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Current iOS Music app is GARBAGE

Do you agree with my sentiments?

  • yes

    Votes: 113 62.1%

  • no

    Votes: 51 28.0%

  • 1st world problems much?

    Votes: 18 9.9%
  • Total voters
    182
Smallpaw

Smallpaw

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 29, 2013
19
17
Does anyone else here feel like the current iOS music app is...
  • visually cluttered
  • unintuitive to navigate
  • punishing towards users who don't subscribe to iTunes Match or Apple Music
  • too many options for navigation (gone is visual simplicity and ease of use)
  • presumptuous: Apple ASSUMES that we want "Recently Added" playlists to ALWAYS be showing and that we want "connect" and "radio" to be an unchangeable feature on the bottom bar

I miss the old days where the bottom bar had Artists, Songs, Albums, and Playlists, all of which led to clean scrolling through NAMES (not artwork) which was a very clean look.

In many ways I think the music app is indicative of a direction Apple is taking that personally I don't like. Maybe I found the place where I would've been content for technology to "freeze", and now me and my way of using my devices and digital content is a thing of the past.

I'm curious, AM I ALONE?

If I only I had a way of downgrading my device, I swear I'd go back to iOS 6 just for the music app.
 
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I agree with most of your points. I resurrected my iPod classic and love it. It focuses on music. I miss being able to make playlists on the fly and having access to new purchases without iTunes, but for my main music storage I am in love with my classic. For on the fly I use my 6S+.
 
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Yep, I myself recently engaged in an eBay hunt and now use an original white iPod, the 4th generation one. So yeah, I've turned to 11 year old technology as an IMPROVEMENT on today's "cutting edge". iPod UI was the magic recipe and it transferred decently to iOS. Anyone remember Steve Jobs marveling at SCROLLING when we unveiled the iPhone?? Now, even scrolling through music is a touchy and unintuitive business with the screen being littered with buttons (most of which are useless for how I listen to music, which is just find it quickly, adjust volume quickly, and skip through tracks quickly.)
 
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Smallpaw said:
Yep, I myself recently engaged in an eBay hunt and now use an original white iPod, the 4th generation one. So yeah, I've turned to 11 year old technology as an IMPROVEMENT on today's "cutting edge". iPod UI was the magic recipe and it transferred decently to iOS. Anyone remember Steve Jobs marveling at SCROLLING when we unveiled the iPhone?? Now, even scrolling through music is a touchy and unintuitive business with the screen being littered with buttons (most of which are useless for how I listen to music, which is just find it quickly, adjust volume quickly, and skip through tracks quickly.)
Click to expand...

It sucks. I'm hoping someone in Cupertino gets a swift kick in the ass and realizes this isn't the best design.
 
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I still remain one of the five people who actually LIKES the Recently Added sections. :rolleyes:

But yeah, I agree. The artist list in particular is very redundant. You don't need to know how many albums or songs you have, nor do the artist photos help. Lots of people look the same, and group photos are no good.
 
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Smallpaw said:
Does anyone else here feel like the current iOS music app is...
  • visually cluttered
  • unintuitive to navigate
  • punishing towards users who don't subscribe to iTunes Match or Apple Music
  • too many options for navigation (gone is visual simplicity and ease of use)
  • presumptuous: Apple ASSUMES that we want "Recently Added" playlists to ALWAYS be showing and that we want "connect" and "radio" to be an unchangeable feature on the bottom bar

I miss the old days where the bottom bar had Artists, Songs, Albums, and Playlists, all of which led to clean scrolling through NAMES (not artwork) which was a very clean look.

In many ways I think the music app is indicative of a direction Apple is taking that personally I don't like. Maybe I found the place where I would've been content for technology to "freeze", and now me and my way of using my devices and digital content is a thing of the past.

I'm curious, AM I ALONE?

If I only I had a way of downgrading my device, I swear I'd go back to iOS 6 just for the music app.
Click to expand...

Well I guess it could be going both ways. There might be people that say why would I want artists, composers, genres etc to use up the bottom bar when I am always in albums anyway. I much prefer the pop up list now, because for my use case it removes clutter.

Options menu could definitely be tweaked, which they already done for 9. In 8 the pop up lists were a cruel joke in how long their were.
I also wouldn't mind if they add a rewind and forward button to the mini player, like it is on iPads. There is enough space for that for sure.

I also think a lot of people don't like they new app because they are used to the old way. My friend was the same until I told him about up next and the benefit of the mini player, and now he cannot go back.

Of course it could be better but I don't understand why people think it's absolutely terrible. The mini player and up next runs circles around the old way of navigation and selecting new songs.
Also universal search and playlists sync for the win.
 
Last edited:
It's so strange. I still to this day have no idea how to use it or how to just put my library on random.

Who designed this?
 
I've had this bug since the beginning now where if I try and delete something from Up Next, and somehow accidentally delete and move things up and down at the same time, it gets stuck and will only just let me move things and not delete them until the current song is over.

That's a mouthful, I hope that was understandable, heh.

Songs marked as skipped still play too.

It's not just the design change, it's the fact that they took away stuff that a lot of people use, like shuffling your entire library and not just discographies of artists.
 
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I disagree. I love the app and the only thing I don't use is Connect. I like the "New" categories as well as "For You". I've discovered a lot of new music this way.

No complaints about my library too. Much cleaner than Google music for sure.
 
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My points for hating it

1. I have to forcefully see recently added music
2. It will display permanent banner to show online music if I hide purchases
3. Album scrolling is stuttery. Especially on iPad Air 2.
4. The whole app has been designed for consumers to push them to pay for Apple Music.
5. I get a vibe that, if I am listening to my own music, I am unwelcome to use it
6. No dark mode. So when I want to relax and listen to some late night music when lights are off, I would be blinded by the intense whites of the App's UI. Eyes hurt.

