That's one and certainly a valid way of looking at it. For me (and I'd imagine for many others) it doesn't work – I live constantly inside "My Music" because I don't really care about the other things like Connect, but because this new hierarchy is forced upon all of us, the stuff I want (access to my library and different ways of sorting it) is now deeper inside of the navigation structure whilst the other items are sitting totally unused, only taking screen real-estate I would happily use for something else.
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Replace the 'Apple Connect' Tab with a 'Playlists' Tab in Apple Music
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Agreed. The new app is a navigation disaster - Apple clearly wants you to not listen to anything but Apple Music anymore.
We used to be able to customize the icons at the bottom to jump to different views of our own music. But even if you turn off the 'fawn over musicians' option, and the 'Rent music option', you're not able to add genres back in (and are still stuck with the 'data sucking radio' option as mandatory.
Plus they moved audiobooks into iBooks, which has to be one of the worst, most unreliable apps apple has ever released. I'm going to have to work around that by changing them all to an 'audiobooks' genere, and manually checking the 'remember position' option on each track.
A big raspberry to Apple for force-feeding apple music down our throats. I so wish they'd separate app updates from OS updates so we could keep using functional versions.
If you banish the Connect section, you can get Playlists there as an icon in the bottom row (next to 'My Music' and Radio).
I find that using the dropdown menu to select artist, album, song, etc. (inside the My Music section) is absolutely good enough for me and is definitely better than having to go the old 'Other' category at the bottom which moved you out of current view (and I had to go there from time to time because there was not enough space to fit all categories that mattered to me in the bottom row which was five categories if I remember it correctly, one of which had to be Other, leaving four places for (1) Artist, (2) Album, (3) Song, (4) Playlists and (5) Genre, not to speak of (6) Audiobooks which I occasionally also needed (I essentially never used (7) Compilations, (8) Composers or (9) Radio). Given that you had four spots for nine categories made that UI already somewhat compromised (part of that came with new categories like Radio being added to an existing UI).
And the fact that there is a global search which is always only one tap away (previously one had to be in one of the lists of songs, albums, etc. (ie, it didn't work if you were inside an artist or album and had to do a pulldown), makes up for any extra taps needed to go to any list.
You simply cannot change any UI without offending somebody. They could have kept the customisability for the users which don't use Apple Music (ie, the streaming service) but then they would have a different UI inside the My Music section
All my favourite artists are dead, there has been no good music since 1996.
Sorry but people who claim "there has been no good music since..." are living with blinders on and are afraid to open their minds. My best friend I grew up with is like that. He still listens to the Scorpions, UFO, etc. He has no clue what he is missing since then because he is so stuck in his little bubble of what he grew up with. He really needs to open his mind/expand his horizons...
And so I ask you, give me an example of what you think is good music... music that has apparently died out in 1996. I'm asking honestly so I can see if maybe you missed something that's come out in the last couple of years.
EDIT: And I agree if your point is that, there is a lot of crap music out today, with the likes of Justin Bieber, et al, but that has always been the case in music. In the 1970s, whether you were a Led Zeppelin fan or on the opposite end, a KISS fan, they both agreed that Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy sucked; they were the Justin Biebers of their day. (of course the Crosby Stills Nash and Credence and Grateful Dead fans thought the same of Zeppelin and KISS, so...)
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I like most of what Connect is about, but I cannot ****ing get 50 Cent off the top of the feed. I don't own a single 50 Cent track, he's not listed in my "following" artists, nothing. But his invite to hear his new song is the first thing I see.
Or they could just get rid of the awful pulldown menu and do something similar to what they're doing in App Store top charts (tabs on top, in that particular section only). Allow me to choose my favourites to be permanently visible and leave the rest (and the editing UI) inside a pulldown like now. Behold, a mockup:
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Oh good! I disabled Apple Music on my iPhone because I didn't like how it pushed all my music into one tab, made navigation cumbersome. Good to know I can re-enable Apple Music and just swap out that useless tab for a useful one!
Poking around in the new IOS UI and hoping that somehow they've added something to differentiate or sort full albums vs. individual tracks when viewing "Albums." Couldn't find it.
I've gotten in the habit of playlisting my purchased albums, and using "Playlists" as a de facto album collection that ignores the singles. Sorting is an issue, but using folders has allowed me to make it navigable.
I've gotten in the habit of playlisting my purchased albums, and using "Playlists" as a de facto album collection that ignores the singles. Sorting is an issue, but using folders has allowed me to make it navigable.
Or GENRES! Or anything else I want which Apple now has removed and replaced by something I DON'T WANT!
I don't read music - I listen to music. If I want to find concert tickets I visit sites I would buy the tickets from. But usually the artists and groups I listen to don't do concerts.
What? What does that have to do with anything? Most of the artists I'm following are posting rare unreleased tracks (me included) so I am pretty much doing nothing BUT listening on Connect.
So I ask you, as I've asked someone else and got no response, if you have a favorite artist whose music you love, wouldn't you want to hear something of theirs that you've never heard before? For free! Seems like a no-brainer to me...
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If you say so, you will end up bringing iOS 8.3 music app back. There would have everything you want.
I was really glad to get rid of Connect since I will never use it and it took up space. Apple needs to make the tabs on bottom customizable like they used to be,
Then you can use the combination of settings and restrictions to customise, for now.
But even previous customisation could not remove more than three or four icons. You still need to stick to several icons at the bottom, which some of them is not what you want.
So the big question is, what does @arn listen to in his playlist while reading MacRumors?
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Arnold Layne?
This is actually Apple's (and the record industry at large) response to "lost" revenue. It is not about providing more for a customer. This is about paying for each song you listen to, when you listen to it, just like the way radio has been doing for decades. The only difference is each person can be the Radio DJ instead of phoning in a request.
To say this is for the good of the consumer is probably the most narrow minded viewpoint of all. At least you admit that it is "madness", so there is hope for you yet.
To also say that someone else knows how I like my UI laid out more than me is insulting. Choice hurts no one. Lack of choice, or having choices made for us, hurts us all. (no matter how small)
Sounds like maybe your mind is also a little closed, there are a lot of people who really like Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy, come on dude open that mind and get on the bus.
Download sales have been declining for a few years now as streaming services have gained a lot of customers. Consumers are moving on their own accord from buying music to (flat-rate) renting them. There aren't any companies that are pushing people into streaming services. I really don't understand why people so often claim that a higher power is behind any activity they don't like.
And I have news for you, every company is designing their UI in a way they think people will like it.
You actually think that the UI in the new music app was laid out how the people want it?
You've obviously never designed anything like the Music app. Apps on a subscription model you lay out the UI/UX to drive subscriptions and be friendly to subscribers with little regard for non-subscribers (You don't want them anyway).
Just like you'd tune the gameplay for a pay-to-get-ahead game to take advantage of impatience/competition to drive sales.
People just fall for anything apple does hook line and sinker sometimes....