Apple Music Thread

[mattstick]

Decided to fire up a 3-month trial of Apple Music and while it took some configuration, I'm now hooked.

First things first, Apple Music will try to "Match" files on your device and in doing so will probably fuck them up.  It took an MMW Live @ Bonnaroo recording I purchased and put the wrong artwork all over it, it mismatched the cover art for some Paul Simon tracks I had on my phone, etc...

So my new approach is to not use Apple Music on my main iTunes PC at home, keep that one "off-line" and sync my iPods to it for when I want to listen to Live Dead/Live Phish etc. (stuff Apple Music would be bad at matching).

I deleted all the music from my phone, work macbook and iPad and launched Apple Music on them.  Now I fully embrace the "cloud music" on those devices. 

Note: Apple Music should have an app on the AppleTV

After some quick setup, the "For You" tab has really nailed my interests and presents a good variety of playlists and albums I may want to listen to.  Yesterday Blue Note Records tweeted that an Ornette Coleman album was available on digital for the first time starting today, I quickly jumped over to Apple Music, found it, and clicked "Make Available Off-Line" then listened to it on the subway home from work.

It's great for work, where I don't really want to think about what music I have on my devices, I just jump into the "For You" tab and start streaming something.

Anyone else using it yet?

[PIE-GUY]

Yeah, man. I'm hooked already. I was already paying for match... That part that annoys you because it fucks up your library. It fucked my shit up so royally so long ago I'm just used to it now.

It's actually much better with this most recent update. It used to be really buggy on my phone... It was sometimes impossible to get it to make certain albums available offline, for instance. It sucked all around. Now it seems to be working much much better... And I have access to millions of tracks not just what I already had.

But the update is really nice. For instance, I downloaded the Chicago Dead shows and put them in iTunes on my Mac. About five minutes later I opened music on my iPhone and there were the three shows at the top of the "my music" tab under the heading "recently added"

That's fucking brilliant.

That said, it's not perfect. Search could be a whole lot better, for instance. I basically have to decide what to listen to before I start driving or I risk killing myself or others trying to find music. I guess I could use Siri but i don't.

[sls.stormyrider]

haven't tried Apple Music yet but agree that "Recently Added" is a great addition to iTunes

[jedifunk]

i'm interested in trying it, yet skeptical at the same time.

as most of you know, i'm an ardent apple fanboy ... so this should be a no brainer for me.

BUT i started paying for spotify about 2 years ago, and i'm really invested in that now, with so many great playlists and whatnot on that service.

that makes me a bit hesitant to switch ... anyone in the similar position already switch and have tales to tell?

[mattstick]

http://www.iphonehacks.com/2015/07/how-to-easily-transfer-playlists-from-spotify-to-apple-music.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[jedifunk]

http://www.iphonehacks.com/2015/07/how-to-easily-transfer-playlists-from-spotify-to-apple-music.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

i'll check the link .. have you tried it?

also, are you still liking apple music? worth the 3 month trial?

[mattstick]

Yup, still using it and loving it, probably will pay for it come October.

I think they would have been better served to *not* roll iTunes Match into Apple Music, or at least let you toggle it... so my caveats about not connecting it to a large iTunes library in the first post still stand, but the actual streaming/downloading for off-line stuff is great and there is so much stuff on there, it's just worth it.

I probably bought an album a month on iTunes, now I just get to listen to everything, all the time for the same money.

[jedifunk]

Yup, still using it and loving it, probably will pay for it come October.

I think they would have been better served to *not* roll iTunes Match into Apple Music, or at least let you toggle it... so my caveats about not connecting it to a large iTunes library in the first post still stand, but the actual streaming/downloading for off-line stuff is great and there is so much stuff on there, it's just worth it.

I probably bought an album a month on iTunes, now I just get to listen to everything, all the time for the same money.

sounds like it would fit me perfect then... i gave up on having an local music library like 4 years ago!

again, the only thing for me is i'm really pretty embedded in spotify ... and nothing is really compelling me to move at the moment

[Guyute]

They just released an update 2 days ago that fixes the artwork problem and another problem with match.  I am still going to wait a couple of months for more bugs to be worked out before trying it.   Everyone seems to love it though.