iOS 8 Music app

[BillyMatt87]

Why hasn't Apple fixed the problems with the stock music app in iOS 8? You'd think with all the complaints about the music app, Apple would've listened and changed it (like they did with the contact caller ID photos).

Problems/complaints include: Same crappy artist browsing view from iOS 7, excessively large album art/artist thumbnails while browsing, landscape album art view, no Up Next, no Remote-esque UI, Shuffle & Repeat buttons are text not symbols etc.

Why did Apple do nothing to enhance the music playing experience in iOS 8? The iOS 6 music app was near perfection and the least Apple could've done was bring back the old functionality with the new design language.

They've had more than a year to work on this release, did they not have time to fix one of the core functionalities of the iPhone and iPad? Or are we gonna have to wait until iOS 9 to see more significant changes?

 

[afsnyder]

Why hasn't Apple fixed the problems with the stock music app in iOS 8? You'd think with all the complaints about the music app, Apple would've listened and changed it (like they did with the contact caller ID photos).

Problems/complaints include: Same crappy artist browsing view from iOS 7, excessively large album art/artist thumbnails while browsing, landscape album art view, no Up Next, no Remote-esque UI, Shuffle & Repeat buttons are text not symbols etc.

Why did Apple do nothing to enhance the music playing experience in iOS 8? The iOS 6 music app was near perfection and the least Apple could've done was bring back the old functionality with the new design language.

They've had more than a year to work on this release, did they not have time to fix one of the core functionalities of the iPhone and iPad? Or are we gonna have to wait until iOS 9 to see more significant changes?

The only thing that I noticed was that I could swipe to delete an album. Maybe they'll change something throughout the beta process but features like Up Next, probably not.

The app works for me, although Up Next would be nice. I actually like the album view because I don't have to click to get to different albums when I only have a couple songs from that album.

We may see iOS 9 add something to the mix.. maybe. This year was a developer update really.... Keyboards, Extensions, iCloud, OS X Yosemite continuity, etc.

 

[BillyMatt87]

The only thing that I noticed was that I could swipe to delete an album. Maybe they'll change something throughout the beta process but features like Up Next, probably not.

The app works for me, although Up Next would be nice. I actually like the album view because I don't have to click to get to different albums when I only have a couple songs from that album.

We may see iOS 9 add something to the mix.. maybe. This year was a developer update really.... Keyboards, Extensions, iCloud, OS X Yosemite continuity, etc.

The artist browsing is a nightmare especially if you have really large artist collections. I was really hoping they would re-impliment the collapsable album browsing under an artist functionality.

 

[Frankied22]

I am guessing we will see a better stock music app when the new iPhone is announced or when the new iTunes is announced.

 

[Armen]

My only complaint is that iTunes on my Mac will display Disc 1, 2, 3, 4 for an album that is multiple CD's yet that same album on the music app is just a rolling list of tracks and the only indicator as to what disc # you are on is to find where track 1 repeats again.

Example from iTunes:

Disc 1
1. Welcome to the Jungle
2. Sweet Child O' Mine
3. Paradise City
Disc 2
1. Knockin' on heaven's door
2. you could be mine
3. November Rain.

The same album in the music app?

1. Welcome to the Jungle
2. Sweet Child O' Mine
3. Paradise City
1. Knocking on Heaven's Door
2. You could be mine
3. November Rain

 

[M5RahuL]

I'm just really glad Apple fixed the iTunes Radio bug where it'd stop or crash after playing one song! Drove me up the wall... but now

 

[theapplefanboyj]

I like the text for the shuffle and repeat buttons; I don't even know which symbol is which!

 

[matttye]

"All the complaints" might look bad on the forum but when you think about how many people buy iDevices it's a drop in the ocean.

Apple probably isn't aware of the issue.

 

[BillyMatt87]

"All the complaints" might look bad on the forum but when you think about how many people buy iDevices it's a drop in the ocean.

Apple probably isn't aware of the issue.

Not exactly an unknown issue and probably more of arrogance on Apple's part. The iOS 7/8 music app is the best designed music app they've ever made, according to Eddie Cue. By acknowledging and fixing the flaws in the updated app, they would be admitting that they were wrong.

