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Rogifan

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Original poster
Nov 14, 2011
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I hate to say it but I agree 100% with this article from Mashable. Especially the paragraphs below. It's pretty sad when the talk on Twitter is not the music service but Cue's shirt and embarrassing dancing.

http://mashable.com/2015/06/09/apple-music-mess/

It didn't have to be like this. Apple had a golden opportunity to return to a beautifully simple interface, one that combines your music with streaming music, your playlists with other users'. They could have focused on making Music load faster than Spotify; they could have offered higher bitrate streaming for the audiophiles (Tidal's one good feature), and easy playlist uploading from other platforms to mollify the prodigal iTunes users who strayed.

They could even have mentioned all the music they can stream that Spotify currently can't. No, Apple doesn't appear to have persuaded the Beatles to sign over streaming rights, but from the brief Music demo it appears that Taylor Swift is on board.

Instead, we got this design-by-committee approach — and a very underwhelming response over on the real social networks.

And while I'm fully prepared to eat some kind of headgear if I'm wrong on this, all signs point to the fact that Apple is running scared on music. Its dad-dancing executives appear to have ceded control of the space to Iovine, seduced by his fast-talking patter and the sense that he (along with Trent Reznor and Dr. Dre, remember him?) has some sort of magic formula to attract millennial listeners.

Hence the anger and frustration. Apple didn't need to buy Beats to retake the high ground in online music. It went in precisely the wrong direction — and by doing so, it appears to have poisoned the company culture where music is concerned. That doesn't bode well for Apple under Cook's decision-making. Because while having strong morals is great and necessary as a leader, having strong products, and knowing how to take them to new highs, is the company's lifeblood. Any fanboy or fangirl will tell you that.
 
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nebo1ss

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2010
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I hate to say it but I agree 100% with this article from Mashable. Especially the paragraphs below. It's pretty sad when the talk on Twitter is not the music service but Cue's shirt and embarrassing dancing.

http://mashable.com/2015/06/09/apple-music-mess/

When the purchase of Beats was announced by Apple, I predicted they would be reselling it at a hugh loss within ten years. Now I don't think it will take ten years for it to be resold.
 

btkadams

macrumors regular
Sep 6, 2012
114
45
it's too early to say.

i use spotify religiously but there are plenty of flaws. if the apple music app is any better, i'll switch. it'll be nice to have my personal music library blended with the streamable library. the curation is also going to be something that could grab me. i'm in canada so i don't know how well it worked with beats streaming service in the us, but spotify's electronic music recommendations are totally broken. they don't index remix artists properly.
 
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kerbero9

macrumors member
Aug 7, 2008
95
49
Yesterday, I (and I think a lot us) had this notion that Apple Music was going to be this all you can eat iTunes buffet with bonuses for $10/month. Unfortunately, today, it looks like it's shaping up just to be more of the same in a world dominated by Spotify. It's way too early to put the nail in the coffin though. I'll take my 3 free months and decide if it's worth dropping my Spotify premium membership.
 

Rogifan

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Nov 14, 2011
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When the purchase of Beats was announced by Apple, I predicted they would be reselling it at a hugh loss within ten years. Now I don't think it will take ten years for it to be resold.
Jason Snell nailed it on his podcast. This portion of the keynote was bloated, self indulgent and unfocused.

I don't see what Beats has brought to the party other than Eddy Cue didn't have a clue what to do with music and was suckered in by Jimmy's sales pitch that somehow he was the magic bullet that was going to solve all of Apple's music problems. The one thing successful about Beats is their headphones and Apple never talks about them.
 

Switchback666

macrumors 68000
Nov 16, 2012
1,600
67
SXM
Yesterday, I (and I think a lot us) had this notion that Apple Music was going to be this all you can eat iTunes buffet with bonuses for $10/month. Unfortunately, today, it looks like it's shaping up just to be more of the same in a world dominated by Spotify. It's way too early to put the nail in the coffin though. I'll take my 3 free months and decide if it's worth dropping my Spotify premium membership.

Agree, 3 months is plenty of time and I was surprised even though rumors "spoiled" that.

I still don't think the whole iTunes library will be available for stream, they might have a few more artist (current generation) but I doubt there will be this huge gap people are expecting of millions of song with Spotify.

Family plan is priced right imo, if I get the same music/artists I listen to I'm jumping to the native option :p
 

metsjetsfan

macrumors 65816
Feb 2, 2011
1,402
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Yesterday, I (and I think a lot us) had this notion that Apple Music was going to be this all you can eat iTunes buffet with bonuses for $10/month. Unfortunately, today, it looks like it's shaping up just to be more of the same in a world dominated by Spotify. It's way too early to put the nail in the coffin though. I'll take my 3 free months and decide if it's worth dropping my Spotify premium membership.
I thought it was all u can eat. 37MM songs compared to 30MM for spotify. Even Wall st journal noted this in their infographic? But who knows it was so confusing
 

Dwalls90

macrumors 603
Feb 5, 2009
5,504
4,566
Couldn't disagree more. Spotify is going to be in trouble. The family bundling deal will be huge, and it's hardly more expensive than Spotify.

Not to mention, I think the iTunes Catalog gets content faster, and is a bigger library.
 
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Rogifan

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Nov 14, 2011
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I stopped taking Mashable's word on anything a while back. Or any tech blog who literally only had 30 min or so in a room with the product. So on the opposite side of the spectrum, The Verge liked it.

Basically, it's too early to tell.
I wouldn't say The Verge liked it. They basically said it was good enough and good enough should worry Spotify. I want Apple to better than good enough.
 
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Rogifan

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Nov 14, 2011
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Re-post a final judgement thread like this three and a half months from now once your free trial runs out. Only then is when we'll know how this pans out.

