Redesigning Apple Music after Being Rejected(medium.com)
medium.com
Redesigning Apple Music after Being Rejected
https://medium.com/@jasonyuan/i-got-rejected-by-apple-music-so-i-redesigned-it-b7e2e4dc64bf
127 comments
The polish issue I see is mainly the visible seams between Apple Music, iTunes Store and your library. It's ugly that the search makes you choose a context. There should just be one simple profile for an artist. Show your favorited/"added" albums up top and everything else from them down below. Whether it's full tracks or just previews should just depend on whether you and/or they participate in Apple Music.
I also feel the UI could be simplified further by burying the concept of "downloading" somewhat akin to how iCloud Photo Library does it. It should just aim to handle 95% of cases via intelligent caching, like cache all your latest stuff and anything you recently put into a playlist. I know we on HN tend to be advanced users who love manual control but we could still do it via playlists. Get those download buttons out of the way for most folks.
I find discovery to be pretty good! The "My New Music Mix" is surprisingly decent for me. That is entirely track-based and it's probably my main way of discovering completely new music. I used to hate For You because it felt like browsing the 99 cent rental section of Blockbuster.. lots of old stuff that was maybe good, but I'm mainly interested in new music. But the New Music mix has changed my feeling.
I also feel the UI could be simplified further by burying the concept of "downloading" somewhat akin to how iCloud Photo Library does it. It should just aim to handle 95% of cases via intelligent caching, like cache all your latest stuff and anything you recently put into a playlist. I know we on HN tend to be advanced users who love manual control but we could still do it via playlists. Get those download buttons out of the way for most folks.
I find discovery to be pretty good! The "My New Music Mix" is surprisingly decent for me. That is entirely track-based and it's probably my main way of discovering completely new music. I used to hate For You because it felt like browsing the 99 cent rental section of Blockbuster.. lots of old stuff that was maybe good, but I'm mainly interested in new music. But the New Music mix has changed my feeling.
I think you're missing an important point that GP made: Apple lately absolutely refuses to give you any kind of error or even status informations in its cloud products (Music, Photos, Notes, ...).
It's meant to just work like 'magic' - as if all wireless connections as well as the server and client software are nowadays so perfect that you'd never encounter error states anymore, and it's all so fast that you don't need progress information on anything. Right.
It's meant to just work like 'magic' - as if all wireless connections as well as the server and client software are nowadays so perfect that you'd never encounter error states anymore, and it's all so fast that you don't need progress information on anything. Right.
And in the one place they do give you status (iCloud Photo Library), it regularly shows completely bizarre numbers (I often see stuff like "Uploading 15 photos (369MB / 125MB)"
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> Playlists are ok, but heavily recommending entire albums is bizarre. Its like trying new foods by going to Costco. It would make more sense to select top picks from an artist.
Strongly disagree. It’s probably a generational thing but I listen to music in albums, not in popular hits. This was by far the main reason I used to use Rdio instead of Spotify.
Strongly disagree. It’s probably a generational thing but I listen to music in albums, not in popular hits. This was by far the main reason I used to use Rdio instead of Spotify.
I listen to entire albums too! But not from artists I've never heard of before, as is commonly the case in recommendations. It takes me a few listens from their singles to warm up to them, and then dig further into their discography.
"My New Music Mix" is updated 1x week for some inexplicable reason (I know Spotify does this too), while it seems to recommend albums programmatically based on likes/listening habits. Other playlists seem to be manually curated and recommended based on genre.
Understandably, there is just no way to expect manually curated playlists to cover everyone's personal tastes.
I believe it is possible to recommend songs/artists/albums without favoring one form of discoverability over the other as it is currently done.
"My New Music Mix" is updated 1x week for some inexplicable reason (I know Spotify does this too), while it seems to recommend albums programmatically based on likes/listening habits. Other playlists seem to be manually curated and recommended based on genre.
Understandably, there is just no way to expect manually curated playlists to cover everyone's personal tastes.
I believe it is possible to recommend songs/artists/albums without favoring one form of discoverability over the other as it is currently done.
Spotify does suggest albums (and singles, it makes no distinction, ugh). But yeah I use the Spotify Premium subscription to almost exclusively play albums.
EDIT: Discovery is terrible, the only sites that had excellent discovery was last.fm (butchered by CBS) and what.cd (nuked by law enforcement)
EDIT: Discovery is terrible, the only sites that had excellent discovery was last.fm (butchered by CBS) and what.cd (nuked by law enforcement)
Strangely the on that had the best discovery for me was Google Music. It just seemed to eerily read my mind and I stumbled on so many good titles that I love. Rarely did I need to skip any song during, say, a workout playlist.
As for the UI, I loved the Google Music one... when I was on Android. Now that I'm on iOS it's totally alien and just unusable because zero iOS conventions are respected, like I'm in a virtual machine, it's just frustrating. I find all of the other music platform UIs quite awkward and despite its flaws Apple Music is still the best for me.
Seems like we hit a wall and "all MUAs suck" just changed the M from "Mail" to "Music".
As for the UI, I loved the Google Music one... when I was on Android. Now that I'm on iOS it's totally alien and just unusable because zero iOS conventions are respected, like I'm in a virtual machine, it's just frustrating. I find all of the other music platform UIs quite awkward and despite its flaws Apple Music is still the best for me.
Seems like we hit a wall and "all MUAs suck" just changed the M from "Mail" to "Music".
There's a lot of things I don't like about Google Music UI but the artist page with the top 5 songs and the albums below works great for both getting a taste of a new artist and entire album listening.
