Since the introduction of Apple Music, I’ve been trying to convince myself that I can finally have all my music in a single place. I want Siri integration and the ability to search my music collection and iTunes at the same time. Unfortunately, it just isn’t worth the horrible experience that comes with the privilege. My free trial of Apple Music just expired and I’m going back to Rdio for the foreseeable future.
Here are just a few of the issues I need to see Apple fix before I’d consider giving Apple Music another chance:
Constant playback issues
One of the largest complaints I have with Apple Music is the constant stuttering during playback. (No, it isn’t my data connection.) There are random times when I’m driving and listening to a song and it just stops. No reason. Playback just ceases immediately.
Looking at my iPhone’s Lock screen, I can tap the Play button and playback resumes. Sometimes, that’s all there is to it. Other times it’s a constant war that results in me wanting to light my iPhone on fire. (Okay, maybe not that severe, but I do end up relenting and turning to Spotify, Pandora, or Rdio instead.)
Offline music isn’t really “offline”
Many times I’ve saved songs for offline playback. Then when I actually need offline playback — like on a plane — I find half the songs I marked for offline playback won’t actually play.
Instead, I get a popup message informing me that I can’t play this track because I have no cellular or Wi-Fi connection.
Um, what?
Curated playlists are incredibly short
The For You section of Apple Music has done a pretty phenomenal job of filtering things that I’m interested in. However, the whole point of me using that section is it offers me the convenience of not having to manually create playlists.
A playlist that is only 5 songs long isn’t really a playlist at all. I’d rather take five minutes to put together my own. Some are over before I even drive from my house to the grocery store, let alone a long road trip.
I just end up turning to Pandora when I want continuous music I don’t have to work for.
Why can’t Music.app pick up where I last left off?
This is an issue with the Music app that has been getting under my skin long before Apple Music came along. For some reason, the Music app always plays the first song in my music library whenever I get into a car and Bluetooth connects. (I was so tired of hearing ABC by The Jackson 5 that I deleted it completely!)
If Spotify, Pandora, and Rdio can remember where I left off, why the hell can’t Apple Music?
On the off chance it does manage to remember where I left off, it doesn’t bother to pay attention to the actual track marker. When running a long list of errands, I get in the car and it starts the song over again. I get out, and it starts it over again when I get back in. I’ve now heard the first 3 minutes of the same song about 6 times.
Lovely.
DRM issues
I didn’t personally experience this issue, but I know many people have, including Jim Dalrymple of the Loop. The fact that Apple released a product that has the potential of screwing with people’s libraries the way Jim described is incredibly unnerving to me.
Beats 1 isn’t for me
I’ve tried to listen to Beats 1 numerous times over the past several weeks and it just isn’t for me. I never hear anything that remotely interests me.
I’ve tried tuning in at different times, listening to replays, etc. I just don’t have any interest or think it’s all that great.
Maybe my musical tastes dictate some of this, but for me personally, it’s not a service I see myself ever benefiting from.
No Sonos support
This is not the fault of Sonos, who have already said that whenever Apple is ready to give developers access, they’re ready to support it. The problem is that Apple has apparently put third-party support on the back burner to “other goals”.
I have connected accessories. I want to use them with whatever streaming service I choose, especially if I’m paying for it. Sonos is incredibly great at integrating with pretty much every streaming service you could imagine and Apple Music shouldn’t be the exception.
If Apple wants to push connected homes, they can’t make support for great products that strongly encourage that ecosystem low priority.
Going back to Rdio
Rdio has been my main streaming music service of choice for years. I know Spotify has more tracks, but that doesn’t bother me. Rdio has a beautiful iOS and Mac app and integrates with everything I need it to. I have Spotify installed but I only use it to play albums or playlists Rdio doesn’t have, since I can do that on shuffle for free.
For random music around the house, Pandora will always have a place in our home. It’s also how I find myself discovering new music.
I had high hopes for Apple Music, given how impressed I was with Beats Music when it debuted. Then, back in April of last year, I switched back to Rdio due to offline playback issues similar to the ones I’ve experienced with Apple Music.
I guess I was hoping Apple could take the greatest features of Beats Music and add the Apple polish they do so well to give me the most amazing music service we’ve ever seen.
That definitely isn’t what I got. Perhaps that wish was naive, I don’t know.
What I do know is that Apple Music doesn’t offer the Apple-like experience I’ve come to know and love, and that’s a shame.
Perhaps I’ll re-evaluate a year or so from now. Until then, I’d love to know what your thoughts and experiences have been with Apple Music. Feel free to drop them in the comments!
I love, love, LOVE Apple Muisc, but I too have a deal breaker. iTunes on Windows is simply unusable. The service is a dream on my iPad and iPhone, but I listen to music more often on Windows as that is what I use to work. I just returned to Spotify. It works well on Windows and Linux, plus iOS.
I’d be through my data plan in a morning if I used it and preparing stuff to listen to offline later is just a faff. I think it’s streaming services in general that aren’t for me; I’ll spend my tenner a month on buying new albums as I’ve done in the past.
For the same stated reasons I am not ditching Apple Music and yes my playlist and artwork screw up.. So annoying. Not the Apple company I loved
My gripes: Start a playlist from “for you” pause, then a few hours later the songs are still in queue but there’s no indication of the playlist. Tap an album on a playing song and it’s usually “unknown album.” Can’t share/collaborate on playlists within the app. Connect is a not really social.
I think you pretty much encapsulated all the trials that I faced with Apple music. Half the offline things did not become offline. Then sometimes songs would magically vanish from your offline library. It is IMPOSSIBLE to add playlist to overall library. You hd to do it manually for ech song!
