Apple Music - different offerings across the world...

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › Apple Music - different offerings across the world...

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Networkn
32349 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1335268 1-Jul-2015 18:45

gehenna: Well there you go :)

Not the point I was making. The point was why limit your release to half the market, it's not like they didn't have the resources to do both at the same time.

It's effectively killed it for me since I am all Android, and Spotify meets my needs. If they were ready now they might have had a chance because I am new to Spotify, but 6 months from now, the chances it would be compelling enough to move me from an incumbent is slight to say the least.

lxsw20

3552 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1335291 1-Jul-2015 19:14

I kinda doubt it's half their market somehow.

Paul1977

5039 posts

Uber Geek

#1335508 2-Jul-2015 08:52

Paul1977: Ok, am I the only one having trouble with Siri. Some things just don't play when asking Siri, it understands and says it will play but then nothing happens.

Some work and some don't.

"Play Tom Jones" works.

"Play Imagine Dragons" doesn't.

Can anyone confirm they are having the same thing happen?

I have created a new about this.

Home: Work:
Home Work

lxsw20

3552 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1335512 2-Jul-2015 08:58

Initial impressions are that the music app seems way to crowded now and it doesn't feel particularly intuitive to use. It could just be I'm used to the Music app of old pre Apple Music that was basic but quite functional. At this very early stage I think I'll be keeping my Spotify subscription.

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1335523 2-Jul-2015 09:12

networkn:
gehenna: Well there you go :)

Not the point I was making. The point was why limit your release to half the market, it's not like they didn't have the resources to do both at the same time.

It's effectively killed it for me since I am all Android, and Spotify meets my needs. If they were ready now they might have had a chance because I am new to Spotify, but 6 months from now, the chances it would be compelling enough to move me from an incumbent is slight to say the least.

I'm in the same boat; while it may be worth giving it a go on our iPad, that both my wife and I have Android phones means it's not even an option for for Apple Music to replace Spotify (we have many GBs saved off-line, plus I've just realised it's not going to work with our Squeezebox Duets - unlike Spotify).

The Spotify app runs fine on my first smart phone - which was some cheap Galaxy from about four years ago - which my son uses for this purpose. I'll be interested to see if the Apple app when released will work on this phone.

I'd agree that it's not the most inclusive launch, but perhaps the delay before releasing an Android version of the app is take the opportunity to encourage people over to the dark side? Not sure who's going to throw a grand or so just to have access to this service on their phone though...

trig42

5809 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1335526 2-Jul-2015 09:20

I don't think I like the new Music App.
I play music from my phone locally in my car on my drive home. Last night, because I had been streaming at work during the day, my phone had stopped playing the local music. All I used to do when that happened was bring up Music, tap Songs, press Shuffle and away it went.
That is all gone now. I can bring up My Music, and get it to show songs, but where is the shuffle button gone?
When I got to the ferry to get home, I had a closer look (not a good idea to do it in the car going over the harbour bridge) and found I have to start playing a song, drag the playbar up from the bottom of the music app, then tap the shuffle button. Lots more swiping and tapping than should be necessary.

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#1335530 2-Jul-2015 09:31

Agreed - tricky to use... especially when it's in the cradle of the car.
I figured the best thing to do was to sort out my 'channel' before starting the journey. I did have an issue with a reduction in volume this morning when playing the NIN channel - I can't think as to why?

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1335598 2-Jul-2015 11:11

Russell Brown over at Public Address has blogged on his initial experience with Apple Music - he describes the situation as "like a company made a butterfly and then took a dump on it"!

http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/apple-music-taking-a-dump-on-a-butterfly/

Satch

1985 posts

Uber Geek

#1335647 2-Jul-2015 12:09

There are a couple of things with Apple Music that have cautioned me in terms of making the long term switch from Spotify.

1. The lower bitrate of Apple Music vs Spotify
2. The fact that I can control Spotify running on my HTPC in the lounge (connected to my HIFI system) from my iPhone and iPad.

Until these two things are equal I'm not sure I could switch from Spotify to Apple Music.

marmel

1924 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1336290 3-Jul-2015 10:53

Definitely a trainwreck of a launch compared to usual Apple products which tend to be fairly straightforward and easy to use.

I've had several problems, the first being how to add family members to the family subscription, even two techs at Apple didn't know how to do it. Finally figured it out from a google search, looks like this is one of several issues which are causing a lot of problems.

Second issue is playlists I made up last night have now lost about half of the tracks, I can't be bothered trying to fix it at this stage, will wait for version II I think. I'll stick with Spotify for now.

Handsomedan

7281 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#1336682 3-Jul-2015 21:53

I've found it to be both good and bad...

Uses insane battery power and data compared to Spotify and IHeartRadio

Great integration with my music

Terrible as a standalone music app for playing your own music

Beats 1 is awful

Half the time the other "radio stations" don't actually load.

Other than that, I am enjoying some of it. Especially as it's free for 3 months.

Won't be paying for it though.

Handsome Dan Has Spoken.
Handsome Dan needs to stop adding three dots to every sentence...

Handsome Dan does not currently have a side hustle as the mascot for Yale

*Gladly accepting donations...

lxsw20

3552 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1336705 3-Jul-2015 23:00

Personally enjoying Beats 1. Different strokes and all that.

littleheaven

2130 posts

Uber Geek

#1338155 6-Jul-2015 21:06

Hmm, mixed feelings here too. Being a staunch "manually manage your music" iDevice user, I find the thought that it's matching and streaming whatever is the closest match to the music I already own a little off-putting. I've already found some good new music using the radio stations created by flagging certain songs, but then I'll try a station using an Opshop song and just get random NZ artists that aren't at all similar, rather than international artists that match the genre.

My main worry is data usage. I turned off iTunes and Music in the Cellular section of my settings, hopped into the car and fired up the phone's Bluetooth connection to the stereo, and it began playing songs I'd added to a playlist last night. I hadn't made them available offline, so how were they playing, if not streaming? I've set my data stats back to nil to see whether tomorrow's trip to work results in lost megabytes. I'm assuming the app defaults to streaming unless there's no available connection, so it's a bit annoying that it would stream an inferior quality file over a high bitrate locally stored version.

Oh, and make sure you go into your account, click manage, and turn off the auto-renew on the membership. It's defaulted to charge you automatically on the 3-month anniversary.

At the moment I'm inclined to go back to my old system of using Spotify (free) to suggest me new music and just paying iTunes for the ones I like enough to want to own. At least that way I can choose the bitrate, album art, and feel secure I'm not accidentally streaming and using up all my data.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

ALTRON

577 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1339935 9-Jul-2015 12:51

Anyone else finding that iOS Apple music is a total battery hog?

Been using it solid for a week a for now. Going to continue with spotify.

littleheaven

2130 posts

Uber Geek

#1340020 9-Jul-2015 14:22

Some people have been reporting that their battery is draining a lot faster when using it. Apparently older models of phone are more prone to it. I've not noticed much difference but the drive to work is only 10-15 minutes, and that's when I use it.

I'm still managing to play songs in the car that I've added to my library but not downloaded, and yet cellular data for Music and iTunes is off, and it reports not a single kb used since I reset the totals to 0 a few days ago. I must therefore assume when you listen to part of a song, it gets cached in your phone. Having gotten to grips with it a bit more, I am quite liking it, but still uneasy about letting it integrate with my full library (I have yet to turn it on on my Mac). Not sure whether I will use it enough to be worth the subscription price, but I guess that depends on how much new music I discover and want to listen to.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5