlists that you can just make yourself from iTunes.

Btw, the new Avalanches album is out on Apple Music a week early. An exclusive I'll actually enjoy
 

Ninja Dom

Member
After a year of Music I have to say I'm very happy with it.

I listen to hip-hop and there's some great content. The exclusives have been good. The only blip I think was how long it took to get Kanye West's TLOP.

Connect has been great for me too. I follow a lot of artists on there and a few of them are fairly regular posters.

I have hardly listened to Beats 1 though. I haven't deliberately tuned in to specifically listen to a show on there in a few months. I do catch up on some of the best hip-hop stuff through following the main DJ's on Connect.
 
I think the best use of Connect has actually been following the DJs on Beats 1 and the various curators. So when they post a new playlist, it's easier to find. (rather than checking in New > Playlists > Curators all the time).

Hopefully the new version that collapses Connect into For You is just as easy.
 

Ashhong

Member
All I want from Apple at this point is a Discover Weekly type function like Spotify. Its not easy to discover new artists. Their curated playlists are barebones and only filled with top artists of the genre. Everything app related is fine as is so I hope they don't break anything.
 
All I want from Apple at this point is a Discover Weekly type function like Spotify. Its not easy to discover new artists. Their curated playlists are barebones and only filled with top artists of the genre. Everything app related is fine as is so I hope they don't break anything.

Was support for their version of Discover Weekly announced for the iOS 10 redesign?
 
I just looked it up. Looks like it's called Discover Mix and is updated weekly. Basically their version of Discover Weekly.

I thought they also had daily playlists. Definitely saw like "Monday's Playlist," "Wednesday's Playlist" in some screenshots

Edit:

For You is getting a revamp, too, and not just a new look. In addition to the curated playlists that Apple Music always recommends to you, the streaming service is adding a Discovery Mix to the top of the list. That playlist is designed to take on Spotify’s popular Discover Weekly feature, a totally personalized playlist that refreshes every week. For You also stashes your recently played tunes and daily curated playlists.

http://www.macworld.com/article/3082637/ios/every-change-coming-to-apple-music-in-ios-10.html
 

neshcom

Banned
Anyone having trouble sharing new playlists? I set a playlist to public the other day and the Music app keeps saying it isn't available in my country. It's only got Apple Music tracks and I'm in the US...
 
Anyone having trouble sharing new playlists? I set a playlist to public the other day and the Music app keeps saying it isn't available in my country. It's only got Apple Music tracks and I'm in the US...

Someone on Reddit was having that problem. Don't know if they found a resolution
 

giga

Member
I thought they also had daily playlists. Definitely saw like "Monday's Playlist," "Wednesday's Playlist" in some screenshots

Edit:



http://www.macworld.com/article/3082637/ios/every-change-coming-to-apple-music-in-ios-10.html
Yeah, looks like it's both.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5jXg_NNiCA&feature=youtu.be&t=1h13m15s

And more: New For You features - in the For You section of Apple Music, you'll be able to find tunes to rock out to by using the new Discovery Mix, My Favorites Mix, and Daily Playlist features.
 

Ashhong

Member
I just looked it up. Looks like it's called Discover Mix and is updated weekly. Basically their version of Discover Weekly.

Is this not implemented yet? I don't see it in my for you section

And how do you set a playlist to public? Would be awesome ify friends can edit playlists with me
 
Above Avalon has an interesting piece on Apple's ambitions with Apple Music and how they could get there.

http://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2016/7/12/apples-plan-to-own-the-entire-music-industry

The basic narrative is that they'll use their large balance sheet for influence. If the text is too long, I'd recommend the podcast: http://www.aboveavalon.com/podcast/2016/7/15/above-avalon-episode-69-apples-music-ambitions

Interesting that there is no mention of social network integration, an area that Apple totally lacks when compared to Spotify. It's the one thing users would like to see more of, like trading playlists and so forth. I guess securing as many artists as possible is the most direct and aggressive approach to gaining marketshare quickly.
 
Apple begins rolling out iTunes Match with audio fingerprint to Apple Music subscribers

Dalrymple:

Apple has been quietly rolling out iTunes Match audio fingerprint to all Apple Music subscribers. Previously Apple was using a less accurate metadata version of iTunes Match on Apple Music, which wouldn’t always match the correct version of a particular song. We’ve all seen the stories of a live version of a song being replaced by a studio version, etc.

Using iTunes Match with audio fingerprint, those problems should be a thing of the past.

It's quite a long piece, it mentions that you can now let iTunes match subscription lapse, but i still use it to match some songs outside of Apple Music.
 
Apple begins rolling out iTunes Match with audio fingerprint to Apple Music subscribers

Dalrymple:



It's quite a long piece, it mentions that you can now let iTunes match subscription lapse, but i still use it to match some songs outside of Apple Music.

