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[infiniteloop]

8.4.1 is out with some Apple Music fixes:

This release includes improvements and fixes to Apple Music.

- Resolves issues that could prevent turning on iCloud Music Library
- Resolves an issue that hides added music because Apple Music was set to show offline music only
- Provides a way to add songs to a new playlist if there aren't any playlists to choose from
- Resolves an issue that may show different artwork for an album on other devices
- Resolves several issues for artists while posting to Connect
- Fixes an issue where tapping Love doesn't work as expected while listening to Beats

Also itunes 12.2.2:

This update includes the following improvements:

- Click on the Beats 1 banner to see what's currently on, or view a complete broadcast schedule so you never miss a show
- You can now view a list of the artists you're following on Apple Music
- Resolved an issue where iTunes loses its place when you go back to a previous page in Apple Music
- Addressed a problem where artists may be sorted incorrectly in My Music
- Fixed a problem where playlists displayed in the action menu may not match the playlists in your library
- Artists can now share thoughts, photos, music, and videos to Connect, right from iTunes

This update also includes improvements to overall stability and performance.

 

[Number45]

There's no way from the My Music overview to see which items are on the phone and which will stream, is there? I know I can tap into an album and the cover art will have the sticker on the top right but it would be much more convenient to be able to see it as I scroll through the list.

 

[Troy]

Just installed the update on iPad. I still see no way to easily create a new playlist from any song or album I find on the service. I also see no changes to the shoddy manner in which they handle offline play. If I set a playlist to offline play, why doesn't it download every song in the playlist as well as any song I add to it later? These guys just don't get it.

 

[borghe]

There's no way from the My Music overview to see which items are on the phone and which will stream, is there? I know I can tap into an album and the cover art will have the sticker on the top right but it would be much more convenient to be able to see it as I scroll through the list.

To see ALL of your music quickly, with "offline songs" easily identifiable? No, not really.

Obviously you can toggle on "Show Songs Available Offline" and see only the songs that are downloaded.

Just installed the update on iPad. I still see no way to easily create a new playlist from any song or album I find on the service. I also see no changes to the shoddy manner in which they handle offline play. If I set a playlist to offline play, why doesn't it download every song in the playlist as well as any song I add to it later? These guys just don't get it.

in the case of the former........... even weirder is that they GIVE YOU the ability (from the notes) to create a playlist if you don't already have playlists.. I mean it seems super minor (really how hard is it to create a playlist first), but at the same time they ADDED the ability to create a new playlist from the add menu....... in only one scenario.....

I do disagree with your latter complaint though. Especially on phones running low on space, I NEVER want music downloaded automatically. Say I forget that I previously downloaded a playlist.. I would be annoyed if adding a song to it automatically downloaded the song (without me saying to). They could add an option in Settings for like "automatically download songs added to offline playlists", but I would never want that to be the default and only behavior.

edit - I actually just submitted a feature request for a setting like that. Thinking about it, it isn't a bad option, but yeah.. I certainly wouldn't want that to be the default or only option.

 

[Troy]

Just updated my iTunes on Mac and everything that doesn't work on iPad works on iTunes. Still hate the fugly iTunes UI, but clicking offline play for my playlists now downloads each song in the playlist, and I can add to new playlist pretty much anything I find on the service. Now if they can get Sony to add them to the PS4, I'll consider paying for this.

*edit* Spoke too soon. Adding a song to a playlist that is marked for offline play doesn't automatically download the new songs added to the playlist.

 

[strikeselect]

Still having issues with my library after the update. Some artists don't show up under "artists", I need to switch to "songs" to find their content.

What a hot mess. They've had nearly 2 months since launch to fix things and this is the best they can do? Yikes.

 

[zedge]

*edit* Spoke too soon. Adding a song to a playlist that is marked for offline play doesn't automatically download the new songs added to the playlist.

Really? Sigh. This seems like such an obvious thing to include.

