iOS 7 Music App

[opmisk]

I really hate how they removed the rating system, but its still available in iTunes. I use ratings to make new playlists lol.

The rating system is still there. Just tap on the song title/artist. Previous page in this thread has a screen shot.

 

[i0Nic]

Just switch to Rdio.

 

[scottrussell]

Smart Playlist Management

I'm glad recent betas of iOS 7 have added back the ability to rate songs on-the-go. Unfortunately, the smart playlists aren't handling these ratings as well as they did in iOS 6.

I would previously tell iTunes to sync an "Unrated Songs" smart playlist to my iPhone so that I could rate recently ripped/purchased songs while on-the-go. For some reason, iOS 7 doesn't accept this as an acceptable smart playlist definition. The songs don't get moved over to the phone and the playlist (on the phone) shows up as empty.

If I sync a smart playlist with songs rated 5-stars only, the songs will move over. But If I change the song rating to 4 stars on the iPhone, the song doesn't disappear from the 5-star playlist on the phone (until after I sync with iTunes).

 

[jnappleseed]

Lots of changes in the Music app and thought it could use it's own thread. Anyone else disappointed with some of the changes so far?

The Bad (and missing)
- Removed ability to change song ratings (are you kidding?!)
- iTunes Match: Cannot download all songs in playlist (only 1x1)
- iTunes Match: Missing artists - All songs are there but some artists are missing. Anyone else experiencing this? Yes, I have played with the "group by" setting.
- Text links instead of buttons (so/so on this, but worth mentioning)

The Good
- iTunes Radio: Very cool, still need to experiment more
- Cleaner look, like all of iOS 7
- Album, track and album icons
- Controls on lock screen (way better than double-tap to me!)

The key problem for me is the removal of the song ratings. Most of my playlists are driven by ratings, and iOS 6 (and prior) the ratings could be updated on my mobile device. Now i've got to remember which songs I liked and update iTunes afterwards.

Anyone else share this frustration? Thoughts on new features etc?

You can actually still rate songs. With the song playing, tap the album artwork and the song name will go away and the rating system will come up. Take a look at the image I've attached.

 

[mattdo93]

How many iOS versions is it gonna take to add Up Next and Crossfade? That's all we want...

 

[scottrussell]

You can actually still rate songs. With the song playing, tap the album artwork and the song name will go away and the rating system will come up. Take a look at the image I've attached.

Yeah, I mentioned that in my post right off the top. My issue isn't with the ability to rate songs on-the-go, it's with the way smart playlists handle those ratings. The live updating of ratings-based smart playlists has disappeared with iOS 7.

 

[bbfc]

How many iOS versions is it gonna take to add Up Next and Crossfade? That's all we want...

I would love crossfade.

I used an app called Mix & Mash on iOS 6 but its not fully comparable with iOS 7 yet, and it doesn't play some of my older iTunes purchases due to the protection.

 

[CTU Kyoto]

How many iOS versions is it gonna take to add Up Next and Crossfade? That's all we want...

Up Next would be incredible. Killer feature of the latest iTunes.

I feel like I've seen battery life/processing power raised as a reason not to do crossfade ever since the iPod era. Don't know if it holds as true as it used to though.

 

[mattdo93]

Up Next would be incredible. Killer feature of the latest iTunes.

I feel like I've seen battery life/processing power raised as a reason not to do crossfade ever since the iPod era. Don't know if it holds as true as it used to though.

I use Spotify which has both Up Next AND Crossfade. Battery is not a problem. I still use iTunes for certain music files though, and these 2 features would be great. Oh well

 

[nekonari]

Also,

• I don’t like the text instead of repeat/random icons: I assure you it’s horrible in French (words are longer) !
  ...
• The Create button provides also a useless menu. It would be clever to create a playlist with it not only a Genius playlist.
  ...
• The landscape mode never focus on the album played, it stays in the position I left it or on the left.
• Scrollbars on the lock screen are sometimes difficult to use.
• I never use the Search feature because when I tap a song it only plays this one instead of playing it then playing my entire library (in shuffle).
• Finally, too bad, no Up Next feature.

