Apple Music Set for Design Overhaul in Time for WWDC in June

[Mark Booth]

I tried Apple Music during the initial trial period. I turned it off pretty quickly for one reason and one reason only... Apple wouldn't allow me to keep my own (purchased) music on my iPhone AND have access to Apple Music at the same time. Apple wanted me to always stream (or download) my OWN music every time I wanted to listen to it.

That is absolutely ridiculous! If I want my owned music permanently on my device that is MY business. And until Apple allows it at the same time as being subscribed to Apple Music, I will not remotely consider turing Apple Music back on.

Mark

 

[johngordon]

The ability to browse locally stored music would be nice considering that's main functionality of the music app in general.

Maybe for you - I'd consider the main functionality of a music app to let me browse all the music I have in my library of stuff I might want to listen to, regardless of its origin. If I want to listen to it, I don't care if its source is an imported CD, bought from iTunes, or streaming from AM. Having everything together seems like a good thing to me.

 

[RuffyYoshi]

My biggest gripe is how it loses track of where I was when I open it sometimes. Like, it'll boot back to the home page and I gotta get to my song again. I think it has to do with my iPod touch finding a wifi network to connect to and then the app tries to sync music or something, I don't effing know. Wish it would knock it off.

 

[QquegChristian]

It's pretty simple really... Music is a very private experience for many people. Especially on a portable device with your headphones on.

The current Music app connects you to a barrage of suggestions that border on advertisements, while adding a ton of clutter, cloud, and social features. Listening to an album you own looks like you're still on the iTunes Store sampling it.

I would like to see Apple take notice of the resurgence of vinyl. It isn't all about the "sound" of vinyl. It's a personal experience for people. A full album that you own and give your full attention.

It still surprises me that everyone in the music industry sat back and watched as digital sales shifted toward singles, yet no one tried to make whole digital albums feel more complete. Cover flow should have evolved into digital liner notes and non-essential UI should disappear as an album is playing.

Should be interesting to see if Reznor can influence things. I just put on a NIN album I own and then had to click the little Now Playing bar at the bottom to get to the album artwork. When I did that, it asked me if I wanted to join Apple Music's subscription for the THIRD time in 20 minutes. Back to Spotify, which is only marginally better!

 

[yep-sure]

I tried Apple Music during the initial trial period. I turned it off pretty quickly for one reason and one reason only... Apple wouldn't allow me to keep my own (purchased) music on my iPhone AND have access to Apple Music at the same time. Apple wanted me to always stream (or download) my OWN music every time I wanted to listen to it.

That is absolutely ridiculous! If I want my owned music permanently on my device that is MY business. And until Apple allows it at the same time as being subscribed to Apple Music, I will not remotely consider turing Apple Music back on.

Mark

Huh? You can do exactly that.

Up until recently where the Music app decided to crap out and make me lose my entire library, I had 64GB of my own music on my phone, with a bunch of offline Apple Music albums included.

I'm really looking forward to the redesign, it's simply awful at the moment.

 

[cableguy84]

Apple can overhaul the Music app as much as they want, but will it be any good, that is the question

 

[Macist]

Soundcloud's app I really like. Spotify's is alright. Apple Music was uninspiring and confusing.

 

[Janichsan]

What about that iTunes refresh coming "next month"

Well, counting from today, WWDC is pretty much "next month"…

So accrording to rumors for WWDC we should expect:
Skylake MBP (with redesign)
Skylake Mini
Skylake iMac (all the line)
New MP
Watch bands
Watch 2
14 MBA
New Apple Music
New iTunes
New Mac OS (preview)
New iOS (preview)

Seems like they should have booked for 4 hours keynote......

If we are lucky, what we get from these are the Skylake rMBP, the new iTunes/Apple Music (I expect these to be rolled into one in form of a new "Music" app for Mac), and the new OSs.

 

[theluggage]

What exactly can't you use? Give an example.