I have been migrating away from Apple for my music needs lately. There are tons of reasons for me to want to get away. You named one:
- Really buggy. It will arbitrarily skip to the next song in the middle of playback. Sometimes it will refuse to play a song in my library, and will move on to the next. No error, no feedback, nothing.
But what _really_ broke my music-listening back was Apple, in their "infinite" wisdom have been rating songs for me they think I'd like in my library (grey stars). As far as I can tell, there is no way for me to distinguish between my stars and the stars Apple adds, which means my playlist of songs that I've rated has now been ruined by Apple's "recommendation."
edit And, I want to be absolutely clear here - there are songs I'VE uploaded into Apple Music using iTunes music match sync whatever. Apple thinks they can tell me more about my music library, that I've purchased and cultivated over all these years, then I can.
For anyone interested, I am using: Very large NAS to store my music. Tagging music using Musicbrainz Picard. Multiple Kodi (formerly XBMC) front ends, all sharing the same music and video library via mysql.
But what _really_ broke my music-listening back was Apple, in their "infinite" wisdom have been rating songs for me they think I'd like in my library (grey stars). As far as I can tell, there is no way for me to distinguish between my stars and the stars Apple adds, which means my playlist of songs that I've rated has now been ruined by Apple's "recommendation."
edit And, I want to be absolutely clear here - there are songs I'VE uploaded into Apple Music using iTunes music match sync whatever. Apple thinks they can tell me more about my music library, that I've purchased and cultivated over all these years, then I can.
For anyone interested, I am using: Very large NAS to store my music. Tagging music using Musicbrainz Picard. Multiple Kodi (formerly XBMC) front ends, all sharing the same music and video library via mysql.
>> But what _really_ broke my music-listening back was Apple, in their "infinite" wisdom have been rating songs for me they think I'd like in my library (grey stars). As far as I can tell, there is no way for me to distinguish between my stars and the stars Apple adds, which means my playlist of songs that I've rated has now been ruined by Apple's "recommendation."
A quick Google would have explained this for you. They are not 'rating your tracks'. With Apple Music you can 'love' tracks which then show a red heart next to them. The grey stars are shown next to tracks that are the most popular with all Apple Music users. So if you view an album, generally, the singles will have grey star next to them. Really useful when they recommend a new album and you want to listen to the best tracks before digging deeper.
A quick Google would have explained this for you. They are not 'rating your tracks'. With Apple Music you can 'love' tracks which then show a red heart next to them. The grey stars are shown next to tracks that are the most popular with all Apple Music users. So if you view an album, generally, the singles will have grey star next to them. Really useful when they recommend a new album and you want to listen to the best tracks before digging deeper.
I don't have the apple music service. I have itunes match sync whatever that uploads my music into the itunes cloud. Apple is assuming about my music.
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/67221/how-to-remov... This is my issue.
I am not going to go through all my albums and manually remove what Apple has screwed up. I'd rather migrate away to a system I 100% control.
I am not going to go through all my albums and manually remove what Apple has screwed up. I'd rather migrate away to a system I 100% control.
Ok different issue. Still don't see how it's an issue. The estimates they provide are very obviously different from actual ratings. I don't see how they would confuse.
The grey stars get inserted into smart playlists created to include rated songs. I don't want to hear what apple thinks I'd like. I want to hear what I've rated highly.
For me this star was very confusing before I googled, but now I treat it as a cool "shortcut" to see the strongest song of the album/artist to quickly get my opinion :-)
I purchased (yes, purchased) an entire album that I can no longer download to my phone. It's an absolutely bizarre and offensive problem. I'll hit the "+add" button to put it in my library and it'll just make a loading icon and then promptly revert to "+add" again, with no feedback on why it failed.
It'd be one thing if I didn't literally own this album as much as one can legally own something digital, but my goodness this seems unjustifiable.
It'd be one thing if I didn't literally own this album as much as one can legally own something digital, but my goodness this seems unjustifiable.
Try adding each song individually.
I bought the beatles set before they were on spotify (huge mistake since they're not separated by actual album) and it was impossible to download the songs except for downloading each one individually.
Downloading by artist or album never worked.
I bought the beatles set before they were on spotify (huge mistake since they're not separated by actual album) and it was impossible to download the songs except for downloading each one individually.
Downloading by artist or album never worked.
Totally agree. I have subscriptions in both services, Apple Music and Spotify. Im still wondering how its possible that Spotify managed to handle smooth buffering way more better than Apple. It works flawlessly, even when Im entering and leaving airplane mode during loading song. On Apple music, both on Mac and iPhone, it needs to prebuffer for few seconds and is laggy when I quickly skip songs. Just awful.
Former Spotify engineer here.
The reason you see Spotify excelling in streaming performance is that Spotify has both some very smart people working both in Europe and NYC to make that happen and Spotify made mobile streaming performance (to feel like a local file playback) a number one priority.
Also apple's offering is a reaction to Spotify's success and it suffers the "sequel effect" where the me too product is not that good. Their previous model was track downloads.
Also it is not a Big Corp vs Startup, but more of a team in a Big Corp vs well funded Startup that is dedicated to that mission.
(I'd say Spotify is way past the startup stage so it is more of Big Corp doing many things vs Big Corp doing only one thing).
The reason you see Spotify excelling in streaming performance is that Spotify has both some very smart people working both in Europe and NYC to make that happen and Spotify made mobile streaming performance (to feel like a local file playback) a number one priority.
Also apple's offering is a reaction to Spotify's success and it suffers the "sequel effect" where the me too product is not that good. Their previous model was track downloads.
Also it is not a Big Corp vs Startup, but more of a team in a Big Corp vs well funded Startup that is dedicated to that mission.
