Apple Music-All information provided here

Sad Professor

That’s the thing though: the part of the service everyone is having issues with isn’t new. iCloud Music Library is basically iTunes Match which has been around for almost 4 years and has improved little in that time.

Zcott

Sad Professor wrote: »

Apple Music is a nightmare and I’m done with it

Jim Dalrymple isn’t happy. This will prompt all the other high-profile Apple bloggers to respond and hopefully force Apple into gear. iCloud Music Library is MobileMe all over again.

Ouch. That post is a major upset for Apple, and they'll take note of that. I suspect Apple knew there were bugs in what I assume was the matching algorithm, but I'm guessing they didn't think they'd be this bad.

I also suspect it'll go like Apple Maps - publicly pretty bad to start off, but then gradually improving. For what it's worth, my experience with Apple Music has been great, but all my music was in iTunes Match beforehand.

tl;dr: Apple suck at introducing services but it'll get better.

Notorious97

Sad Professor wrote: »

Apple Music is a nightmare and I’m done with it

Jim Dalrymple isn’t happy. This will prompt all the other high-profile Apple bloggers to respond and hopefully force Apple into gear. iCloud Music Library is MobileMe all over again.

Feeling the same frustrations myself, i am slowly rebuilding my library but at this point i am just contemplating turning apple music off and having music just stored on my phone and turning back on spotify.

I wanted to badly have this service but at the moment it is more work than it is worth, hopefully it gets fixed but i think il go back to my previous ways and hope this gets fixed

Stab*City

I went back to Spotify about 2 days after i joined Apple Music.

keith_d99

Stab*City wrote: »

I went back to Spotify about 2 days after i joined Apple Music.

Too buggy??
All fur coat??

Or Spotify just better??

SpaceTime

I full agree with him. It is a truly awful product!

I can't even get it to work on iTunes, most of the features are missing and some play lists are there, some aren't, some have songs missing.

I'm seeing the radio services, but not the Apple music playlists I made, yet they're on my iPhone.

I tried logging in / out of services, I tried deleting iTunes prefs and rebuilding everything, I even removed iTunes, downloaded it again, reinstalled and upgraded again and it's still the same!

The UI on the desktop is horrific too. I can't find anything, it's clunky and old.

I'm not surprised their share price is sinking! If this is a sign of the quality of new stuff they're launching, they're past it.

I'm back to Spotify again and I don't think I'll be coming back to this app again. It's offering nothing new, it's a "me too" app and it's buggy as hell.

I'd expect more than a beta test after a product launch, especially from Apple!

I really never thought I'd be saying an Apple product has a poor UI, but on the desktop at least, this is not a good experience.
It's just the same old iTunes app with streaming rather clumsily bolted on from what I can see.

I don't even understand what they mean by "iCloud sync" .. does that mean that I'm streaming songs from the iCloud servers? or that I'm storing them locally and can play them off line?!?

Spotify works and it's relatively refined at this stage. I'm staying with it.

DubDJ

Apple and services always seem to go bad together. MobileMe, Maps, Music and there's constant iCloud downtimes on an almost constant monthly basis. Any new services Apple have introduced have always taken time to get going and personally for me to get my head around.

I'll give it time though, I'm not a power user of streaming services but from the little I've used of it so far I'm happy.

miralize

I really want this to be a success but its warped my iTunes library into something somewhat unrecognizable.

- Albums split in 2. Metadata inconsistencies.
- Live versions of songs being overwritten.
- Explicit songs being replaced with safe versions.
- The playlists & radio are awesome but the UI is kind of horrible.
- You cant click on an artist to see their full library on OSX.

Its unfinished but im going to give it some time. Happier than using Spotify if only for the ability to have my own library in there, but things are far from perfect for me. Hopefully all of the negativity makes Apple start to take online services seriously.

SpaceTime

It's true though their online services have been very flakey for many years.

They also chop and change things abandoning things en route.

It started with iTools which they kept chopping and changing.

I still find iCloud Drive a total mystery and I utterly detest this change to the File>Save / Save As menus. I find it really confusing and I end up making duplicates of random things and saving them all over the place.

I don't see how what they've done has made it any easier, if anything it's made it way more complicated. I can't just go File : Save As and whack in a new version name on most of their apps anymore.

Also don't even get me started on FinalCut Pro !!!!

Stab*City

keith_d99 wrote: »

Too buggy??
All fur coat??

Or Spotify just better??

I know Apple are awesome n all but i just find Spotify better. Maybe because im used to the UI more and find it very easy to do whatever i want in it. I like to split my music up into folders of GENRE/SUB GENRE/ARTIST/ALBUM Spotify allows you to do this with ease. I figured out a similar method in Apple Music but just isn't as easy.

Plus i was afraid to sync with my itunes because of the horror stories.

Also i did a search for one of my favorite artists and found him but half the songs in his catalog were from an artist with the same name and after spending 30 mins clicking bubbles of my interests i would have thought the app to be smart enough to not give me songs from the 1940's.

