'Industry Scuttlebutt' Hints Apple May Be Planning February Revamp for Beats Music

[mr666]

The danger in "re-branding" is that people who were already a bit confused are then totally unable to get their heads around the choices for "multi-media", as it was once called, or "A-V" if we go back 50 years.

Right now, new Mac OS users are confused as to why iTunes categorizes and plays movies, QuickTime plays but doesn't categorize movies, and iPhoto categorizes but doesn't play movies. Add to that the annoyance that iMovie is really i-Create-Movie-Projects, not a full tilt app for everything about movies, and you have a tangled mess. One app strictly for movies and one strictly for music would settle the dust a bit, and ensure that new users don't throw up their hands and go right back to Windows. The syncing of all data (contacts, email, music, movies, photos, etc.) should be handled by one centralized app, not by iTunes or anything else. The problem would be what to call an "i" app that is dedicated to sync..... hmmm... wait a moment. I sync I know the answer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISync

 

[3282868]

The danger in "re-branding" is that people who were already a bit confused are then totally unable to get their heads around the choices for "multi-media", as it was once called, or "A-V" if we go back 50 years.

Right now, new Mac OS users are confused as to why iTunes categorizes and plays movies, QuickTime plays but doesn't categorize movies, and iPhoto categorizes but doesn't play movies. Add to that the annoyance that iMovie is really i-Create-Movie-Projects, not a full tilt app for everything about movies, and you have a tangled mess. One app strictly for movies and one strictly for music would settle the dust a bit, and ensure that new users don't throw up their hands and go right back to Windows. The syncing of all data (contacts, email, music, movies, photos, etc.) should be handled by one centralized app, not by iTunes or anything else. The problem would be what to call an "i" app that is dedicated to sync..... hmmm... wait a moment. I sync I know the answer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISync

Yup, exactly what I stated below

 

[TsMkLg068426]

Wish iTunes Radio was more like Spotify no one wants to pay extra for Beats when it is part of Apple.

 

[patent10021]

So I registered for Beats to try it out since people were saying they loved it. WTF? It's nothing special and certainly not better than iTunes Radio.

Where do I start.

Awkward navigation. iTunes Radio is much more simplified. You search for an artist and you get a nice cover and boom that's your radio station. Listen to a nice stream and discover similar artists and make more stations. Done.

When you open iTunes Radio the first thing you get is all your stations. That's how it should be.

Is Beats only in the US? it's extremely limited in genre scope. Maybe it's only good for Top40. Here are some of my artists. You can find them but often there are no playlists and sometimes no artists photos etc. Only like 30 followers etc. Clearly only US followers.

FKA Twigs
Little Dragons
James Blake
Toro Y Moi
Lapalux
SBTRKT


I like how in iTunes Radio you can search for an artist and make a radio station from an artist or song. In Beats you click the + sign and add to playlist but that's not the same as your own radio station dedicated to that genre.

You only get a 14 day trial then it kicks you out? If that's the case then I should be getting 14 days of full songs not samples.

If you're not listening to a curated playlist which tends to be mediocre at best, all of the songs are only Apple Store like samples. And since there are usually no playlists of rare artists, using the app is useless since I'm only listening to short samples of their "recent releases" or something.

And that Tune Your Taste UI with all the circle bubbles floating around is pure rubbish. Just give me a nice list of artists like iTunes Radio.

I've also gotten lost in pages where I've had to click the back button countless times to get where I was before.

Beats app does not feel like an Apple product. It feels like an app new to the streaming game or some kind of app that mostly Windows Twitter users use or something. It's exactly the same as Ping was. Sorry I just don't get it.

Apple needs to get iTunes Radio to all countries. Hopefully Beats doesn't slow things down.

EDIT: Impression. iTunes Radio = discovery; Beats = I don't know.


.

 

[TheWatchfulOne]

The danger in "re-branding" is that people who were already a bit confused are then totally unable to get their heads around the choices for "multi-media", as it was once called, or "A-V" if we go back 50 years.

Right now, new Mac OS users are confused as to why iTunes categorizes and plays movies, QuickTime plays but doesn't categorize movies, and iPhoto categorizes but doesn't play movies. Add to that the annoyance that iMovie is really i-Create-Movie-Projects, not a full tilt app for everything about movies, and you have a tangled mess. One app strictly for movies and one strictly for music would settle the dust a bit, and ensure that new users don't throw up their hands and go right back to Windows. The syncing of all data (contacts, email, music, movies, photos, etc.) should be handled by one centralized app, not by iTunes or anything else. The problem would be what to call an "i" app that is dedicated to sync..... hmmm... wait a moment. I sync I know the answer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISync

Completely agree! I've been thinking this for awhile. Although you say iPhoto doesn't play movies, I'm pretty sure it does. I really wish it didn't. In fact I wish the iPhoto libraries weren't even able to contain movies.

I remember iSync too. I used to play around with it "syncing" my Motorola Razr (a phone which I thought was pretty decent until Jan. 2007) with my Mac via Bluetooth. Of course it was only one way synchronization with the difference in storage formats resulting in duplicate contact entries in either the phone or my Mac.

