“I gave Spotify a try, but I didn’t like it. I couldn’t find the artists I enjoyed. It didn’t make sense for my listening habits, and I wasn’t ready to abandon my massive digital music library yet. Spotify didn’t work for me,” Travis Bernard writes for TechCrunch. “Then Apple launched iTunes Match a few years ago. I love Match. I believe it’s the best music product Apple has released for power users.”
“What made Match so special was that you could use iTunes like a Dropbox locker for your digital music files — but still maintain your playlists. It was a service for those that wanted both their digital files and needed an easy way — even though Apple says it’s not a backup service — to back them up,” Bernard writes. “My only complaint with iTunes Match is that the song limit is too low (currently it’s only 25k), but we’ve heard that it will increase to 100k soon. ”
“So when Apple Music was announced, I had high hopes. I was excited about Apple Music and how it would work in conjunction with iTunes Match. I wanted Apple Music to be the messiah. It isn’t,” Bernard writes. “That’s not to say that I don’t like it. It’s a huge improvement over what was previously available… But, no surprise, I want it to work right and be better. I want Apple to make Apple Music the elusive software that I’ve been dreaming about for years. Right now Apple Music is for people with no clue what to stream. It’s a mainstream service, with mainstream goals for mainstream listeners. It should be more. And it can be more.””
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We basically agree with all 9 of Bernard’s suggestions. Some of them are painfully obvious, such as: Alerts for new releases from artists you follow in Connect. Hopefully Apple’s working on many (or all) of them right now!
“Beats 1 has plays too much rap.”
Agree or Disagree? Vote with stars
any rap is too much rap.
Music is like candy: throw away the (w)rapper.
A moment ago I made a search for the double album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by Genesis and couldn’t believe that it wasn’t on there! Come on, seriously??
So I fired up trusty old YouTube and thank goodness found an upload of the album that isn’t full of ad breaks in the middle.
How can classic records like these not be on there, I just don’t get it… =(
Maybe the owner did not license it!!! But anyone can steal and post on youtube. Until someone complains.
I own “the lamb lies down,” and found your comment interesting. I am not a massive Genesis fan, but they’re in my top 20.
So I looked up Genesis albums on Apple Music, because I couldn’t believe such a massive musical act is being slighted. I wondered how many albums were up for Genesis. Turns out 31 albums are on Apple Music by Genesis
So now, your comment seems s little “cherry picked.” I’m not saying you intended it that way, but we all understand Apple Music won’t have *everything*, especially in the first year of its birth.
Now if I had looked, and Genesis had like 5 or 6 albums, it’d agree with your sentiments that they screwed up big. Genesis is a HUGE act. You gotta have their albums! And while it’s a crying shame The Lamb Lies Down is absent, I’d say 31 albums is a great showing for Apple Music. Heck, I didn’t even know Genesis had that many releases.
I agree. You could even say, “There must be some kind of misunderstanding” in expectations.
Apple Music sucks for the same reason that Apple Watch sucks, the new single port Macbook sucks, and why the iPad has failed to be innovated in 4-years… yup, you guessed it, “Tim Cook”.
He put together a new music service that nobody asked for beforehand or wanted afterward.
He built a shitty watch in an industry that never existed while charging a fortune for it in the process.
He built a cheaply made and inderpowered Apple netbook that costs just as much or more than a much more capable machine.
He milked a product for years without innovating it and is shocked that no one wants to buy the exact same device every single year.
He took the most successful, debt free company in the world and added about 100 billion in debt to their portfolio.
He killed an entire industry with the lightning cable, only to reverse course and now hype USB-C.
He has used his position as CEO to force Apple to aggressively support his own political agenda.
People don’t dislike Tim Cook solely because he’s gay, they dislike him because he is arrogant, narrow minded, and incompetent.
I agree with you 100%
I agree with you completely. You are 100% right about Tim Cook.
I agree. I think the new MacBook is the way it is so that it’s not so heavy for Tim’s limp-wristed buddies. Plus, would it be too much to ask to get a proper Photos.app icon? Right now, it looks like a gay rainbow circling a little white butt hole.