Here are some articles that acknowledge how Apple unnecessarily screwed up one of the core default apps.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/09/why-ios-7-gets-music-playing-wrong.html

http://iphone.appstorm.net/roundups/lifestyle-roundups/five-things-that-bother-me-about-ios-7/

http://www.jamisonfoser.com/blog/2013/09/how-apples-ios-7-is-a-disaster-for-music-lovers.html

 

[heyyoudvd]

Has iOS 8 fixed the major iTunes Match bugs?

1. Songs are often displayed twice (ie. an 11 track album will show a duplicate for each song, totaling 22 tracks on the album).

2. Sometimes, downloads simply don't work. For example, an album that I've purchased on iTunes will show up in the Music app, but when I tap the iCloud button to download a song or the whole album, the iCloud icon will temporarily change into the circular downloading indicator, but then it will switch back to the iCloud icon and the song will not have downloaded. There are songs I've purchased that I simply can't listen to on my iPhone because of this.

 

[adamfishercox]

The Music app is fine on iPhone IMO. Maybe not perfect for some, but it works just fine. It's atrocious on the iPad though, where it's literally just a blown-up iPhone app. There is no attempt made to lay things out more optimally for the tablet screen. Very disappointing if that's not addressed in 8.

 

[mcfly88]

Has iOS 8 fixed the major iTunes Match bugs?

1. Songs are often displayed twice (ie. an 11 track album will show a duplicate for each song, totaling 22 tracks on the album).

2. Sometimes, downloads simply don't work. For example, an album that I've purchased on iTunes will show up in the Music app, but when I tap the iCloud button to download a song or the whole album, the iCloud icon will temporarily change into the circular downloading indicator, but then it will switch back to the iCloud icon and the song will not have downloaded. There are songs I've purchased that I simply can't listen to on my iPhone because of this.

I've genuinely never had either of these issues.. maybe something to do with your wifi?

 

[JoEw]

Has iOS 8 fixed the major iTunes Match bugs?

1. Songs are often displayed twice (ie. an 11 track album will show a duplicate for each song, totaling 22 tracks on the album).

2. Sometimes, downloads simply don't work. For example, an album that I've purchased on iTunes will show up in the Music app, but when I tap the iCloud button to download a song or the whole album, the iCloud icon will temporarily change into the circular downloading indicator, but then it will switch back to the iCloud icon and the song will not have downloaded. There are songs I've purchased that I simply can't listen to on my iPhone because of this.

Yeah iTunes match was at its best in IOS6, I really miss that music app.

----------

I've genuinely never had either of these issues.. maybe something to do with your wifi?

Nope, I get the same issues, they have been present in IOS7 since the betas.

 

[mcfly88]

Yeah iTunes match was at its best in IOS6, I really miss that music app.

----------



Nope, I get the same issues, they have been present in IOS7 since the betas.

The only issue I really have with downloading is just the speed. slow as hell...

 

[JoEw]

The only issue I really have with downloading is just the speed. slow as hell...

If I try to download to many at a time it wil crash.

The download is fast the "processing" part of the download takes forever.

I gotta say Match could be much better, and I am surprised Apple has yet to update/fix a lot of its problems. The one I want to see fixed the most is a clear way to update the cloud copies of songs, The ones that don't get matched with iTunes copies seem to be stuck with their current metadata, it does not register changes I make to the original track either..

Very annoying, but such a big library having it in the Cloud is still convinent despite the problems.

 

[PsykX]

Same crappy artist browsing view from iOS 7

I filed this as a bug report though last week and haven't gotten any reply from Apple. This is the thing that annoys me the most. I don't know who's in charge of the Music App, but he should be moved to other projects where his expertise really belongs, or simply be fired.

But you're right about other points, if I get the chance, I might fill up another bug report or two.

 

[mjschabow]

If there's one change I'd like to see with the Music app, and even if they want to keep the album sorting by year, is to at least collapse all the songs into the album, keeping just the album list. Then if you want to play a song within the album, all you would have to do is click on the album name and it would then show all of the tracks.

For moments where I have very large collections for a specific artist, it takes a lot scrolling to get to the album I want sometimes.

