Loving Apple music and think there is so much you can do... I do see some room for improvement in certain areas of usability but that will come with everyone using it and feedback being given. Amazing start! Thank you Apple 
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Apple Releases iOS 8.4 With Apple Music, Beats 1, and Revamped Music App
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Honestly I think a LOT of the issues right now is just crazy demand and server load. They have this brand new WORLDWIDE live radio station, all these user created stations, everyones libraries being uploaded and matched, everyone and their brother in the world trying to access all this music... I mean... its bound to have some issues until it all evens out. They aren't launching this like Spotify or others did where they launch and they organically grow user base over time. And we aren't just dealing with ONE type of service here either. Apple Music INSTANTLY had millions and millions of users on day one, trying to use and take advantage of its many services right off the bat. I have full confidence Apple will do what they need to do to support the load, but I also think it will all level off eventually too. There is a HUGE "oh look this is new and shiny, lets do it all right now constantly for a few days" factor to this right now.
My latest pain... after creating a new library, adding all the albums I wanted, copying in the ones I owned that were missing, and got it so I broadly had the collection I wanted, I ran into a few snags:
- the old iTunes Match issue remains - I have a bunch of live albums that I like, that aren't on the service. When I try to load them, Apple interprets them as a studio album by the same band instead and so matches it to that, instead of uploading.
- even more frustrating though, half the albums I have added to my music (from the Apple Music Store) only show a handful of tracks and you need to click a button to show the rest of the album. when you flag that album for offline only, it downloads only the original handful of tracks, not the whole album, even if you show full album before telling it to download. The only fix seems to be to remove downloads, remove from my music, search album, show all tracks, add to library, make available offline, cross fingers.
- I have several albums that I can stream, but I cannot download for offline use, it simply says it is unavailable.
This service has so much possibility, but so much of it is broken or missing. Basic things like flagging each track in an album list that you already have available offline, each album in the album list that you already have offline, are missing. The ability to tell it to make the album available offline and know that it does so for the full album and not just a subset. It's so painful. How hard is it to add that little icon not just on the album view but also the list view, spotify style? How hard is it to compare what you have downloaded with what's on the album and highlight with a similar icon, that it is only partially downloaded, allowing you to fix it with a menu, or better yet, fix it automatically itself by tracking whether you chose to download the album or the track.
I get that most of this is teething issues - but it's hard to believe this was thoroughly tested. The match issue is just terrible though. I get that they want to prevent people uploading flac versions of every album they own, that'd kill server space, but at the sametime, I have several legitimate mp3 albums that I cannot upload because Apple identifies them as something else already on the service.
I'm sticking with this for now. I want the OS integration. I like the family sharing. But damn, Spotify is slicker.
edit: another bug. I can stream/download Rock or Bust by AC/DC on iMac and iPhone from My Music. On my PC, all but 3 tracks are greyed out as unavailable to stream or download. If I search for the album on PC on Apple Music I can see they are all playable.
- the old iTunes Match issue remains - I have a bunch of live albums that I like, that aren't on the service. When I try to load them, Apple interprets them as a studio album by the same band instead and so matches it to that, instead of uploading.
- even more frustrating though, half the albums I have added to my music (from the Apple Music Store) only show a handful of tracks and you need to click a button to show the rest of the album. when you flag that album for offline only, it downloads only the original handful of tracks, not the whole album, even if you show full album before telling it to download. The only fix seems to be to remove downloads, remove from my music, search album, show all tracks, add to library, make available offline, cross fingers.
- I have several albums that I can stream, but I cannot download for offline use, it simply says it is unavailable.
This service has so much possibility, but so much of it is broken or missing. Basic things like flagging each track in an album list that you already have available offline, each album in the album list that you already have offline, are missing. The ability to tell it to make the album available offline and know that it does so for the full album and not just a subset. It's so painful. How hard is it to add that little icon not just on the album view but also the list view, spotify style? How hard is it to compare what you have downloaded with what's on the album and highlight with a similar icon, that it is only partially downloaded, allowing you to fix it with a menu, or better yet, fix it automatically itself by tracking whether you chose to download the album or the track.
