Apple Music is now available. Apparently, we are supposed to rejoice like there has never been streaming music before. Are you rejoicing yet?
Maybe or maybe not. It depends on your needs and expectations. I’m going to guess that 99 percent of the people glomming onto the free 3-month trial will not keep up the subscription, unless it’s by accident. (You know you can cancel that right now, yes?)
That’s because Apple Music is kind of awesome, but not as awesome as Apple thinks it is. It certainly could be. However, streaming music has been plentiful for quite some time—and a lot of it is free. Of course, you have to suffer through the occasional ad. Those are really annoying, but so is another monthly fee. I have enough monthly fees. We all do.
For those of you who demand ad-free music, what Apple is offering simply won’t be enough. That’s because Apple is solely relying on quantity versus quality—and of course, the Apple name. That may get people lined up on the first day of a new hardware release, but will it get you to fork over a $10 monthly fee? Probably not.
A lot of that has to do with a few quirks. For most, the number one problem: will be: sound quality. While Apple Music isn’t necessarily bad for streaming a few songs on the fly, audiophiles will most likely pooh-pooh the service’s streaming bitrate of 256kbps. After all, Spotify: is: doing 320kbps, while Tidal’s: HiFi plan: boasts a max of 44.1kHz and 16-bit, at a bitrate of 1411kbps. If you’re going to pay, you probably want the best sound quality possible. Sadly, Apple can’t really do any better, since its source (iTunes) is encoded with the same quality. Do the math.
But I digress. Apple Music also has a few other issues, which I’ll get to in a minute. At times, it’s a really: pleasurable experience, but it can be a confusing one as well.
To get Apple Music, you will need to update your iOS devices to the 8.4 software. Once you do that, the icon formerly known as Music is now—well, still Music.
Currently, the service is available for iOS, Mac and PC devices, with Android and Apple TV support coming this fall. For this review, my iPhone 4 was not eligible for the software upgrade. Yes, I do need to update that, but my iPad worked just fine for testing purposes.
The first time you join Apple Music, you’ll need to pick a subscription plan, even though the company won’t technically charge you for three months. The Individual plan is $9.99 per month, with a Family option for up to six users going for $14.99. After that, you’ll need to pick three genres from a bunch of little bouncing hot pink cells (see below). Next, you’ll pick bands—and you’ll need to pick wisely. And when I say wisely, I mean you’ll need to make like Indiana Jones choosing the right Grail, because your selections are going to program your entire Apple Music listening experience. Don’t pick Jazz because you think it’s cool or tap on Country if you only like Johnny Cash.
And that’s where the confusion begins. Because despite: Apple providing many choices, there really aren’t that many, especially in the grand scheme of all the music that there is out there. For instance, I am a punk rock fan (no apologies!), but there was no punk rock genre. Instead, I opted for the all-encompassing “Alternative.” When choosing artists, I punched the “More Artists” option repeatedly to find my favorites, only to find out that it maxes out at a: whopping five screens. There were plenty of bands and artists that I liked, but “favorites” is a strong word. Also, it was annoying that there was no way to cycle back through those selections. Once you got to the end, you had to reset the entire process, remember what you saw previously, and make your choices.
Now the good news: Even though the selections were very limited, I was actually pretty pleased with the music: that came up. My gripe about no punk rock? Many of my favorite punk bands were featured on the For You home page: because they are classified as “alternative.” I’ve always been annoyed that “alternative” means so many different things to different people. Thankfully, I like a lot of those mini-genres, so it’s working for me in Apple Music. If you love The Cranberries and hate Nirvana, you may not be all that pleased. However, there are a lot of ways to tweak the service: as you go along.
I was pretty darn happy, though. An entire 1994 playlist popped up, with everything from Soundgarden and Hole to Beastie Boys and Blur to Pavement and The Cranberries. Did I love everything on the list? No, but it certainly wasn’t off-base.
I actually liked the For You home page, which typically offers a few different playlists that are based on your picks, as well as “Intro to” options that provide: a crash course in an entire artists’ catalog. I checked out Intro to The Jam, Intro to NOFX, and Intro to Weezer, even though I was well versed in all of them. Each playlist: provided a nice mix of each band’s music. There are also options to click on specific albums. All of these selections will change every time you open the app, but you can pull down the screen to refresh it if you’re looking for a different choices.
Every time you find an artist that you actually like, you can click on the name for more music and the option to follow that artist. There’s also a heart icon, which is clickable—and you’ll want to click it, since this is how Apple Music refines your: selections. There’s also a little ellipses in the corner of the screen, which will lead you to options that can start a radio station, find the band in iTunes, add the artist to your “My Music” collection, add it to a playlist, and even share the song through social media, email and IM.
I did have a few problems clicking on bands, where the entire screen would freeze up, only to eventually do nothing. Also, while searching for “The Clash,” the entire app froze up and shut down on me. Don’t tell me that my musical tastes are that bad!
