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iOS 6 b4 - Every music streaming app is now low quality

0

0000757

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Dec 16, 2011
3,894
850
One thing I've noticed after upgrading to iOS 6 b4 is that every music streaming app I've tried produces low quality music, even if in the settings of the app you specifically have high quality turned on.

Apps I've tried are:
Spotify
Pandora
Slacker Radio
Soundcloud

Is it possible that Apple may be limiting the quality that music streaming apps can produce in order to push people towards it's Match service and to buy more songs on iTunes? Or maybe Apple is preparing people as it gets ready to launch it's own service?

This problem didn't happen on any other betas. I've done reinstalls of all apps, cleared them, even a full restore and set up as a new device. Thoughts?

EDIT: After downgrading to iOS 6 b3, all my streaming apps have gone back to high quality music. I'll refrain from updating until b5 or GM.
 
Last edited:
petrucci666

petrucci666

macrumors 6502a
Apr 30, 2009
714
14
Los Angeles, CA
chrf097 said:
One thing I've noticed after upgrading to iOS 6 b4 is that every music streaming app I've tried produces low quality music, even if in the settings of the app you specifically have high quality turned on.

Apps I've tried are:
Spotify
Pandora
Slacker Radio
Soundcloud

Is it very well possible that Apple may be limiting the quality that music streaming apps can produce in order to push people towards it's Match service and to buy more songs on iTunes?

This problem didn't happen on any other betas. I've done reinstalls of all apps, cleared them, even a full restore and set up as a new device. Thoughts?
Click to expand...


I really doubt they would do this. Even with Apple's closed-environment and various restrictions, they are making enough money on iTunes as is. There are even rumors of them starting their own streaming service, or perhaps maybe even buying a company like Spotify.
 
0

0000757

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Dec 16, 2011
3,894
850
gr8whtd0pe said:
In a word, beta.
Click to expand...

Yes I know it was a beta. If it was just one app I would've thought it was conflicting with some changes in APIs with the beta but when they are all doing it, it gave me some suspicion. I've never had all of my music streaming apps be low quality on the previous iOS 6 betas, except for the occasional Pandora downgrade, in which case all I had to do was close it and reopen it. I was curious if may Apple was holding a tighter fist over streaming in order to get others to use iTunes/iTunes Match.
 
SirithX

SirithX

macrumors 6502
Feb 21, 2007
433
134
San Francisco
petrucci666 said:
I really doubt they would do this. Even with Apple's closed-environment and various restrictions, they are making enough money on iTunes as is. There are even rumors of them starting their own streaming service, or perhaps maybe even buying a company like Spotify.
Click to expand...

Of course, if anything it's a bug. I haven't noticed this personally though, I'll have to give it a shot and see if I notice any difference in b4.
 
D

dethmaShine

macrumors 68000
Apr 13, 2010
1,697
0
Into the lungs of Hell
chrf097 said:
One thing I've noticed after upgrading to iOS 6 b4 is that every music streaming app I've tried produces low quality music, even if in the settings of the app you specifically have high quality turned on.

Apps I've tried are:
Spotify
Pandora
Slacker Radio
Soundcloud

Is it very well possible that Apple may be limiting the quality that music streaming apps can produce in order to push people towards it's Match service and to buy more songs on iTunes?

This problem didn't happen on any other betas. I've done reinstalls of all apps, cleared them, even a full restore and set up as a new device. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Absolutely NOT.
 
B

BRussell

macrumors member
Aug 25, 2002
53
20
Maybe your tinfoil hat is interfering with your wireless connection? :p

Seriously, it is interesting that they seem to be playing around with streaming quality and bandwidth in these betas. It makes sense that they might use some type of adaptive streaming quality that would change based on the speed of your data connection, but it's highly doubtful there's a conspiracy of the type you're suggesting. One piece of evidence against it is that there are other threads where people are complaining about a downgrade in streaming quality with Apple's own iTunes Match.
 
0

0000757

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Dec 16, 2011
3,894
850
Alright, just wanted to make sure I'm not going crazy! Hopefully the apps will go back to playing the high quality I want them to be!
 
0

0000757

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Dec 16, 2011
3,894
850
I can confirm and back up my claim that iOS 6 b4 is breaking something with the fact that I just downgraded to iOS 6 b3 and all my music streaming apps are back to streaming music normally in high quality. I'll probably stick on iOS 6 beta 3 until the GM/Beta 5 comes around.
 
J

jabingla2810

macrumors 68020
Oct 15, 2008
2,271
938
chrf097 said:
Is it very well possible that Apple may be limiting the quality that music streaming apps can produce in order to push people towards it's Match service and to buy more songs on iTunes?
Click to expand...

I don't even know where to start with that sentence.

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8a22a said:
Spotify seems the same to me. DragonForce are still sounding awesome. ;)
Click to expand...

Dragonforce ALWAYS sound awesome!b:)
 
S

sakau2007

macrumors 6502
Oct 12, 2011
488
2
Why are some of you so sure that Apple isn't reducing the quality to steer people towards their own services?

Apple is notorious for doing things like this. They took away a functioning Siri app to try to force 3GS and 4 users to consider an upgrade to the 4S. They have made it impossible to sync music with extraordinary music organization programs... instead forcing the iTunes bloatware on us.

This wouldn't really be a stretch for Apple, imo.

Hopefully this isn't what they are doing, but people saying absolutely not... show me your proof.
 
