Jimmy, I like the new Music service but there are more weak points. Also it would be great if you can tell the other VPs to start fixing the core business - iOS, OS X, hardware instead of messing around, thank you.
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Jimmy Iovine Hints at Possible Apple Music-Like Apple TV Curation, Admits 'Connect' as Weak Point
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Say, you have an ablum in your collection. Have iTunes include a "follow artist" button on the page for the album? Once you follow an artist, the Music app will send notifications to you when a new album or song releases by that artist. Maybe even a recommend button that will give permission for Apple to recommend "similar" artists and albums. Modify the landing page for the iTunes music store to promote music that relates to what the person has followed.
Connect as a semi-stand-alone service competing with social media is a dumb idea. Apple will never be able to get into this market and the service will continue to be hated by both artists and customers/fans so long as it tries to be like Facebook and/or Twitter.
People are already shopping for the music on the store and hearing the music being streamed. Use this to integrate Connect without having to put a lot of work on the artist or the customer. Customer just clicks the "follow" option (must be a way to unfollow) and the artist just needs to upload an album or song like they normally would.
Of course, there could be artist optional additional features for artists that really want to get involved. And those artists could send announcements to people who follow their albums.
All I'm saying is that Connect could work as an integration to iTunes in a natural way as opposed to being this completely separate thing that take effort on part of both artists and fan.
Connect as a semi-stand-alone service competing with social media is a dumb idea. Apple will never be able to get into this market and the service will continue to be hated by both artists and customers/fans so long as it tries to be like Facebook and/or Twitter.
People are already shopping for the music on the store and hearing the music being streamed. Use this to integrate Connect without having to put a lot of work on the artist or the customer. Customer just clicks the "follow" option (must be a way to unfollow) and the artist just needs to upload an album or song like they normally would.
Of course, there could be artist optional additional features for artists that really want to get involved. And those artists could send announcements to people who follow their albums.
All I'm saying is that Connect could work as an integration to iTunes in a natural way as opposed to being this completely separate thing that take effort on part of both artists and fan.
While history repeats itself, as in Ping, I would be very upset if somebody was bothering me to tell me : hey, I am listening to that song, check it out.
Having to check something with our busy lives is not for everybody. (Like me)
Again, old fart talking.
I want be left alone (no Facebook, twitter etc.), only when I initiate any contact it is needed.
Family info, business etc.
Otherwise, let me listen to my music and discover new stuff as I go. My world doesn't end because I don't know the latest hip hop tunes.
iTunes UI on my iPhone is now a total mess and if Siri for once would play what I ask for it would be amazing.
Apple, please make the type fonts and buttons even smaller, I CAN STILL SEE THAT THERE IS SOMETHING.
uurrrghgh!
Having to check something with our busy lives is not for everybody. (Like me)
Again, old fart talking.
I want be left alone (no Facebook, twitter etc.), only when I initiate any contact it is needed.
Family info, business etc.
Otherwise, let me listen to my music and discover new stuff as I go. My world doesn't end because I don't know the latest hip hop tunes.
iTunes UI on my iPhone is now a total mess and if Siri for once would play what I ask for it would be amazing.
Apple, please make the type fonts and buttons even smaller, I CAN STILL SEE THAT THERE IS SOMETHING.
uurrrghgh!
They should change the name of the tab "For You" to "Home" or something. I don't know why but "For You" infuriates me - I believe because it's is such an uninspired name for a tab...
I think it was convenient for Eddy Cue to find someone to lead the charge because he's in way over his head. Eddy was good at maintenance and carrying out Steve's orders, but without that guidance he's like a deer in headlights. It's clear that he's following the competition's lead rather than skating to where the puck will be.... thankfully for Tim, the hardware and OS team are two steps ahead.
For $3B, Apple could have incentivized the labels to do whatever it wanted. They didn't need the distraction of integrating Beats, nor did they need Dre or Iovine to create Apple Music. I personally love Apple Music and haven't had issues with it other than a few nagging bugs, but I think a small, focused team at Apple could have accomplished the same thing, and probably could have done it better.
I'm glad to tell you my experience. Warning: it's complex and convoluted.
When the news about Connect was announced originally, I requested management of my account. (You had the option "add artist", then found yourself on the list, then added record label details and contact information.) At that point I had two releases in the iTunes Store, Spotify etc., but for some reason Apple Music decided 1) my releases belonged to two separate artists, let's call them Me 1 and Me 2, and 2) another artist who chose to release under the same name as me was, in fact, Me 1. So I requested management of both accounts. Three weeks later, about three days after Connect debuted, I had a long phone call with Apple and my accounts finally turned from "Pending Validation" into "Validated". At which point I discovered you can only make Connect posts using iOS devices, you can't do it from a Mac.
