Apple Launches Apple Music on the Web Beta

[Explorz]

If it can't play or create smart playlists, then it is a non-starter for me. I have a ton of smart playlists that grab songs from my library according to genre. So, when I add a song to my library and give it a genre (many of which I've customized for my listening habits) the smart playlists update automatically. So, songs given the genre "Morning Music" or "Evening Music" or "Mellow" or 'Meditative" all sort themselves into various smart playlists.

As well I have those smart playlists then duplicated into smart playlists with time and frequency parameters. So, for example, I can listen to all my "morning music" that hasn't played more than 4 times and not in the last 30 days. This keeps my music fresh and engaging.

If they ever kill off smart playlists, I'm totally screwed! But at least they function within iTunes and are slated to function in the upcoming new music app in Catalina.
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Um.... I don't know if that's true. Maybe I am wrong, but I have some music that I created when I was younger, and if I go solely to Apple Music, I think i will likely lose access to them because they aren't in the public arena, nor published on iTunes.

I'm not 100% but fairly confident.

All my matched music syncs between all my devices and I turned off "match" years ago and only have and Apple Music subscription. If I change a genre on a matched song that I own in my library, it syncs everywhere.

 

[CaryMacGuy]

This is pretty nice but it is missing the awesome mini-player that exists in iTunes. Hopefully that will be added.

 

[RickInHouston]

I wish I could access my iTunes Match library on the web without an Apple Music subscription.

Google Music does that.

For about the last five years.

In lossless (files on my computer are flack, but those via web browser are 320 mp3, I think).

Good for Apple to finally do this. ITunes PC is garbage.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Um.... I don't know if that's true. Maybe I am wrong, but I have some music that I created when I was younger, and if I go solely to Apple Music, I think i will likely lose access to them because they aren't in the public arena, nor published on iTunes.

I'm not 100% but fairly confident.

I have songs not on Apple Music (including some of my own I wrote for fun) that sync without issues with an Apple Music subscription just like they did with Match.
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Not completely. If you have music that is not on Apple Music you can't access it remotely. I have a number of older and obscure albums, and if I gave up Match those would not be available to me except on the main machine that hosts my library.

That's not been my experience. I'm in a similar position with random songs but don't have issues streaming them with an Apple Music subscription. I used to have Match but cancelled it a couple years ago when I signed up for Apple Music; there are no issues accessing that music remotely.

As a test with this web player, I just signed into the beta and can access them there too (and am listening to some of my own compositions right now through the web player; I know none of them are on Apple Music).

 

[DNichter]

Awesome, I like it, but won't get a ton of use out of it myself as I use my iPad Pro for work. I let my team at the office know.

 

[AppleTO]

I wonder if this is leading to iTunes on windows being discontinued...?

 

[AtikCzaTok]

I've been enjoying music on my Apple Watch. The ability to exercise and listen to music without the phone is huge for me. However, after using it for several months- I'm ditching it for a Garmin.

Here's my reasons:
I'm required to have an Apple music subscription, without it- I can't play music.
I can't copy personal tracks to the watch (i.e. Ripped from my CD collection)

So it's great they're making a website for music access.. but it doesn't move things forward other than further confusion in the Apple ecosystem.

 

[paul-the-trumpet]

If you sign up for Apple Music does it mess with ANYTHING in your iTunes library? Didn't signing up for something used to do that? Music Match, was it? Where it would replace songs and stuff? Don't want any part of that. Thanks!

Um.... I don't know if that's true. Maybe I am wrong, but I have some music that I created when I was younger, and if I go solely to Apple Music, I think i will likely lose access to them because they aren't in the public arena, nor published on iTunes.

I'm not 100% but fairly confident.

That's right.. You need iTunes Match if you have any music that is NOT in the iTunes catalogue. Eg old CD's you loaded into iTunes 15 years ago, or if you create you own music (like me). The 'Match' part is where iTunes finds the CD you loaded in the iTunes Music Catalogue and 'swaps' it with your 'ripped' version.

 

[Michael Scrip]

I wonder if this is leading to iTunes on windows being discontinued...?

I haven't had my coffee yet... so this question might sound weird...

How would a website replace a software application on your computer?

 

[whatgift]

You need iTunes Match if you have any music that is NOT in the iTunes catalogue.

This is not true - I have plenty of songs that aren't in the iTunes Store that sync with the iCloud music library in Apple Music, and I've never had iTunes Match. They are from CD's I ripped some time ago.

 

[Digger148]

If you sign up for Apple Music does it mess with ANYTHING in your iTunes library? Didn't signing up for something used to do that? Music Match, was it? Where it would replace songs and stuff? Don't want any part of that. Thanks!

Artwork. I used my own chosen artwork for nearly 75% of my music library before signing up for Apple Music. Understandably, though disappointingly and many, many times erroneously, Apple Music replaced it with what it believed to be the correct artwork. Beware!

 

[McKodiak]

Does anyone know where I can report feedback if this is a Beta?

I have not used Apple Music for Mac yet. I have kept playlists organized in folders in iTunes but don't see the folders represented in the web version.

I joyfully just uninstalled iTunes from my work PC.

 

[NMBob]

Artwork. I used my own chosen artwork for nearly 75% of my music library before signing up for Apple Music. Understandably, though disappointingly and many, many times erroneously, Apple Music replaced it with what it believed to be the correct artwork. Beware!

