Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Hands-On Walkthrough of Apple Music and Beats 1 Radio

Well so far it's very convoluted. Too much stuff in there. Doesn't really work as i expect it to. For example i wanted to add few albums i like to my music and then make them available offline - nothing happens. I can see them in my music, but they are in the cloud.

I have some songs i have purchased and if i use the option to show only songs available offline they are all there since i have downloaded them, but if i go to iTunes store app to the purchased section it shows them with a cloud icon on the right as if they are in the cloud, but not downloaded.


It takes some skill to make it so convoluted and unintuitive.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Traverse, Rogifan and Boatboy24
The interface makes zero sense. Why is it, if you are in iTunes and I click on The Chronic it doesn't provide a button to stream OR buy? Instead it still only offers purchase. It took me 5 minutes to figure out how to actually, stream the stupid album. It feels really clunky as heck. Like none of the people programming and designing each area ever talked to each other.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MacrumoursUser
Anyone know how to add a song from Beats 1 to a playlist with iTunes? Can't figure it out at all.
 
I can't get my local iTunes library to show up on my phone. Shows up on both my iPad and Mini but no matter what I do it won't sync to my phone after multiple tries and settings are the same across devices. Makes me want stop even trying this and continue with Google All Access.
 
JackieInCo said:
What kind of music gets played on Beats 1?
Click to expand...

This morning there were two back to back Rolling Stones songs. It seems like they are throwing in a variety of things - I tune in when I'm in the mood for something different, and if something comes on that I hate, I switch to a playlist or check out the New tab.
 
Anyone know of a way to rename user created radio stations? Instead of Artist Name Radio, I'd like to rename it to Rock or Pop or whatever. Is that possible?
 
malexandria said:
The interface makes zero sense. Why is it, if you are in iTunes and I click on The Chronic it doesn't provide a button to stream OR buy? Instead it still only offers purchase. It took me 5 minutes to figure out how to actually, stream the stupid album. It feels really clunky as heck. Like none of the people programming and designing each area ever talked to each other.
Click to expand...
I'm seeing a lot of tweets and blog posts complanning about the UX. Unfortunately I have to agree. It seems like rather than going back to the drawing board and designing something from the ground up Apple just checked off a bunch of features from the list and cobbled them together into an app. The New section has 15 different subsections, many of them similar (what exactly is the difference between recent and new?). Playlists are scattered across For You, New and My Music. Plus you have the genre specific radio stations under the radio section. And once you leave something it's not that intuitive how to get back to where you were. And on the desktop they took an existing load it up and just bolted on Apple Music. Madness.

Honestly I think the UX makes it more difficult to discover new stuff because there are so many different places to look for it. Do I go to hot new tracks or new releases? Or do I go to Apple's curated playlists? And if I go that route is it better to go through the playlists by Apple's editors that are organized by genre or start with the ones on the a For You tab? The New section includes playlists by activities and also a section for summertime playlists. What do either of those have to do with new music? Maybe instead there should be one section for playlists rather than having them scattered across For You, New and My Music.

I would love to see Apple streamline this app but I fear it's a long time coming as it's much easier to add than to take away. Which is kind of scary because it means an already bloated app could become even more bloated.
 
  • Like
Reactions: M. Gustave
Rogifan said:
Ok. Is there anyway to dislike something so I can tell Apple Music what not to send my way (knowing it's impossible to perfect curation).
Click to expand...

Other than the initial bubbles that you were able to delete, I haven't seen a way to do that.
 
Rogifan said:
I'm seeing a lot of tweets and blog posts complanning about the UX. Unfortunately I have to agree. It seems like rather than going back to the drawing board and designing something from the ground up Apple just checked off a bunch of features from the list and cobbled them together into an app. The New section has 15 different subsections, many of them similar (what exactly is the difference between recent and new?). Playlists are scattered across For You, New and My Music. Plus you have the genre specific radio stations under the radio section. And once you leave something it's not that intuitive how to get back to where you were. And on the desktop they took an existing load it up and just bolted on Apple Music. Madness.

Honestly I think the UX makes it more difficult to discover new stuff because there are so many different places to look for it. Do I go to hot new tracks or new releases? Or do I go to Apple's curated playlists? And if I go that route is it better to go through the playlists by Apple's editors that are organized by genre or start with the ones on the a For You tab? The New section includes playlists by activities and also a section for summertime playlists. What do either of those have to do with new music? Maybe instead there should be one section for playlists rather than having them scattered across For You, New and My Music.