That is so horrible I laughed out loud!
Absolutely. Apple is failing and its stock price shows how massively bad Apple has become.
None of the products work any more!
All the stores are closed!
They are always late shipping stuff and charge a mint to ship!
Since Tim is running for president now, he never spends any time at work. 🙁
Travis was totally right “I wanted Apple Music to be the messiah. It isn’t,”” Why cannot Apple get simple things like antigravity, and teleportation, and warp drive right. All the rag magazines say its possible!!! Come on Tim get your but in gear!!!
I hear Samsung is coming out with cheap space transportation real soon!! Apple will just copy!!!
And it goes with out saying a very big //ss for this bitch and moan.
People, you want perfect?? Go back to windows 98 for a year. Then come in from the desert and get the cool clear water!! 🙂
Just saying.
It doesn’t matter what Samsung does.The topic is Apple. Quit making excuses. Stop being an ass licker.
No, people don’t dislike Tim Cook solely because he’s gay, how ridiculous would that be, right? But obviously, you do. How ridiculous is that, right?
And it goes without saying they dislike him because of all your very well-reasoned points (not just the ones on your head!), so why do you find you need to say it? Hmmm? Sorry, what did you say? Yes, that’s just what I thought when I read it!
Cheers!
dmz
Tim Cook is failing Apple. Nothing works, also the stuff that used to work does not work. The new Photos app sucks. I liked Events in iPhoto now I get dates that I cannot change. Yes I can make an album but I would like the imported photos on a certain date to have the title of the event I was at. There is no attention to detail. The products are lacking. The Macbook is worthless. If you want to use normal USB port and charge at the same time you have to by an expensive adapter and its specs reminds me of a cheap Acer netbook. I am scared now to demo any features on my Mac because they mostly do not work. i.e. Air Drop, is still hit or miss with both computers sitting next to each other. Maps still cannot give an alternate route, you cannot tell it to avoid the expressway during rush hour. They also do not have to take away features so they can add new features. I DVD is still needed and should have been updated to create blue ray disc. I should be able to play sound from other parts of my computer through multiple air play speakers and still from my computers connected sound system, outside of iTunes. The list goes on…
Not to mention Cook’s royal screwing of millions of Aperture users. Hate that man!
This used to be a nice neighborhood
These Tim Cook comments are cray-cray. I’ve got news for you. People said the same crap about Steve Jobs. Remember the debut of the Bondai iMac? People cried “Steve Jobs is ruining Apple! There’s no floppy drive! And who wants a screen built in?!”
Get over yourselves. Steve was no saint, and Tim is no devil.
I forgot to add this: you know who really liked Tim Cook? Steve Jobs.
I’ve criticized TC myself before (like in the area of no Mac ads) but some of the criticisms being levelled here at him is over the top. Yeah there are issues of software bugs , UI issues but ‘everything sucks’ is nuts. Like iPhone, it’s 70% of Apple’s revenue, it’s killing everyone else , even the critics say it’s probably the best phone built. So iPhone, 70% of revenue, sucks?
Problems with iOS?, sure there are issues BUT lol compared to no update, malware ridden, privacy tracking, passing the buck on issues between OEM and Google etc ANDROID. iOS is Golden. As for the Macbook sure some might one an extra port but lots of people like it and Macs are selling MORE now (there’s Macbook PRO with lots of ports, hey I’ve got one. ). and the hardware is still first class. As for the Watch the customer satisfaction ratings are over 90%.
ETC.
As for the business part People forget that Apple still makes more money than anyone else.
I don’t want to go through item by item what Apple does right
but I think I made my point.
——-
TC isn’t Jobs and much as we lament, Jobs is gone. Jobs was once in lifetime genius. But TC has his own strengths.
ONE BIG THING TC has over Jobs is that outsiders get along better with TC, Jobs can be prickly. Apple finds itself in big world now and diplomacy skills is vital.