(I'd say Spotify is way past the startup stage so it is more of Big Corp doing many things vs Big Corp doing only one thing).
> - Extremely ungraceful handling of spotty cell coverage. Playback will abruptly stop to buffer, but the UI gives absolutely no feedback. The play/pause button just behaves as if I told it to stop, and is unresponsive to my input. This is especially terrible while driving, where playback can stop for other reasons (Like a bluetooth disconnect).
This seems to happen to me, even though I don't stream any music.
This seems to happen to me, even though I don't stream any music.
This happens to be across multiple audio players on iOS that are playing local content, which leads me to suspect there are issues with audio at the OS level, though can't be sure.
I mostly listen to clasical music, operas, where the UI used by both amazon and apple just doesn't work. There are always 20 versions of an opera, so the quality of the recording matters a lot (so low quality samples aren't helpful). Apple usually only shows 100 results, so you get the tracks of one or two recording of the opera, you can't go further in the results. Track names often have the name of the opera and composer as a prefix and the rest is usually truncated by the UI which means you are presented with a long list of tracks with the same name. And amazon's windows music app is a complete disaster, with its unstructured hierarchy of screens where you never know how to get back to a screen, its screens flashing all the time, and the app was clearly not designed (or tested) to handle more than a few hundreds songs.
Digital music was one of the first usage of mass multimedia, at the end of the 90s. It is sad that the whole thing is still so clunky 20y later.
Digital music was one of the first usage of mass multimedia, at the end of the 90s. It is sad that the whole thing is still so clunky 20y later.
The free trial at launch made me realize how much I take Spotify for granted. I see no reason to switch to Apple Music for the reasons you mentioned.
The Apple Music app was so bad, both in UI and software quality, that I switched to Spotify.
I never would have tried a subscription service until my digital music player became so bad that subscriptions were better than my carefully curated library.
To Apple Music, I say never again.
I never would have tried a subscription service until my digital music player became so bad that subscriptions were better than my carefully curated library.
To Apple Music, I say never again.
Don't forget the dark pattern of requiring the user to sign in to iCloud Music Library for any kind of bookmarking (letting Apple index/upload their entire local collection).
Apple Music was never much of a problem for me, probably because I just dumped my curated MP3 collection on my phone to make it play in the car. Only piece of the UI that I interact with is the play button.
But the Podcast app, oh boy! This is an app that I actually use, and it's still incredibly confusing to me. Probably will be an enigma forever.
But the Podcast app, oh boy! This is an app that I actually use, and it's still incredibly confusing to me. Probably will be an enigma forever.
This UX problem list is nearly identical to the problem list for the iOS podcast app also. Especially the first two!
It's actively designed to thwart the discovery and easy access to music, or so it seems.
Music discovery is the primary reason that I've moved away from Apple Music. It's become difficult to explore their music catalog, almost as if it's by design. I've made the move to Spotify and it's been wonderful.
I agree that discovery is way better with Spotify. I feel like Apple is still hoping people will continue to buy music.
Lately I've been using https://www.jqbx.fm . Which is a more a turntable.fm approach but hooks into your Spotify account so you can save things for later and DJ from your existing playlists. Definitely helped me discover a lot of new stuff I wouldn't have found otherwise.
Lately I've been using https://www.jqbx.fm . Which is a more a turntable.fm approach but hooks into your Spotify account so you can save things for later and DJ from your existing playlists. Definitely helped me discover a lot of new stuff I wouldn't have found otherwise.
Interesting. I've been thinking about switching to Apple Music to have a bit more control over my music. Spotify puts out some amazing curated playlists that are constantly being updated, but then after a few weeks those playlists suddenly turn to shit.
My theory is that they have a few people manually curate a list with good songs for a while to train an AI, but when they finally turn control over to the AI it falls on its face and starts adding shitty cover band music to the list.
My theory is that they have a few people manually curate a list with good songs for a while to train an AI, but when they finally turn control over to the AI it falls on its face and starts adding shitty cover band music to the list.
You will appreciate Every Noise at Once[0] maybe. It's all AI, but uses data from a massive set of users. It maps all chartable Spotify genres, and groups them into 3 playlists each. So for the genre, say "classic french pop"[1], you'd click in and see all the associated bands within that genre and see Spotify playlist links – they are:
The Sound of Classic French Pop – A sampling of music that defines the genre
The Pulse of Classic French Pop – Music that is often played by people who listen to lots of Classic French Pop
The Edge of Classic French Pop – New or obscure music recommended for people who like Classic French Pop
It's an incredibly deep web of playlists and music recommendations that has completely changed the way I experience Spotify. Highly highly recommend.
__
0. http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html
1. http://everynoise.com/engenremap-classicfrenchpop.html
The Sound of Classic French Pop – A sampling of music that defines the genre
The Pulse of Classic French Pop – Music that is often played by people who listen to lots of Classic French Pop
The Edge of Classic French Pop – New or obscure music recommended for people who like Classic French Pop
It's an incredibly deep web of playlists and music recommendations that has completely changed the way I experience Spotify. Highly highly recommend.
__
0. http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html
1. http://everynoise.com/engenremap-classicfrenchpop.html
Hmm. This is pretty damned cool. I'd subscribe to Spotify if this were a real interface to its catalog.
I agree - Very cool! Under playlists you can launch in Spotify a playlist of every genre. Is that what you were missing?
Thanks parent!
Thanks parent!
This is fantastic. As someone who loves digital crate digging and to explore Discogs's world of niche releases and subgenres I was always disappointed with the rather superficial discoverability in larger, more popular music services.
