Apple Focused on Improving Apple Music Ahead of Android Launch

[MacRumors]

Just over two months after the launch of Apple Music, the streaming music service has received a mix of praise and criticism from early adopters. Beats 1 and curated playlists are among the most acclaimed features of Apple Music, while a confusing user interface and iTunes library issues have caused frustration among some users.

Addressing those issues, iTunes executive Oliver Schusser told The Guardian on Thursday that the company is actively working to improve Apple Music, ahead of its launch on Android and Sonos-connected hi-fi systems in the fall.

"There's a lot of work going into making the product better. Our focus is on editorial and playlists, and obviously we have teams all around the world working on that, but we're also adding features and cleaning up certain things," Oliver Schusser, vice president, iTunes International, told the Guardian.

Schusser also said Apple still has "a bit of homework to be done" to improve Apple Music Connect, a social platform for artists to connect with fans. Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine admitted last month that Apple Music Connect is a work in progress.

"Apple Music Connect is growing big-time with more and more artists connecting to their fans, but we still have a bit of homework to be done for the rest of the year."

Apple Music launched for iOS, Mac and PC on June 30, with some 11 million users signing up to take advantage of the service's free three-month trial period. That trial will expire for some users soon, meaning they will have to choose between paying $9.99 per month or using iTunes or other methods of listening to music.

"If you follow the industry and look at the numbers, the download business has been really, really healthy. iTunes is a big part of our business, still, and will continue to be, so we focus just as much time and energy on maintaining that, editorially and working on features," said Schusser.

Schusser assures that Apple is only interested in the long-term picture for Apple Music, rather than constantly measuring how many users are signing up. Starting later this month, it should become clearer just how many users are interested in using the service as paid subscribers.

Article Link: Apple Focused on Improving Apple Music Ahead of Android Launch

 

[jesusplay]

If only when I said " Hey siri...play all city radio" to my apple watch it actually did it.

 

[seamer]

Hope they figure out the library thing soon... I have custom playlists that should be exact replicas but have random songs missing between my laptop and my phone. Probably a licensing thing, but c'mon. Give me a clue, guys. But not a raging one.

 

[dearfriendx]

I'm patient. I love Apple Music except for two things: songs greyed out/unavailable on curated playlists (what is the point?...) and my previous iTunes Match library being goofed up like crazy.

 

[realeric]

Apple is't doing well in providing services. ping? maps? tv? streaming musics? Hope this time will be different?

 

[applepuree]

The Music app on IOS8 is terrible, Constantly going from my loaded content to streamed, using up my internet allowance in next to no time, songs being marked as streams, items no longer available that I had purchased and down loaded, Over the last 3 years or so iTunes has become worse and worse, and the Music app is the rotten cherry on the top.

Most unimpressed.

 

[bgraham]

Tried it, thought it was bad, went back to Google Music.

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

Simple solution... buy Spotify, rebadge it as Apple Music. Spotify works great... I switched back from Apple Music.

 

[newyorksole]

Honestly I wanna love Apple Music and when it works properly I DO love it, but Apple has to get it together ASAP.

You go to save a song or playlist for "offline play" and then magically it's not downloaded anymore.

Music that I have in my library as explicit is now magically playing clean.

And there's a song that I have that was available for free from the artist's website. When I play it on my iPhone it plays the ITUNES version which sucks.

 

[Z3man]

It would be great if you could have you song list in artist order rather than alphabetical song order, after all this is the default setting in iTunes desktop version, so why apple don't think it is important on your phone or iPad i don't know. Or if you could "expand all" on artist or album setting it would be ok, instead of have to open up every album you want to pick a song from. Apple music really isn't very flexible when it comes to settings options.

 

[BeSweeet]

Still waiting for 1) crossfade and 2) statusbar text that isn't hard to read, regardless of the album art displayed, 3) a web-based player, 4) a Windows Phone app. Spotify it is!

 

[nickhutson]

Still waiting for when I tell Siri to play SOMETHING - it will actually play!

 

[tkermit]

I hope so. Apple Music is awesome when it works.

You go to save a song or playlist for "offline play" and then magically it's not downloaded anymore.

Certainly surprising when that happens, but I was expecting a very different kind of magic...

 

[kazmac]

Having shuffle and repeat etc. automatically available in My Music for each artist would be really nice. I had to search online to figure out how to do that. Really, Apple?

Glad I was able to turn off one part of Apple music (signing up for it.) Overall, not crazy about it (wish I could shut off Radio too), but hey it does what I need it to do.

 

[unobtainium]

Apple is't doing well in providing services. ping? maps? tv? streaming musics? Hope this time will be different?

The approach Apple takes with hardware and software is not successful when it is applied to the world of services.