Agreed on several of your points. Some things I find really lacking:

[*]Cannot modify playlists in this order: choose a song -> add to a playlist. This is way more intuitive for me than current choose a playlists -> choose songs to add process. That only works on desktop for me. "Create" button should be "+" where you can create playlist/radio station or add to playlists.
[*]Way to create playlists inside folders (or move playlists into folders)
[*]Ability to create playlist folders
[*]When adding songs to playlist, they took away a way to navigate songs by playlists away! WHY??
[*]Getting to Purchased music on iTunes store app is confusing.

It really feels like they made it so iOS devices must sync with desktop iTunes to really get playlists right. Whatever happened to "post-PC" era, Apple?

 

[KeanosMagicHat]

So weirdly the new album detail view in landscape mode, which disappeared when I first installed Beta 6 has reappeared recently;

It still doesn't centre on the Now Playing album when you zoom back out from the detail view like it used to in Beta 5 however.

Frustratingly, it always goes to your first album alphabetically by title.



.
Thanks again to g35 for the screenshot.

 

[Gjwilly]

I had a neat bug the other day when I went from one song to the next and the scrubbing slider, instead of jumping from the right back to the left, just slid along slowly from right to left.
It must have taken about 3-seconds before it got back to the beginning.
It looked nice..... very relaxing......

 

[eoblaed]

The key problem for me is the removal of the song ratings. Most of my playlists are driven by ratings, and iOS 6 (and prior) the ratings could be updated on my mobile device. Now i've got to remember which songs I liked and update iTunes afterwards.

Anyone else share this frustration? Thoughts on new features etc?

You can rate songs in iOS7.

When the song is playing, tape on the name of the song (just below the scrub bar, just above the RW / play-pause / FF buttons). Bingo, rate your song.

 

[duffman9000]

If we don't get the old Artists-><Album1,..., AlbumN> view back tomorrow I'm going to file a bug report everyday until the feature returns.

 

[benji888]

So weirdly the new album detail view in landscape mode, which disappeared when I first installed Beta 6 has reappeared recently;

Image

It still doesn't centre on the Now Playing album when you zoom back out from the detail view like it used to in Beta 5 however.

Frustratingly, it always goes to your first album alphabetically by title.



.
Thanks again to g35 for the screenshot.

I've not seen this view, only the album cover thumbnails (looks same as Mac OS X album cover screen saver)...is this iPhone 5? I'm using iPhone 5 iOS 7 beta 6.

OMG

I just tried something (I forget sometimes to try everything). I can scroll through those albums and then touch it to bring it up and it looks like your pic here! However, for me, I just pinch to zoom back, and it zooms back to the thumbnail of that album. After installing beta 6 did you do the Reset Media Library?

 

[tevion5]

Anybody else notice a bug where the album tile view come up randomly in portrait mode?

Assuming this is not normal because I can't make it happen when I want it to.

 

[mizaco]

it's broken and dont work right... sorrry to break it to ya.

 

[tmanto02]

Does anyone know of any Apple music app alternatives? Perhaps one that has good playlist functionality considering Apple totally gimped there's.

 

[KeanosMagicHat]

. . . I can scroll through those albums and then touch it to bring it up and it looks like your pic here! However, for me, I just pinch to zoom back, and it zooms back to the thumbnail of that album . . .

Thank you for trying this.

What you describe is exactly how it should operate and how it was working from every view in Beta 5.

If you have a moment please try the same from Artist view. Pick an artist and select an album from them and play a track.

When you then turn the phone to landscape mode, it used to centre on the selected Now Playing album. On Beta 6 it's not doing that any more for me.

 

[Oohara]

I personally find it silly that you cannot access the EQ settings while in the player app. It is a dumb additional step you shouldn't have to take to change those settings.
Should be a button for it.

Oh boy, is this still not possible in iOS 7?? Did they at least add customizeable EQ settings or is it still all presets?

 

[Orlandoech]

If we don't get the old Artists-><Album1,..., AlbumN> view back tomorrow I'm going to file a bug report everyday until the feature returns.

Please do.

 

[Bathplug]

If we don't get the old Artists-><Album1,..., AlbumN> view back tomorrow I'm going to file a bug report everyday until the feature returns.

I'll join you

 

[liamry]

Had iOS 7 since the first beta, but keep wondering, how do i get iTunes Match & Radio in the UK? is there a way around it

 

[Bathplug]

So did they collapse the artist albums back into grid view or are they still expanded in chronological order?

 

[ihonda]

itunes match = no skip limit? anyones working yet?