Since the iTunes Connect website has actually been created for book publishers, and I did self-publish a book before, my new AM Connect accounts got connected (I know this is confusing) to the book-related iTunes Connect account. When I wanted to complain about "Pending Validation", I found out that despite me being able to request AM Connect from the account, the only help and support options I have are related to books. Hence the phonecall -- it was literally the only way I could reach the Apple support and talk about music things.
In the meantime I released an album through another aggregator, CD Baby. Now there are three artist pages for my releases, Me 1, Me 2 and Me 3, and the other bloke who released music under the same name is still connected to Me 1. I asked CD Baby to clean up the mess, and they told me Apple Music takes 3-6 weeks to do so. (Spotify and iTunes Store had a similar problem, and it took two days to correct it.)
In the meantime, a few weeks ago the Connect button completely disappeared from my page. I can't access the already validated accounts and I can't request management again. There was no warning, no information of any sort, nothing. It just disappeared. I suppose it's a part of Apple cleaning their own shiz -- they realised books and music should be separate. But the thought of starting another Apple ID especially to request access to THREE accounts, hoping that when they are put into one sometime in September it will continue working correctly, only so that I can buy an iPod Touch to publish updates for the seven people who look at Connect tab... well I fail to get excited about it. The other guy who's stuck to Me 1 can publish his updates if he likes.
[QUOTE="tomnavratil, post: 21680012, member: 849957"it would be great if you can tell the other VPs to start fixing the core business - iOS, OS X, hardware instead of messing around, thank you.[/QUOTE]
Why does it feel lately like Apple is in the "Decaying Roman Empire" phase of corporate rise and fall?
Why does it feel lately like Apple is in the "Decaying Roman Empire" phase of corporate rise and fall?
It all feels like Apple was forced into doing this Music-thing... cannot not do a streaming service.
This Jimmy-guy has done great co-founding Beats, but he doesn't fit in Apple. Can't really explain... just a feeling.
This Jimmy-guy has done great co-founding Beats, but he doesn't fit in Apple. Can't really explain... just a feeling.
What we most need is to lose the shackles of the antiquated 1980s cable system model. I don't need hundreds of channels I'll never watch. Let me pick and choose which channels I want. Let me enjoy content on demand on whichever device I happen to be using. Give me an interface and controller that is easy to use.
This is all an inevitability, so why do these content owners not be proactive and give it to us now? I hardly know anyone my age or below who has cable TV. The only cable we have is for internet and even that I wish I could drop as the companies are terrible! An entire generation is coming up with no desire to ever have cable. These companies and content producers are going to get desperate and possibly die off as the subscriptions drop and pressure builds.
The other thing to consider is the paradigm shift of content creators directly producing their own content independent of major networks. You also have places like YouTube that has a ton of quality, original content. These channels have millions of followers and billions of views! These delivery systems are increasingly taking up more of my screen time. There are some really great channels that cover cooking, do it yourself projects, gaming, technology reviews, etc. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman's "Tested" channel is a really neat example.
This is all an inevitability, so why do these content owners not be proactive and give it to us now? I hardly know anyone my age or below who has cable TV. The only cable we have is for internet and even that I wish I could drop as the companies are terrible! An entire generation is coming up with no desire to ever have cable. These companies and content producers are going to get desperate and possibly die off as the subscriptions drop and pressure builds.
The other thing to consider is the paradigm shift of content creators directly producing their own content independent of major networks. You also have places like YouTube that has a ton of quality, original content. These channels have millions of followers and billions of views! These delivery systems are increasingly taking up more of my screen time. There are some really great channels that cover cooking, do it yourself projects, gaming, technology reviews, etc. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman's "Tested" channel is a really neat example.
Why does it feel lately like Apple is in the "Decaying Roman Empire" phase of corporate rise and fall?[/QUOTE]
LOL thumb down comes to mind.
But, still too many good things to like. Services: NOT SO MUCH!
I can't understand why people say they needed Iovine to help with the Apple Music deals - Apple had been selling music for over decade and never needed him.
Or is it because there was no SJ and TC didn't have a clue?
Or is it because there was no SJ and TC didn't have a clue?
I much prefer connect as I am not a social media person, they all seem to crowded as it is.