I deleted ABC by The Jackson 5 for the exact same reason. 🙂
HAHAHA I love that someone else wants to burn that song to the ground now
Well, looks like I’m very late to this Apple Music bashing party, but my strong passion will make up for my tardiness. Of course I agree with everything I’ve read, especially the entire “offline” thing. At this point(nov-2016), I think it has gotten BETTER. But Apple should be ashamed hearing this! BETTER!? By now that obvious and popular flaw should be ancient history. When adding music for offline use; I honestly couldn’t instruct someone on how exactly to achieve this! I usually end up clicking multiple things multiple times. For albums: I’ll click “add” and apparently this is supposed to add the music to your library, although at what seem to be random times; these albums will get downloaded! Other times, they’re added to my online library; I then click the options and SOMETIMES the option saying “download” is there, but much of the time it is not. I must admit that since getting the family plan for Apple Music, I have, at one sitting, added/downloaded/searched for etc, a whole lot of music. Since about one week into having it; I’ve constantly had over 40gb of music on my phone, which I keep updating; deleting some and adding more.(reminds me of another huge problem. Many times; I’ve had the exact same song 2, 3,4, or even 5 times over! This is because of greatest hits albums, soundtracks and other compilations. Wish there was an easy way to at least self monitor this!) anyway! Since I’ve constantly been downloading a lot of music and what not; I’m thinking that maybe my downloads have fallen behind… I dunno! Also! Can’t count how many times the app just totally crashes! Might stop responding for a couple of seconds, and zap, I’m at my home screen and must open the app again; and worst of all, back track and hopefully remember what I was doing!
In the library menu; you have some options; to view music by artist, album, song, genre, playlist etc. MANY PROBLEMS HERE! Now, everything with Apple Music is inconsistent(I suppose that’s the one consistent!) and this is one of the worst: songs which have guest appearances; i.e.- featuring… so and so; these songs much of the time will not be under the list of songs for that artist; but under a completely separate “artist” which simply lists the actual artist as well as the featured; which is basically indicating that this particular duo itself is a “band/group”. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking of “snoop dogg”. I was wanting to listen to his music on shuffle, and that’s what I did. After quite a long time, I had to take a look, as I just couldn’t believe how many of my favorites seemed absent. That’s when I looked and looked again to be sure, and sure enough, countless songs were MIA. I was baffled and angry. Finally I went back or something and then noticed….. “hey! Snoop is in 24 rap duos. 34 rap groups. 14 rock bands. 8 metal bands. 4 ska bands. 55 reggae groups….” well you get the picture, as I saw him listed for dozens of “artists”. So I then looked at many others that obviously would fall under the exact same circumstances. But, to my shock; many were similar to snoop; but to varying degrees(some artists only have this issue with certain albums) while many artists(especially rock bands), don’t seem to fall victim to this improper ID. But still, none of that is what bothers me the most!!! The bottom line is that if I could click on an artist, album, song, or anything, and EDIT the artist name, and anything I want; then I could spend a lot of time and fix this problem myself. It would be very annoying, yes, but at least let me do that if I want! It’s MY library! Right? Huh?? Ohhhhh, ok, it’s not! Honestly, this Apple Music is simply so far gone; and just not even close to any other music application I’ve ever used. It should just be totally scrapped; thrown away, and Apple should start over. I used far superior apps on my “386 PC, with 14mb of ram!
BUT STILL!!!!!!! I’d get over all of that, everything, if just one aspect were done well. I’ve searched for third party apps, and found many, but none can work with Apple Music specifically! I’m of course talking about volume enhancing, equalizers, bass boosters, and/or just ANYTHING to make me actually able to enjoy my music! I mean; it was one thing many years or even a few years ago. But these phones costing 4 figures, yet the ability to play music well is just…. embarrassing! My old CD player/clock radio has 5x the bass, as well as volume capability; and it’s using one little old awful speaker. While my 6s plus can use an aux cable, then hook up to one of many speakers for this purpose, and only gets so loud. Lol, I can’t imagine what I would’ve said or how I would’ve reacted at 15-25 years old! Using Bluetooth is even more of a disaster. My elderly family members actually called me after I explained how to use their Bluetooth speakers; sure they must have done something wrong. Of course they knew they had! Volume at 100%, while being across the room; 20+ feet away, and although audible, certainly not close to loud enough; and considering their Bluetooth speakers ranged from $50-$250, they must have more capability, but I had to convince them all that, NOPE! That new age device that cost more than your new hip isn’t able to play music as loud as literally EVERY SINGLE OTHER AUDIO DEVICE EVER MADE! And I don’t know! Maybe with a top notch Bluetooth speaker, DECENT volume is possible. I am beyond positive that there is nothing out there that is anywhere close to what the standards should be. I’d love to find out why this is. Because, make no mistake, there is a reason. People love music and have been making loud speakers and amps etc for decades. Not just in the home either! Decades ago; it wasn’t uncommon for young people to have an audio system in their cars that could rival a live rock concert! So it is entirely possible; and of course was considered; debated, and decided upon by………… those……. yeh well, ha, you can take it from there. Honestly, the volume issue(btw, I have crazy good hearing. Way above average) may just be enough to cause me to say bye bye to apple altogether. I would’ve already if it weren’t for the fact that they’re the leader; which in turn creates better everything…. but without mr. Jobs….. it looks like Apple just can’t wait to run right back to where they were in the 90’s. Congrats on somehow achieving what should be impossible! Lol, people at Apple are the absolute biggest bunch of morons to ever walk the face of the earth