Seconded.
Apple needs to place MORE focus on the stars, not abandon them. Here's a piece of feedback I provided Apple via the Feedback app. I'm curious what other music fans think:
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Star ratings are no longer present in the Music app.
I'm not certain if this is a beta bug or a deliberate decision, but as a music lover, I feel that star ratings are an incredibly important feature to have.
While the "Love" feature is used to improve the algorithmic suggestions in the "For You" section, the purpose of star ratings is to allow the user to tag the music he likes, so he can go back to it afterwards.
If I have a particular artist that I like, I will give my favourite songs by that artist high star ratings to signify that I love particular songs. In iTunes, that allows me to create all sorts of Smart Playlists that pull out my favourite songs from a vast library, and I can create playlists based on these characteristics (i.e. my favourite heavy metal songs, my favourite songs by Bob Dylan, my favourite songs that I've added to my library within the past month etc...)
This is why I and many friends have spent years and years adding star ratings to our iTunes libraries; they're an amazing feature when you combine them with Smart Playlists.
What the iOS Music app needs is a modern equivalent of that. The curated playlists are excellent when I'm looking for new music to check out, but music listeners often just want to hear music they know and love. And given how large our libraries are, it's hard to sift through so many artists, albums, and songs.
That's why in addition to the great curated material, what Apple Music needs is a modern equivalent of Smart Playlists. The iTunes implementation would be too complex in an iOS world, but that's why I think a great solution would be to implement filters. Think of the UI of the old Beats Music 'The Sentence' feature. Add that to the Library tab, and make it so that the user can simply and easily specify characteristics (i.e. 5 star pop songs or 4+ star songs by Nine Inch Nails or my most played songs by The Beatles etc...) rather than just moods.
The user will easily select the parameters and it will automatically and dynamically generate a playlist from his or her library of all the music that meets those criteria.
The beauty here is that it's all based on the user's specific preferences, rather than just on a curator's suggestions. The user rates what she likes and can easily come back to it later. That's why star ratings are so important. Curation is amazing for finding new music and interesting playlists, but it only provides half the experience. The other half is this characteristic-based filter system. That's why star ratings are so important.
Thanks!
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