Asking "what can't you use" is missing the point. It is a case of "what is harder to find/more fiddly or obscure than it need be" - and holding Apple to the high standards of attention to detail that they set in the past.

Quick examples just from offline music playing, most of which didn't arise with older versions:

On an iPad, the play/pause/skip buttons and the A-Z 'tabs' are almost unusably small and the progress bar virtually invisible unless you assume that you're going to sit down and hold the iPad like a book all the time you're listening, and not (e.g.) leave it playing on a table or stand while you do something else.

There's no visual cue that you can click on the currently playing track for a 'cover view'. Once you're there, there's no option for a permanently visible track listing or 'up next' display.

"Playlists" logically belongs on the Artists/Albums/Songs drop down.

The Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, Playlists screens perform very similar functions but each have different layout/logic instead of (say) Index/key on the left/Details/drill down on the right.

 

[johngordon]

Asking "what can't you use" is missing the point. It is a case of "what is harder to find/more fiddly or obscure than it need be" - and holding Apple to the high standards of attention to detail that they set in the past.

Quick examples just from offline music playing, most of which didn't arise with older versions:

On an iPad, the play/pause/skip buttons and the A-Z 'tabs' are almost unusably small and the progress bar virtually invisible unless you assume that you're going to sit down and hold the iPad like a book all the time you're listening, and not (e.g.) leave it playing on a table or stand while you do something else.

There's no visual cue that you can click on the currently playing track for a 'cover view'. Once you're there, there's no option for a permanently visible track listing or 'up next' display.

"Playlists" logically belongs on the Artists/Albums/Songs drop down.

The Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres, Playlists screens perform very similar functions but each have different layout/logic instead of (say) Index/key on the left/Details/drill down on the right.

I'm not sure they're unusuaby small.

And it seems a little strange to talk about the the progress bar being invisible unless you sit down and hold the iPad like a book all the time. If you're off doing something else, do you really like to be keeping an eye on a progress bar while you're doing something else? (Rather than, I dunno, just listening to the music?)

I take the point about the different layouts, but it doesn't take much to see what's going on - and from there its mostly a case of listening to the music, rather than getting hung up on that sort of thing.

 

[KazKam]

Gruber has a good take on all this, and I wholeheartedly agree with his reasoning and conclusion.

http://daringfireball.net/2016/05/apple_music_coherence

iOS apps should be simple and do one thing well. The iOS Music app is falling into the iTunes trap. They need to pull the streaming service out into its own app, especially for those of us who will never subscribe to Apple Music, or probably any other streaming service for that matter.

“Everything you see is in the cloud, and you have access to it because you are a subscriber” is easy to understand. “Some of this is in the cloud, some of this you own” is more complicated.

And the crappy UI that's a result of the service you don't need/use/want just gets in the way and makes it frustrating for users who just want to listen to THEIR music

 

[nt5672]

What exactly can't you use? Give an example.

Usability is about ease of use, not can or can't.

 

[johngordon]

Gruber has a good take on all this, and I wholeheartedly agree with his reasoning and conclusion.

http://daringfireball.net/2016/05/apple_music_coherence

iOS apps should be simple and do one thing well. The iOS Music app is falling into the iTunes trap. They need to pull the streaming service out into its own app, especially for those of us who will never subscribe to Apple Music, or probably any other streaming service for that matter.

And the crappy UI that's a result of the service you don't need/use/want just gets in the way and makes it frustrating for users who just want to listen to THEIR music

I guess its just difficult to keep everyone happy, because there are so many different possible preferences that people might have.

If it was two apps, does that mean if I wanted to listen to an album, i would need to listen to it in one app if I already owned it, and another app if i didn't own it, and would be listening to it through Apple Music?

To me that makes no sense, and loses a big part of AM's appeal - i.e. all the music is seamless in one combined library.

And how would playlists work if they were a mix of stuff I already owned and AM content.

I suppose the answer to that really is that I wouldn't really need to worry about my existing library at all, and just use AM, assuming everything in my existing library was also in AM.