My issue is more around the way it was presented. Nothing coherent. Didn't tout any benefits over the competition other than so-called "human curation" which to me is just code word for Jimmy Iovine and his buddies think they can pick music for you better than you can. I call that arrogance. Spotify has "human curation" too...it's all the users playlists.
 

KALLT

macrumors 603
Sep 23, 2008
5,380
3,415
Out of curiosity, what else could Apple offer to make Apple Music better? The app isn't finished yet, so we can't say anything for sure about it's quality. So far I like the beta version of it, it's better than what we had before. Importing of playlists? Which other service will ever agree to that? Everyone is in that game and has an incentive to make leaving unattractive. Lossless streaming is not something most people are interested in and many people who consider themselves audiophiles still don't have a clue that their equipment is not capable of producing better sound just because the file quality is better.

I see Play Music as a decent package that can compete with Spotify and others. The only thing I don'lt like is the Connect feature, which I hope I can avoid. As for the rest, I have yet to see.
 

Noble Actual

macrumors 6502a
Sep 10, 2014
851
501
it's too early to say.

i use spotify religiously but there are plenty of flaws. if the apple music app is any better, i'll switch. it'll be nice to have my personal music library blended with the streamable library. the curation is also going to be something that could grab me. i'm in canada so i don't know how well it worked with beats streaming service in the us, but spotify's electronic music recommendations are totally broken. they don't index remix artists properly.

The only problem now is that the new Music apps looks like complete crap. 4/5 sections are for the new Apple Music thing with the last one being for your music. I really wish you could disable the social part and beats1 tabs.
 

btkadams

macrumors regular
Sep 6, 2012
114
45
My issue is more around the way it was presented. Nothing coherent. Didn't tout any benefits over the competition other than so-called "human curation" which to me is just code word for Jimmy Iovine and his buddies think they can pick music for you better than you can. I call that arrogance. Spotify has "human curation" too...it's all the users playlists.
how is it arrogance that they have curation by humans? it's a legitimate differentiation from spotify. i don't see how it implies they are better at finding music than ourselves. it is saying that they don't just have an algorithm providing recommendations like competing services. it was compared to a friend recommending you a song.
 

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Nov 14, 2011
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how is it arrogance that they have curation by humans? it's a legitimate differentiation from spotify. i don't see how it implies they are better at finding music than ourselves. it is saying that they don't just have an algorithm providing recommendations like competing services. it was compared to a friend recommending you a song.
Spotify has humans too - all the users who create custom playlists. Human curation doesn't just have to come from Jimmy Iovine and his artist friends.
 
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Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
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Nov 14, 2011
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Out of curiosity, what else could Apple offer to make Apple Music better? The app isn't finished yet, so we can't say anything for sure about it's quality. So far I like the beta version of it, it's better than what we had before. Importing of playlists? Which other service will ever agree to that? Everyone is in that game and has an incentive to make leaving unattractive. Lossless streaming is not something most people are interested in and many people who consider themselves audiophiles still don't have a clue that their equipment is not capable of producing better sound just because the file quality is better.

I see Play Music as a decent package that can compete with Spotify and others. The only thing I don'lt like is the Connect feature, which I hope I can avoid. As for the rest, I have yet to see.
This announcement didn't deserve more than 15 minutes tops. There was nothing revolutionary about it and the whole presentation was crap. I don't need 20 minutes of Eddy Cue playing songs from the music app. It's pretty bad when Jason Snell says it's one of the worst moment in any Apple keynote he's been to.
 
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KALLT

macrumors 603
Sep 23, 2008
5,380
3,415
This announcement didn't deserve more than 15 minutes tops. There was nothing revolutionary about it and the whole presentation was crap. I don't need 20 minutes of Eddy Cue playing songs from the music app. It's pretty bad when Jason Snell says it's one of the worst moment in any Apple keynote he's been to.

Agreed, but other than that, anything that you think is bad about the product?
 
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Razeus

macrumors 603
Jul 11, 2008
5,358
2,054
I'll use it because they Spotify UI on mobile is a disaster and they don't seem to improve this app in the slightest. I guess they can't afford UI people because the record labels are robbing them blind.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Back, back, back, back, back. Having to manually add songs to my Starred Playlist is terrible. It should work like Instagram were a double tab simply adds it to your started list.

Apple Music looks much clear. I'm glad they got rid of using words for buttons and just went with all symbols we all know.

Luckily, I don't have too much invested in Spotify since all my playlists are Spotify curations or some user. It's easy for me to switch. And Apple Music first 3 months are free, so that's a deal to me.

I'm a download to own guy and always found streaming a bit strange. I'll be going into Apple Music with a subscription only library and archiving my current iTunes music files.

#ripspotify
 
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Razeus

macrumors 603
Jul 11, 2008
5,358
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The only problem now is that the new Music apps looks like complete crap. 4/5 sections are for the new Apple Music thing with the last one being for your music. I really wish you could disable the social part and beats1 tabs.

I had a problem with that do, but with my 6 Plus, that's the right position for it since I usually one hand my phone with my right hand.
 
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Andres Cantu

macrumors 68040
May 31, 2015
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Texas
I think it's too early to say, it hasn't even launched yet! Ultimately it's people who will decide whether the service is a success or a failure.
 

Nyguy76

macrumors member
Oct 19, 2013
30
5
The only problem now is that the new Music apps looks like complete crap. 4/5 sections are for the new Apple Music thing with the last one being for your music. I really wish you could disable the social part and beats1 tabs.


I'm guessing you only see that if you subscribe. Otherwise, it should look exactly like it does in the 8.4 betas. At least I hope so.
 
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