With hardware, they ask themselves what *they* would want. They assemble a group, throw everything they have at a problem, and look for the cleanest, simplest solutions -- solutions most customers might never have thought of. Then the group is disbanded and many people simply move on to the next project, until next year.

That often leads to elegant hardware, but services are different. They need constant updating, constant iterative improvements, a huge dedicated team, fast response times to customer feedback and requests, and near-instant bug crushing. Most importantly, with services you need to *listen to customers* obsessively and constantly. Apple is not in the habit of doing that.

 

[maine82]

I hope so. Apple Music is awesome when it works.


Certainly surprising when that happens, but I was expecting a very different kind of magic...

I found out the issue with that situation. Even though you've saved the playlist offline, the actual songs in the playlist do not save offline which is ridiculous. You have to go to each song on that playlist and save it offline individually. Definitely a glitch apple needs to fix.

 

[ihavecomputer]

Spotify
+ Decent curated playlists (generic, requires browsing for discovery)
+ Decent social features (in-app ecosystem; follow your friends)
+ Local music sync
+ Very good web player (consistent with native app)
+ Very good native app (basic, intuitive, good visual design)
+ Easy search
+ Easy sharing (full preview for non-subscribers via free model)

Beats Music
+ Very good curated playlists (front and center, hand made, provide historical context)
+ Very good web player (browser only, worked cross-platform)
+ Excellent native app (nailed the basics, unique features)
+ Easy search
= Decent sharing (no preview for non-subscribers)

Apple Music
+ Exclusive content (e.g. Taylor Swift, Beats 1 Radio)
+ Very good curated playlists (ported from Beats)
- Poor native app (too many UX failures to list)
- No web player (shared links point to legacy iTunes pages)
- Very poor social features (no p2p, notoriously difficult to post)
- Very poor Siri integration (only looks at streaming library)
- Difficult search (have to define scope to Library or Apple Music)
- Difficult sharing (bad web experience, no full tracks for non-subscribers)

 

[LordQ]

Wondering if we'll see tweaked UI with iOS 9/9.1

 

[newyorksole]

I found out the issue with that situation. Even though you've saved the playlist offline, the actual songs in the playlist do not save offline which is ridiculous. You have to go to each song on that playlist and save it offline individually. Definitely a glitch apple needs to fix.

The whole "matching with what's in iTunes" is annoying too. I like my music just how it is and want MY versions on all of my devices, not Apple's versions.

 

[TsMkLg068426]

Things that needs to be fix on Apple Music: Tracks missing in a album such as in A State of Trance the Mix track (most likely reading from iTunes as only album purchase), The search needs to expand it only shows a shortlist and I am sure everyone has a fast internet to scroll over hundreds of album, need to work more with other Music Labels such as Fabric, Ministry of Sound, Cafe Del Mar and Global Underground which are one of the many major label in the Electronic/Dance music and a higher quality audio streaming if possible for home use other than if you have unlimited data.

 

[Tamagotchi]

Too late. I already cancelled my auto renewal, which was due to start by the end of September, and switched back to Spotify... Oh boy, I really missed Spotify 1) 100x Better interface 2) Excellent playlists, and great social interaction of playlists (eg: I can check out my friends playlists, I can even browse the playlists of famous people, and see what they are listening to real time), 3) As per my second point, excellent social features, 4) No 2-3 second delay switching between songs, 5) Excellent quality and streaming (I can use data and it won't kill my monthly allowance like Apple Music does) 6) Download all songs offline easily 7) Excellent search features... etc.

Yea, I don't have Taylor Swift or Dre - but I couldn't care less, I've never listened to their filth, and prob never will.

 

[Jess13]

My main gripes with iOS 8's music app

1. The UI colors: not pretty in any way.

The Beats Music app colors / theme
when Apple bought Beats was fresh.

2. Have to tap a menu to delete a song.

Unnecessary taps to select delete,
instead of simply swiping / delete.

First iPhone music app was very pretty.

 

[Mr X]

I would love to see flac or lossless option one day and hopefully soon when the other many issues mentioned here are addressed. Been testing out Tidal and the sound quality is awesome if you have the right set up or care.

 

[laurim]

I haven't subscribed to Music but when I tried to find a song on my iPhone to play for someone and went to look for it, I experienced the new GUI and had a heck of a time finding the song on my phone. I realize it's just something new I need to get used to but it was a little painful at that time.

 

[kodos]

I'm waiting for this on Android to (potentially) dump Spotify. Spotify still hasn't added a filter to filter out explicit songs(!). Even after consumers asking for it for years now. If Spotify wants to keep making dubious business decisions I am more than happy to help Apple grind them into the ground. I hope the Android version of Apple Music isn't awful like iTunes on PC was. Then again, iTunes on OS X wasn't that great either.