 

[borghe]

*edit* Spoke too soon. Adding a song to a playlist that is marked for offline play doesn't automatically download the new songs added to the playlist.

right. you are not flagging an item for offline in perpetuity. you are basically saying "download this now".

as I mentioned above, I actually just submitted a feature request for this. I do think how apple has it setup is the way that most users would want/expect it to work.. but what you are wanting/expecting probably isn't bad to have as an option. Not sure how to submit feature requests outside of the beta's Feedback app.

Still having issues with my library after the update. Some artists don't show up under "artists", I need to switch to "songs" to find their content.

What a hot mess. They've had nearly 2 months since launch to fix things and this is the best they can do? Yikes.

are they on albums flagged as "compilation"? If so, they will show up in the separate "Compilations" area of song/artist listing.

Really? Sigh. This seems like such an obvious thing to include.

again, I think the way it currently is would be the more expected way for most users. But yeah it would be a good option to have for those who want it.

 

[number11]

Still no fix to the biggest thing people complain about? (Wrong tracks being matched)

 

[WaffleTaco]

Did they add the ability to shuffle from the music app directly without having to click a song first?

 

[borghe]

Still no fix to the biggest thing people complain about? (Wrong tracks being matched)

that wouldn't be/need an iOS/iTunes update. Matching happens on Apple's side.

Did they add the ability to shuffle from the music app directly without having to click a song first?

they did in the current iOS 9 beta. Not sure if it made it into 8.4.1.

 

[Troy]

right. you are not flagging an item for offline in perpetuity. you are basically saying "download this now".

as I mentioned above, I actually just submitted a feature request for this. I do think how apple has it setup is the way that most users would want/expect it to work.. but what you are wanting/expecting probably isn't bad to have as an option. Not sure how to submit feature requests outside of the beta's Feedback app.



are they on albums flagged as "compilation"? If so, they will show up in the separate "Compilations" area of song/artist listing.



again, I think the way it currently is would be the more expected way for most users. But yeah it would be a good option to have for those who want it.

It's not the end of the world. I just have to remember to hit the cloud symbol on the playlist any time I add music to it.

Did they add the ability to shuffle from the music app directly without having to click a song first?

Do you mean just start shuffling random music when the app is opened? Or do you mean when you select a playlist or album? When I select a playlist there's the option to just hit shuffle and it starts shuffling all the songs in that playlist. Same goes for albums.

 

[KingKong]

wow the update totally fixed how slow and unresponsive it was on iPhone, I'm impressed (and yes I've tried restarting before, that didn't work). albums load and play and it opens albums from songs and everything very snappily

 

[borghe]

It's not the end of the world. I just have to remember to hit the cloud symbol on the playlist any time I add music to it.

like I said... it's a good suggestion. Anyone with the Feedback app (beta) should submit it.

wow the update totally fixed how slow and unresponsive it was on iPhone, I'm impressed (and yes I've tried restarting before, that didn't work). albums load and play and it opens albums from songs and everything very snappily

yeah, I'm assuming this is close to the same version we have running on iOS 9 beta, which is VASTLY improved over 8.4. 8.4 Music was virtually unusable in my Air. I mean not even virtually. It WAS flat out unusable. the current iOS 9 public beta version of Music is perfectly fine on both my iPad Air and iPhone 6.

 

[number11]

that wouldn't be/need an iOS/iTunes update. Matching happens on Apple's side.

All iTunes needs is a force upload option.

 

[borghe]

All iTunes needs is a force upload option.

eh... there's actually a few issues with only doing that to "fix" things. As someone who has Match and Music, there are some annoyances that could/would then carry through.

So I have song A in my collection. Song A exists on Music, but I say "fuck it, just upload my Song A". The problem then comes later if

a) I include my (uploaded) Song A on a playlist and share that, people won't see/get Song A, even though it exists on Music

b) I add a curated playlist (or again, someone else's playlist) to My Music, I will automatically then add/download Music's Song A, which will show up alongside my Song A, even if both are from the same album, etc.

