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

[rumandritalin]

I absolutely hate what Apple Music has done to the music app.

Apple basically destroyed the iPod part of the iPhone. I actually had to download a third party app to be able to control my music to any functional degree.

Apple please reinstate in the old music application and make a separate Apple Music app.

Edit/ a few people asked what 3rd party app I use It's called marvis - it's good but has adverts

Couldn't agree more. What a mess. And constantly nagging me with the free trial of Apple Music despite having already said no AND having turned it off on the settings. I asked a 'genius' about this and of course he had no actual response or solution. "Uhh did you turn it off in Settings?" Yes boo, I did. The iPod app is dead.

Edit: and iTunes, though admittedly better than the last clusterf**k of a version, is still suffering from a deep identity crisis.

 

[johngordon]

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.

I didn't realise suggested stuff gets mixed in with your music in My Music - I assumed it was separate in For You and New, and that My Music was, well, your music.

Probably isn't any reason they couldn't make the bottom tabs customisable.

I guess as I only tend to go Artist > Album > Song there isn't much buried away that I'd use much.

As I said before that was my biggest issue with Spotify - when you tap on an artist it took you to a single list of all that artist's songs, rather than their albums.

 

[macs4nw]

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.

And that's how I feel about iTunes. I mean, here I thought it was all me 'not keeping up with the times' when I liked the older versions better, plus I had thought/hoped these newer versions might grow on me, however after all this time, I still prefer the 'old' iTunes.

For strictly listening to music only, I have a dedicated older iMac running iTunes 10.7 that does everything I want it to do beautifully, with simplicity, and flawlessly. Others may have a need for more integration and complication, but I personally am very satisfied with the above set-up and sincerely hope that old iMac never dies.

Newer is definitely not always better!

 

[mfvisuals]

Edit/ a few people asked what 3rd party app I use It's called marvis - it's good but has adverts

I prefer Ecoute for media playback on my iPhone/iPad.

 

[FriendlyMackle]

It's such a mess, but still I persist. I pay for both Apple Music and iTunes Match and barely use it. Just only hope they take the time to build it right from the ground up complete and cohesive.

I stopped Match when I decided to keep and pay for Apple Music. Almost everything I own is available - and I can just upload to my phone anything that isn't.

BUT...Apple Music the application really sucks. Constant failures to download items for offline play. We're talking 9 times out of 10. Items which I HAVE downloaded, disappear from my downloads when I go to play them. Really. I can't begin to tell you how frustrating it is. The 'cloud'/'download' button fails to take the first time I hit it almost every time. The app response time is also very SLOW...sometimes if I wait close to a minute (when it simply might never work) it will then start to download. But more often than not the button to the right of the download will open up a menu...because, yes, the finger/touch area is so small and they are so closely adjacent. And I am nearsighted -- I see well up close.
I am about ready to unsubscribe -- but I dread what kind of mess Apple Music will have made of my personal music library.

 

[QquegChristian]

I didn't realise suggested stuff gets mixed in with your music in My Music - I assumed it was separate in For You and New, and that My Music was, well, your music.

Probably isn't any reason they couldn't make the bottom tabs customisable.

I guess as I only tend to go Artist > Album > Song there isn't much buried away that I'd use much.

As I said before that was my biggest issue with Spotify - when you tap on an artist it took you to a single list of all that artist's songs, rather than their albums.

Albums in the "My Music" section have suggestions (ads) after them.

See the attached image of the content at the bottom of an album I own.

I KNOW the artist's other albums and even own one.

Also, I clearly know who Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, and The Shins are... Because I don't live under a rock AND own at least one album by each of them.

When I buy an album, I don't expect to have to look at this useless crap every time I play it.

I think it's disrespectful to the artists who make these albums too. This is the place that their album lives digitally and it is cluttered with ads. You've finished listening to this crap, now buy more, more, more.

Like I said, it feels like a store... Not my personal library.
[doublepost=1462498163][/doublepost]I THINK I figured out my issue after an ENTIRE YEAR of frustration.

I've been getting constant pop ups asking me to sign up for Apple Music and suggestions all over the place.

Saying "no thanks" to the subscription pop ups does nothing but delay them for a few minutes. Saying "no thanks" in the "For You" tab allows you to turn this crap off. These screens look identical but I've never hit "no thanks" in the For You tab, as I don't ever go there, and if you do, you can just switch tabs to get away from the ad.

This was a serious UI failure. I've told this App I don't want Apple Music 100 times, I just wasn't telling it in the right tab and that tab is a place I can't use, so I never purposefully go there.

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

The MobileMe launch was plagued with issues, it was basically a major failure.

I tried to use it to coordinate/share calendars. Never worked correctly for me.

Please update your post to mention the name of the third party app, many of us would appreciate an alternative !

It's called marvis - it's good but has adverts

Funny that this thread came along exactly when I was getting completely fed up with trying to use Apple Music. (I gave up completely for a while previously, but, I wanted to try again.

I decided to try two different programs: Marvis ($0.99 for no ads, free with ads-- I paid the 99 cents.). And, Ecoute. Also 99 cents. I've been back and forth a few times. Right now, I'm leaning towards ecoute, but, they both seem to work far better than Apple Music for non-pop music.