Thanks.
Thanks.
> My theory is that they have a few people manually curate a list with good songs for a while to train an AI, but when they finally turn control over to the AI it falls on its face and starts adding shitty cover band music to the list.
A curated playlist (not discover weekly or release radar for example) is editorially curated and driven by a human. Doesn't involve an AI for now.
A curated playlist (not discover weekly or release radar for example) is editorially curated and driven by a human. Doesn't involve an AI for now.
Even your own playlist go rotten. They periodically change song order or (presumably because of rights being negotiated or something) songs disappear. I got so paranoid I took a screenshot to help convince me of sanity. I may not be sane but orders change and songs go missing.
It could be that, for some genres, they start with the greatest hits and then have to scrape further and further towards the bottom of the barrel
Personally I'm both a nomad and a hoarder. About once a year I'll go on a week long spree finding new music and creating new playlists. The rest of the year I just listen to all those playlists plus my old ones. Neither Apple Music nor Spotify have a workflow specifically designed for this. Am I that unusual?
I'm a nomad & hoarder on Google Play Music, and I find it's fairly well-suited to my habits. I have a large library of songs I like, and when I'm in the mood to discover something new I'll
a) Pick an artist and listen to "<Artist> Radio", which will quickly compile a playlist of music by and similar to that artist.
b) Sample some "Stations", which are usually themed around a genre, mood, or activity.
As I'm listening to the above, I'll Thumbs Up songs I like, which adds them to my library for more frequent listening later, and helps me to "bookmark" a new artist to browse the rest of their songs later if I want.
a) Pick an artist and listen to "<Artist> Radio", which will quickly compile a playlist of music by and similar to that artist.
b) Sample some "Stations", which are usually themed around a genre, mood, or activity.
As I'm listening to the above, I'll Thumbs Up songs I like, which adds them to my library for more frequent listening later, and helps me to "bookmark" a new artist to browse the rest of their songs later if I want.
What is wrong with switching between playlists you have created and the discovery options in Spotify today? This sounds like my workflow, but I haven't been frustrated by the UI.
I've found it pretty hard to just say "I like this song, show me more like it" and then to be able to listen to each one, and conveniently add ones I like to one of a small set of playlists.
Instead, I have to right-click a song and choose "play a radio-station-thingy based on this song" (which usually is a stretch anyway and most of them are nothing like what I'm looking for), and for the few songs I do want to keep, I have to right-click them, find the "add to playlist menu", find the submenu item for the right playlist and click that, and try to re-find my place again in the song queue to start this all over again with the next song.
Maybe it's because I'm used to 90s software still and so I just don't know where the right buttons are, and I'm just clicking the wrong things, who knows.
Instead, I have to right-click a song and choose "play a radio-station-thingy based on this song" (which usually is a stretch anyway and most of them are nothing like what I'm looking for), and for the few songs I do want to keep, I have to right-click them, find the "add to playlist menu", find the submenu item for the right playlist and click that, and try to re-find my place again in the song queue to start this all over again with the next song.
Maybe it's because I'm used to 90s software still and so I just don't know where the right buttons are, and I'm just clicking the wrong things, who knows.
Why not just add them to a playlist? At the bottom of the playlist, it will start generating suggestions based on the other songs already in it, that you can continually refresh
This is exactly how I've used Spotify for 5 years.
On the other hand, Apple Music has a much wider selection than Spotify (at least in the genres that I typically listen to). I'll often read a review in Pitchfork, and go check out some of the bands they name drop. I have yet to find missing records in Apple Music, but Spotify was horrible in this regard.
What are you listening to that you cannot find on there? I have a pretty eclectic taste and have been shocked at the amount of small time stuff that Spotify actually does have
When noise pop came through SF I was checking out a bunch of the bands, and many of them had very incomplete discographies on Spotify. Even Ty Segall, a pretty mainstream act, had almost 3/4 of his releases missing from Spotify.
Same.
Beyond Discovery being objectively better on Spotify, curating new playlists from discovered music is a breeze. My discovery of new artists is a primary reason for my use of these services anyway, and I suppose it's possible that simply isn't something Apple prioritizes.
Beyond Discovery being objectively better on Spotify, curating new playlists from discovered music is a breeze. My discovery of new artists is a primary reason for my use of these services anyway, and I suppose it's possible that simply isn't something Apple prioritizes.
I've been using Spotify since 2008, but lately the app on iOS has become a massive battery hog. I usually start playing music when I leave home and continue playing a few hours at work. But after about an hour at work my phone is burning hot and the battery has drained massively. It's ridiculous and makes me want to move back to Apple Music.
Did you switch to Bluetooth headphones at some point? I've noticed battery performance is much worse when using Bluetooth, yet that is the trendy thing these days.
Nope. Always wired when the phone heats up like a frying pan. Playing podcasts does not drain the battery. Did not have the problem on iPhone 6, only noticed after switching to iPhone 7, and only really the last few weeks, but I see their support forum is full of complaints dating back a while.
I would move to Spotify because of this same reason but I've never fully been able to understand what they do with your own music that you bring to the library.
I have some live recordings for example, how do I get them in my library so that they are available on Computer #1, Mobile Device, and Computer #2 always and forever (a la iTunes Match and now Apple Music).
I have some live recordings for example, how do I get them in my library so that they are available on Computer #1, Mobile Device, and Computer #2 always and forever (a la iTunes Match and now Apple Music).
Google Music allows you to upload your own music, and has a near seamless integration of personal library and streaming. GM at least covers the use case of personal music across all devices, mixed with streaming. Not sure about iTunes Match as I've never used it.