I guess i also like the simplicity of Spotify. No sync, No overpaid radio jocks, no bubbles.. Just music.

Zhane

I seem to be in the minority that I've not had any issues? The only problem I had was some issues with iOS9 beta, but a rollback fixed it. I came from spotify and I can't see myself going back to it.

Zcott

Zhane wrote: »

I seem to be in the minority that I've not had any issues? The only problem I had was some issues with iOS9 beta, but a rollback fixed it. I came from spotify and I can't see myself going back to it.

I'm with you. It's been great for me and I've had no trouble at all. Maybe we're doing something wrong...?

Zhane

Zcott wrote: »

I'm with you. It's been great for me and I've had no trouble at all. Maybe we're doing something wrong...?

I'm almost thinking we are! Its not difficult to use haha

murpho999

Zhane wrote: »

I seem to be in the minority that I've not had any issues? The only problem I had was some issues with iOS9 beta, but a rollback fixed it. I came from spotify and I can't see myself going back to it.

Same here, library intact, and all working well.

Must admit to liking it more than I expected. Especially the "For You" section as the suggestions are fantastic and I have discovered great music through it.

OwaynOTT

Zhane wrote: »

I seem to be in the minority that I've not had any issues? The only problem I had was some issues with iOS9 beta, but a rollback fixed it. I came from spotify and I can't see myself going back to it.

murpho999 wrote: »

Same here, library intact, and all working well.

Must admit to liking it more than I expected. Especially the "For You" section as the suggestions are fantastic and I have discovered great music through it.

Same here, I find it great to use.

The only thing is, I'd like recently played songs that I haven't skipped that I don't own to be added to a recently played list.

SpaceTime

I *finally* got it working. It seems to be a problem with the iCloud sync not being setup properly.

They really need to tidy up the iTunes interface for this as I'm not exactly lacking in IT skills and I didn't find that until recently and it was only activated by clicking on an option in a contextual menu.

There needs to be a "Apple Music On/Off" option.

The other thing that drives me mad is you can't easily add music that you're listening to to a playlist. At least, no obvious way that I can see.

If you click "add to my music" it doesn't go into a specific playlist.

They need to have that option.

Also random errors like

iCloud Music Library playlists can only include music from your iCloud Music Library. This playlist can’t be uploaded because it includes other media kinds or songs that are not eligible.

I have no idea what other media it's talking about? I can't see any other media in this list.

Sad Professor

SpaceTime wrote: »

I *finally* got it working. It seems to be a problem with the iCloud sync not being setup properly.

They really need to tidy up the iTunes interface for this as I'm not exactly lacking in IT skills and I didn't find that until recently and it was only activated by clicking on an option in a contextual menu.

There needs to be a "Apple Music On/Off" option.

It’s in iTunes preferences.

The other thing that drives me mad is you can't easily add music that you're listening to to a playlist. At least, no obvious way that I can see.

If you click "add to my music" it doesn't go into a specific playlist.

They need to have that option.

You can do this via the contextual (three dots) menu next to every song or at the top of iTunes when the song is playing. Or just by right-clicking on a song.

It’s actually really easy to add songs to playlists in iTunes 11 onwards. You can drag the song and the playlist sidebar automatically appears. Unfortunately this doesn’t work in the (crippled) Apple Music storefront yet. So people used to just dragging and dropping in Spotify will find having to mess around in contextual menus annoying.

Sad Professor

SpaceTime wrote: »

iCloud Music Library playlists can only include music from your iCloud Music Library. This playlist can’t be uploaded because it includes other media kinds or songs that are not eligible.[/quote

I have no idea what other media it's talking about? I can't see any other media in this list.

Either a lossless file or video or something. Or it’s a smart playlist that references other playlists.

SpaceTime

Sad Professor wrote: »

It’s in iTunes preferences.



You can do this via the contextual (three dots) menu next to every song or at the top of iTunes when the song is playing. Or just by right-clicking on a song.

It’s actually really easy to add songs to playlists in iTunes 11 onwards. You can drag the song and the playlist sidebar automatically appears. Unfortunately this doesn’t work in the (crippled) Apple Music storefront yet. So people used to just dragging and dropping in Spotify will find having to mess around in contextual menus annoying.

Nope, it's not there on mine most of the time. I have tried and looked and sometimes it's there, sometimes it isn't. I'm not missing anything.

SpaceTime

Sad Professor wrote: »

Either a lossless file or video or something. Or it’s a smart playlist that references other playlists.

How do I even identify that in the GUI without going through every song?

Honestly this is a big steaming pile of ... of an app.

I don't have time / patience for all these glitches and it's just going to send me straight back to Spotify.

Sad Professor

To be clear, you are talking about wanting to disable iCloud Music Library, right? That option is in iTunes preferences. If it’s not there, it might mean you are logged out.

SpaceTime

Sad Professor wrote: »

To be clear, you are talking about wanting to disable iCloud Music Library, right? That option is in iTunes preferences. If it’s not there, it might mean you are logged out.