Should have been used in the first place, would have quelled some of the horror stories during their launch period
 

GWX

Member
Apple begins rolling out iTunes Match with audio fingerprint to Apple Music subscribers

Dalrymple:



It's quite a long piece, it mentions that you can now let iTunes match subscription lapse, but i still use it to match some songs outside of Apple Music.

I never thought they'd fix this. Fucking finally, l'll be able to upload my live albums again lol
 

CraigMcD

Member
I wonder how it works as far as things that are on the iTunes Store but not Apple Music. Could I match my Rammstein albums and get 256kbps AAC files?
 
Any of you using Apple Music with an Android phone?

I recently used Spotify, loved it. Then switched over to Google Play and loved having YouTube Red, but the interface was a tad weak and I missed Discovery Playlist. Found out my dad has a family plan so I switched to Apple Music and I enjoy Beats1, Soulection radio alone is worth it.

Just curious what others think about the experience on Android. I'm guessing there's a few different maybe even missing features on Android compared to iOS?
 
I wonder how it works as far as things that are on the iTunes Store but not Apple Music. Could I match my Rammstein albums and get 256kbps AAC files?

iCloud Music Library consists of four things:

Songs matched through iTunes Match/Apple Music
Songs uploaded through IM/AM
Purchased songs on your iTunes account
Songs added through Apple Music

So your Rammstein stuff should already be in your iCloud Music Library by default (previously called iTunes in the Cloud)
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
was debating last two months on letting my Match sub lapse.

obviously I just switched it off.

awesome. bringing my 40K+ songs into Match was nowhere near as bad (though still bad) as many other users' horror stories for Apple Music.
 

Ashhong

Member
Apple begins rolling out iTunes Match with audio fingerprint to Apple Music subscribers

Dalrymple:



It's quite a long piece, it mentions that you can now let iTunes match subscription lapse, but i still use it to match some songs outside of Apple Music.

Hm, so if I edit songs and put it in my iTunes, will it stop matching it to the original studio version? And then upload my track to the cloud so I can actually listen to it in AM?
 

CraigMcD

Member
iCloud Music Library consists of four things:

Songs matched through iTunes Match/Apple Music
Songs uploaded through IM/AM
Purchased songs on your iTunes account
Songs added through Apple Music

So your Rammstein stuff should already be in your iCloud Music Library by default (previously called iTunes in the Cloud)

Na. I started afresh because I was worried about the issues that people had been complaining about. My main iTunes library is on my Windows PC. I signed up on my then new MacBook Pro and just started bringing things over when I felt like it.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
Hm, so if I edit songs and put it in my iTunes, will it stop matching it to the original studio version? And then upload my track to the cloud so I can actually listen to it in AM?

in theory*, yes.

* who knows.. but fingerprint matching creates a much better chance for success than tags.

also, curious if, using iTunes Match exclusively, it will properly default to uploading unidentified tracks.
 

Deku Tree

Member
Question: So can someone tell me how iTunes Match would work for me?

I have a lot of music on my computer. It was downloaded from a lot of CDs that I own onto my computer years ago at low bit rate quality due to limitations on hard drive sizes during those times. Due to a disaster situation I don't have most of the CDs anymore.

If I do a 1 year subscription to iTunes Match: can I download 256mbps versions of all my songs to my computer DRM free? When my subscription lapses can I still keep all those 256mbps files? And can I freely transfer all the 256mbps files to whatever device that I want using iTunes or some other utility even after my subscription lapses?
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
Question: So can someone tell me how iTunes Match would work for me?

I have a lot of music on my computer. It was downloaded from a lot of CDs that I own onto my computer years ago at low bit rate quality due to limitations on hard drive sizes during those times. Due to a disaster situation I don't have most of the CDs anymore.
Match has a minimum requirement of 96Kbps. If the music is at least that bitrate match will try to match.

If I do a 1 year subscription to iTunes Match: can I download 256mbps versions of all my songs to my computer DRM free? When my subscription lapses can I still keep all those 256mbps files? And can I freely transfer all the 256mbps files to whatever device that I want using iTunes or some other utility even after my subscription lapses?

yes to all of that.
 
Is there any way to effectively alter "For You" sections suggestions? It shows a lot of pop and mainstream hiphop for me although I clicked the "Don't like" option on a lot of those suggestions.
 
Is there any way to effectively alter "For You" sections suggestions? It shows a lot of pop and mainstream hiphop for me although I clicked the "Don't like" option on a lot of those suggestions.

You can do some calibrating under:

Account > Choose Artists For You

However, it does keep track of what you play and what you heart, which affects the For You selection as well.
 
You can do some calibrating under:

Account > Choose Artists For You

However, it does keep track of what you play and what you heart, which affects the For You selection as well.

Thanks. In the beginning I listened to Beats 1 for a while to see what all the fuss is about. Maybe that screwed it up...
 

Deku Tree

Member
Match has a minimum requirement of 96Kbps. If the music is at least that bitrate match will try to match.



yes to all of that.