Co-sign on Google Music. I've started adding all new music I find this way, from albums (one-click torrent download), to singles (youtube/soundcloud-to-mp3 sites).
The Google Music Manager can be set to monitor your download directories and uploads any new music to Google Music automatically (even if they are ZIPed).
The mobile app is pretty slick too: syncs automatically, and has a 'store music locally' option for when you don't have a good connection.
The Google Music Manager can be set to monitor your download directories and uploads any new music to Google Music automatically (even if they are ZIPed).
The mobile app is pretty slick too: syncs automatically, and has a 'store music locally' option for when you don't have a good connection.
Spotify does support local files and can even synchronize them across multiple devices. I noticed today that some of my local songs were available on my work laptop.
The process of adding and synchronizing your local music is not the easiest and most intuitive, but it's possible.
The process of adding and synchronizing your local music is not the easiest and most intuitive, but it's possible.
The "headshots" idea seems to be optimised for the listening habits of the author of this post. Not every artist (and almost none in my library) is a singular person. For that matter, I don't really care what the artist looks like. I'm more likely to recognise a logo when available, or an album cover failing that.
I can't recognize a single artist from his screenshots besides Lady Gaga.
MusicBee has some kind of band shot next to each band name. It is nice - but in my list most of the bands are 3 to 5 dudes, so you can't really recognize the bands with the headshot.
But I am definitely the hoarder type from his characterization - so his music player is most definitely not the one for me.
MusicBee has some kind of band shot next to each band name. It is nice - but in my list most of the bands are 3 to 5 dudes, so you can't really recognize the bands with the headshot.
But I am definitely the hoarder type from his characterization - so his music player is most definitely not the one for me.
Agreed, I think the author thought "Tinder is cool, what about Tinder for music?"
Apple Music is a horrid UI/UX! So confusing and way behind Spotify yet I use it everyday.
I'd love to shuffle all my songs and also have Apple Music play similar tracks to my huge song playlist. Discovering music is a chore in Apple Music. I actually have to hunt and peck through a bloated UI.
From a frustrated customer!!!
I'd love to shuffle all my songs and also have Apple Music play similar tracks to my huge song playlist. Discovering music is a chore in Apple Music. I actually have to hunt and peck through a bloated UI.
From a frustrated customer!!!
The Apple Music UI is hands down one of the ugliest, worst designs interfaces I've had the displeasure of using.
I have no idea what's going on in Apple, but along with iTunes, it feels like every new version gets worse in some way.
Why is the font so big and so bold? Why is there so much empty space? It goes far beyond whitespace: there's just large unused chunks. Why do I have to go all the way back to the first screen to swap between albums and artists? The now playing section at the bottom of the screen has pause and skip buttons that are inexplicably enormous. I can't put my finger on it for sure (because I don't have an iPhone atm) but why is it that the font (typeface and weight) in Apple Music is different to the rest of the OS?
Why is the font so big and so bold? Why is there so much empty space? It goes far beyond whitespace: there's just large unused chunks. Why do I have to go all the way back to the first screen to swap between albums and artists? The now playing section at the bottom of the screen has pause and skip buttons that are inexplicably enormous. I can't put my finger on it for sure (because I don't have an iPhone atm) but why is it that the font (typeface and weight) in Apple Music is different to the rest of the OS?
> yet I use it everyday.
That's the thing, though - they have no incentive to change it since it's used. Apple always took their UI risks in iTunes, so it makes sense for them to do it here, too. If Apple Music usage was low, I'm sure they'd rethink thing, but if it's used within their expectations, there's no reason to change it.
> way behind Spotify
Never though I'd read agree with that. Spotify on iOS only recently got their act together. For a very long time, I thought their app was terrible. Then, they embraced the tab bar and all was right in the world. In this case, I agree that Spotify has a more pleasing UI than Apple Music, but I still use both regularly.
That's the thing, though - they have no incentive to change it since it's used. Apple always took their UI risks in iTunes, so it makes sense for them to do it here, too. If Apple Music usage was low, I'm sure they'd rethink thing, but if it's used within their expectations, there's no reason to change it.
> way behind Spotify
Never though I'd read agree with that. Spotify on iOS only recently got their act together. For a very long time, I thought their app was terrible. Then, they embraced the tab bar and all was right in the world. In this case, I agree that Spotify has a more pleasing UI than Apple Music, but I still use both regularly.
I want Apple Music to just play my fucking music. When I'm driving in my car, trying to manipulate the buttons, etc, is almost impossible and in a rage I turn it off. There is so much fucking swiping and hitting small buttons it's tremendously frustrating.
I usually listen to music in my car, as opposed to in the office, so I want big buttons and easy navigation. Does no one have an app that is designed specifically for car use?
I usually listen to music in my car, as opposed to in the office, so I want big buttons and easy navigation. Does no one have an app that is designed specifically for car use?
So true.
It's so painful to scrub the music playback since they make the controls so small and annoying.
I love old iPods with buttons since I don't have to look at the damn thing to change the song.
Now I hate that everything is a soulless touch screen that makes everything take so long.
Also, iTunes is so bloated. Wish Apple just had a stand alone music player that only has a single responsibility: play the damn music!!
As far as recommendation have you tried MacPaw's Listen app?
It tries to be what I recommended in terms of UX. The only caveat is that sometimes it occasionally crashes, but by and large, it works. However, I don't know if it can connect to Apple Music's streaming service. It works for music copied over to your iPhone / iPod.
https://macpaw.com/listen
I just wish I didn't to use a 3rd party app for something so basic, which Apple at one point had perfected, and then just muddied up over time.