There might even be more..

So I mean they need to fix their matching. Period. End of story. However, yeah... they need a "report a problem"/"bad match" option where it will then default to uploading your song. Basically something that works 99% correctly, and then in the 1% or error cases it's easy to both register a problem and (at least temporarily) get what you want uploaded.

 

[WaffleTaco]

Do you mean just start shuffling random music when the app is opened? Or do you mean when you select a playlist or album? When I select a playlist there's the option to just hit shuffle and it starts shuffling all the songs in that playlist. Same goes for albums.

When you open the App and go to the My Music with Songs as the selection, you can't just hit suffle, you have to click a song first. It's not a big deal, but it would be nice just have a shuffle button. If they do this, and fix the song delay I will be pretty happy.

 

[zedge]

like I said... it's a good suggestion. Anyone with the Feedback app (beta) should submit it.



yeah, I'm assuming this is close to the same version we have running on iOS 9 beta, which is VASTLY improved over 8.4. 8.4 Music was virtually unusable in my Air. I mean not even virtually. It WAS flat out unusable. the current iOS 9 public beta version of Music is perfectly fine on both my iPad Air and iPhone 6.

Where is this cloud button? I save my playlists offline on my iPhone 6. Don't see a cloud. Seems the only way to add new songs for offline is one by one. :/

 

[borghe]

When you open the App and go to the My Music with Songs as the selection, you can't just hit suffle, you have to click a song first. It's not a big deal, but it would be nice just have a shuffle button. If they do this, and fix the song delay I will be pretty happy.

so if this wasn't added in 8.4.1, it is for sure added in 9 (it's at the very top of every page underneath the Artist/Song/etc menu)

Where is this cloud button? I save my playlists offline on my iPhone 6. Don't see a cloud. Seems the only way to add new songs for offline is one by one. :/

there is no clound button anymore. Correct. you have to do it from the ... menu. You can either do it song by song, or album by album, etc. Yes, he was saying that, after adding songs to a playlist that you previously "made available offline", you have to then tap "make available offline" again to download any new songs.

 

[GWX]

Haven't got the chance to update my iPhone 5s yet, but I hope the Music app is less of a memory hog now - sometimes, after listening to music and browsing Apple Music for a couple of minutes, quitting to the home screen would result in laggy animations and unresponsive interface across the board, for a couple of seconds or so.

 

[ClayKavalier]

What's the consensus on this now that it's been out awhile? I have a Windows phone now and use Xbox Music, which is pretty great IMO. Looks like I'm going to upgrade to the new iPhone though, are people preferring this to Spotify? Any other services worth checking out?

 

[whatevermort]

Hang on. If I have iCloud music library turned off on my phone, I can't sync albums I've downloaded from Apple Music that are in iTunes? And if I have it turned on on my phone, I can't sync playlists (when my phone is plugged in) of the stuff on my hard drive?

It's so so so frustrating. And not at all intuitive. Maddening.

 

[zedge]

so if this wasn't added in 8.4.1, it is for sure added in 9 (it's at the very top of every page underneath the Artist/Song/etc menu)



there is no clound button anymore. Correct. you have to do it from the ... menu. You can either do it song by song, or album by album, etc. Yes, he was saying that, after adding songs to a playlist that you previously "made available offline", you have to then tap "make available offline" again to download any new songs.

The only option there is "remove downloads". No way to add all the new songs at once. I have to go to each song individually.

 

[LyleLanley]

What's the consensus on this now that it's been out awhile? I have a Windows phone now and use Xbox Music, which is pretty great IMO. Looks like I'm going to upgrade to the new iPhone though, are people preferring this to Spotify? Any other services worth checking out?

I've been liking it a lot, I really like the curated playlists and Beats 1, the only thing that I miss from Spotify is sharing playlists with Facebook friends.

