Apple Music Will Get an Update with iOS 9. Thank God.
When bull terrier Number One demanded a walk the other evening, I grabbed my iPhone so I could catch up on listening to some recently-created playlists. They were carefully collated, compiled over many months. And they were gone.
Panicked, I ran up to my computer to check iTunes. No, they were all there. So why weren’t they on my iPhone? The walk would have to wait.
Turns out that the .xml file on which my iTunes library depends was somehow corrupted by a combination of an update to iTunes 12.2 and iOS 8.4. I’ve scoured the Interwebs for a solution (which I found) but I’ve yet to sort it out. Meanwhile, all I have is a playlist featuring all the music I’ve ever purchased from iTunes.
Other people have encountered other problems with Apple Music (don’t get me started on the confusion that occurs when you want iCloud Music Library to behave like iTunes Match).
The good news is that Apple seems to care that people are pissed. From MacWorld:
Remember the good old days when the only thing you could do to a song was play it?
When Apple Music first launched in iOS 8.4 on June 30, the streaming service was bombarded with hidden menus and a wild array of options. In fact, this “menus on menus on menus” design was one of our biggest complaints about Apple Music when it first launched.
Well, if the iOS 9 public beta is any indication, it looks like Cupertino’s UX design wizards have started to clean up Apple Music’s messy interface. The iOS 9 update gives the Music app a subtle but much-needed makeover so you can spend less time browsing through options and more time actually listening to music.
Continue reading. Meanwhile, TechCrunch has this story on Apple Music’s overall strategy.
Yesterday, the brand new music video for The Weeknd’s smash single “I Can’t Feel My Face” dropped on Apple Music Connect, the only place it’s available. In just the last few weeks, Apple Music got to premiere new songs and videos by Drake, M.I.A., Skrillex and Vic Mensa, and Black Eyed Peas. That’s because it’s not locking them behind a paywall. Instead, it pushes them to as many people as possible. In some cases, like with Eminem and Drake, Pitchfork reports Apple is even paying to help produce the music videos.
Judging by past debuts, Apple Music isn’t trying to permanently keep the songs off other services. Some of its previous premieres like Pharrell’s “Freedom” andEminem’s “Phenomenal” officially appeared as audio tracks on YouTube and Spotify several days later. Thevideo for “Yesterday” was officially uploaded to YouTubeby the Black Eyed Peas just hours after it debuted on Apple Music Connect.
Apple declined to comment when asked about its strategy with premieres.
I unsubscribed to Apple music before my free 3 months was up. I’ve had enough. I’ll stick with Rdio that does what I want without the BS.