I would love to see iSync return.

 

[jonnysods]

Hey guys, how about releasing iTunes Radio in Canada, seeing as I've been a Match customer for 2 flippin years.

Then change Beats.

 

[Gasu E.]

Scuttlebutt

There was a guy I went to High School with whose last name was "Scuttlebutt". No really, I swear!

 

[Teddy's]

word of the day

And let's not forget "Fred Scuttle" and "The Daily Scuttle" from The Benny Hill Show

 

[CL4W]

If you closely listen to what Cook said in the interview with Charlie Rose, youd see that Apple was always after the patents and the people, not the actual music service. Beats has patents on its music prediction software based on what you listen to or have in your playlist. Again apple going after the "making people feel different" theme. They will certainly incorporate this software in their itunes or a standalone client.

 

[lk400]

The danger in "re-branding" is that people who were already a bit confused are then totally unable to get their heads around the choices for "multi-media", as it was once called, or "A-V" if we go back 50 years.

Right now, new Mac OS users are confused as to why iTunes categorizes and plays movies, QuickTime plays but doesn't categorize movies, and iPhoto categorizes but doesn't play movies. Add to that the annoyance that iMovie is really i-Create-Movie-Projects, not a full tilt app for everything about movies, and you have a tangled mess. One app strictly for movies and one strictly for music would settle the dust a bit, and ensure that new users don't throw up their hands and go right back to Windows. The syncing of all data (contacts, email, music, movies, photos, etc.) should be handled by one centralized app, not by iTunes or anything else. The problem would be what to call an "i" app that is dedicated to sync..... hmmm... wait a moment. I sync I know the answer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISync

While I understand your point, and it could be cleaner, are people really confused with those things? Ive helped many people new to mac over the years, at varying ages and levels, and while nobody knew the answers to those questions first off - after very little of "click and see what it does" worked things out. Frustrating - perhaps at times. Neat silos for audio, video etc - not entirely. But confusing? Its hard to imagine.

 

[EwanMcTeagle]

The danger in "re-branding" is that people who were already a bit confused are then totally unable to get their heads around the choices for "multi-media", as it was once called, or "A-V" if we go back 50 years.

Right now, new Mac OS users are confused as to why iTunes categorizes and plays movies, QuickTime plays but doesn't categorize movies, and iPhoto categorizes but doesn't play movies. Add to that the annoyance that iMovie is really i-Create-Movie-Projects, not a full tilt app for everything about movies, and you have a tangled mess. One app strictly for movies and one strictly for music would settle the dust a bit, and ensure that new users don't throw up their hands and go right back to Windows. The syncing of all data (contacts, email, music, movies, photos, etc.) should be handled by one centralized app, not by iTunes or anything else. The problem would be what to call an "i" app that is dedicated to sync..... hmmm... wait a moment. I sync I know the answer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISync

I fully concur with that!
It's incredible that a company that has "user experience" on its forefront has messed up so much when it comes to their apps. Thankfully iPhoto is going to die and be replaced by Photos, though we shall see if it's for the best.
But the mess right now is incredible, with iTunes and AppStore on OSX and Music, iTunes and AppStore on iOS doing different things.
P.S. Oh, and Quicktime is basically useless - I use it once a year, mostly by accident. get rid of it or make it at least as useful as VLC.

I would opt for one app that handles all your purchases and syncing iPhone/iPads - an iSync equivalent wouldn't be bad as well, but I think there's no need to make 2 separate apps for these purposes.
Apart from that: Music/iTunes, iMovie/Quicktime, Photos/iPhoto and iBooks should be dedicated to handling their respective media formats with an addition of some basic editing powers for movie and photos apps.
Oh and for the love of God! Make the Photos/iPhotos app a normal preview/manager/basic editor app. No freaking libraries, events and such nonsense.
Anyway, either one purchase/sync app and separate media apps or the way you proposed. I could live and work with that. But Apple definitely needs to address the mess that's currently going on. Thank god I have Bridge to manage photos, but even Finder is better than iPhoto. Most people I know prefer to have their heads cut off than to deal with iPhoto.

 

[Glassed Silver]

[...]
For those of us using iTunes 12 beta, notice how this is halfway achieved? Each store is now accessed by the category you are in, that is you cannot access the Movie Store if you're in the Music section in iTunes.
[...]

Which I find horrible.
I sometimes spot other very interesting things along the way of looking for a movie, a TV show or any app.

Sometimes I like to just throw a word at iTunes Store search to see what they have in store (ba-dum-tsh) and explore a topic cross-section.

I'm also not overly fond of separate applications, as I switch back and forth between media of all kinds all the time.

Truth be told, I'm massively annoyed still by separating out the features of the old iPod app I used to have on my iPhone 4 back then.
Especially as the separation of those apps didn't seem to bring any real advantages I could notice till now beyond maybe the tab bar being a little more useful.

Also, not overly fond of Apple's handling of podcasts.
As an app, as the feature of iTunes, its reliability in both, ...

Glassed Silver:mac