“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.,” Oscar Raymundo reports for Macworld. “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,” Raymundo reports. “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.”
“Early reviews of Apple Music called it ‘uncharacteristically complicated by Apple standards,’ while others basically said it was a ‘hot mess,'” Raymundo reports. “Even though streaming services like Spotify and Tidal can be equally confusing, Apple prides itself on the simplicity of its products. The Apple Music updates in iOS 9 prove that the company is looking to simplify its streaming service, quickly getting rid of all the clutter to soften the learning curve.”
Read more, and see the screenshots, in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good news! Now, about iTunes…
SEE ALSO:
Open letter to Tim Cook: Apple needs to do better – January 5, 2015The tragedy of iTunes: Nothing ‘just works’ – July 28, 2015
Dear Apple, please go thermonuclear on iTunes – July 28, 2015
Marco Arment: iTunes is a toxic hellstew – July 27, 2015
Jim Dalrymple: I got (most of) my music back; Apple working to fix Apple Music issues shortly – July 26, 2015
Jim Dalrymple: Apple Music is a nightmare, and I’m done with it – July 23, 2015
Apple’s iTunes: Whatever happened to ‘It Just Works? – July 17, 2015
The iTunes Report: Still a mess – July 14, 2015
Apple releases iTunes 12.2.1, fixes iTunes Match issues – July 13, 2015
Apple Music, both on iOS and OS X, is an embarrassing and confusing mess – July 10, 2015
iTunes 12.2 is mangling network-shared libraries – July 6, 2015
Serious iTunes Match issues for some users ahead of Apple Music launch – June 26, 2015
Gods, yes. Please fix iTunes and the whole Apple music ecosystem (particularly with respect to the cloud). Many long-time Apple fans and recent converters are all swearing and ready to throw their iPhones away. It’s sad, stupid, and unnecessary for the software to be Apple’s Achilles heel, when Apple’s reputation and fandom were largely based on the user experience to begin with.
The cloud concept may be Apple’s biggest issue, particularly where music and video are concerned. Between data plan limits and spotty coverage in much of the country, cloud-based content is still not fully ready for prime-time (not talking about those of you who are happy with where you live and who provides your service, but about the people who aren’t and would rather carry their music with them in a readily accessible form).
And the problems reported with playlist issues, DRM, music removed from syncing to be cloud-based aren’t making new friends.
I’ve gone back to using iPod nanos rather than my iPhone for most of my in-car, on-the-boat, or exercising podcast and music consumption, and don’t use my iPad for videos anymore, either.
I can’t imaging leaving Apple, but I’m watching lots of switchers and Windows iPhone users starting to look at alternatives because the music situation is getting so frustrating.
If you want a simple music player app for iPhone, try Cesium. It brings back the simple artist/album/song navigation we all loved in the old iPods. I use it almost exclusively over the Music app. It’s just simpler to use when you feel like listening to a specific album.
——RM
Thanks. I appreciate the suggestion, and I’ll look into it, particularly for my frustrated friends.
It’s a shame that Apple forces us more and more outside of its native applications to accomplish what we came to Apple for in the first place.
Absolutely!
Try CarTunes. It has great features for controlling your music without looking at your iPhone.
Absolutely agree. I too find it hard to imagine leaving Apple, having used their products since 1988. But I’ve started to see people dump their iPhones and go to Android now because the mess that is iTunes is just staggeringly infuriating. I wonder how many hours I’ve spent trying to fix that steaming pile of crap. Syncing, just syncing my iPod is an unmitigated disaster. How can something so basic be almost impossible to get right?
Good god but Apple has fallen down hard.
Sadly I have to agree. While I personally have no problems with syncing my iOS gear (because I manually sync EVERYTHING and I’m syncing with a Mac), many of my friends who’ve switched to Apple have only one complaint : file syncing (most of them to Windows, though) and updating of the OS.
While I wouldn’t call it a “hot mess” it’s certainly not up to the standard Apple has set for itself.
But it’s something you shouldn’t have to fix. You’ve had forever to get it right the first time. Apple just can’t do services properly. Everything they do is a fuck up! This writer is just making excuses.
I’d almost like to have the music just play the music I have on my device (or able to be streamed/downloaded) and then a separate app for doing everything else related to managing that music. The beauty of the first iPods was that you put your music on and then you could find it and play it easily. I understand that as you become able to do more it makes it harder to keep it simple, but to an extent, the music on my iPhone is there and once it is I just want to play it.
That’s a great idea. They should have an “iPod” app for our music like the old iPhones and then “Music” for everything else.