It's so painful to scrub the music playback since they make the controls so small and annoying.
I love old iPods with buttons since I don't have to look at the damn thing to change the song.
Now I hate that everything is a soulless touch screen that makes everything take so long.
Also, iTunes is so bloated. Wish Apple just had a stand alone music player that only has a single responsibility: play the damn music!!
As far as recommendation have you tried MacPaw's Listen app?
It tries to be what I recommended in terms of UX. The only caveat is that sometimes it occasionally crashes, but by and large, it works. However, I don't know if it can connect to Apple Music's streaming service. It works for music copied over to your iPhone / iPod.
https://macpaw.com/listen
I just wish I didn't to use a 3rd party app for something so basic, which Apple at one point had perfected, and then just muddied up over time.
Why they made the scrubber the size of a pinpoint is beyond me. Good thing I can see the artwork though, which I don't care about AT ALL because I'm LISTENING TO MUSIC
When I'm driving my car I try to use Siri to play certain artists, but even that experience is awful.
I'll say to shuffle some music from a band containing "Theory" in its name. Siri gets everything right except replaces "Theory" with "Siri" and then starts playing something completely different!
Shouldn't Siri + Apple Music look at my own library first to find close matches to a spoken query before going off and playing something I've never listened to before that isn't even in the genres I listen to most?
It's pretty horrific UX, to me at least.
I'll say to shuffle some music from a band containing "Theory" in its name. Siri gets everything right except replaces "Theory" with "Siri" and then starts playing something completely different!
Shouldn't Siri + Apple Music look at my own library first to find close matches to a spoken query before going off and playing something I've never listened to before that isn't even in the genres I listen to most?
It's pretty horrific UX, to me at least.
I think of all the software I use, CarPlay + Apple Music + Siri has the highest "scream factor" (i.e. causing me to scream out loud with frustration.)
I switched to Cesium after experiencing Music randomly enabling repeat or shuffle with no intuitive way to disable. Turns out you need to swipe up "from the bottom" where "bottom" is somewhere 1/3 of the way up to see those options.
And please AUTO PLAY the last thing I was listening to when the phone connects to bluetooth or at least when the app opens.
If I'm listening to a radio station when I shut off my bluetooth device I want it to start playing again as soon as I connect to that device again (or open the app via a voice command).
I don't want to touch my phone and I don't have any car specific hardware.
If I'm listening to a radio station when I shut off my bluetooth device I want it to start playing again as soon as I connect to that device again (or open the app via a voice command).
I don't want to touch my phone and I don't have any car specific hardware.
Conversely, I've found Apple Music really wants to autoplay in my car, even though I haven't launched the app in years--only Spotify--and I have to stop it and sometimes relaunch Spotify to get back on track.
No joke, Apple Music also insists on playing me a mix of Tegan and Sara, Eminem, Nine Inch Nails, Tori Amos, and the comedy of David Cross, and nothing else.
No joke, Apple Music also insists on playing me a mix of Tegan and Sara, Eminem, Nine Inch Nails, Tori Amos, and the comedy of David Cross, and nothing else.
Not only does it autoplay, it will partially download songs from many years ago on the first connect, so your car gets stuck repeating the same 20 seconds of that one song you liked a decade ago. It's infuriating.
Holy hell I thought I was the only person experiencing this. The song it's stuck on is the most obnoxious song ever too.
I have Adult Education by Hall and Oates. It's just terrible.
That's interesting. My BRZ has a terrible audio system, but the one thing it does really well is get music to auto-play.
Say I start my car and open the BT connection. My iPhone auto-plays music from Apple Music. Then I switch to AM radio, the iPhone pauses. Then I switch back to Bluetooth, and my iPhone starts playing again from where it paused.
Apple Music definitely has problems, but I haven't had this one myself.
Say I start my car and open the BT connection. My iPhone auto-plays music from Apple Music. Then I switch to AM radio, the iPhone pauses. Then I switch back to Bluetooth, and my iPhone starts playing again from where it paused.
Apple Music definitely has problems, but I haven't had this one myself.
I suspect Apple would like you to be using CarPlay rather than using an interface specifically not meant to be used while driving.
That's a great idea. However, CarPlay is only available if you have a late-model car, or if you replace your car stereo with a new one. Neither of these is cheap options, and replacing the car stereo may not even be possible if your car is too old to host one of these new units with the huge screen.
Further, having an interface that is problematic for driving is not problematic ONLY for driving. I use music services while exercising, either outside or on an indoor machine. I'm bouncing around, I don't want to stop, and it's hard to hit these tiny little UI elements while I'm moving. The UI for listening to music while exercising (or driving) is actually far inferior for most touch screens when compared to an old iPod with click wheel or even an old Sony Walkman cassette player.
Add in the fact that CarPlay on my late model car is incredibly glitchy. The situation is so bad that I wonder if I would be better off putting music on USB flash drives and plugging those into my car.
Further, having an interface that is problematic for driving is not problematic ONLY for driving. I use music services while exercising, either outside or on an indoor machine. I'm bouncing around, I don't want to stop, and it's hard to hit these tiny little UI elements while I'm moving. The UI for listening to music while exercising (or driving) is actually far inferior for most touch screens when compared to an old iPod with click wheel or even an old Sony Walkman cassette player.
Add in the fact that CarPlay on my late model car is incredibly glitchy. The situation is so bad that I wonder if I would be better off putting music on USB flash drives and plugging those into my car.
This stuff could definitely use some work, I agree. One tip I thought I'd share: the Music app has a widget that you can access on the lock screen which lets you play the most recent albums (or playlists, presumably, though I don't use them) with one tap. I find it quite handy.