That stinks. Some of my music is lower bit rate than that... Wish I still had my CDs... But I don't really listen to it much anymore anyway.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
minus - apparently my ipad beta 3 is bugged and "for you" only shows me a Connect feed now.......dotdotdot

plus - in my Connect feed Apple Music Indie posted about Shura's debut which is one of the best albums I've heard this year...

connect is such an awkward service.. in theory I should love everything about it... in practice it's yet another social feed I am supposed to (and don't want to) check.

if I could actually somehow include connect inside of another social feed, I would probably do it.

edit - wonder if apple would consider including connect as a feed inside of News.. that could help me gravitate toward both services more.
 
Is the Family Plan still linked to that Family Share nonsense??

I was hoping to get on my Bro-in-Law's Apple Music sub, but don't want to link my account to his credit card.
 

Ashhong

Member
minus - apparently my ipad beta 3 is bugged and "for you" only shows me a Connect feed now.......dotdotdot

plus - in my Connect feed Apple Music Indie posted about Shura's debut which is one of the best albums I've heard this year...

connect is such an awkward service.. in theory I should love everything about it... in practice it's yet another social feed I am supposed to (and don't want to) check.

if I could actually somehow include connect inside of another social feed, I would probably do it.

edit - wonder if apple would consider including connect as a feed inside of News.. that could help me gravitate toward both services more.

Well Connect is pretty much gone in iOS10. I want one thing out of Connect. Goddamn NOTIFICATIONS if an artist that I'm following added a new song. How hard is that? Isn't that common sense?

Is the Family Plan still linked to that Family Share nonsense??

I was hoping to get on my Bro-in-Law's Apple Music sub, but don't want to link my account to his credit card.

Yes
 
Is there anything more to "social" Spotify other than trading and sharing playlists?

Collaborative playlists are REALLY nice for parties, for friends tagging songs they heard in a DJ set, et cetera.

Seeing what your friends are listening to is cute but not really a feature I actively use ever.

I know a bunch of people who'd absolutely make the jump to Apple Music if Apple (1) reached parity with Spotify's social features and (2) had a better, thinner desktop client than iTunes in its current form.
 
I feel like Apple needs to dabble into: collaborative playlists, generated personalized playlists like Spotify's Discover Weekly (didn't they have Genius that used to do this, but terribly?) and much expanded radio support like Pandora. They could be making some power moves but they aren't
 

Ashhong

Member
I feel like Apple needs to dabble into: collaborative playlists, generated personalized playlists like Spotify's Discover Weekly (didn't they have Genius that used to do this, but terribly?) and much expanded radio support like Pandora. They could be making some power moves but they aren't

My biggest thing is collaborative playlists. Why is this so hard to do? We can already share playlists. At the very least the playlists should update on our friends end when we update it.

I swear someone said iOS 10 would bring discover playlists similar to Spotify but I can't find it on the new app. Nothing personalized anyway.
 
My biggest thing is collaborative playlists. Why is this so hard to do? We can already share playlists. At the very least the playlists should update on our friends end when we update it.

I swear someone said iOS 10 would bring discover playlists similar to Spotify but I can't find it on the new app. Nothing personalized anyway.

They offer up new playlists for each day of the week, but nothing is generated, no. I don't want to move back to Spotify but come on Apple
 
I feel like Apple needs to dabble into: collaborative playlists, generated personalized playlists like Spotify's Discover Weekly (didn't they have Genius that used to do this, but terribly?) and much expanded radio support like Pandora. They could be making some power moves but they aren't

IIRC iOS 10 *does* have a Discover Weekly clone but it might not be going live until the GM release and the fall iTunes release.

But yeah, I can't understand why they're not just literally cloning fairly easily duplicated Spotify and Pandora features. I suppose with regard to collaborative playlists it's that they don't want that level of Facebook integration or something (probably due to their decision to be all about privacy and stuff).
 
IIRC iOS 10 *does* have a Discover Weekly clone but it might not be going live until the GM release and the fall iTunes release.

But yeah, I can't understand why they're not just literally cloning fairly easily duplicated Spotify and Pandora features. I suppose with regard to collaborative playlists it's that they don't want that level of Facebook integration or something (probably due to their decision to be all about privacy and stuff).

On he beta they offer up a different selection of playlists per day, I hope GM has generated stuff but I'm pretty sure that's the extent of what's going to be on offer
 
On he beta they offer up a different selection of playlists per day, I hope GM has generated stuff but I'm pretty sure that's the extent of what's going to be on offer

There is supposed to be a playlist called 'Discovery Mix'. After the WWDC keynote Macworld discribed it like this: "the streaming service is adding a Discovery Mix to the top of the list. That playlist is designed to take on Spotify’s popular Discover Weekly feature, a totally personalized playlist that refreshes every week."

I imagine that they just haven't flipped the switch on it yet.
 
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