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Apple Music |OT| Apple Invents Music, Time To Party Like It's 1989!

Holy shit, is there any way to change the page forward/page back buttons on my mouse to not control control next track/previous track in itunes? Every time I'm in the apple music library looking for an album, I hit the back button and restart a track/stop the music if it's the start of a playlist. It's the most annoying thing ever, I have no idea why it doesn't go a page back in the apple music browser. Is there any fix for this?

Also, it's really common for like 2 or 3 tracks in a 12 track album to just not play - they'll buffer forever and never start. Other tracks on that same album will load instantly and play fine. Doesn't matter if it's a track iTunes has matched with me or if it's something I've added from Apple Music. Is this a problem everyone's having?
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area

jeez this blew up yesterday.

I don't get the furor (well aside from furor and internet going hand in hand). Acoustic matching isn't better than tag matching or vice versa. They totally serve different purposes.

The benefit to acoustic matching is that you can have shit tags and still get your files in the cloud (and tags "fixed" in the process). The downside to acoustic matching is that when bad matches happen (and they certainly do, often), there is NO way to fix them as you can't change the matched "properties" at all.

The benefit to tag matching is that you have (in theory, and at least better than acoustic) total control over how your music is matched. Bad match? (in theory) just fix the tags. The down side to tag matching is that if your tags are for shit, and/or happen to not match the stuff the service has on file, then you might have a rough go of it.

People are acting like acoustic matching is objectively and entirely better than tag matching. As someone who has a bunch of clean versions matched in iTunes Match, I heartily disagree. They both have their ups and downs. Match uses acoustic matching because it needs to. They can't go giving you free DRM free songs because you cleverly named a bunch of your library to songs you wanted. Apple Music does tag matching, likely because it's much faster, and (again in theory) gives you a little better control in case things weren't matched properly.
Ok it's been more than a month. There should be a poll of who liked Apple Music and who doesn't.
I'll be keeping it. There's nothing game-breaking for me... a ton of little annoyances, but one imagines those will be fixed sooner or later. The big broad strokes work for me and that's all that matters.
 

tmdorsey

Member
jeez this blew up yesterday.

I don't get the furor (well aside from furor and internet going hand in hand). Acoustic matching isn't better than tag matching or vice versa. They totally serve different purposes.

The benefit to acoustic matching is that you can have shit tags and still get your files in the cloud (and tags "fixed" in the process). The downside to acoustic matching is that when bad matches happen (and they certainly do, often), there is NO way to fix them as you can't change the matched "properties" at all.

The benefit to tag matching is that you have (in theory, and at least better than acoustic) total control over how your music is matched. Bad match? (in theory) just fix the tags. The down side to tag matching is that if your tags are for shit, and/or happen to not match the stuff the service has on file, then you might have a rough go of it.

People are acting like acoustic matching is objectively and entirely better than tag matching. As someone who has a bunch of clean versions matched in iTunes Match, I heartily disagree. They both have their ups and downs. Match uses acoustic matching because it needs to. They can't go giving you free DRM free songs because you cleverly named a bunch of your library to songs you wanted. Apple Music does tag matching, likely because it's much faster, and (again in theory) gives you a little better control in case things weren't matched properly.

I'll be keeping it. There's nothing game-breaking for me... a ton of little annoyances, but one imagines those will be fixed sooner or later. The big broad strokes work for me and that's all that matters.


I think they should either use both or give us the option to upload our copy instead of defaulting to their matched copy. Even after correcting my tags in some cases I can't get the proper version of the song I'm looking for
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
I think they should either use both or give us the option to upload our copy instead of defaulting to their matched copy. Even after correcting my tags in some cases I can't get the proper version of the song I'm looking for

100% yes. I've been saying this from day one. They need a "Report a Problem" like from Maps. "Bad Match? Force Upload." sort of thing. Would solve 100% of problems in Match. Music the worst case is you'd potentially end up with duplicates.. i.e. your file actually exists on Music but won't match for some reason.. still better than giving you the wrong song though.