It just appears and disappears at random and I just get "add to my music" instead of "add to..." (a specific play list).

As for the other glitch, all I wanted to do was add a few tracks from an Apple playlist to a playlist I use at the Gym.

It completely without warning removed the whole playlist from my iCloud and it's now gone from my iPhone and I have no idea which piece of media is doing this as it's not even flagging it in iTunes.

I'm not going to spend the next week learning my way around various odd glitches. They shouldn't have launched this junk.

It's literally one of the most frustrating pieces of software I've used in years. It seems to be trying to make things seamless/magic and instead is making them opaque and impossible to work with.

For an Apple product, this is absolutely shockingly bad. It's worse than the Maps launch a few years ago!

SpaceTime

Sad Professor wrote: »

It’s in iTunes preferences (in OS X, I'm not talking about the mobile app).

Nope, I've just gone through every pane of the preferences menu and there's no mention of Apple music at all. Yet, I'm using it!
The only reference to anything iCloud-related is to do with the original iTunes music store.

I've also gone through that Apple playlist, and absolutely nothing in it is anything other than an Apple Music track from what I can see.

Clearly, this is just buggy as hell.

---

Edit, if I add ANY track from Apple music to my playlists they now become unavailable!?

I can add the exact same playlist to iCloud / iPhone playlists from the iOS app without any issue ...

::: Tempted to put iTunes in trash! :::

"It just works" .. yeah ... right...

I should coco!

Really surprised at the issues people are having. Just read that article from 'In Loop', kind of frustrating alright. It would definitely turn me off the service.

My experience has been the complete opposite. I'm not noticing any of the issues mentioned, which leads me to believe I'm in fact doing something wrong also!! But I really don't think I am.

Thought I'd also give a special mention to the 'For you' section: it's excellent. I've discovered lots of stuff from it. Working really well for me.

I hope Apple can clear up the issues that are obviously there for some users.

SpaceTime

I'm just mind boggled by how little testing they do given that I'm using a MacBook Pro Retina 15" using the latest OS X iteration and an iPhone 6 with the latest iOS ...

There's nothing unpredictable about my setup.

Apple have very limited ranges of hardware configurations to test!

It's also happening me on multiple ISPs so it's not that either!

It would be trivial the test this on every conceivable compatible Mac system

Edit:
Feedback sent on all issues !

Sad Professor

It’s something more specific about your setup than just what model machine or device or OS version you are using. Most people with similar hardware configurations are likely having no issues.

It might be an authorisation problem you are having. Try de-authorising and re-authorising the Mac in the Accounts menu.

SpaceTime

I wonder actually if it's because I've a very old iCloud account dating back to 2000 and I have an @mac.com email address associated with.

I had very strange issues with iCloud Drive and also with iMessage and Facetime which were raised the whole way to the top level tech support in the US who eventually called me from California and resolved it.

I had no iMessage for weeks and it was most certainly at their end and not mine.

I hadn't had any issues since, and I've been working away with 2-factor authentication and all of that too without any fuss at all.


What I've done so far (to no avail)

1) Logged out and back in to everything iCloud and iTunes Music Store related (on desktop and iOS). - Result : same.
2) Logged out and deauthorised the Mac from ITMS, removed its preferences, deleted the app (requires a privilege change). Downloaded the iTunes app again from apple.com, and re-upgraded it to the newest version via App Store. Then relogged in and authorised it. - Result : same!
3) Tried different ISPs and DNS servers - Result : same.

At this stage, there's nothing else I can do from my side, it has to be their problem.

ads20101

Is anyone else finding this overly buggy?

I traditionally love Apple and when I heard that they were starting their own streaming service, cancelling my spotify sub appeared a no brainer.

Well how stupid was I!!

IMHO this is a hell of a lot harder to use / make playlists / choose albums than spotify (I know others will disagree)

The straw that broke the camels back for me was popping an REM album for offline play, but when I went to play it I got the Ian Campbell folk group. Well, I've got nothing against the UB40's brothers dad playing folk, but on this occasion I wanted a bit of Stipe et al. This is what I had chosen!!

Criticising anything Apple goes against my very grain, to be honest it makes me feel a tad grubby, but if I wasn't in the free 3 month period I would be rather cheesed off.

Well, I'm giving them another month - if they can't get it sorted by then I will return my hard earned tenner a month back to spotify.

(Spotify......spotify.....where are you.....all is forgiven)

SpaceTime

I'm still finding this iCloud playlist thing totally confusing. Playlists are still disappearing and becoming unavailable for no logical reason that I can figure out anyway.

DubDJ

I'm staying away from putting any time into organising music and playlists until things start getting better but even playing music and adding it to your library can be annoying.

Played a song though Apple Music, wanted to add it to my library, no option. Tried different versions of the song and different sub menus but just couldn't find the option to add it to Apple Music.

It really needs somebody to sit down and go though the whole app and simplify it.