Yeah, that's not good. iTunes does that with TV shows too. For one season of a TV show I added it shows the store picture, instead of the imbedded DVD picture. When computers try to be helpful, I guess.
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I would think its just the interface of AM on the web.. for Apple to have separate backend for this is saying something over the top.. but since it mucked up on the back-end anyway, anything goes.. *shrugs*

I guess all of this was a push from those "unofficial ones", so at least we know who to thank for this.

I guess that's right. If it actually "physically" messes with the files on your computer that would be a bit naughty. I just don't trust Apple anymore.

 

[brinary001]

And I am waiting much longer to put Messages on web so I can access them from work PC.....

Ha good luck. Apple will never bring Messages app to the web. For one thing, it'd be a nightmare to keep it secure. But more importantly, it would remove one of the walls from the Apple garden. Why buy a Mac when you can just get a PC that you can text from the browser with?

 

[SnowLucas]

Does anyone know a way to get Apple Music to shuffle a selection of songs from albums? If I add a bunch of albums to up next and then select shuffle it just shuffles each album rather than all songs in up next. Bugs the hell out of me.

 

[IT Troll]

Google Music does that.

This is what I do. Weird that Google offer this for free but it is not available on the paid-for iTunes Match service. I'd rather not have to sync my iTunes library to Google just to get web access, but at least it's an extra backup I suppose.

 

[DesertBruin]

it is if you like ads.

Don't know if it's just me, but Spotify Stations app allows me to listen with no ads, even though I haven't had a premium sub with Spotify for over a year.

IMO, Spotify radio algos are garbage, extremely repetitive. AM's Personal Station algos are better but still get a little repetitive. At least they mix genres better (but in clumps). Spotify Stations is the best random radio algos based on preferences that I've heard, better than Pandora.

Best part of this new web-based AM is that I can shuffle the queue, though it is buggy as hell (only allows like 35 tracks, won't reshuffle without deleting the queue, can't drop playlists in wholesale to the queue and then shuffle the whole queue... beta stuff). Something that I love about Google Music (the only thing, frankly). I hope that's something that happens with the app in Catalina.

Now if you could create radio stations from playlist, AM would be the champion in my book.
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If it can't play or create smart playlists, then it is a non-starter for me. I have a ton of smart playlists that grab songs from my library according to genre.

It has all created and curated playlists. I'm hoping that's just a matter of time, because that would be a big miss. Maybe there's something with the ability to constantly sync the webserver versus the local device? But, yeah. That would suck.

 

[Dave-Z]

After trying this out I'm pretty disappointed.

For starters: Can companies please stop calling software "beta". Typically beta is feature complete but buggy. This is alpha software because it is not feature complete* (and it is buggy).

The UI is pretty slow and doesn't seem to work well. The first song I played took 13 seconds before audio started coming out of the speaker. It wasn't buffering. The play head was moving... The site somehow thought the song was playing but didn't bother putting out sound until 13 seconds after the start (it's like the song was playing on mute).

I'm sure Apple will develop this into something better, but it's still a bit of a let down that this is released to the public when it doesn't work very well.

*If it is feature complete, that sucks.

 

[tonyr6]

I agree I went back to iTunes. Biggest issue is that in "For You" my recent played is not updated on the web player. Actually if I play anything on the web player from recently played it disappears from my history. Also iTunes has better sound quality too.

 

[jonblatho]

If it can't play or create smart playlists, then it is a non-starter for me.

Not sure about creating Smart Playlists, but as for playback, it’s a beta. Give it some time.

 

[LizKat]

This is gonna be a game-changer. You can listen to your music on any computer, without installing iTunes. (IT departments coming up with blocks as we speak.)

The reason iTunes has been great for people in rural areas or otherwise lacking decent and reliable net connection is precisely that an internet connection does not have to be always-on. Yes there are times one must have a connection. No it does not have to be high speed or maintained consistently. The day that the OS side of all things Apple lacks a local option to play music will be a regrettable one for more people than Apple may realize.

But hey, vinyl has made a comeback. Pretty soon, who knows, maybe concert artists will be touring towns with as few as 2k people again, and eventually we'll all be graced with the special human capability of creating primitive flutes out of bamboo or worm-holed bits of rock...

(Did some pretty well funded scientists finally make time run backwards?)​

 

[ashfps]

This is literally the only thing Spotify has that Apple Music was missing.

Not nearly enough to make me think about switching, though, I have to wonder about all those that claimed this was a dealbreaker to not using Apple Music.

https://musi.sh has existed for awhile. Works great

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

Um.... I don't know if that's true. Maybe I am wrong, but I have some music that I created when I was younger, and if I go solely to Apple Music, I think i will likely lose access to them because they aren't in the public arena, nor published on iTunes.

I'm not 100% but fairly confident.

You're 100% incorrect. You don't need both.

 

[Rob_2811]

I wonder if this is leading to iTunes on windows being discontinued...?

They can't really just get rid of it, they have to offer some way for iOS (or even iPod for that matter) users, who don't own a Mac, to manage devices otherwise people who need to do a restore would have to visit a Genius Bar.

 

[Michvuee]

I can finally use Apple Music on my Tesla.