 

[theluggage]

If you're off doing something else, do you really like to be keeping an eye on a progress bar while you're doing something else?

If I'm doing something else and, e.g. want to pause the music, repeat a track, turn the volume up/down, see how long it has left to play etc. I'd like to be able to do it at a glance, thanks. Lots of people use an iDevice on a stand or docked to speakers and, as such, a large, bold interface is a good idea - and the display you probably want as default is the 'up next' list is now only available as a modal pop-up (from a tiny button).

Usability is about ease of use, not can or can't.

...and Apple was supposed to be about the very best in design, not "well, yes, you can use it".

 

[MrCrowbar]

Apple Music never felt like "home" to me. I love the old music app. The very first version. When I use my iPod touch (2010) for sports, I'm so happy with this basic music app that works like it should. It does the job and I can find every song, artist or album within seconds.

Agreed. It's annoying that everything swooshes around and the colors shift, play button moves around and when I'm in an album, I can see exactly one track because the artist picture is taking up the upper half of the screen, some useless buttons (follow, share...) and the album art is there as well... Shuffle plays back voice memos in-between music too... why!?

iTunes on the Mac is an unusable mess too, not really viable as a music library for me.

 

[johngordon]

If I'm doing something else and, e.g. want to pause the music, repeat a track, turn the volume up/down, see how long it has left to play etc. I'd like to be able to do it at a glance, thanks. Lots of people use an iDevice on a stand or docked to speakers and, as such, a large, bold interface is a good idea - and the display you probably want as default is the 'up next' list is now only available as a modal pop-up (from a tiny button).

...and Apple was supposed to be about the very best in design, not "well, yes, you can use it".

I don't quite follow you - if the problem is that the progress bar isn't visible form a greater distance, wanting to pause / repeat tracks etc at a glance wouldn't be solved by a larger progress bar.

If you are pausing / repeating tracks, you're always going to have the iPad in front of you like a book - the exact thing you said earlier that you didn't want to do.

I don't see the advantage in having things like a larger progress bar that you can see from further away, if you have to be right next to the device to do anything.

(Or is there a scenario here where you would be using a phone to remotely control an iPad?)

 

[KazKam]

I guess its just difficult to keep everyone happy, because there are so many different possible preferences that people might have.

If it was two apps, does that mean if I wanted to listen to an album, i would need to listen to it in one app if I already owned it, and another app if i didn't own it, and would be listening to it through Apple Music?

To me that makes no sense, and loses a big part of AM's appeal - i.e. all the music is seamless in one combined library.

And how would playlists work if they were a mix of stuff I already owned and AM content.

I suppose the answer to that really is that I wouldn't really need to worry about my existing library at all, and just use AM, assuming everything in my existing library was also in AM.

If it was two apps I think it would be pretty simple...

If you're an Apple Music subscriber (one of 13M Apple IDs), use the "Apple Music" app, just as you use the "Music" app now.

If you're not an Apple Music subscriber (one of the other 700M Apple IDs), use the Music app that functions as the old one (pre-Apple Music) used to.

Call the two apps "Apple Music" and "My Music".

Edit: Oh yeah, and if you're not an Apple Music subscriber, allow users to delete the Apple Music app from their devices. And vice versa.

 

[johngordon]

If it was two apps I think it would be pretty simple...

If you're an Apple Music subscriber (one of 13M Apple IDs), use the "Apple Music" app, just as you use the "Music" app now.

If you're not an Apple Music subscriber (one of the other 700M Apple IDs), use the Music app that functions as the old one (pre-Apple Music) used to.

Call the two apps "Apple Music" and "My Music".

Ah, OK - I get you.

Although I still don't quite see the point to be honest - if you don't use AM currently, isn't tapping on the My Music tab going to give you easy access to all your music?

Maybe I'm not enough of a power user - I just tent to navigate to albums / playlists and hit play when I'm out walking. I'm not sure I noticed much difference in that core functionality before and after the arrival of AM.

