The New section of Apple Music has 15(!) different subsections and it can be filtered by 22(!) genres. Whoever designed this portion of the app forgot about 1000 noes for every yes.
- New Music
- Hot Tracks
- Recent Releases
- Top Songs
- Hot Albums
- Discovered on Connect: Audio
- Discovered on Connect: Video
- Apple Music Editors Playlists
- Playlists based on Activities
- Curated Playlists (from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork etc.)
- Recommended Music Videos
- Summertime Playlists
- New Artists
- Spotlight on Sia
- Alternative Essentials
Pretty easy to look at that least and decide which areas might be of interest to someone to investigate further. It simply adds depth to the discovery process. I don't care about music videos, Sia eta so I can easily just ignore those.
Maybe I just want to check out hot tracks so I hit new and then click on hot tracks. Then I can see a list of hot tracks and listen to any of them. Even better the new section lists the top five hot tracks under the clearly delineated heading. So if I decide I want to listen to the hottest track I little hit new, scroll down a little bit and click on the track. Two clicks and a little scroll from the main menu.
I could see how this could be a bigger issue if the sections were not clearly delineated and headlined but they are.
If I want to see curator lists, I click new scroll down to the curator list section and then I am presented with a list of twenty different external curated lists.
So if I want to see what playlists Vice is suggesting I click new click curated playlists click give then I am presented with a selection of different play lists related to vice.com.
Not confusing, not time intensive, certainly useful if you are interested in the source of an outside curator.
The apple editors list takes you to a list of 29 genres and then they provide you a lot of options related to that genre.
The point is there is a ton of music and a ton of new music created on a daily basis. Creating pathways so tens of millions of people can find there way somewhere is not going to involve three buttons.
If you are not interested in the discovery process don't click the new button nobody is forced to hit it.
Just browsing through it you find a lot of interesting stuff, at least I do. It is a discovery process not a matchmaking site quiz.
Yes there is a lot in the new section a lot of good. They keep everything into 5 main categories. And you go from there. But there can't ever be too much in new because the whole point is to discover music. As long as the sections are clearly marked as they are and it is easily scrollable they could have 50 options there.