 

[Poontaco]

If there's one change I'd like to see with the Music app, and even if they want to keep the album sorting by year, is to at least collapse all the songs into the album, keeping just the album list. Then if you want to play a song within the album, all you would have to do is click on the album name and it would then show all of the tracks.

For moments where I have very large collections for a specific artist, it takes a lot scrolling to get to the album I want sometimes.

Yes, yes, yes. This.
And, the reverse chronological order is annoying too.

 

[mjschabow]

Yes, yes, yes. This.
And, the reverse chronological order is annoying too.

Yep. And as much as I'd like to see the chronological order change, I feel like I could still deal with it better if the albums were collapsed by default.

 

[mcfly88]

If I try to download to many at a time it wil crash.

The download is fast the "processing" part of the download takes forever.

I gotta say Match could be much better, and I am surprised Apple has yet to update/fix a lot of its problems. The one I want to see fixed the most is a clear way to update the cloud copies of songs, The ones that don't get matched with iTunes copies seem to be stuck with their current metadata, it does not register changes I make to the original track either..

Very annoying, but such a big library having it in the Cloud is still convinent despite the problems.

Match is very unpredictable for me.. it seems like it goes through phases of working very well and then terribly. The last few weeks have been solid overall. But, I agree.. there is certainly a lot of work to be done.

Yea, metadata can be troublesome.. particularly with artwork for me. It likes to change albums to whatever the store has. Also, some songs no matter what I do will always revert back (regardless of my changes). For a few songs I had to just re-upload them... pretty annoying. Thats odd about uploaded songs though, I'm not sure I've had that problem. For the most part changes made in iTunes, update the ones on my phone.

 

[PsykX]

no Up Next

I just reported this. Please others you should definitely join in and file reports if you're like me and you're not satisfied with the Music App the way it is since iOS 7.

Here's my idea of how the implementation could be done :

The "Coming Up Next" feature could be a dynamic playlist in the Playlists pane, or it could have its own pane for quick access.

To queue a song, you could swipe your finger on the song all the way from the left to the right and it would queue it automatically in the "Coming Up Next Playlist", without the need to press any button. The goal is to be efficient and to be consistent with these new swipe controls that iOS 8 has introduced in UITableViews.
Reminder : Swiping on the left already has the new "Delete" function.

----------

Yep. And as much as I'd like to see the chronological order change, I feel like I could still deal with it better if the albums were collapsed by default.

I thought of this a few months ago, and this would be good.

Reverse chronological order isn't bad per se, because you might be more tempted to listen to the latest songs and albums that has been released. But if you want to listen to old-school, gosh it gets annoying.

 

[0970373]

I gave up on the stock music app in iOS7 and moved on to Groove It is fantastic. And their version of Genius is 10,00000x better, and it actually works. lol. There's an option for iTunes Match but I don't know how it works since I don't subscribe to that service.

 

[elfary]

Current music app on iPhone is very good.

Problem is that iOS 6 app was literally perfect. Hence what we have now is annoying because is worse than what we use to had.

Artist browsing or trying to sort by genre (for live music specially) shows that whoever is in charge (if there is any) do not use much the app nor love music.

iPad version is a blatant case of subpar (by Apple standards).

At least sound quality on headphones still smokes.

 

[zedsdead]

CAN'T STAND the way iOS7 and now iOS8 also deals with Artist-Albums.

The sub folders were so important to easy organization, especially when you have 50+ albums for an artist. These endless unorganized lists are terrible (and I know it says release date, but that isn't right in many cases).

I have sent many feedbacks to Apple since iOS7. I hope this is fixed in an upcoming BETA release, but I seriously doubt it will.

 

[jsmith189]

I've actually pretty much always enjoyed the stock Music app. I DO wish they'd return the artist album sub-category as zedsdead said, but my MAIN problem is that its organisation is so touchy. If I have one album downloaded from iTunes and I download a bonus track externally (just an example, it usually happens just when there's different track sources), the music app always seems to separate them into two albums. And it's not a tagging issue because I'm a bit of a tag-freak and make sure everything, including the sorting titles, are spot on. A lot of the times changing the album name then changing it back works, other times I have to actually make it a compilation to get it into one album.

That's been a pretty long-term issue though and more related to iTunes though, so not sure that's really a Music app complaint lol.