I get that most of this is teething issues - but it's hard to believe this was thoroughly tested. The match issue is just terrible though. I get that they want to prevent people uploading flac versions of every album they own, that'd kill server space, but at the sametime, I have several legitimate mp3 albums that I cannot upload because Apple identifies them as something else already on the service.
I'm sticking with this for now. I want the OS integration. I like the family sharing. But damn, Spotify is slicker.
edit: another bug. I can stream/download Rock or Bust by AC/DC on iMac and iPhone from My Music. On my PC, all but 3 tracks are greyed out as unavailable to stream or download. If I search for the album on PC on Apple Music I can see they are all playable.
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It seems iTunes is more borked that iOS in regards to Apple Music. I'm finding that if I add an album to my music from iTunes it may work, or it may show only a subset of songs, it may even show some songs as unplayable. However if I add an album via iOS (after being sure I removed it from my music and downloads first) then it appears to add the whole album, and all playable. It'll still be borked in iTunes, but it seems to be fine on iOS. Adding in iTunes and it seems to get messed up everywhere, at least some of the time.
It seems iTunes is more borked that iOS in regards to Apple Music. I'm finding that if I add an album to my music from iTunes it may work, or it may show only a subset of songs, it may even show some songs as unplayable. However if I add an album via iOS (after being sure I removed it from my music and downloads first) then it appears to add the whole album, and all playable. It'll still be borked in iTunes, but it seems to be fine on iOS. Adding in iTunes and it seems to get messed up everywhere, at least some of the time.
I'm curious... For those of you having this issue ... As I understand it this is kind of what's happenin(I'm going to generalize and simplify for the sake of time and sanity) basically you guys are having the issue where say 6 months ago you purchased a song from the iTunes Store WITHOUT DRM. Now that Apple Music has done whatever to your libraries, when you try to download that track to your device(or computer) it's now a version with DRM on it without a way to get back your non DRM version? If this is indeed what some of your are experiencing have any of you tried to instead of downloading from within the music app, instead going to the iTunes Store and either searching for said song and redownloading from there (should show a cloud icon instead of the price, or maybe just GET now) . Or if it's all or a lot of your purchased music, try going to the purchased tab then click on "not on this iPad/iPod/ext" and download from that list.... But again from all within the iTunes Store and NOT Apple Music or the music app.
Some of you may have already tried this I don't know. I haven't updated iTunes on my PC yet in fear of issues. But I figured this might be worth a shot for someone, and aside from that I'm just damn curious if this would fix that one issue anyway.
Some of you may have already tried this I don't know. I haven't updated iTunes on my PC yet in fear of issues. But I figured this might be worth a shot for someone, and aside from that I'm just damn curious if this would fix that one issue anyway.
I still can believe how crap Apple's music app is, you still can't have your song list in artist order. I mean how basic a function is that, it is the default setting on the iTunes desktop version, so they must think it is important. I am not interested in the streaming thing, well not yet anyway, they will have to improve things and make it a lot less confusing before i start using it, but at the moment i just want a decent music app where i can find songs by artist easily. It is quite unbelievable how poor this app is considering Apple are supposed to be the market leaders.
This is not an experience I've hear many have with the iOS app, nor is it my experience. It's as easy as searching for the artist or song at the top of the screen. It's extremely easy to find an specific artist or song and stream it right away. I personally love the app, but I understand not everyone will. However to claim it's hard to search for and play a song is just downright not true.
Having to use the search facility to find your music is ridiculous, you shouldn't have to use a search facility, you should just be able so find them easily at a glance.