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The CarPlay interface for Apple Music is awful as well.
Well, I drive a 2007 Scion and Apple should have considered that a lot of people drive similar cars. Until then I'm happy to pay Spotify.
A CarPlay-ready Pioneer AVIC fits just fine in our '05 xB.
I can't afford nor do I want to really deal with the hassle of having Best Buy or whomever install a new head unit. The car comes with an Aux cable, which I've used reliably for like 5 years now with any phone I or my wife have ever had. I like it that way. The point I am trying to get at here is that I feel like Apple doesn't even remotely care about most use cases in UX anymore.
I often revert to pandora for this reason when driving... the BT integration allows me to go to the next song, whatever it is, and usually don't have to skip too many an hour.. while being able to thumbsdown something easier would be nice... a driving ui, where thumbs-down and next are easier would be nice.
I'm confused, the buttons in Apple Music are actually pretty big. Why are you having trouble hitting them?
Alternatively, have you tried using the Now Playing interface (part of Control Center) to play/pause/scrub/skip?
Alternatively, have you tried using the Now Playing interface (part of Control Center) to play/pause/scrub/skip?
The control center is a whole mess too. Ever since they added the second screen/page to it, I never know what is gonna pop up when I swipe up from the bottom of the screen, since it just goes by last-accessed.
Even though it only takes a moment for my brain to register that it's the wrong screen, it still flusters me and isn't something I want to deal with when driving.
Even though it only takes a moment for my brain to register that it's the wrong screen, it still flusters me and isn't something I want to deal with when driving.
This is an incredible redesign, utilizing widely known gestures (swipes, double taps, etc). Apple should embrace these further, IMO, and a casual-use app like Music makes the most sense. I'm a longtime Spotify Premium user and I tried v1 of Music but it was jus too painful. This would have made me stay. Great job.
I think the swipe gestures for add/next should probably be left/right to match tinder... not that it's really much better than up/down, it is somewhat more natural to swipe from side to side in terms of holding the device casually.
I'm not in the Tinder generation so I don't want my music to work that way. Software should work well for everyone.
The gestures demonstrated are easily discoverable and are so widely used now, I'd argue the majority of iOS/Android users are familiar. Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, etc. all follow these similar UI/UX features. Software should work well for everyone, but it's evolving and users adapt.
I'm not sure which features of Tinder are part of my daily UX. I know it has a different notion of "swipe left/swipe right" than most things I use - in the apps I use that means "go back a page/go forward a page". In Tinder I'm vaguely aware that one direction means "I want to have sex with you", but I am not aware which direction that is.
There are hints, so swiping doesn't seem unintuitive. Btw, I've used tinder-like gestures for my music discovery app based on Apple Music API ( https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1182799885 ). I think this pattern works perfectly for binary decisions.
I am in the Tinder generation and I use VLC on the desktop to play music (Media Library, Detailed List mode) :D And Apollo (LineageOS "Music" app) on mobile.
Apple Music has freaked me out because I have a lot of my own recordings - rehearsals, etc. After turning on iCloud sharing, it uploaded most of them, but it says others aren't available, and some of them got matched incorrectly. They say when that happens, to delete them from your source library and then re-add to let Apple match it again, since it apparently gets more accurate over time. I haven't tried that yet since it's a huge project to back up my recordings in a separate location and then re-add (even though I have the library itself backed up). The other thing I can do is cancel my iCloud sharing / match account, but then I'm not sure what happens to my recordings - even though it's my source account, I've heard horror stories about iTunes deleting some recordings on account cancellation if they've been categorized incorrectly. So I've just felt sort of stuck until I find time to do some major surgery.
I have the same issues. Substitute Photos app for Apple music here and I'm in the same hole for that app too. Having just uploaded 75,000 photos for the third time in a year, its getting a little tedious. It's dammed infuriating with music but the inconvenience is nothing compared to the Photos shambles as that collection is large.
You're overthinking it. If you turn off iCloud Music Library, any music you already had on your computer is fine. This means your pre-existing music library will be fine (assuming you didn't delete the music files off of your computer). Yes, there was a bug at one point that could cause it to delete some of your existing music, but it was relatively rare and was fixed shortly after it was discovered.
As for matching, are you adding it from your iPhone, or from your computer? Music matching is a lot more exact if you're adding it from your computer.
As for matching, are you adding it from your iPhone, or from your computer? Music matching is a lot more exact if you're adding it from your computer.
That bug must be what I remembered - I missed that it got fixed, all I heard was that Apple was working on it. Thanks for letting me know, I think I might nervously shut it off and revert to manually controlling what songs are on my phone. Do you remember any sources on what it was and when/how it got fixed?
I added them from my laptop - I find the matching pretty lousy, though. Bjork recordings are replaced by acoustic remixes, live-radio performances of songs are replaced by studio recordings, etc. And then of course some of my own songs are replaced by weird recordings I've never heard before. It seems that any time I'm out and about and listen to a playlist for 30-45 minutes, at least 1-2 songs are wrong.
All of these recordings are of course still fine on my laptop itself - I know not to delete those.
I added them from my laptop - I find the matching pretty lousy, though. Bjork recordings are replaced by acoustic remixes, live-radio performances of songs are replaced by studio recordings, etc. And then of course some of my own songs are replaced by weird recordings I've never heard before. It seems that any time I'm out and about and listen to a playlist for 30-45 minutes, at least 1-2 songs are wrong.
All of these recordings are of course still fine on my laptop itself - I know not to delete those.
I don't really know the details on how it was fixed, but I feel like it was fixed within a week of it being first reported.