One example : the reason Apple is making SO MUCH MONEY is in big part China. To get things moving in the labyrinth of China requires great diplomatic and negotiating ability (every province has unique issues) and TC seems to be pretty good at it ( I would hazard he might be better than Jobs who never even visited China. Jobs ‘straight talking’ might not have gone well with China’s prickly politicians ! ).
TC is great at opening new markets and getting the supply chain moving. The amount of money Apple makes today is VASTLY larger than Jobs time in large part due to more outlets all over the world.
TC’s alliance ability and acquisitions strategy allows Apple to tap talent all around the world (like research centres in Israel, Great Britain etc) and got apple tech like fingerprint sensor, A chips etc.
TC needs to fix stuff and pay attention to details (wifi issues ) etc but he’s hardly the epic fail as people project him. He’s better than most other CEOs (every time I use another companies stuff like Can Openers and they suck I say “I wish Apple designed this” ), the only reason we see so many flaws is that Apple has such lofty standards.
Apple Music
One big thing not talked about much is that BEATS 1 RADIO is a Great Marketing tool — free you don’t need a subscription to listen, beamed to a 100 countries 24 hrs, once in a while it mentions ‘Apple’ like the Apple Music charts. It plays mostly upbeat music and it’s a thrill to hear stuff like “… and from Australia….! “. You get a sense of uniting the world in a good way, in short a good ad channel.
Imagine how much it would cost for Apple to run ads 24 hrs a day in 100 countries! A single TV ad can cost tens of thousands per showing in one country, Microsoft spent 500 million on the NFL tie in for Surface (and that’s basically just USA). Just a few days of Beats Radio (worldwide!) might have been more effective than all Msft’s NFL effort.
So 3 billion for beats might not be so bad — Note ALSO : beats cost 3 billion and before acquisition generated 1 billion in sales a year. Google bought Nest for 3 billion which generated about 300 m a year. haters say Apple wasted money but beats from a financial standpoint alone it was 3 times better than Nest acquisition. (as usual you can see how Apple gets bashed and Google gets away!)
so Beats Radio — an undiscussed power — Worldwide 24 Hr Apple Ad channel. (as an ex Ad guy I am stunned by it).
composers!
If your taste is classical music then you’re really left behind.
Quite often it is impossible to figure out who is the composer of a track. That is unacceptable.
I fully agree.
I have sent feedback to Apple about this.
Please do so as well – they might take notice.
Yes. And for some reason classical and jazz seem to be joined at the hip. And classical only exists as one all embracing genre. What about baroque? Contemporary? Romantic?
I’m not criticizing anybody and I hope Apple music does well. But, I think Steve Jobs was basically right. People want to own their music, not rent it. This will limit the growth of Apple music after all the streamers join.
tim cook succeeds for apple as its CEO precisely because he continued in his role as Chief Operations Office while under Steve Jobs.
that means: Tim did really well as COO, and, he as CEO he is showing that Fortune 500 companies in order to add value need to perform more operationally (decrease channel inventory before releasing new products, control suppliers, advance purchase contracts for materials to lock in lower prices, doubly sourcing critical components, getting your suppliers to take more and more risk instead of your own company, etc etc). these are the kinds of reasons why Tim has been able to grow the bottom line. and anyone who owns AAPL should understand this.
but, in terms of controlling retail (hiring indiana angela??), not making a decision to get rid of livin’ la vida eddy, allowing the company to not have a better succession plan for semi-retiring jony, not instituting a better beta procedure to catch problems before the software is launched (which causes apple to skip a innovative advance by needing to go back to consolidate), etc etc, these are all things that Tim can be criticized for.
personally, on balance i would still retain him as he has, on balance, done more for both apple (and therefore us apple fans) as well as for AAPL than anyone we can hope or dream for. he’s worth every dollar his options are vesting for.
on the other hand, i do wish that the board (or who ever is telling him to a spokesman for diversity after so many years of his being able to not care about it) should give him the message that there is a difference between being the ipso facto spokesman for apple and his personal life. via diversity. but i don’t expect it or think it is necessary to remind everyone constantly about his personal characteristics rather than speaking on behalf of a great company and for what it stands for. the message is really mixed up and needs PR / Board level tightening up.