Connect is just for artist, so I see only what I want to see and not a bunch of useless crap from 100 other people
Exactly. It's also the reason I still haven't updated to 8.4 and didn't update iTunes on OSX. Don't need all this following stuff because I listen to older (rock) music which is less popular now, but I like it and don't want any crap around it to make my listening experience less enjoyable.
Comcast's X1 is working on and has released a recommendation system. And believe it or not, guess what they call it?
For You.
If Apple could give me an extra hour of battery I'd turn on Apple music and connect. They keep adding all these new features but the battery is not keeping up with the processes. Will there ever come a day when I can turn everything on (all services) and still have battery left by end of day?
I don't want any big-company, big-government connected moral midget "curating" _anything_ I consume in news and arts.
How about this, Timmy, Jimmy, Eddy, & Dre - just make the hardware and software work bug-free and allow me to coalesce many different media sources OF MY CHOICE, and keep it simple?
(No, no, that's too much to ask. Then Timmy, Jimmy, Eddy, & Dre couldn't be big 'playas" in the corrupted world of politics and entertainment....)
How about this, Timmy, Jimmy, Eddy, & Dre - just make the hardware and software work bug-free and allow me to coalesce many different media sources OF MY CHOICE, and keep it simple?
(No, no, that's too much to ask. Then Timmy, Jimmy, Eddy, & Dre couldn't be big 'playas" in the corrupted world of politics and entertainment....)
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Connect is just one of many weak points. Why can't I create a playlist from any song/album/playlist that I find on the service? Why are they so incompetent at the most simple of mechanics?
I'm not sure why I'm even bothering... it just makes me sad as a struggling artist that people still don't appreciate or even get what Connect is about, but, I'm still going to try and help out here with relevant info...
So, you both admit you have artist that you like, at least like enough to listen to their music. So why wouldn't you try out Connect? You do know that many artists, especially ones that are not as mainstream and that you wouldn't hear on the radio, often post previously unreleased tracks on Connect? That is one of the main points to Connect; for artists, both big and small, to post stuff (music, videos, photos) that haven't officially been released. In other words, you're probably missing out on a cool new track from your favorite artists...
Why only the top 200 artists? Do you only care about what Lady GaGa and Justine Bieber have to post? One of the whole points of Connect is for users to discover new, underground artists that you just might happen to like...
Not exactly, actually, you have to sign up for a Apple Music profile and request to manage your artist/band. The signup is here: https://www.apple.com/itunes/working-itunes/connect/#signup
Notifications would be nice, but I think at the moment you just need to click on the Connect tab and if any artists you follow have posted something new, it will be at the top of the feed.
That's pretty much how Connect works actually... if, for example, you go to your favorite artist to get their latest album, you will not only see all of their album releases, singles and videos, you will also see what they've posted on Connect, without actually having to click on the Connect tab (but even clicking on the Connect tab really isn't a "completely separate thing that take [sic] effort...")
Here is a screenshot for example. Notice how everything is all in one place...
I'm sorry that you are having such problems, but if your initial two releases had slightly different spellings or were released through different aggregators, then that could cause issues. I have 6 different projects under different band names (with a total of 12 albums) and I've had no issues; got approved in 2 days.
I've said it before on another thread, but for me, as a struggling artist, I was initially excited for Connect because I would be able to post previously unreleased tracks and videos/live performances right along side my "official" releases, and so far that is exactly what I have been doing. It's paid off in a small way, my album sales for a couple of my artists have increased, but when I read so much hatred from users that don't even know how Connect works or what it's about, it makes me fear that Connect could be doomed. Yes, of course I have Facebook (but everyone's over that) and Twitter (too limiting, can't post what you really want to say) and that's the great thing about Connect, I can talk about my next performance, release a rehearsal video or something, and still share it to all the other social networking sites directly from Connect!
And even though most of you us (the computer geeks that we all are) don't do "artist adoration" (which isn't all that Connect is about) the majority of average people do do artist adoration, which is why reality shows and things like TMZ are more popular than any other form of entertainment (unfortunately.) So Connect should be perfect for them.
Anyway, though I really am pretty much an unknown/underground artist, thanks to Connect, I've actually had the head of Apple's Artist Integration follow me on Twitter, and then promote my Science Patrol project in the "Discovered on Connect" section of Apple Music! Right along side a couple of bigger artists... and that made my day. I'm just hoping that Connect will help to grow my user-base and allow people to discover my work who would have not previously been able to find me... which is the whole point to Connect.