Apple Music needs to work a hell of a lot harder on classical.

Here's what I mean. Their metadata apparently overrides the track metadata when you're using your own library on the iPhone. Which is a problem, because their metadata is crap. I'm very careful to make the "Sort composer" tag hold the right information; the Music app just ignores it randomly. Hector Berlioz sorts under "B"; Ludwig van Beethoven under "L." Johann Strauss under "S", Johann Sebastian Bach under "J." And so on.
The same tracks work fine in a fourth-gen iPod touch. But Apple Music destroys everything it touches.

Marvis and Ecoute both respect the order of the music in albums. I just listened to an album with two piano sonatas, no problem. I'm sure that I will run into bugs with both programs, but, unexpected behavior is better than the expected behavior of Apple Music. I guess there are people out there who mostly listen to "songs" in random order, but, it doesn't work for anything other than Pop-- which is mainly what I don't listen to. I guess the people who created Apple's latest version don't realize that lots of music (not pop songs) is arranged in sections. (In classical music, usually the sections are known as "movements".) Also, I often like to listen to all the music on an album at once, whether it is classical, jazz, folk, or pretty much any music I listen to.

I don't own stock in Marvis or Ecoute -- there may be better players out there. My standard is pretty low-- just play the movements of a piano sonata in order, and the different pieces on an album in order.

 

[johngordon]

Albums in the "My Music" section have suggestions (ads) after them.

See the attached image of the content at the bottom of an album I own.

I KNOW the artist's other albums and even own one.

Also, I clearly know who Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, and The Shins are... Because I don't live under a rock AND own at least one album by each of them.

When I buy an album, I don't expect to have to look at this useless crap every time I play it.

I think it's disrespectful to the artists who make these albums too. This is the place that their album lives digitally and it is cluttered with ads. You've finished listening to this crap, now buy more, more, more.

Like I said, it feels like a store... Not my personal library.

I see where you are now - I am using AM and had barely noticed those. They're not mixed in amongst everything, but appear at the bottom of an albums track list, so quite easy to ignore.

You could just go into Settings > Music and turn Apple Music off if you don't want to see them.

 

[FelixDerKater]

There is overlap in all the wrong places and not in the right ones between the iTunes Store and Music apps. For example, it would be nice to have the Top 10 lists in the streaming app.

 

[Jmausmuc]

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.

The best thing about it was, that you could customize the menu items on the bottom of the screen. I always had Playlists and Albums down there.
Comparing that to the music app we have now, I almost can't believe it.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I tried to use it to coordinate/share calendars. Never worked correctly for me.

And that is the biggest complaint I have with iCloud. I have several devices that will not show shared calendars. I've checked the setup... Drives me nuttier than I already am, so I just live with it.

 

[jpmapple]

Couldn't agree more. What a mess. And constantly nagging me with the free trial of Apple Music despite having already said no AND having turned it off on the settings. I asked a 'genius' about this and of course he had no actual response or solution. "Uhh did you turn it off in Settings?" Yes boo, I did. The iPod app is dead.

Edit: and iTunes, though admittedly better than the last clusterf**k of a version, is still suffering from a deep identity crisis.

I couldn't agree more. Maybe I’m a simpleton but I just wish Apple could get the basics right. The player is the number one reason I don’t subscribe to Apple Music. It's ugly, hard to read and the navigation is horrible.

To Apple:
1. You invented swiping so when a song is maximized why can’t I swipe to navigate thru songs? I have to locate the tiny back/forward icons to go thru every song. Incredibly annoying if on the go.

2. The scrubbing slider to fast forward is almost invisible at the left-most part of the screen when a song starts. Why not use the same type of slider as the volume slider?

3. In the song listing use a black font instead of light gray for the artist. I really wish the industry would move past the light gray text on while and gray backgrounds.

4. In the song listing get rid of the miniature album art. It’s too scrunched to recognize what it is.

5. Black and gray icons on a gray background looks like it was designed in Microsoft Paint in the 90’s.

6. Why is the A-Z quick nav bar on the right? 90% of users hold their phone in their left hand so reaching across screen to select a teenie tiny letter is very awkward.

7. Please, please, please fix and improve the IOS lock screen music controls. They’re in the absolute worst position being at the top of the screen, especially with the larger iPhones. You have to reposition the phone to another position in your hand to actually use the controls. They should be closer to the bottom. Why is the scrubbing slider on row 2 at the very top of the screen? Why is the volume slider two pixels away from the back/play/forward buttons? Half of the time I inadvertently click one of these buttons while trying to change the volume. I’ve tried using the iPhone side volume buttons but they aren’t precise enough - either too loud or too soft. Why is the volume slider unresponsive at times and why does the slider’s white circle jump back or forward when I release my finger? I have to concentrate to lift my finger perfectly from the screen. Lastly, why can’t I swipe to navigate songs? Apple, you invented swiping. Use it.

Apple is great at hardware and OS but really needs to improve on UI and app design.

 

[navaira]

Honestly, Apple. I'm not even trying. This took five minutes and both fit exactly the same space.