 

[Sir Abacus]

There's no way from the My Music overview to see which items are on the phone and which will stream, is there? I know I can tap into an album and the cover art will have the sticker on the top right but it would be much more convenient to be able to see it as I scroll through the list.

I use a custom smart playlist:

This syncs over to the phone:

Then I can use the triple ellipse next to edit to make the entire playlist available offline.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

Figured I'd check the bugfixes in 8.4.1. Is there -any- way to get songs added and downloaded for a playlist to NOT appear in My Music on iOS?

I hate it. I like sorting my actual downloaded music by albums and I like only to see full albums I've installed. Yet I want to have 2-3 playlists of different music and have those be saved for offline listening as well. Yet my "Album" view gets cluttered with single song album artwork and whatnot. Extremely annoying.

 

[Vyer]

Figured I'd check the bugfixes in 8.4.1. Is there -any- way to get songs added and downloaded for a playlist to NOT appear in My Music on iOS?

I hate it. I like sorting my actual downloaded music by albums and I like only to see full albums I've installed. Yet I want to have 2-3 playlists of different music and have those be saved for offline listening as well. Yet my "Album" view gets cluttered with single song album artwork and whatnot. Extremely annoying.

So you want two separate downloaded music sections?

 

[Mammoth Jones]

So you want two separate downloaded music sections?

I'm saying songs added to a playlist should be segregated from my music collection as I only like full albums to go there. Or a filter added that only displays FULL albums. That'd also work wonderfully for my use case.

 

[Number45]

I use a custom smart playlist:

This syncs over to the phone:

Then I can use the triple ellipse next to edit to make the entire playlist available offline.

Thanks for this suggestion, I'll give it a try.

 

[Future]

Hang on. If I have iCloud music library turned off on my phone, I can't sync albums I've downloaded from Apple Music that are in iTunes? And if I have it turned on on my phone, I can't sync playlists (when my phone is plugged in) of the stuff on my hard drive?

It's so so so frustrating. And not at all intuitive. Maddening.

My biggest hangup. Why the hell is streaming Apple music stuff tied to the iCloud library? iCloud library should only be for uploading and matching my entire collection.

I also turned off iCloud library because it was preventing me from getting songs that wouldn't upload onto my phone playlists. But now my Apple music lists are unique per device. I really don't understand apples thinking here

 

[Troy]

What's the consensus on this now that it's been out awhile? I have a Windows phone now and use Xbox Music, which is pretty great IMO. Looks like I'm going to upgrade to the new iPhone though, are people preferring this to Spotify? Any other services worth checking out?

It's not close to being as good as Spotify yet. It's also a huge step down from what you're used to with the Xbox Music app.

 

[Junior Mint]

Hang on. If I have iCloud music library turned off on my phone, I can't sync albums I've downloaded from Apple Music that are in iTunes? And if I have it turned on on my phone, I can't sync playlists (when my phone is plugged in) of the stuff on my hard drive?

It's so so so frustrating. And not at all intuitive. Maddening.

Pretty much. More lowest common denominator thinking from Apple. I probably won't bother subscribing to this when my trial over. I don't really find it to be anything special nor particularly better than Spotify in any way.

 

[xnipx]

I just want to be able to click on a song in a playlist and go to the album it's from or at least the artists main page.

 

[borghe]

The only option there is "remove downloads". No way to add all the new songs at once. I have to go to each song individually.

technically you can add them at once. Tap "remove downloads", then "make available offline". I mean not at all intuitive, but will accomplish exactly what you want. But yes, I forgot about that. If you have one song downloaded, you can't download the rest at the album ... level without either doing it individually, or deleting the song(s) you already have downloaded.