So, you both admit you have artist that you like, at least like enough to listen to their music. So why wouldn't you try out Connect? You do know that many artists, especially ones that are not as mainstream and that you wouldn't hear on the radio, often post previously unreleased tracks on Connect? That is one of the main points to Connect; for artists, both big and small, to post stuff (music, videos, photos) that haven't officially been released. In other words, you're probably missing out on a cool new track from your favorite artists...
Why only the top 200 artists? Do you only care about what Lady GaGa and Justine Bieber have to post? One of the whole points of Connect is for users to discover new, underground artists that you just might happen to like...
Not exactly, actually, you have to sign up for a Apple Music profile and request to manage your artist/band. The signup is here: https://www.apple.com/itunes/working-itunes/connect/#signup
Notifications would be nice, but I think at the moment you just need to click on the Connect tab and if any artists you follow have posted something new, it will be at the top of the feed.
That's pretty much how Connect works actually... if, for example, you go to your favorite artist to get their latest album, you will not only see all of their album releases, singles and videos, you will also see what they've posted on Connect, without actually having to click on the Connect tab (but even clicking on the Connect tab really isn't a "completely separate thing that take [sic] effort...")
Here is a screenshot for example. Notice how everything is all in one place...
I'm sorry that you are having such problems, but if your initial two releases had slightly different spellings or were released through different aggregators, then that could cause issues. I have 6 different projects under different band names (with a total of 12 albums) and I've had no issues; got approved in 2 days.
I've said it before on another thread, but for me, as a struggling artist, I was initially excited for Connect because I would be able to post previously unreleased tracks and videos/live performances right along side my "official" releases, and so far that is exactly what I have been doing. It's paid off in a small way, my album sales for a couple of my artists have increased, but when I read so much hatred from users that don't even know how Connect works or what it's about, it makes me fear that Connect could be doomed. Yes, of course I have Facebook (but everyone's over that) and Twitter (too limiting, can't post what you really want to say) and that's the great thing about Connect, I can talk about my next performance, release a rehearsal video or something, and still share it to all the other social networking sites directly from Connect!
And even though most of you us (the computer geeks that we all are) don't do "artist adoration" (which isn't all that Connect is about) the majority of average people do do artist adoration, which is why reality shows and things like TMZ are more popular than any other form of entertainment (unfortunately.) So Connect should be perfect for them.
Anyway, though I really am pretty much an unknown/underground artist, thanks to Connect, I've actually had the head of Apple's Artist Integration follow me on Twitter, and then promote my Science Patrol project in the "Discovered on Connect" section of Apple Music! Right along side a couple of bigger artists... and that made my day. I'm just hoping that Connect will help to grow my user-base and allow people to discover my work who would have not previously been able to find me... which is the whole point to Connect.
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Connect and Ping are very much alike and the Connect is the evolution of Ping. How could you possibly think otherwise.
Anyhow, I completely do not see the effort worth it for Connect. It's just not something I ever see folks spending much time around. You have your die hard superfans that will eat it up, but you're going to have a tidal wave of MEH from everyone else who just pushes play on their playlist and then throws their iWhatever in their pocket.
If I'm interested in getting the indepth for an artist, I hit up a browser and google search them, or I check their twitter. Whatever Apple does at the end of the day, they are competing against that, and that isn't a problem for people to begin with. It is already easy, so Connect is just a lot of effort to move people. It's obscure and weird. Ping 2.0.
Weak point is an understatement. I don't know what they've been working on, but Apple Music is a huge mess. Especially on desktop. The interface and navigation is horrendous, all white blank space, tons of random errors, tracks are sorted randomly and all over the place, needs to be compacted so I don't have to scroll around forever to get to the one track I want, the tabs "New" and "For You" make no sense, page loads are much longer than Spotify. And Connect? Couldn't really care less about it, don't need yet another separate social channel that is basically to follow celebrities. Also don't care about music videos, I'll go to YouTube for that. They need to simplify.
If they were smart enough they'd make Apple Music a separate app from the cumbersome and outdated iTunes, and have it look like Spotify. They have that right.
If they were smart enough they'd make Apple Music a separate app from the cumbersome and outdated iTunes, and have it look like Spotify. They have that right.
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I tried Connect but found it pretty useless as I'm not signed up to Apple Music. You don't need to be signed up to view Connect but you need to be a member to access any of the exclusive artist content that is posted on Connect, which is why I've now disabled it in iTunes.