 

[whsbuss]

Its hard to please anyone anymore. If you like something then good. If you do not then okay. This is worse than our politics.

 

[navaira]

https://blog.vellumatlanta.com/2016/05/04/apple-stole-my-music-no-seriously/

I had just explained to Amber that 122 GB of music files were missing from my laptop. I’d already visited the online forum, I said, and they were no help. Although several people had described problems similar to mine, they were all dismissed by condescending “gurus” who simply said that we had mislocated our files (I had the free drive space to prove that wasn’t the case) or that we must have accidentally deleted the files ourselves (we hadn’t). Amber explained that I should blow off these dismissive “solutions” offered online because Apple employees don’t officially use the forums—evidently, that honor is reserved for lost, frustrated people like me, and (at least in this case) know-it-alls who would rather believe we were incompetent, or lying, than face the ugly truth that Apple has vastly overstepped its boundaries.

What Amber explained was exactly what I’d feared: through the Apple Music subscription, which I had, Apple now deletes files from its users’ computers. When I signed up for Apple Music, iTunes evaluated my massive collection of Mp3s and WAV files, scanned Apple’s database for what it considered matches, then removed the original files from my internal hard drive. REMOVED them. Deleted. If Apple Music saw a file it didn’t recognize—which came up often, since I’m a freelance composer and have many music files that I created myself—it would then download it to Apple’s database, delete it from my hard drive, and serve it back to me when I wanted to listen, just like it would with my other music files it had deleted.

(Also contains excerpts from user agreement, which are rather interesting)

 

[Loge]

And a reply ....

http://www.imore.com/no-apple-music-not-deleting-tracks-your-hard-drive-unless-you-tell-it

 

[navaira]

I don't dare to check (also in my family we only have one trial left and I am not activating it until the revamp).

 

[jon81uk]

Apple seem to have forgotten everything that made the iPod successful. A nice simple easy to understand interface, with a scroll wheel that just worked.
Best option would be for them to seperate off the old functions into an iPod app that looks after purhased and synced music. Then have an Apple Music app just for the streaming service.

 

[QquegChristian]

Ah, OK - I get you.

Although I still don't quite see the point to be honest - if you don't use AM currently, isn't tapping on the My Music tab going to give you easy access to all your music?

Maybe I'm not enough of a power user - I just tent to navigate to albums / playlists and hit play when I'm out walking. I'm not sure I noticed much difference in that core functionality before and after the arrival of AM.

Currently, you've got 3 of the 5 main tabs devoted to things that have nothing to do with your own music. 1 of the other 2 tabs has to be changed from Connect to Playlists. In an ideal and simple world for people who want to focus on their own library, these main tabs could be used for things that are buried elsewhere.

Suggestions (ads) are throughout your artists on My Music. This fills my personal music catalog with artists and album covers I don't own, cluttering my library. Suggestions can be helpful to discover music, but make them one of the more hidden UI elements. I don't want to see them every single time I go to every single artist in my library. Also, they highlight only 3 additional albums by the artist and 3 similar artists. In most cases, I know about these other albums and I know these other artists... I don't need them always there.

Then there's pop up ads to join Apple Music. Maybe it's just an anomaly, but I got 3 yesterday.

The experience of listening to music I own now looks and feels as convoluted as browsing the iTunes Store. If I was a kook I'd say it was intentional. You might as well join Apple Music, as owning the music feels the same, in all the worst ways.

I use Spotify now, but I was a mostly happy iTunes Match subscriber before the rollout of Apple Music. Tried the trial. I prefer Spotify. But I also miss a focused music library.

 

[navaira]

Spotify does work with offline files, although in the most convoluted way possible. So for me it's sort of somewhat focused music library.

iTunes has deleted a few songs from my library even without iCloud. I had to email the songs to myself from my mobile twice. There's probably more it deleted, I just don't know what yet.