Credits are a bit of a mess as I just copy/pasted them from Wikipedia but I think the idea is pretty clear.

 

[johngordon]

Honestly, Apple. I'm not even trying. This took five minutes and both fit exactly the same space.

View attachment 630261

View attachment 630264

Credits are a bit of a mess as I just copy/pasted them from Wikipedia but I think the idea is pretty clear.

That if you start squishing writing credits in it starts to look a bit of a mess?

Sorry. To be fair most people probably aren't too interested in having that info always visible like that, but there's maybe an argument for having it in there somewhere.

I work quite a lot with database and UI, and the trouble you start to run into is that you have a fixed space available for various columns, but the amount of information that needs to fit in those columns can vary enormously.

So for example, looking at the two images above, if all song titles and genres were as short and those ones, each column could be narrower, and you could comfortably add in another for writing credits.

Its probably the sort of thing that would make sense with 3D touch - tap to play a track, or a hard press to bring up more detailed info about the track.

 

[SSDGUY]

Funny how many people say the same thing about the horrendous Spotify mess UI
... Well, everyone's got their preference.
As for Itunes, it's been essentially the same for a long long time, so not sure what you're getting at; for me, it never was a smooth experience EVER.

I think it's been getting exponentially worse for that last couple years. Back in the days with "cover flow", I was reasonably comfortable with it. At least it was easy to quickly get back the actual song/album that was playing. Now it's just completely madding. Spotify isn't perfect by any means but compared to iTunes, it's like the Mac vs Windows days, IMO.

 

[johngordon]

I think it's been getting exponentially worse for that last couple years. Back in the days with "cover flow", I was reasonably comfortable with it. At least it was easy to quickly get back the actual song/album that was playing. Now it's just completely madding. Spotify isn't perfect by any means but compared to iTunes, it's like the Mac vs Windows days, IMO.

It doesn't seem that complicated, at least on the iPhone.

I tend to have My Music tab sorted by artist.

I find the artist I want to listen to, and tap on them.

I find the album I want to listen to, and tap on it.

Once its playing, you can tap on the mini player at the bottom to view the album art and larger controls.

To get back to the album listing, tap on the little arrow icon in the top right.

I'm sure I can't be some sort of genius to not find that too complicated.

 

[navaira]

So for example, looking at the two images above, if all song titles and genres were as short and those ones, each column could be narrower, and you could comfortably add in another for writing credits.

Those particular credits would stretch each song to about 500px vertical though.

Anyway, just showing that all this black space could have been used better – I really don't see why we need "Hip-Hop/Rap " and "2016" repeated next to each song. It would make sense on a compilation but it's not used either, "Greatest Hits" by Queen shows 1981 next to each song. And genre is "rock". Good, concise description of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Rock.

 

[johngordon]

Those particular credits would stretch each song to about 500px vertical though.

Anyway, just showing that all this black space could have been used better – I really don't see why we need "Hip-Hop/Rap " and "2016" repeated next to each song. It would make sense on a compilation but it's not used either, "Greatest Hits" by Queen shows 1981 next to each song. And genre is "rock". Good, concise description of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Rock.

It depends how you do it - you could potentially just have two lines of text with a 'more...' link to show the rest.

If you have rows and columns, it will usually look better how it currently is, rather than each row have a second row within it which spans the full width of the parent row.

And as I said above, how much black space there is depends on the amount of text in each column. Unfortunately for the UI you have to design it to fit the largest amount of content rather than the smallest.

On the one hand, I guess the genre could be included in the main album info above the track listing - although there could easily be albums that span different genres. And arguably, if there is black space to be filled, you're as well to include stuff that can fit in the space (such as genre), rather then stuff which often won't be able to, such as full writing credits.

Trust me - designing layouts like this is a lot trickier than it looks!

 

[SSDGUY]

It doesn't seem that complicated, at least on the iPhone.

I tend to have My Music tab sorted by artist.

I find the artist I want to listen to, and tap on them.

I find the album I want to listen to, and tap on it.

Once its playing, you can tap on the mini player at the bottom to view the album art and larger controls.

To get back to the album listing, tap on the little arrow icon in the top right.

I'm sure I can't be some sort of genius to not find that too complicated.

I was referring to the the desktop version, which is anything but intuitive. But I'm sure you're equally more gifted there as well. I know many great UI designers who share my frustration. Sheesh what are they thinking?

 

[adamhenry]

Apple's music app is an app that any fan of Rube Goldberg devices would love.

 

[PowerPC4lyf]

I miss iTunes 10

Then go back to it, use OldApps.com and download it. I use 11.4 just fine from this site. Can't stand 12 onwards

 

[Smartass]

I agree - clear cache button would be nice. For now, just turn off then on the Apple Music button.

Where? you mean the "Show apple music" toggle in the settings?

 

[whsbuss]

Where? you mean the "Show apple music" toggle in the settings?

The iCloud Music Library setting.

 

[Smartass]

wow thank you for this! you dont know how much nerves, time and storage space you saved me with this.

 

[whsbuss]

wow thank you for this! you dont know how much nerves, time and storage space you saved me with this.

No problem. It deletes the music cache of all that streamed music.