If not separate apps, at least some way to just be able to play content and separate out any sort of management. Almost a player, then everything is effectively settings/preferences.
A redesign just a few months after release? Wow but Apple muffed this up bad. Of course, a good interface is useless if Apple Music wipes out people’s music libraries.
What ever happened to attention to details at Apple?
I love how some people here try make it sound like Apple hasn’t ever released products that could have been better before now, or even before Tim Cook was CEO. As if!
I’ve been using Apple products since my old man brought home our first Apple ][ w/16k of RAM in 1979. I used the products before Jobs was pushed out, after he came back, and after he died. Apple Music isn’t the first product Apple released that needed work, and it won’t be the last.
Nobody – not even Apple – can nail it every time. Sometimes they have a solid hit, sometimes it’s a home run, and yes – occasionally they strike out. It happens. Get over it.
Name one other Apple product that needed a re-design after just 2 months post release?
Um, did you even read the article and look at the screen shots? The title is typical hit-bait. The article actually says this “redesign” you refer to actually calls the changes a “subtle but much-needed makeover”. A makeover. Design tweaks, not a “redesign”. In short, it’s a .1 release, with some nice, much-needed design tweaks, sort of like what Apple does to a lot of its software. ALL THE TIME.
The 8.4 Music app is a case where the user experience took a backseat to external agendas, as the new Apple Music service launched. And the reports about how iTunes libraries got corrupted and/or peppered with DRM’d files, is a consequence of how the iTunes and iOS 8.4 were rushed to meet the launch date for Apple Music.
The iOS 8.4 Music app is a big step backwards for anyone who chooses not to activate Apple Music. The basic functionality, especially for someone like me who uses a docked iPhone in the car, is noticeably worse. We’ll see if iOS 9 gets back to prioritizing the user experience, or if the rights compromises with the record companies continue to force users to navigate arbitrary UI lapses.
Apple bought the technology from beats, so now they have to fix it, in order to become apple-like. Takes some time, i suppose.
1. When listening to a song I would like the option/selector to see similar music/albums instead of navigating to the album the song is in, scrolling to the bottom and then expanding similar.
2. When listening to a song there should be an option to view playlists the song is in, instead of navigating to the album again.
3. There should be more playlists available such as user playlists. User playlists should gain the ability to be searched and saved. There also needs to be a rating system and the most popular playlists should appear at the top.
4. The send a link to a specific song currently sends a link to the entire album with the name of the song in the link description. It would be nice if the link only pointed to the specific song, not the entire album.
5. After joining Apple Music songs that are contained in compilation albums now show the original album cover, not the compilation album cover. These songs in the library need to revert back to the compilation cover ASAP.
I don’t want to stream music. I will not try nor will I ever subscribe to Apple Music. I resent having the streaming service shoved in my face. I have 90 GBs of music, the vast majority of which I bought in my teens and 20s in the 80s and 90s. I am not particularly interested in anything new since then. The music app peaked in iTunes 9/iOS 5. Then I could sync my podcasts easily to my phone, easily add podcasts not downloaded from iTunes, listen to them in my music app, fast forward and rewind, and have my podcasts automatically delete after I listened to them. Now I need to waste much time managing my Podcasts because the Podcasts app sucks and the Music app doesn’t play podcasts.
I have similar, albeit maybe less grumpy, feelings.
We are about the same age, but you have a much more extensive collection than I do. In my opinion there has been some incredible music released since 2000. Belle & Sebastian, Broken Social Scene, Death Cab For Cutie, Iron & Wine, Japandroids, Modest Mouse, The Shins, Say Hi To Your Mom, American Analog Set, Sufjan Stevens, The Mountain Goats, Built to Spill, and The Thermals are only a few of the classics. 1999-2011 was an explosion of some of the best music ever created. I have at least one song from a few thousand bands of this era.
Even though I thought I knew music, Apple Music has surprised me and taken me to places I’ve never been before. There was this club in the early ’90’s located in Chicago called The Exit. I only went there a few times before they shut it down, but it was wild. The music they played was unique and exciting, which included punk, post punk, gothic, industrial, etc. The scene was much more than just The Cure or New Order. It was dark, exciting and out of my comfort zone.
Fast forward to today and on Apple Music a few bands from the 2000’s that have similar sounds caught my attention. This led me to find other bands from the 80’s and early 90’s that sound exactly like the music they played at The Exit. This discovery using Apple Music created a perfect moment.
I t still sucks. Download the Public Beta and find out.