But that's what I mean. Using SongID or not isn't inherently a bad thing. It's that they give you no ability to correct bad matches in either case that people actually have the problem with.
 

Quasar

Member
100% yes. I've been saying this from day one. They need a "Report a Problem" like from Maps. "Bad Match? Force Upload." sort of thing. Would solve 100% of problems in Match. Music the worst case is you'd potentially end up with duplicates.. i.e. your file actually exists on Music but won't match for some reason.. still better than giving you the wrong song though.

I'd certainly would have been happier if there was a google music option (upload my whole library).
 

number11

Member
If Apple Music matches meta data.. Does it only match song name and artist?

Half the time it feels like the matching system simply ignores the album. If I upload 15 songs with the same artist and album name, they obviously belong to one album... And not a bunch of songs from greatest hits, singles and remastered albums.
 

Quasar

Member
If Apple Music matches meta data.. Does it only match song name and artist?

Half the time it feels like the matching system simply ignores the album. If I upload 15 songs with the same artist and album name, they obviously belong to one album... And not a bunch of songs from greatest hits, singles and remastered albums.

Yeah. Seems like it just uses song name and artist, which certainly made a mess when I tried to use it.
 
When I first turned on iCloud Library on my iTunes, for some strange reason it "matched" my purchased music from iTunes, and some songs were even "Uploaded" claiming they weren't in the iTunes Store. Mind you, this was both recent and old purchase so I just assumed it was a major bug and turned the damn thing off.

Now that it has been a month, have things improved? Can I turn it back on and will it work? I like the idea of being able to search for any song and play it on demand even if I don't own it. Makes some nice road trips a little fun, but the fact that iCloud Library is so buggy turns me completely off. I purchase my music primary and I'm not a total fan of streaming because of the whole data limits I have with my carrier, but the convenience is still nice.

So, any improvements done so far?
 
I don't know if Apple Music detects when it's night or not but yesterday after leaving the theater (Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation is pretty good) in the For You section it showed me a "Late Night Alternative" playlist. I thought it was pretty neat that it does that. I think I've seen a Late Night Indie playlist come up too. Pretty good playlist.

Listen to Late Night Alternative @AppleMusic.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/playlist/late-night-alternative/idpl.e8f2eadb14584ec2a614b273ef819c57

Feel free to share playlists and new music you've been listening to in here. It's not just about the app itself and all that's wrong with it.
 

iKhayal18

Member
It does detect what day of the week it is, at least (like Spotify), because each Friday the For You section shows me "T.G.I.F" and similar playlists, and each Sunday I have the "Lazy Sundays" on the top of the For You section as well.
 

Future

Member
When I first turned on iCloud Library on my iTunes, for some strange reason it "matched" my purchased music from iTunes, and some songs were even "Uploaded" claiming they weren't in the iTunes Store. Mind you, this was both recent and old purchase so I just assumed it was a major bug and turned the damn thing off.

Now that it has been a month, have things improved? Can I turn it back on and will it work? I like the idea of being able to search for any song and play it on demand even if I don't own it. Makes some nice road trips a little fun, but the fact that iCloud Library is so buggy turns me completely off. I purchase my music primary and I'm not a total fan of streaming because of the whole data limits I have with my carrier, but the convenience is still nice.

So, any improvements done so far?

It's good when it works. It is shitty when it doesn't

For example, with iCloud library you cannot tell your phone to synch any music with iTunes anymore. The idea is that it stores the entire library in the cloud and you can stream or download it to your phone.

This is great if your connection is good. You have access to your entire library and playlists everywhere. Plugging your phone into your computer doesn't even synch music anymore at all.

