Apple Music Tidbits: Nicknames, Playlist Management, and More

[MacRumors]

Apple's new subscription-based music service launched earlier this week, and even if you've taken advantage of Apple's free three-month trial to see if it is worth your dime and time, there are a few things you may not have discovered yet about its features.

While our Getting Started guide gives an overview of how to get up and running, this article gives more details on some of the things you can do with Apple Music and how to make it work for you. If you've noticed any other features we haven't listed yet, feel free to let us know in the forums.

Add a Nickname to Your Profile

You could stick with your full Apple ID name, or change it to something that fits you better. Apple lets you add a nickname to your ID, which will be displayed on playlists and comments. Nicknames are unique, so the earlier you grab one, the better.

On iOS:

Open the Music app and tap on any of the main section icons in the bottom toolbar if you're not already on a main page.
Tap the silhouette profile icon in the upper left corner of the main screen.
Tap your name. Then tap the Edit button to add a nickname.
In iTunes:

Click on the arrow next to your name, and then click on your Apple ID.
Enter a nickname in the fill-in form.
Start a Station Based on a Song or Album

You can start a new station based on a song or album in either your music library or Apple Music. Tap the three dots next to the song or album to call up additional options. Then, tap "Start Station" on iOS or "New station from artist or song" on OS X to begin listening to tracks.


Click here to read more...

Article Link: Apple Music Tidbits: Nicknames, Playlist Management, and More

 

[aroom]

is it possible to use connect without an apple music subscription ? can't search and follow any artists.

 

[mms13]

These would be nice tips - if Apple Music actually worked like one would assume it should. Most of the functionality outlined here is currently broken.

 

[TMRJIJ]

is it possible to use connect without an apple music subscription ? can't search and follow any artists.

You can follow Artists but I don't think you can make comments.

 

[WaxedJacket]

One thing that's bugging me is that I like to listen to whole albums at a time, and there's no way that I can see now to add albums to your play list. It will either play the album immediately or add the album following the current track playing.

Wish there was one more option to queue up albums following the current one.

 

[Malteasers]

Anyone find that when they delete apple music and the songs off their phone that the storage isn't all reclaimed?

 

[DaveNinja]

Are those Mos Likely demos available on Apple Music?

Thanks for the Nickname tip, Lory. I hate when i miss out getting my normal internet name

 

[fh-ace]

One thing that's bugging me is that I like to listen to whole albums at a time, and there's no way that I can see now to add albums to your play list. It will either play the album immediately or add the album following the current track playing.

Wish there was one more option to queue up albums following the current one.

To do this, touch the artist name, not the album artwork. That will display the album contents, then select add to Next to Play list. Not intuitive, but it works.

 

[uk1simon]

You can also add a picture to your profile when you hit edit.

 

[KingDavid8]

I have playlists that I created in ITunes that I would like to be able to listen to on my IPhone, but they aren't on my IPhone anymore now that I've got Apple Music. Is there a way to play those playlists on my IPhone?

 

[Porco]

Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Peter Venkman: What?
Spengler: Don't choose @nickname as your actual nickname.
Venkman: Why?
Spengler: It would be bad.
Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light. Plus iTunes not working.
Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal! And no iTunes!?!
Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.

 

[OllyW]

You can follow Artists but I don't think you can make comments.

I just did.

 

[darkknight14]

Apple should somehow get the Music app to update though the App Store and not iOS system. This way they could get updates out quick and easy without having to run betas ETC

 

[aroom]

I just did.

how do you manage to follow artists if you don't have apple music ? where do you go to find them ? I can't figure that out.

 

[OllyW]

how do you manage to follow artists if you don't have apple music ? where do you go to find them ? I can't figure that out.

From the Connect tab in the iOS app.

You can also follow bands from iTunes.

 

[aroom]

ok, thanks. I guess it doesn't work with my library cause I'm not using the iTunes store.

 

[OllyW]

ok, thanks. I guess it doesn't work with my library cause I'm not using the iTunes store.

You need to be signed in with the Apple ID you use for iTunes.

 

[aroom]

well, I am logged in. but I never had all those infos - biography / similar artists -. I need to fix my library somehow... any idea ?

 

[owv]

Apple should somehow get the Music app to update though the App Store and not iOS system. This way they could get updates out quick and easy without having to run betas ETC

From my usage I think that most of the app/service is implemented server side, "a la" App Store. This can explain the quirk interface that sometimes register a tap, most of the times don't open an album, etc.
Example: search for an artist, tap on the profile, and try to tap on an album. It just doesn't work, and if you keeps trying it will crash the app. Now again, search for the artist and tap the album from the search view, it works. So, at least from my understanding, Search and My Music are native implementations.

And guessing a little more, this is by design, so they can fix most of the bugs without having to issue a system update.