I find finding music on IOS awkward and long winded, so much easier to do it on the OS X desktop version, you can just scroll up and down being able to see all your songs at a glance in artist order, without having to search and click and open and close things all the time. I can make a playlist in 2 minutes on the desktop version, but it takes about 30 mins on the IOS version.
I just timed myself. Took me 15 seconds to create a new playlist on iOS and drop a few songs in it. No idea what your doing that's causing it to take you 30 min. Also, how do you suggest I look at all my 20,000 tracks quickly at a glance and find the one I want that quickly? I suggest you just take a deep breath and give it a real chance and learn how it works and where everything is at. Once you do that you will find its actually very easy and very quick as well. Way quicker than I was ever able to do previously on iOS and way quicker than I've EVER been able to on iTunes.
Love it. That person got schooled.
Most of the people whinging about the UX are just being obtuse. This is much better that it used to be. Loving it all. Love Up Next too.
The only people that don't need to search for artists are the people that only have about 10 different artists in their collection.
No that person never got schooled, he just couldn't be bothered to argue with someone who obviously has a lot more time on his hands than he does, and also lives on a different planet than he does.
ACTUALLY, I spent less time on my experiment than he did. Apparently it took him 30 min of his time to create a playlist were as it only took me 15 seconds. I personally don't have the time to use up 30 minutes to create a playlist like he did. I still have no clue how it took him 30 minutes to do so. I think he is just resistant to change and learning new things. BTW, I LOVE up next and have been begging for this on iOS forever!No that person never got schooled, he just couldn't be bothered to argue with someone who obviously has a lot more time on his hands than he does, and also lives on a different planet than he does.
Same here, can't understand why we didn't get up next sooner, use it all the time on iTunes.
Sometimes change is good.
Sometimes change is good.
On an iPhone 4s this experience suuuuuuuuucks. Just wasn't built with anything older than an iPhone 5 in mind. Seriously, did you just not even bother testing on an iPhone 4s?
As a UX guy, who routinlely needs to develop for old software and hardware, I understand hating to develop for everything. I'm looking at you IE7.
But I really don't think Apple should have left iPhone 4s family out in the cold. I think they have an obligation to support all devices that can still run the software (and that's just playing by their rules). It's the biggest issue today when it comes to mobile devices, I think. They are pushed out of current software and life cycle way before their true time has come. I love Apple, was raised by a father since 1984 to appreciate them. However their overall approach to iPhones is to just assume people can afford to keep up. Not cool Apple.
As a UX guy, who routinlely needs to develop for old software and hardware, I understand hating to develop for everything. I'm looking at you IE7.
But I really don't think Apple should have left iPhone 4s family out in the cold. I think they have an obligation to support all devices that can still run the software (and that's just playing by their rules). It's the biggest issue today when it comes to mobile devices, I think. They are pushed out of current software and life cycle way before their true time has come. I love Apple, was raised by a father since 1984 to appreciate them. However their overall approach to iPhones is to just assume people can afford to keep up. Not cool Apple.
Apple could make a lot of people happy by allowing customisation of the bottom menu, ESPECIALLY if Apple music is turned off. SO much wasted space and the new switcher is annoying. I've now had 12 people complain to me about it (I'm the go to Apple guy amongst friends) so I'm glad I'm not the only one.
Hmm ... I have several albums by one artist (Mark Knopfler) and in the previous iOS, I was able to shuffle the entire catalog. In the new version, this option appears to be unavailable. I can shuffle within one album, but not the entire list of albums. Am I missing something? The apparent workaround is to create a playlist with all songs and shuffle that, which is all well and good, but I did like the shuffle-all option as it used to be.
That's the only way to do it, but I would love the option to shuffle everything as well.
You can also trigger songs view in my music section an tap any song to play. Then you can shuffle by tapping that little button. You don't need to create a playlist for it. I think Apple guess this feature is a duplicate and not major users desire.
Same for me, I get a couple of crashes every day.
The service is good but the app is quite disappointing.