But if iCloud makes any mistakes, like being unable to upload or match a song, then there is literally no way to manually get it into your music app and playlists on your phone now without turning off iCloud library. I have a bunch of songs like this... Ineligible for whatever reason and stuck on my computer. What's funny is I am fairly positive some of these were on my phone before update, and now are unplayable on phone but not sure

Also, you can easily delete music forever if you aren't careful. Reports of people removing songs from their library that can cause iTunes to delete them off the hard drive depending how you did it. Re downloading them can download an apple music version that is now DRM. Also, you've probably seen reports of iTunes changing song metadata, downloading the wrong art automatically, and other weird shit

So I can easily see people liking this if they don't see any of these problems. If you were in iTunes Match before the transition was probably seem less because you would have already had an iCloud library. Newcomers like me though are now stuck reading help posts of how to fix the shit iCloud fucked up
 

X-Frame

Member
Is there any way to tell the For You tab to only give me the curated playlists?

I don't want all those random fill albums since more often than now they are recommending albums I already have!
 
jeez this blew up yesterday.

I don't get the furor (well aside from furor and internet going hand in hand). Acoustic matching isn't better than tag matching or vice versa. They totally serve different purposes.

Acoustic matching is by far better than tag matching. It's the single biggest reason people's albums are getting screwed up on AM, and why people have had much more success with iTunes Match. If I change the tags from what's in Apple's DB on albums I bought on CD and scanned, such as removing "(live)" from song titles, or changing the album title to remove extraneous info like "CD 1", or changing the release dates on a compilation or remaster to reflect the original recording date of the songs, AM will be very confused. Certainly the best solution is to use acoustic matching with tag matching as a fallback, but tag match should never be used by itself.

My guess is that AM's inferior system was brought over wholesale from Beats Music, and used either because of internal politics or because they didn't have time to make something new. Let's all hope they flush the Beats Music code down the toilet soon and build something else from scratch.
 
http://www.mcelhearn.com/apple-music-matches-files-with-metadata-only-not-acoustic-fingerprinting/

Apparently he's unable to reproduce the issue he was having, but the story still stands that Apple Music uses Metadata and not digital fingerprint which iTunes Match uses.

Update: I’ve been unable to reproduce this issue, and my guess is that there was a glitch with Apple’s servers that has since been corrected. If you only subscribe to Apple Music, or are using it on a free trial, then your songs are matched using metadata only. If you subscribe to both iTunes Match and Apple Music, then iTunes matches your songs using digital fingerprinting.
 

number11

Member
I'm tempted to sign up for iTunes Match again..

If I have both iTunes Match and iCloud Music.. What type of matching system will be used?
 

LCfiner

Member
I currently have both itunes match and apple music. So far, there's been no issues with my library since AM opened up last month but I am super scared of what might happen if I cancelled itunes match, lol. it seems that's the trigger that really screws up libraries with the AM matching being more finicky. At least from what I can piece together from reading bits her and there online.
 

Future

Member
I currently have both itunes match and apple music. So far, there's been no issues with my library since AM opened up last month but I am super scared of what might happen if I cancelled itunes match, lol. it seems that's the trigger that really screws up libraries with the AM matching being more finicky. At least from what I can piece together from reading bits her and there online.

Makes a lot of sense why people deep in the apple Eco system haven't experienced problems. Sounds like match is the better iCloud service in terms of accuracy, and if you had it before iCloud library then you are probably in good shape. People without it are who get their music potentially fucked up.

So confusing that there is this match service and then the Apple music service which is also match. Sorta
 

Ashhong

Member
Why in the hell can't we share Smart Playlists? Come on Apple....

It's good when it works. It is shitty when it doesn't

For example, with iCloud library you cannot tell your phone to synch any music with iTunes anymore. The idea is that it stores the entire library in the cloud and you can stream or download it to your phone.

This is great if your connection is good. You have access to your entire library and playlists everywhere. Plugging your phone into your computer doesn't even synch music anymore at all.