So basically it's money money money, business for Apple. True passion for music which made the original iPod and iPhone great, is now...... lost!
 
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I totally agree that the Music App is way too complicated and confusing as it is right now. I think it tries to do way too much thing (Music Player, iCloud music downloads, Apple Music).

However, before hunting for an used iPod, consider installing one of the many good music player App on the App Store. I personally use "Ecoute" for iOS, but I also liked "Listen" a lot.

They both use the same Music library as the default one.
 
I still remain somewhat neutral towards the new music app. It gets the job done for me; it stores and plays music. Simple as that. What's not simple though is the options.... What the hell is "start station?" I don't even have Apple Music enabled, and why is that radio option showing up? And what does that exactly do? Thankfully, I never have to see the clutter of menu options that takes up entire screen by not clicking on •••.

However, I do have some issues with the new Music app:

It often takes a couple of seconds to load the app. Sometimes I'm stuck on white screen more than 5 seconds. It's strange because I disabled cellular setting for Music.

I also use iPhone 4 with iOS 7.1.2. I noticed that fonts are thinner on the new music app.

I have to slide up the bottom display to use forward, rewind and slider

The app shows "recently added," but I can't organize music by "date added." I would have loved that.

And like many others said, half of bottom buttons are taken up by Apple Music features... I don't know about US, but in Canada I can't use Radio without subscribing to Apple Music. And... "Connect"...?
 
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e93to said:
It often takes a couple of seconds to load the app. Sometimes I'm stuck on white screen more than 5 seconds. It's strange because I disabled cellular setting for Music.
Click to expand...

YES! Why is this?? I have done the same thing, disabled cellular for music. It's incredibly frustrating? My music is literally THERE on my device, downloaded and synced from iTunes. Why should there be a delay??

Anyone else had this issue?

Also can anyone recommend an alternative music app to use on iPhone?
 
It's so unintuitive now I've given up on using it. Whomever approved the design changes is clearly not concerned with user experience. It's horrible.
 
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I've started using deezer for my music I really don't like apples new music app like people above have said the old versions was much better.....
 
It is so bad. The other day I opened the app up, clicked on the artist, then album, then I pressed play. And you know what happened? The album played. I was so pissed.
 
I hate that if you enable "only offline music", it adds a persistent banner/warning to the top of the list that says "Showing only music on this phone. Show All Music". I know it's showing only music on this phone, I specifically went out of my way to find that hidden setting! I don't need a constant reminder taking up space on the screen.
 
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In my opinion, It's over-complicated the process.

I remember an old video from when Palm OS was around where they claimed that there was a person whose only job was to count the number of taps it took to complete an action. If it took more than 3, then it had to be re-designed. With the new design of the app, the interface has been complicated.

If you want to go to an artist from first opening the app on the old design:
1. Tap on the music app
2. Tap on the artist tab
3. Tap on the alphabet location
4. Tap on the artist

The new interface requires:
1. Tap on the music app
2. Tap on the My Music tab (note it doesn't have anything to do with what I really want)
3. Tap on the drop down
4. Tap on the Artist button (two buttons to get to artist)
5. Scroll down slightly to see the alphabet location (This is the part that really annoys me)
6. Tap on the alphabet location
7. Tap on the artist

This adds 3 taps to the process - almost doubling the number of taps required, and the 3 added taps have nothing to do with the intention of getting to the artist. It's only housekeeping for the new design.

The new interface isn't friendly to re-discovery within your own collection, and the nostalgia factor of finding an old album that you forgot about has gotten significantly harder to achieve.

On top of all this, when Apple Music is showing, 4/5 of your tabs are devoted to other people's content. If you want to listen to your own content, and only your own content, the entire bottom bar is useless to you. You only select one tab, and ignore the rest. Also, you can't edit those tabs like you used to. For something as personal as music taste, it's disappointing to see the options go away.

The album sorting is also pretty annoying to me on the new design. On the old version, you could switch between album sorting by artist and by album title right in the app. Now I need to go to the settings app and change it there.

On the up-side, Things that I do like:
1. The now playing bar at the bottom is really nice, and I like the design
2. Only offline music is a nice feature to have right there.

I... uh... am having a hard time on this part... I tried.
 
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I quit using iTunes and Apples music App on my phone about 2 years ago. I've been using Google play exclusively across all of my devices and I couldn't be happier. Now if Google would just hurry up and update the Play Music app for ATV compatibility.
 
I partly agree with the sentiment that apple music blows. I want it to be great, I switched from spotify and I have been using it quite a bit.

Pros:
For you section is really learning to give me some good ideas I wouldn't have otherwise discovered. I for one get looped into listening to the same stuff over and over in my library so mostly I now use this feature to discover great stuff, its like taking the iPod shuffle feature and applying it to your tastes across an entire universe of music.
Exclusives- Usually don't care much for this but was pleasantly surprised by the new Eric Church album
Deep selection
Tied into the apple ecosystem which I have been entrenched in and will further pursue with apple tv eventually

On the downside I've had a lot of UI issues and song location clusterf#$%s, updates rearranging things or making them disappear etc.
Big frustration was the available offline option for album that I still think does not function correctly. I believe one still has to individually add the tracks even if you've selected the album image it doesn't seem to add it to device.
Also hate when these services use my cellular data without asking.

Bottom line is they are working on it, I had a good talk with a support rep detailing the issues and I do think it isn't as bad as say the Maps debacle. I'm gonna stick with it.
 
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