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Sorting albums chronologically is something that I'm glad to see make its way to iOS 7 (although I think there should be a toggle for those who sort alphabetically), but the error that I've found with how Apple has implemented chronological sorting is that it screws up sorting with compilation albums. When trying to sort compilation albums, the Music app will choose the year based on the oldest song from the album.

For instance, take The Beatles. Their first album is "Please, Please Me" from 1963. But when I tap on The Beatles in the Music app, the first album I see is "Anthology 1", a compilation album released in 1995. The reason this appears first is because there's a song on there that was recorded in 1961, and since this is the oldest song from this album, the Music app thinks this was somehow released in 1961, therefore it appears first.

What I wish Apple would do is have a toggle for both chronological sort and alphabetical sorting, but with the ability to leave both off, which could then default to your sorting order per the sort tags in iTunes.
 
Doesn't iOS7 honour the "sort album" tag when it's set?

For studio albums, yes, but it doesn't seem to be doing that for compilation albums. I should mention that I had this same issue with the iOS 6 iPad music app, when in artist view.

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Speaking of compilation albums, I'm wondering if anyone is also having this bug in the iOS 7 Music app...

I have some compilation albums that have various artists on them. Because there's various artists, while I fill out the correct artist for each track in the "artist" field, I leave the "album artist" label blank. This works well and in iTunes (and the Music app pre-iOS 7), it would just regulate them all to the Compilations area.

However, in the iOS 7 Music app, specifically in the Artists section, because there's no album artist filled out on these compilations, I now have multiple "Unknown Artist" listed throughout all my artists. And when I tap on each "Unknown Artist", it takes me to the same various artist compilations.

I'm an iTunes Match subscriber, so I don't know if it has anything to do with that, but I'd be curious if anyone else is having this same bug.

Thanks!
 
Maybe you fell victim to the weird "group by album artist" setting.

It doesn't only toggle grouping by album artist as the name suggests, it also toggles grouping by compilation. When I turn it on, the app behaves like it did on iOS6. When I turn it off, not only are album artist tags ignored, it also ignores compilation flags. I don't remember having this behaviour in iOS6, but maybe I'm wrong since I always leave it turned on.
 
Yeah in the control centre they are i don't know of any other way yet

Take a look at this screenshot.
Left: lock screen when music is not playing
Right: lock screen when music is playing, the controls are always there

1.jpg
 
Take a look at this screenshot.
Left: lock screen when music is not playing
Right: lock screen when music is playing, the controls are always there

Image

This is correct.

However, it takes a certain skill to use the scrubbing bar up top without just sliding to unlock. Even just tapping the lock screen causes it to bounce to the right.

And when you unlock, it's all flipped to the bottom. I keep getting mixed up because the music on the lock screen and music in the app look similar but operate differently.
 
I actually wonder why the iOS music app places such a strong emphasis on albums. Who the heck buys entire albums anymore? Maybe I'll buy one once in a very long while, but the vast majority of my music is individual song purchases, so when I browse by artist I see a huge mess of incomplete albums.

There should be a "I hardly ever buy entire albums" switch, that when turned on, removes album information from everything except the "albums" tab.

I can't remember the time I bought one song. I always get albums.
 
The albums are ordered by the YEAR tab on itunes/album info. It's actually kind of neat if you have multiple albums and the proper years tagged as you can let the artist's discography play chronologically.

I hate that there's no quick way to play just one album though; in order to do so you must start a song from an album and then click through to the "list" view of the songs on that album and restart the song; failure to do this will let the music continue to the next album in line when the current album finishes. It's a minor detail but annoying nonetheless since they had it right back in ios6. Also I cannot figure out why they would remove the A-Z sidebar in artist view but leave it for albums; very disappointed in the music app.

Huh?
 

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I'm also getting the flickering in Playlist view. Nothing to do with iTunes Match as I don't have it switched on.
 
The alphabet bar works for me, but apparently it's a real bug on some devices.

Blowing the list up with questionable pictures of artists to make scrolling worse if it's needed, and removing the alphabet bar for some people to make scrolling mandatory. Dammit it Apple, this is just...
picard-facepalm2.jpg
 
This is more organization. Ordering albums alphabetically has nothing to do with the music. When you order them chronologically, you get the albums of a band in a natural order that corresponds with the band's development. I sometimes have a hard time remembering the specific title of an album but I know where it lies in a bands timeline and can find it easily if the albums are sorted chronologically. Alphabetical sorting would require me to look at all names until I recognize it.