But if iCloud makes any mistakes, like being unable to upload or match a song, then there is literally no way to manually get it into your music app and playlists on your phone now without turning off iCloud library. I have a bunch of songs like this... Ineligible for whatever reason and stuck on my computer. What's funny is I am fairly positive some of these were on my phone before update, and now are unplayable on phone but not sure

When I want to sync music from my iTunes, I just turn off iCloud Music on my phone. I don't "Make Available Offline" any music so far, so no downloads or anything are lost. I turn it off, sync iTunes with physical songs, then turn it back on. Not a terrible work around.
 
CLlQjH3UEAAeWs9.jpg


Apple Music Ads Going Up Around the World as Apple Music is Added to Billboard Top Charts
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
Acoustic matching is by far better than tag matching. It's the single biggest reason people's albums are getting screwed up on AM, and why people have had much more success with iTunes Match

the bolded part here is simply not true, and makes the rest of your post difficult to argue for (including any sort of superiority of acoustic matching).

If you really require me to search and provide proof I will, but just looking at random pages in this thread (100 post count of course) you see the problem is in fact the OPPOSITE of what you are contending. Perfectly tagged items matched poorly. Matched but track order or album art screwed up. Matched poorly, with tags then changed IDENTICALLY to what is on Apple Music, and STILL not matching.

Now one thing you said I might actually agree with.. and that's the possibility (likelihood?) that matching was brought over from Beats entirely, and has no shared code with Match.. which absolutely would seem to be a key to the problem. With that being said, Match is hardly perfect with acoustic matching either. I have tons of studio tracks, from compilation albums, re-tagged for the albums they were originally on, which were not matched in Match but just uploaded. Whereas (if I wanted) in Apple Music in theory they would be correctly matched like I tagged them (provided the matching didn't screw up).

tl;dr the matching issues are from bad matching algorithms/back-end data. It has nothing to do with tags vs. acoustics. If both systems/algorithms worked to 99% accuracy, you more than likely wouldn't even notice a difference between the two and would get the inherent advantage from each. i.e. support for "poorly tagged songs" with acoustic matching, and finer matching control with tag matching. Apple needs to scrap the matching in AM as is, and bring the code base over from Match.

My biggest concern with canceling Match (which I'm not going to do yet) is, what happens to my Matched songs now that aren't on Apple Music? At the very least I HAVE TO make sure I have everything "offline" when I cancel, so then will those songs show up as no status and the upload to match?
 
Beats Music didn't have a matching service to bring over, it was basically Spotify with good playlists. Not sure why the change to metadata, but it probably doesn't make a huge difference.
 
Apple’s music deals allow for new Beats stations at any time

While Apple Music may have gotten off to a less than stellar start, Apple’s 24/7 radio station Beats 1 has lived up to the hype, quickly becoming the most praised part of the service. But it may not be the only official station from Apple for long. Apple has the ability to expand its lineup of Beats radio stations at will, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.


As part of the deal it struck with the major labels for Apple Music Radio, Apple has licenses for up to five additional stations like Beats 1, without having to renegotiate with the labels. That means Apple could launch a Beats 2 station headquartered in Australia or Asia, allowing it to provide live radio around the clock (Beats 1 is only live 12 hours a day). Or Apple could take a more targeted approach and produce holiday stations.


While few expected a radio station on Apple Music to be anything other than an afterthought, Apple has shown that it can take an aging format and repurpose it with great success, despite a few bumps along the way. The Verge has also learned that the per-play rate Apple pays the labels for music played on Beats 1 is "better than Pandora," according to a source. Given the reception to Beats 1, it seems likely that Apple would want to expand its Beats lineup in the near future. Apple, of course, declined to comment.


As for Apple Music as a whole, the labels are "pretty pleased" with its progress so far, but are still taking a wait and see approach, according to industry sources. While Apple Music has gained a "substantial" number of users, according to sources, the labels are reluctant to make any judgements on the service until after the trial period ends. One source noted that until Apple Music’s trial period concludes in October, all of its subscribers are only seen as "trialists" by the labels.