Once I did find The Clash, I was able to follow the band. However, the selections just kept spinning—sort of like my head. Can I ever get to “Train in Vain” or what?
There were a lot of little quirks like this. I’d press a new album and the old one would remain, even though the new music would start playing. Reloading seemed to do the trick, but really… I don’t want to have to do that all the time. I just want to press play and go about my business. This happened more than a few times, but it is a new service, so I have to assume there will be bugs. Hopefully, they will get fixed soon.
Otherwise, everything that played sounded fine. Despite the lower bitrate, I found it to be as pleasurable as Spotify.
There’s also a: New section, which will direct you to new music in every genre or you can choose to limit it based on the type of music you enjoy. Flipping to a specific genre will bring up Recent Releases, Top Songs, Top Albums, and a plethora of other options. There are even handcrafted playlists (by real people!), playlists based on the type of activities you’ll be doing (there’s even a “Getting It On” playlist), and playlists based on Curators. The latter includes everyone from Wired and Rolling Stone to the Grand Ole Opry, Complex, Dancing Astronaut, and more.
Under Radio, you’ll find your list of personal stations, but also Beats 1, a 24/7 radio station broadcast live from London, New York and Los Angeles. I enjoyed the interviews and different programming that Beats 1 was offering, but your results may vary. After all, it’s just one station. If you don’t like what they’re cranking out, there’s no alternative. Of course, you can also create your own music-only stations, as well as tap into music from personal playlists and stored music.
Connect is another Apple exclusive, promising to connect users to actual artists and curators. The collection for each artist varies and is slightly confusing. Tapping on Madonna gave me her music, with a quote from Madonna that is anything but exclusive. The Beastie Boys page brought up an old photo from a 1986 concert, but nothing else. Also, you’ll find a lot of artists missing. My guess is that this is a work in progress—at least, I hope it is.
So let’s pause for a minute and catch our breath. Because really, Apple Music is overwhelming. It’s cool that the service has so many options. However, it can also be too much: at times. Sometimes too much of a good thing is not such a good thing. I found myself only checking out specific playlists or just using the search bar to find artists. It’s a nice to have options for discovering new and old music, but despite the pretty layout, Apple Music is really too busy.
Of course, you could just rely on Siri. Yes, the service has Siri integration, which is fun, but also sort of gimmicky. After all, who: doesn’t love barking out bands and songs and having them play at whim? Siri can even be tested to “Play the number one song from 1985.” Of course, like a few other things with Apple Music, this feature does have a few quirks. At first, asking for the number one song from 1985 actually produced the song “1985” by Bowling for Soup. (The second time was a charm, though.) Requesting “1999” and every other Prince song yielded a polite response that those tracks weren’t available. (Prince just pulled all of his music from the service.) However, asking for “The Beatles” brought up “The Wiggles”—repeatedly. In other words, Siri is: often a heartless she-devil! It’s also something that I can imagine using on a regular basis.
As mentioned, iOS, Mac and PC users can enjoy Apple Music today. However,: I’ve seen a lot of people griping that Apple Music doesn’t work with Sonos or other whole-house music solutions. That’s supposedly coming, but for now, you should get a decent fix using AirPlay and Bluetooth. I was able to stream right to my Yamaha receiver, which has built-in AirPlay. I also tested it out with various Bluetooth speakers, with similar results.
So yes, Apple Music does have tons of playback options and musical selections, but it’s also: kind of overwhelming. All of the lists and choices: are great from a quantity standpoint, but it does make: for a confusing interface.: Sometimes, I just want to open Spotify, play a song, and have that be the end of it.: Some of the sections seem like a work in progress, which adds to the confusion. However, the sound quality may be the clinching factor, because so many of the same songs and lists are currently: available for free on Spotify, as well as free Spotify Radio and free Pandora. Is having people involved that big of a deal? Some may consider it to be: a horrible deal—at least for $10 a: month.
AudioMD says
Music streaming: Apple’s ….and oranges?
When it comes to audio quality, judging solely by bitrates (where bigger is better) is a common mistake that fails to take into account the audio codecs and efficiencies involved.
Spotify uses Ogg Vorbis audio coding which is different from Apple’s AAC coding technology. Meanwhile, Tidal emphasis is on the lossless offering which utilizes FLAC (and Apple) lossless coding (Apple Lossless transmission of 16-bit audio is also available via Apple’s Airplay system).
Tidal music is based on the WiMP format which uses 96 kbps AAC+ coding (‘Normal’ mode) or 320 kbps AAC (‘High’ mode) if a high-quality streaming option is selected. A “HiFi” lossless option with FLAC/ALAC is also offered.
Tidal clearly seeks to establish WiMP’s “Hi-Fi” lossless offering as a key point of difference and is hoping that subscribers are willing to pay a premium for this. If comparing apples and apples, I think the playing field is leveled considerably between $10/mo contenders assuming there’s a game to win.