I

iBeast

macrumors member
Jan 24, 2007
38
0
chrf097 said:
One thing I've noticed after upgrading to iOS 6 b4 is that every music streaming app I've tried produces low quality music, even if in the settings of the app you specifically have high quality turned on.

Apps I've tried are:
Spotify
Pandora
Slacker Radio
Soundcloud

Is it very well possible that Apple may be limiting the quality that music streaming apps can produce in order to push people towards it's Match service and to buy more songs on iTunes?

This problem didn't happen on any other betas. I've done reinstalls of all apps, cleared them, even a full restore and set up as a new device. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Trolling? Please bring proof or else you are simply stirring the pot.
 
J

jabingla2810

macrumors 68020
Oct 15, 2008
2,271
938
sakau2007 said:
Why are some of you so sure that Apple isn't reducing the quality to steer people towards their own services?

Apple is notorious for doing things like this. They took away a functioning Siri app to try to force 3GS and 4 users to consider an upgrade to the 4S. They have made it impossible to sync music with extraordinary music organization programs... instead forcing the iTunes bloatware on us.

This wouldn't really be a stretch for Apple, imo.

Hopefully this isn't what they are doing, but people saying absolutely not... show me your proof.
Click to expand...

Apple forced everyone to use iTunes so everyone had a consistent user experience.

This not only helps users but Apple. They don't have to make sure their devices work well with 20 different software packages.

Next, if Apple was really worried about Spotify they would ban the app, not cripple it. And even then they wouldn't ban the app because it doesn't break any of the App Store rules.
 
0

0000757

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Dec 16, 2011
3,894
850
iBeast said:
Trolling? Please bring proof or else you are simply stirring the pot.
Click to expand...

I'm not trolling. All of those apps had very obviously reduced in quality. I was simply asking if maybe Apple had gained tighter control over other streaming apps to get people to herd towards iTunes Match & iTunes and possibly their own competing streaming service that they might launch with the new iTunes update...
 
C

Cyclone Chris

macrumors regular
Jul 14, 2008
175
0
I also noticed a quality loss on the same songs I played on Mog from b3 to b4. I'm pretty pissed about it.
 
S

sakau2007

macrumors 6502
Oct 12, 2011
488
2
jabingla2810 said:
Apple forced everyone to use iTunes so everyone had a consistent user experience.

This not only helps users but Apple. They don't have to make sure their devices work well with 20 different software packages.

Next, if Apple was really worried about Spotify they would ban the app, not cripple it. And even then they wouldn't ban the app because it doesn't break any of the App Store rules.
Click to expand...

Apple doesn't really have to worry if some random software works with their device. They really only have to concern themselves with iTunes. The fact is, they go out of their way to make sure other software DOESN'T work with their devices.

Please don't give me that "user experience" crap. Apple devotes resources to making sure I'm forced to use iTunes. And given that iTunes is crappy bloatware, that's the complete opposite of what you are insinuating.
 
S

sakau2007

macrumors 6502
Oct 12, 2011
488
2
iBeast said:
Trolling? Please bring proof or else you are simply stirring the pot.
Click to expand...

How is he trolling? He is reporting an inexcusable problem and offering a potential reason why.

Trolling would be someone completely dismissing the idea without providing any proof of their own, or their own theory...

...Like you for instance.
 
S

shawndre

macrumors member
Oct 17, 2008
69
0
And iTunes Match is just as bad. Songs cut off about 1 minute early and play the next song while still displaying the previous song.
 
Krevnik

Krevnik

macrumors 601
Sep 8, 2003
4,100
1,309
sakau2007 said:
How is he trolling? He is reporting an inexcusable problem and offering a potential reason why.

Trolling would be someone completely dismissing the idea without providing any proof of their own, or their own theory...

...Like you for instance.
Click to expand...

While he went a bit overboard in the response, should I be expected to provide evidence the OP is wrong when the OP hasn't provided any evidence that he is right? Some steps to reproduce it, or a description of how the sound is worse so we can understand the problem better would be helpful. "Sound quality is worse", while helpful is kinda vague. Does it just sound like the bitrate dropped? Are there specific qualities to the sound that I should be looking for?

Any potential reasons we go over here are just idle speculation. Assuming malice when it could be a bug, especially in the lack of good evidence is pretty screwy.

As long as we are just throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks, what about that new "Wifi Plus Cellular" feature? Could that be making these apps think they are on cellular and go into data-saving mode when they aren't? Maybe not since one guy reports it on music they saved to the device, but it is something that's changed in Beta 4 that would explain the bug.
 
tarasis

tarasis

macrumors 6502a
Oct 26, 2007
692
99
Here, there and everywhere
chrf097 said:
This problem didn't happen on any other betas. I've done reinstalls of all apps, cleared them, even a full restore and set up as a new device. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Yes, it sounds like a bug, you are running a beta after all. Report it via http://bugreport.apple.com

Audio / video bugs are not uncommon, in previous seeds (either iOS 4 betas or iOS 5, don't remember now) Streamtome video playing broke. BBC's global iPlayer app often breaks with betas. It's not a conspiracy on Apples part. Hell the last two betas had Home Sharing broken!

----------
Cyclone Chris said:
I also noticed a quality loss on the same songs I played on Mog from b3 to b4. I'm pretty pissed about it.
Click to expand...

Why on earth are you pissed? You are running a beta after all!

It's likely a bug so if you haven't then file a report http://bugreport.apple.com the more reports from people the faster it will likely get fixed. Pissing in the wind here will do squat.
 
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