As for the matching, I'm not sure what to tell you. To the best of my knowledge, all of the music I have was matched correctly (or uploaded if there was no match). That said, I was originally an iTunes Match subscriber, and it's certainly possible that maybe iTunes Match used stricter matching, though I don't know why that would be because that sounds weird.
As for the matching, I'm not sure what to tell you. To the best of my knowledge, all of the music I have was matched correctly (or uploaded if there was no match). That said, I was originally an iTunes Match subscriber, and it's certainly possible that maybe iTunes Match used stricter matching, though I don't know why that would be because that sounds weird.
In the past Match used stricter matching than Apple Music for no real good reason. They are the same now.
Great job on the redesign!
My biggest UX gripe with Apple Music is that the app doesn't open into the same state it was in last time I used it.
I'm not sure if this is an intentional decision meant to generate algorithmic feed impressions (or some other reason), or an oversight.
My biggest UX gripe with Apple Music is that the app doesn't open into the same state it was in last time I used it.
I'm not sure if this is an intentional decision meant to generate algorithmic feed impressions (or some other reason), or an oversight.
I'd say remove that first quote you have on there. No one was thinking that, but as soon as you said it, I couldn't help but have it in my mind the whole time reading the article.
I think the hoarder vs nomad analogy is excellent. Apple Music has come a long way since the hoarder heavy model, but still a long way to go before catching up to Spotify's discovery.
> Wouldn’t it be awesome if, immediately after checking into a café on Facebook, Apple Music updates this Mood section to Focus/Study playlists?
This strikes me as being extremely, invasively creepy -- although I can appreciate that some people might find this cool.
This strikes me as being extremely, invasively creepy -- although I can appreciate that some people might find this cool.
FWIW, Google Play Music already does something similar. It knows I'm at the location I have my work set to, and one of the playlist categories it's showing in my home feed is "Working to a Beat - Looks like you're at work".
I love Apple Music and he perfectly captures my frustrations with it. Beats 1 and Curated playlists are my favorite thing yet there are so many simple things I can't do. Reminders for shows. Easy navigation to shows I always listen to. Being able to add something to my library which won't work because some Curated playlist I have already have it added. I hope iOS 11 deals with many of these problems. To know that someone else shares my frustrations gives me hope that Apple does too.
I never went back to Apple Music after they wiped my playlists.
I used the 3 months trial and spent countless hours finding and adding all my music back. Little did I know that if your subscription is interrupted, Apple Music will wipe all your stuff immediately. I wanted to wait for the iOS10 version but as soon as i re-subscribed I just found all my stuff missing.
Other services like google music and Spotify keep your stuff in place and don't actually delete anything.
I thought this might have been a bug, but no - my girlfriend just last month switched to Spotify because of the same issue. She had to take a month break from the service and when she re-subscribed her beloved playlists have been wiped.
I used the 3 months trial and spent countless hours finding and adding all my music back. Little did I know that if your subscription is interrupted, Apple Music will wipe all your stuff immediately. I wanted to wait for the iOS10 version but as soon as i re-subscribed I just found all my stuff missing.
Other services like google music and Spotify keep your stuff in place and don't actually delete anything.
I thought this might have been a bug, but no - my girlfriend just last month switched to Spotify because of the same issue. She had to take a month break from the service and when she re-subscribed her beloved playlists have been wiped.
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I switched to Apple Music after Google Play, and Groove (Microsoft Music), and it's most frictionless library I used so far :-) I just don't give a damn about polishing my playlists into oblivion, I just want some selection of music, put it on my phone, shuffle. Curated playlists from Apple are the best I've seen lately.
Good for him. I cancelled my subscription with the launch of 2.0. Just awful and buggy as hell.
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Anyone else experiencing this page crashing and force reloading every 1-2 minutes in Safari on iOS?
Yes, but I thought it was the HN app[1] I was using
[1] http://hn.premii.com/about/
[1] http://hn.premii.com/about/
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Should have hired you...
I've never worked at a large company, but how is it that a single designer is able to cook up something that looks and feels better than what a team of talented designers at a $500B company came up with - for a clearly important product?
I think part of it is business constraints. This designer respected Apple's aesthetic but didn't have some manager telling them to make 'Connect' happen.
Because it takes hardly any of the real world constraints into consideration. If you're designing for the 15 artists / albums in his mockup, then yeah , this is fine. But that's not the real world case.
Also things like qualitative user testing, a/b testing would go into every single pixel of his design. I am not particularly sure if the most important separation of the music listening population is into hoarders vs nomads. You'd evaluate that, make a decision. Things might get muddled there.
Designing for the user vs design for the business. These two are fairly often very different demands and balancing that can be challenging.
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Biggest issues:
- Discoverability is awful. Playlists are ok, but heavily recommending entire albums is bizarre. Its like trying new foods by going to Costco. It would make more sense to select top picks from an artist.
- Extremely ungraceful handling of spotty cell coverage. Playback will abruptly stop to buffer, but the UI gives absolutely no feedback. The play/pause button just behaves as if I told it to stop, and is unresponsive to my input. This is especially terrible while driving, where playback can stop for other reasons (Like a bluetooth disconnect).
- Radio stations inexplicably play at lower volumes than the rest of the service. The radio tab is pretty much a giant banner for whatever Apple wants to push, instead of basing it around the user.
- Really buggy. It will arbitrarily skip to the next song in the middle of playback. Sometimes it will refuse to play a song in my library, and will move on to the next. No error, no feedback, nothing.
I could go on and on.
I really wish this was its own app on the App Store, so we could have some semblance of feedback. As well as regular bug fixes without waiting for the next iOS release.