I would love to see Apple streamline this app but I fear it's a long time coming as it's much easier to add than to take away. Which is kind of scary because it means an already bloated app could become even more bloated.
Click to expand...


They could start by adding a simple download button for every song or album. This 'make available offline' thing is very confusing. And if i downloaded it it should be in my library if i didn't download it it should show a cloud icon somewhere - simple why this convoluted "show music available offline" option.

Occam's razor - simplest solution is the best. Almost always.
 
Hate, HATE it! I have no idea what the heck it is even doing and now I have 3 or 4 different playlists for EVERYTHING on my phone and in my iTunes and I can't even stream most of the system. My library just seems like an utter ***** MESS now.
 
Apple Music was a let down. Bad quality on the sound as well on my DT770 and studio monitors. Unintuitive. iTunes just is not as good as it used to be. Want to create playlist by dragging and dropping songs forget it.
Renewing my Spotify premium.
 
MacrumoursUser said:
They could start by adding a simple download button for every song or album. This 'make available offline' thing is very confusing. And if i downloaded it it should be in my library if i didn't download it it should show a cloud icon somewhere - simple why this convoluted "show music available offline" option.

Occam's razor - simplest solution is the best. Almost always.
Click to expand...
I noticed with playlists inside of My Music when you tap the ellipse it has an option to add to playlist but when you select it it includes the playlist you're currently in and if you mistakenly select that playlist it adds all those songs again so they're effectively duplicated. Really Apple?
 
DamoTheBrave said:
My first impressions / issues.
  1. Siri works well if you ask for the exact match. When I say Play 'Artist' Siri gives me a message to Open music. When I open it the artist I've requested is not displayed.
  2. Can't find an EQ (on iPhone). I miss it from Spotify and find the music too tiny through in-ear earphones.
  3. I don't find the interface overwhelming (not yet anyway)
  4. I have family sharing turned on in iCloud but failed to set it up here. Maybe all need to be on 8.4.
  5. I would have liked to have seen an error message saying why it wasn't working rather than just 'not available'
Overall it's bye-bye Spotify for me - I would like to see the EQ and probably lyrics sooner rather than later though. Good first start -even if late.
Click to expand...


EQ is in Settings-Music in settings on iPhone. It's a little limited but it's there.
 
Rogifan said:
I noticed with playlists inside of My Music when you tap the ellipse it has an option to add to playlist but when you select it it includes the playlist you're currently in and if you mistakenly select that playlist it adds all those songs again so they're effectively duplicated. Really Apple?
Click to expand...

Indeed. Actually all services are like that basically. Simply too much info everywhere and what's worse its duplicated from place to place.
 
Looks like there's no way to display lyrics and star ratings anymore?

Edit: never mind, found star ratings. I guess Lyrics are a no-go, though.
 
Looks like i found my new home *Hugs Apple music*

After doing a good search (like i always do deep tests) :) looks promising. even though first day still i wish itunes always had wild fm albums, Spotify doesn't even have these.

Some albums like Running Trax are not available for streaming :( I was under the impression everything is on the store....

Oh well... Glad i have my local library for that anyway.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Arndroid
Does anybody know how to find the music that is actually on their phone? If I'm on the subway it still shows me every single thing that's in the cloud and not just what is on my phone. Beats Music had a (faulty) offline mode, I wish Apple Music had the same.
 
jonmannon said:
Does anybody know how to find the music that is actually on their phone? If I'm on the subway it still shows me every single thing that's in the cloud and not just what is on my phone. Beats Music had a (faulty) offline mode, I wish Apple Music had the same.
Click to expand...

I think if you go into the app, click on my music, then click on artist or song list tab, whatever you have showing, then toggle off make music available offline, it will show you locally stored music.
 
I'm not a fan right now. While I appreciate what they tried to do Beats was far better. Heck none of my Beats list transferred over. Nothing. While my iTunes Match is there I don't have my beats lists. Which would be fine but in the "for you" section of the app I'm only given a couple things to look at. Beats I could explore a lot. I hope this gets better over time. Beats 1 is ok but the music selection isn't for me. It's nice background music though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back