I do however think that Apple should put a switch in the settings menu to let people decide what way of sorting they want. That way they can easily please both crowds.
Personally, I think that chronological sorting has been neglected in the digital audio player market for too long.

Would be nice to have an easily accessible switch for changing the order. I do sort my year in iTunes on my PC, but reverse chronological would often be nice. Chronological in general doesn't really work with classical music and remasters that (mis)tag the date with the year of the reissue. Some people likely don't fix their tags, so they get a jumbled mess. If there is only going to be the one choice, I would pick alphabetical.
 
*sigh*...super frustrated with the Music Player in iOS 7. The idea that there are now so many controls crammed so tightly together (bottom of iPhone) yet also a ton of white/deadspace everywhere else boggles my mind.

Also doesn't seem right that the iPhone gets an album wall view but the iPad does not.

Frustrated that I cannot Airplay my music right in the Music app anymore and have to summon and dismiss control center.

Absolutely hate the thin line to indicate playback position/scrubbing.

At this point I'm on the hunt for a 3rd party app to replace the iOS 7 music player - what are the best ones you've come across to date? I'm happy to pay for a better music player, only preference would be for an universal app for a somewhat consistent look and feel between iPhone and iPad. Heck I'd pay to run the iOS 6 music player in iOS 7 in a heartbeat, but that's not going to happen...
 
*sigh*...super frustrated with the Music Player in iOS 7. The idea that there are now so many controls crammed so tightly together (bottom of iPhone) yet also a ton of white/deadspace everywhere else boggles my mind.

Also doesn't seem right that the iPhone gets an album wall view but the iPad does not.

Frustrated that I cannot Airplay my music right in the Music app anymore and have to summon and dismiss control center.

Absolutely hate the thin line to indicate playback position/scrubbing.

At this point I'm on the hunt for a 3rd party app to replace the iOS 7 music player - what are the best ones you've come across to date? I'm happy to pay for a better music player, only preference would be for an universal app for a somewhat consistent look and feel between iPhone and iPad. Heck I'd pay to run the iOS 6 music player in iOS 7 in a heartbeat, but that's not going to happen...

Totally agree mate. All controls crammed making album art smaller, and why have labels for repeat, create & shuffle taking up space? Bring back the perfect scrubber bar!

Also to genius for current song it's 2 presses now. Create>genius playlist

Omg the app is SHOCKING! Still can't believe it has a white backdrop!
 
At this point I'm on the hunt for a 3rd party app to replace the iOS 7 music player - what are the best ones you've come across to date? I'm happy to pay for a better music player, only preference would be for an universal app for a somewhat consistent look and feel between iPhone and iPad. Heck I'd pay to run the iOS 6 music player in iOS 7 in a heartbeat, but that's not going to happen...

Denon Audio is a decent free alternative music app. Available on the App Store.
Give it a try and if you like it you can get the Equalizer for it as an upgrade for £1.49 or whatever that is in Dollars ( $2.50 - $2.99 )

Take a look on Youtube for the demo videos of it.
 
Denon Audio is a decent free alternative music app. Available on the App Store.
Give it a try and if you like it you can get the Equalizer for it as an upgrade for £1.49 or whatever that is in Dollars ( $2.50 - $2.99 )

Take a look on Youtube for the demo videos of it.

The problem with these alternative music apps (I like Track 8 myself) they don't play nice with Itunes Match, at least they didn't before.
 
Denon Audio is a decent free alternative music app. Available on the App Store.
Give it a try and if you like it you can get the Equalizer for it as an upgrade for £1.49 or whatever that is in Dollars ( $2.50 - $2.99 )

Take a look on Youtube for the demo videos of it.

A little known secret is that Midomi Soundhound (the music identification app) actually has a classic style player within it. The best part is that it uses a dark color theme and works just like the old music app. The downside is it seems to activate data often enough and I have no idea why.

It may be an app that you already have (or at least, should have) anyways. :D
 
Here's what the rating stars look like when you hit "rating."

So an extra step, before you flipped the album art and were able to rate a song but now you have to select "rating" then you can, not bad I guess. I may just pull the trigger on iOS7. Thanks for the screenshots.

Did the update 7.0.2 address any issues/bugs within the Music App that anybody know of?
 
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