 

[DaveMcM76]

Users should be aware that tracks downloaded using iCloud Music Library contain digital rights management (DRM), so users should make sure they have backups of their owned music uploaded to iCloud Music Library.

I don't know if the DRM issues mentioned in the above link were caused by initial rollout issues or not but I'm just not seeing them. The only items in my library showing an iCloud Status of "Apple Music" are albums / tracks I've specifically added from Apple Music. All my iTunes Match "Matched" and "Uploaded" tracks are still showing as "Matched" or "Uploaded" and all happily downloading the DRM free .m4a version of the file.

 

[wlossw]

I don't know if the DRM issues mentioned in the above link were caused by initial rollout issues or not but I'm just not seeing them. The only items in my library showing an iCloud Status of "Apple Music" are albums / tracks I've specifically added from Apple Music. All my iTunes Match "Matched" and "Uploaded" tracks are still showing as "Matched" or "Uploaded" and all happily downloading the DRM free .m4a version of the file.

I noticed the same thing in itunes. But when I play a track I already own (and have matched with itunes match) in some cases it seems to play the apple music version... things like apple music playlist for example, don't use my local or already matched tracks, they stream the apple music version... it's a nightmare for play counts and library management.

 

[Dije]

I really want to try Apple Music but there's a very big barrier in my way. I tried turning off iCloud Music Library but then I can't save songs to My Music. I turned it back on and saved some songs to My Music but they won't show up since I have it toggled to only show Music on my device. I understand how it works, I get it. My question is this: is there any way to get it to work without it showing every song I've ever purchased or have in my iTunes Library on my desktop? That's the only reason I turned it off in the first place. I don't want to see any of those songs, only ones I've added from Apple Music and that which is on my device. I have a very large library but I am very selective listener. I don't believe in buying individual songs, I always buy albums so I have a lot of songs that I don't particularly listen to populating My Music. It's frustrating.

I don't use iCloud for music even on my Desktop and Mac. Apple doesn't handle cloud libraries well enough for me to go down that rabbit hole. Alternatively is there any way to just delete the songs/albums from my iCloud so they don't show up on my iPhone but still keep them in my iTunes Library on my Desktop? I don't even want recent purchases showing up. I'd appreciate any help.

 

[Howard Ellacott]

I don't know if the DRM issues mentioned in the above link were caused by initial rollout issues or not but I'm just not seeing them. The only items in my library showing an iCloud Status of "Apple Music" are albums / tracks I've specifically added from Apple Music. All my iTunes Match "Matched" and "Uploaded" tracks are still showing as "Matched" or "Uploaded" and all happily downloading the DRM free .m4a version of the file.

Do you have iTunes match? Songs matched with iTunes match are DRM free, but if you matched with Apple Music then they seem to have DRM.

 

[manu chao]

I have noticed one problem with Apple Music that makes its integration with your personal library significantly less useful. Any of the songs I played from the streaming interface (essentially various playlists from the 'For You' and 'New' sections) that I already owned (purchased or ripped) were not recognised as such. This meant they had no rating (despite their 'copies' in my library having ratings) and the option to add them to 'My Music' was available. Doing so resulted in these songs showing up twice in the 'My Music' section, my originally added copy and the one from Apple Music.

For some songs, this was due to the song version in the Apple Music playlist and the song version in my library coming from different releases of the same song (eg, single vs album or release in another version of the album, eg, a deluxe edition). Of course, if they are nominally from different albums that might be expected, but I have also noticed the same song now showing up twice (in the same album) in the My Music section after adding it to my music from a playlist. This however might be just a UI bug as the both versions start playing simultaneously (at least that is what the UI is trying to tell me) when I select one of them.

Interestingly, this duplication does not show up in iTunes (not even the one where the song came from a different version of the album).

 

[DaveMcM76]

Do you have iTunes match? Songs matched with iTunes match are DRM free, but if you matched with Apple Music then they seem to have DRM.

Yes I've got match.

I noticed the same thing in itunes. But when I play a track I already own (and have matched with itunes match) in some cases it seems to play the apple music version... things like apple music playlist for example, don't use my local or already matched tracks, they stream the apple music version... it's a nightmare for play counts and library management.

That's something I've just noticed after another look - I'd expected stuff that was already in my iCloud Music library (matched via iTunes Match) to automatically show up in my apple music library but It appears this isn't the case - searching for albums that are in my library in Apple music still shows the prompt to add them to Apple Music even though they should already there via iTunes Match.

The only think I can think of is that adding an album to Apple music which you already had in iTunes Match is overwriting it's "Matched" iCloud Status with "Apple Music" and so prompting iTunes to download the DRMd Apple Musicversion instead of the DRM free Match version which seems like a pretty big flaw in the system to me. So far I've not added anything to Apple Music that I'd already got in Match so that may be why I'm not seeing the issue.