The good news for Apple is that, so far, there has been no considerable drop in iTunes downloads due to Apple Music’s launch. Sources indicate that although iTunes downloads are still decreasing (as they have been for some time), that decrease hasn’t noticeably accelerated during the first month of Apple Music. That’s not to say cannibalization isn’t expected down the line. The labels realize that as more and more people sign up for Apple Music, the faster downloads will decrease. As one source put it, there are "choppy waters ahead," but if Apple signs up enough subscribers, the payoff for the music industry could be big in the long run. Though it's highly unlikely that even Apple can return it back to its CD-sales heyday.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/4/9096299/apple--music-beats-1-stations

From Macrumors:

It seems Apple is indeed considering and preparing for a potential expansion Beats 1 with new Beats radio stations, as the company has registered domains like beats2.com.cn, beats2.hk, and beats4.com.ru in various countries around the world. Beats 1 is broadcast worldwide, but in the future, Apple may wish to offer stations that cater to different languages and music tastes around the world.
 
so the apple music twitter said that there is an exclusive stream of dr dre's new album on thursday from 6-9pm pt on apple music. what do i have to do to be able to listen to it? i already have upgraded my iPhone and macbook so that i can listen to the beats 1 radio station. will i need to be a subscriber to be able to listen to the stream of the album?
 
so the apple music twitter said that there is an exclusive stream of dr dre's new album on thursday from 6-9pm pt on apple music. what do i have to do to be able to listen to it? i already have upgraded my iPhone and macbook so that i can listen to the beats 1 radio station. will i need to be a subscriber to be able to listen to the stream of the album?

No, You don't need to be a subscriber to stream Beats 1, just go to the Radio tab.
 
No, You don't need to be a subscriber to stream Beats 1, just go to the Radio tab.

yeah, i'm aware of that. just wondered how album streams work on the service. i didn't know if that is a separate part of the service that you have to be a subscriber for. if they are just streaming it on beats 1 then i know that i'm good to go. they didn't make that clear.
 
yeah, i'm aware of that. just wondered how album streams work on the service. i didn't know if that is a separate part of the service that you have to be a subscriber for. if they are just streaming it on beats 1 then i know that i'm good to go. they didn't make that clear.

Yes, it's on Beats 1.
 

KtSlime

Member
Back you YouTube for videos at the moment it seems, videos on apple music are crashing about 30seconds in.

iOS 8.5 can't come soon enough.
 
Apple’s music deals allow for new Beats stations at any time

http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/4/9096299/apple--music-beats-1-stations

I could definitely see a Beats 2 with a more 'eclectic' and indie focus. I've mostly stopped listening to Zane and Ebro's shows because they're mostly pop and pop-rap. I don't mind some of that, but the focus is too heavy on those.

It could also be that they plan to segment culture-focused stations for China and Japan, which makes sense considering how big China is for Apple. Though it seems like it would have to be heavily censored due to the Communist government.

My personal theory is that they are also planning a station for news journalism, similar to BBC 4 or 5, which will link to articles within iOS 9's News app. Though I'd expect to see some newscaster defections from the BBC or NPR if that's in the cards.
 

KtSlime

Member
They really ought to do something in Japan, their offering now is way behind LINE and dHits. Both those services are lacking in ways, but Apple Music has maybe half the selection the others have, especially when it comes to the currently trending music. I suppose that's why they haven't bothered adding any Japanese curators like Oricon or Natalie, they would just be empty lists.

Wish they would have spent some of that money on content here rather than advertising.
 

Quasar

Member
They really ought to do something in Japan, their offering now is way behind LINE and dHits. Both those services are lacking in ways, but Apple Music has maybe half the selection the others have, especially when it comes to the currently trending music. I suppose that's why they haven't bothered adding any Japanese curators like Oricon or Natalie, they would just be empty lists.

Wish they would have spent some of that money on content here rather than advertising.

Certainly a Japan station would have me interested in it. The whole US/UK bias in the whole thing always bothered me.

