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Following Tuesday's launch of Apple Music, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor spoke with music site Pitchfork about his thoughts on the service and his role in its development. Reznor joined Apple in 2014, following the company's acquisition of Beats Music, where Reznor served as Chief Creative Officer.

Ahead of the Apple Music launch, rumors suggested Reznor was leading development of the service alongside Jimmy Iovine, playing a major role in the redesign of the new Music app.

trentreznor.jpg
Image of Trent Reznor via Pitchfork​

According to Reznor, his role in the creation of Apple Music shifted over time. While he initially worked on design alongside Apple's design team and iTunes engineers, he shifted to concentrating on marketing in recent months, helping to explain the service and Apple's goals to artists.

Reznor compared his experience working with Apple to his experience working at Beats Music before the acquisition, calling Apple a "respectful, collaborative environment" with ideas that fit into his own thoughts on music.
When I sat down with the people at Apple, I found a very respectful, collaborative environment that wanted to take some of the tentpoles that mattered to us at Beats Music, which really was trying to make an experience that didn't feel like data. Something that felt organic and respectful to music rather than just, "We're just delivering assets to your mobile device." They treated music in a way that put an emphasis on curation and taste.
In earlier interviews, Reznor suggested that no streaming service had hit "the right formula" before Apple Music, a sentiment that he again shared with Pitchfork. With endless music available at our fingertips, he believes the experience is the most important aspect of any streaming service. With Apple Music, the goal was to improve upon the impersonal, "less than optimal" experience being offered by competitors.
What we tried to do with Apple Music is make the experience around the catalog feel like people that love music have touched it in the various ways it gets presented to you: playlists that noticeably feel better, radio stations that were programmed by people, recommendations that feel less like a computer and more like someone made you a mixtape and you like their taste.
Apple Connect, Apple's social networking service, was also developed to improve the listening experience by introducing tools to let artists share music and video that "lives outside the paywall." Apple wanted to give artists a way to be involved in the way music is consumed. "We wanted to create a place where the people making the art could feel like they could have a center," Reznor said.

Released yesterday, Apple Music has a deep focus on curated content. The new Music app delivers recommendations based on personal tastes and playlists created by editors, while the accompanying Beats 1 radio features all music chosen by DJs like Zane Lowe.


Reznor's full interview, which includes additional details on his role in the development of Apple Music, his thoughts on music, and Apple's aim with the new service, is available at Pitchfork and well worth a read.

Article Link: Trent Reznor Shares his Thoughts on Apple Music: 'The Experience is What Matters'
 
What's even worse is that a playlist that is setup and plays everything correctly in iTunes on my Mac, spits out totally different versions of the same songs when I try to play it on my iPhone! There are some major bugs to be worked out here for sure.
 
MEMO TO MR. REZNOR:

Music is not about an experience.

Music is about quality.

Experience is the back-end buzzword that companies use when they are trying to sell rip-offs.

There is almost no music of quality that has been produced in the last twenty years. Therefore, people are content to stream it for free rather than pay for it.

Writing good music is hard. It may be that good music has died a natural death, in which case, no amount of curation will save it. In the event that it hasn't died yet, we are in a moribund period, and are waiting for it to re-ignite.

There is almost a 100% chance that it won't in the current quality-hostile climate, however. Why? Because musicians aren't paid enough. Not nearly enough.

When musicians are paid Tim Cook's wage, and he is relegated to his rightful position as a drone administrator and paid accordingly, then, and only then, will music once again flourish.
 
I like it in general but the UI is definitely more confusing than Spotify. Things aren't intuitive like the difference between iCloud Music Library, My Music, Available Offline, Radios, Stations... Connect doesn't seem to have much going on unless I'm not using it properly. Then where is iTunes and iTunes Match supposed to fit into all this? Maybe they should have reset the whole music experience to simplify things.
Another (smaller) complaint is that Apple Music seems to be forcing too much new or obscure tracks on me (For You / Radio) when I usually just want to listen to the stuff I'm used to and the stuff that's popular.

Apart from this I'll keep using it, the huge bonus over Spotify is that its woven into the rest of the OS through Siri and my car etc.
 
Music is not about an experience.

Music is about quality.

It's both.

If I just want quality I don't need a streaming service, and if I just want experience I'll listen to the radio.

Experience is the back-end buzzword that companies use when they are trying to sell rip-offs.

Not Apple, that's for sure. There are lot of bugs with AM, but the service is still solid.

There is almost no music of quality that has been produced in the last twenty years. Therefore, people are content to stream it for free rather than pay for it.

You have probably been living under a rock then. This is just laughable.

Hint: mainstream is not everything!
 
MEMO TO MR. REZNOR:

Music is not about an experience.

Music is about quality.

Experience is the back-end buzzword that companies use when they are trying to sell rip-offs.

There is almost no music of quality that has been produced in the last twenty years. Therefore, people are content to stream it for free rather than pay for it.

Writing good music is hard. It may be that good music has died a natural death, in which case, no amount of curation will save it. In the event that it hasn't died yet, we are in a moribund period, and are waiting for it to re-ignite.

There is almost a 100% chance that it won't in the current quality-hostile climate, however. Why? Because musicians aren't paid enough. Not nearly enough.

When musicians are paid Tim Cook's wage, and he is relegated to his rightful position as a drone administrator and paid accordingly, then, and only then, will music once again flourish.

Streaming is not a result of bad music, it is the result of technology evolving and industry not keeping up.
Also no good music in the past 20 years? That is a bit of a reach, lol.

what do you consider good music?
 
It's definitely better than Beats was thus far. I'm really liking it although I still haven't gotten everything squared away on my Macbook because I've been reading horror stories of the iCloud Library screwing up the organization of your personal library.
 
Considering the whole effort and number of big guns involved, I think the end result is just meh. And what were they thinking when designing Connect? It just looks like a crippled sibling of Twitter from 1990! This is from a company that wasn't shy to make revolutions. Why?
 
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I agree so far so good. there are things i don't like about it but thats to be expected with anyone.

just wondering, whats to stop anyone from adding songs to a playlist and then burning a disk and then importing it back into iTunes and owning the music? Does that even matter anymore?
 
I agree so far so good. there are things i don't like about it but thats to be expected with anyone.

just wondering, whats to stop anyone from adding songs to a playlist and then burning a disk and then importing it back into iTunes and owning the music? Does that even matter anymore?

You can't, songs have DRM.
 
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I really hope we get to hear him on Beats1 from time to time... One of the most influential artists of the past 20+ years, even if most people don't know it.

As for the issues, I'm confident apple is working to fix the bugs and the subsequent releases will refine the experience where it's necessary.
 
Unlike some people around here, I for one actually am very satisfied with Apple Music so far. The For You section is incredible and it has suggested songs and albums I haven't heard in years. I wish though there was a way to pin your favorite recommendation windows so they don't disappear over time. It'd also be nice if they make the Recently Added and Recently Played sections optional because they are not useful and only take up space
 
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