Apple Music First Impressions: Convenient All-in-One Experience With Overwhelming Design

[Andrei90]

iTunes 12.2 with new logo.

Oh so it's not up yet... At least we have confirmation that it's indeed a worldwide launch for Apple Music and not just Beats1

 

[ipedro]

Hopefully this will stop the questions of why Apple bought Beats. It makes perfect sense now.

 

[rctlr]

[removed]

 

[schofs]

Not long now until we find out if Apple Music is exclusive to the U.S. for now. I know Beats 1 will be available in the UK, but will the streaming service? I really hope it is. If we don't, hey, we are still getting iOS 8.4 and Beats 1.

Well I'm in the UK and it's working a treat for me

 

[McDaddio]

Weird
No mention of Jayden Smith???

Are the reviewers ignoring that on purpose?

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

To be fair, Google Music gives you 20,000 songs from your iTunes library in their cloud for free.

Isn't it 50,000 songs now?

 

[matrix07]

Ha, that is unfortunately true. I bet they get Gruber to write a review next!

Whatever, it will be better and more objective than Nilay Patel's.

 

[brilliantthings]

A$11.99, and A$17.99 = US$9.20 and US$13.90.

Where did you find those prices?

And what do you mean it's live? On 8.4 beta?

 

[Yumbo]

Hi guys, does anyone of you know if there will be an option to setup Family Sharing just for the Apple Music Family plan? I want to share the paid service with a couple of family members but i don´t want to pay for their apps and other stuff... And i don´t have family sharing set up yet

AM FS is designed for more people to activate FS, and organiser not required to activate AM.

 

[Wreckus]

Hope it will be available in Canada. Love to try this out. Grats to the UK for getting it though (from what i'm reading, they did get it).

 

[Rogifan]

I hope "it's going to take you time to learn it" isn't going to be a signature line attributed to new Apple products.

I can forgive the Watch for being less intuitive than an iPad. With the original Mac there were manuals that included instructions on how to "drag and drop" so customers do have to learn new products.

However, one thing I thought about the Apple Music demo was how complicated the UI looked. Could be overthinking things, though, and maybe I'll be eating my words once I get my hands on it

Mossberg said right now Apple Music is the only streaming music service he'd pay for. But he didn't really compare it to anything else or say exactly what's better about it than the competition, outside of the obvious deep integration with your iTunes library. But if you're someone like me who doesn't have a vast paid iTunes library what makes Apple Music better? Larger catalog of music? Better curation than Pandora. That's what I'd like to know.

And just as I'm typing this I get a notification that AC/DC is now available on Spotify.

 

[Yumbo]

This morning (iOS 8.3) I opened iTunes Radio and the previous stations based on some artists were gone. Just a few Apple suggested stations to choose from. Anyway I did a create station via genre but now I don't see any way to tune it for Hits/Variety/Discovery

Your stations will appear in AM.

 

[matrix07]

No, I am saying if different services offer different exclusives based upon popular artists (Godsmack on Spotify, Metallica on Pandora, or Pantera on Apple Music), then those people may get frustrated and just download it on torrents to get the "exclusive". Especially if those streaming companies ever decide to offer exclusive music on paid tiers only.

I don't torrent anything just because I'm frustrated. Why should they?

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

I canceled my Spotify subscription in anticipation for this. Looking forward to seeing what it has to offer.

Why not keep Spotify during the three month free trial?

Or, at least, give it a week, then cancel Spotify?

 

[SMIDG3T]

Oh so it's not up yet... At least we have confirmation that it's indeed a worldwide launch for Apple Music and not just Beats1

I'm missed it. What's the confirmation?

 

[Yumbo]

I'm interested to see how they blend existing iTunes purchases and playlists etc with Apple Music. It seems to me that bolting on Apple Music to the existing iTunes model is going to be confusing. The most successful platforms are ones that start from scratch with something new, not ones that try to combine a new method with an old one. Apple are trying to catch up with the competition while still hanging on to the past, and I'm not sure that's going to work. Once you start paying for Apple Music, what's the point in even having the concept of your old purchases, as you are getting them with the new service. You either embrace streaming or you don't.

It's seamless. Adding to playlist is like a virtual purchase and unlike the current 128kbps streaming, AM is full 256kbps.

 

[GrumpyTrucker]

And just as I'm typing this I get a notification that AC/DC is now available on Spotify.

Got that notification a few hours ago. Been listening too. That's one reasonably big piece of Apple exclusive content that isn't anymore.

 

[neuropsychguy]

that's not how this works. it's a 3-month trial membership. apple uses that exact phrasing on their website. they don't say "free for the first 3 months."

That doesn't make any sense. Does that mean Android users won't get a free trial since it's not coming to Android until this fall? No. It's 3 months from when you sign up. Here's the footnote from Apple's website: "Requires initial sign up. At the end of the trial period, the membership will automatically renew and payment method will be charged on a monthly basis until auto-renewal is turned off in account settings." This means your trial doesn't start until you sign up.

 

[iSunrise]

Overwhelming? Maybe for n00bs. Of the big music platform apps, it's the only one that I know of that has

1) My personal music library that was matched/uploaded to the cloud
2) Direct streaming access to content from many large and independent labels
3) Live radio

Google Play doesn't have #3. Apple wins by having all three.

While with live radio alone I would not lose any sleep over it, all three of these are very hard to beat, including the Beats 1 radio station (which will probably be way too mainstream for me, but let's wait and see) and the huge iTunes catalog that Apple can match with your personal taste. Even though $9.99 is a lot to pay for only music, the complete package this time is great and that IMHO justifies the price. Sadly, in Germany we still have very low data caps, but I can make up for it when putting together complete playlists for certain situations and make them available offline within my local network ready to go.

I'm quite excited, not sure when I last was this excited for an Apple launch, because lately, I lost a bit of interest since it seemed they completely abandones iTunes Match and music altogether, but this really makes up for it.

 

[Rogifan]

Hopefully this will stop the questions of why Apple bought Beats. It makes perfect sense now.

Well it won't stop the questions over whether Apple should be focusing so much on music vs just doing what Google did with Google Play music.

 

[Yumbo]

Where did you find those prices?

And what do you mean it's live? On 8.4 beta?

iTunes 12.2, prices show when you activate AM.

 

[KieranDotW]

9 Pacific? Unless I'm crazy the countdown at the top of the page seems to suggest 8 Pacific...

 

[neuropsychguy]

Why not keep Spotify during the three month free trial?

Or, at least, give it a week, then cancel Spotify?

Because then he/she is paying for something when he/she doesn't have to. If Spotify is better, he/she can just sign up again.

 

[Andrei90]

I'm missed it. What's the confirmation?

Users are reporting Apple Music is live in the UK and Australia.

 

[cmaier]

Streaming music is not for me. However I think that this could increase piracy if spotify has an exclusive album, rdio has one and Apple Music. People will just get annoyed by that and find music elsewhere.

So far the exclusives generally suck. Except ac/dc. That's awesome.