And thats way beyond the stations. Even the for youtab is busted. The only way for me to see the Apple curated J-Pop lists is to follow the hidden J-Pop curator.
 
FYI for Australians:

If you're with Telstra on a post-paid plan, they've just launched their Apple Music campaign and you can redeem a free 12 month subscription.
 
I guess I'll hop back on spotify. Clean installed to Windows 10 and I'm not really interested in installing that iTunes bloatware again and I don't have an iPhone. I'll check back later, Apple - Get your act together.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
I guess I'll hop back on spotify. Clean installed to Windows 10 and I'm not really interested in installing that iTunes bloatware again and I don't have an iPhone. I'll check back later, Apple - Get your act together.

sucks, but you have a point. they need a WAY lighter weight client than iTunes to hook people.
I'm hoping Apple Music sticks around to improve.

unless the service actually runs a deep loss for apple, I can't see why it wouldn't stick around. IMHO the only "questionable" part of the service fiscally is Beats 1, which in the ultimate coincidence is the one part of the service people universally agree is great.

Plus the 2M family subs is actually a good sign. In theory conversion rates to paid on those should be extremely high. There is almost no benefit to starting up a trial family subscription. So in theory those 2M trials are there because they intend on continuing (I know we are).

The remaining 9M is the big question. Still, even if apple manages only 10% of those... that's still likely almost 2-3M paying subs in the first 3 months.. Not bad.

I think the most concerning part would be that it would seem apple didn't expand the market.. almost certainly the majority of those subs just came off of Spotify, Beats, etc. I really don't know how apple will actually expand the paid market. Family plan maybe? (which is still a HUGE value to 3+ user families compared to other services) With youtube and spotify, people simply don't want to pay for music. period. it sucks, but I don't really know how that can change at this point, short of artists and labels actually removing content from free tiers.
 

number11

Member
I just realised... Is the iTunes festival not happening this year?

You would think that the festival + Apple Music combination would be pretty easy promotion/advertising.
 

KtSlime

Member
sucks, but you have a point. they need a WAY lighter weight client than iTunes to hook people.


unless the service actually runs a deep loss for apple, I can't see why it wouldn't stick around. IMHO the only "questionable" part of the service fiscally is Beats 1, which in the ultimate coincidence is the one part of the service people universally agree is great.

Plus the 2M family subs is actually a good sign. In theory conversion rates to paid on those should be extremely high. There is almost no benefit to starting up a trial family subscription. So in theory those 2M trials are there because they intend on continuing (I know we are).

The remaining 9M is the big question. Still, even if apple manages only 10% of those... that's still likely almost 2-3M paying subs in the first 3 months.. Not bad.

I think the most concerning part would be that it would seem apple didn't expand the market.. almost certainly the majority of those subs just came off of Spotify, Beats, etc. I really don't know how apple will actually expand the paid market. Family plan maybe? (which is still a HUGE value to 3+ user families compared to other services) With youtube and spotify, people simply don't want to pay for music. period. it sucks, but I don't really know how that can change at this point, short of artists and labels actually removing content from free tiers.

I'm not coming from Spotify, so if they manage to keep me they would have expanded it by one. However, if they don't improve their available artists here, I'm going to jump ship. On a technical level I have only a few issues. Aside the fact that I have to reboot between changing iTunes accounts (which is hopefully just a bug and not a 'feature'), and crashes from playing videos. Also it would be super if when I go into the app it relaunched where I last was. Having to re-navigate is to put it mildly annoying.
 
11 million is pretty good considering the lack of a real push for the service which is starting to ramp up now with billboards. Once word gets out beyond Apple fans and tech followers I would expect the number to go up. How many continue paying is another matter.

Friends of mine upgraded and most just aren't aware that it's there. Either because the music app isn't where they listen to music Or they don't use it at all.
 

Majine

Banned
It's annoying when there is new music on the iTunes Store that isn't on Apple Music. Feels weird when I have to complement that shit.
 
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