“Fifteen months ago, Apple launched Apple Music, and more than 17 million subscribers are now using the service. But it hasn’t been without problems,” Kirk McElhearn writes for Macworld. “The interface Apple offered in iTunes and in the iOS Music app was confusing, and it turned music listening into a chore.”
“Apple paid attention to users’ complaints, and has now released version 2 of Apple Music, to coincide with the release of iOS 10 and its updated Music app, and iTunes 12.5, which offers a number of tweaks and changes,” McElhearn writes.
“I’ve been using the new Apple Music for several weeks now, since it was made available to beta testers of Apple’s operating systems,” McElhearn writes. “It’s a solid upgrade, with lots of improvements to make the service easier to use, and it’s more enjoyable.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What we wrote yesterday about Apple Watch applies equally as well to Apple Music:
All throughout this Apple
WatchMusic saga… we haven’t been able to shake the thought that IOSWH (If Only Steve Were Here), AppleWatchMusic would have been sent back to the drawing board a few more times before its initial release.After all, that’s what Steve did best: Use a product, see it from the users’ eyes (not the engineers’, not the designers’ – although he was intimately aware of both viewpoints), but from the users’ eyes only and make it work best for them. Steve would have handed the original Apple
WatchMusic… back to Eddy Cue & Co. with] notes about what worked and what didn’t. What was convoluted and what wasn’t. What was useful and what was superfluous. That’s what he did with the iMac, and the iPod, and the iPhone, and the iPad, and all of the products released under his watch. Steve’s track record was unmatched; so many, many home runs and so few mishits.But, okay, it is what it is and, unfortunately, Steve’s not here. So, we early adopters had to serve (gladly) as guinea pigs for a year.
SEE ALSO:
Apple releases iTunes 12.5.1 with all-new Apple Music design, Siri capability, and more – September 13, 2016
I’m a heavy user of Apple Music and I must say the improvements are excellent.
Apple’s initial efforts are still way better then the competition. Plus, Apple keeps striving to get things right like they did with Apple Maps.
I like the updates, but where can I find the history of what I have previously played? Used to be able to do that by clicking on the ….
Never mind. You have to go into playlists and look at Recently Played.
Can Apple please give me an updated iTunes Remote app that includes Apple music so I don’t have to always go to my iMac to change music when I am streaming music to remote speakers around the house via multiple Air Ports. This is really stupid if they want to leverage their grand “ecosystem”
Love the new update but I have one feature request:
Bring back the ability to toggle Apple Playlists on and off like V1, I have loads of Apple Playlists and about 10 home made Playlists and I tend to use the home made Playlists most when driving. Having to scroll through ALL the Playlists is a PITA.
My request: Please split Apple Music as a completely separate app from iTunes. AM for renters, iTunes for music owners.
Am enjoying the latest iteration of iTunes. One suggestion for Apple for a future version: when I click on the Store button I would like to see my music genre show up on the screen. Add a preferences tab, just like the one in Safari. This way if my genre of the day has changed I can notify iTunes via Preferences.
I enabled Music in iTunes so I could see it. I was hit immediately by Lady Gag and a lot of hip hop artists with x rated titles.
Now why would I want this junk in my face when all I want to do is use a music player for MY music (with a small m)? The good news is it is hard to find anything in iTunes like Music, hidden behind the right view, contextualized to obscurity. The bad news this applies to simple controls, like how do I list albums in list mode?
Apple lost its chance to convince me Apple Music was a good thing. I lost all my songs and spent months re-creating my music library and re-categorizing music I owned. I’m now a happy Spotify paid subscriber.
I still have some songs that refuse to appear in iTunes even though I own the CD and have tried uploading them again.
Did I miss is or did MDN not cover the story that Spotify subscriptions are accelerating, not declining?
Guess that doesn’t fit with MDN’s agenda.