But yeah, just "remove downloads" then "make available offline"

Hang on. If I have iCloud music library turned off on my phone, I can't sync albums I've downloaded from Apple Music that are in iTunes? And if I have it turned on on my phone, I can't sync playlists (when my phone is plugged in) of the stuff on my hard drive?

in the first case, no, absolutely not. In that case Apple Music is the absolute authority on the availability of the song/album. If you were to be able to sync it to your non-icloud Library phone, you would be turning your computer into an authority on the file, which it's not. If Apple Music removed the song from availability, your phone (not being connected) would have no way of removing the file. Heck, even if Apple didn't remove the file, if your Apple Music sub expired, I don't even know if your "offline" library even has a way of actually expiring the file.

not quite understanding what your saying about the second part.. I mean if you have icloud library turned on, there is no more "syncing". right. If you create a playlist in itunes, then the playlist shows up on your phone. you wouldn't need to sync it. create or add in one place, it shows up every place. Unless you mean "have icloud library turned off in itunes but on on my phone" in which case you go back to point one.. iCloud is the authority on your connected library. If you could sync stuff to a device but not have that synced stuff in icloud, icloud, or even that device, is no longer the authority over your library.

there needs to be an authoritative state for your library.. either it's synced with itunes (icloud turned off on both) in which case itunes is the authority, or you have Apple Music turned on in which case iCloud is the authority.

I just want to be able to click on a song in a playlist and go to the album it's from or at least the artists main page.

this is supposed to be possible, but is currently bugged in at least one very normal case. What you should be able to do is go to the playlist, tap ... on the right of the song, then tap on the album art/info which should take you to the album... this works in most cases.. the most annoying case where it DOESN'T work, is if you add a curated playlist to your library without specifically adding the songs to your library. in that case, when you do what I say, you get taken to a bugged "Unknown Album/Unknown Artist" page. I've filed the bug report with apple numerous times. Not sure if this was fixed in 8.4.1 (still bugged in the current beta)

 

[SmackCrackleNPop]

Zane Lowe interview from Billboard

How will Apple Music work if you get all of the components to click?
What we’re working toward is this one place where people can go to [the] “For You” [feature] and be fed these wonderful handmade playlists according to their tastes, go to Beats 1 and have a shared listening experience and then go to “Connect” and get close to the artists. The whole thing should work symbiotically. Also, we’re a broadcasting platform on a music service, so when people hear something they like, the idea is they’ll go deep: go into the music service, learn more, listen to the albums. That’s really important.

Kind of a cool interview to see what went on before Apple Music debuted. They sure put Beats 1 together the quickest and it's by far the best part of the app.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Alright, the User Experience definitely makes that much more sense with iOS 8.4.1. Still issues, but not "Oh my god, what were they thinking"-bad.

It's like they didn't do any UX-testing or something.

 

[borghe]

Yeah hope some of the 8.4.1 stuff makes it into a final iOS 9 public beta.

 

[Chuck]

Edit wrong thread

 

[Zutroy]

My biggest gripe with the service just now is that I don't want songs I add from Apple Music to a playlist to also be added into My Music. I'd like it seperate like they have it in Spotify. My library went from being well organised to an absolute mess.

 

[ClayKavalier]

It's not close to being as good as Spotify yet. It's also a huge step down from what you're used to with the Xbox Music app.

Ah, that sucks. Is Spotify anything like the Xbox app? It's been a long time, years, since I used it but it used to put all of your downloaded albums into a single playlist instead of organizing them by artist, album, etc.

As horrible as the Windows Phone app support is the Xbox Music app does go someway to making up for it, it's surprisingly really good.

 

[RoKKeR]

So it seems the problems with adding deluxe or remastered editions of albums to your already existing library may be fixed? I tried this with Achtung Baby around the launch, and because I have multiple versions of a lot of songs on this album, only a few were actually added to the library, making the album incomplete.

Looks like now though I am able to add the entire thing and it stays complete. Anybody else noticed a change here?

 

[infiniteloop]

So it seems the problems with adding deluxe or remastered editions of albums to your already existing library may be fixed? I tried this with Achtung Baby around the launch, and because I have multiple versions of a lot of songs on this album, only a few were actually added to the library, making the album incomplete.

Looks like now though I am able to add the entire thing and it stays complete. Anybody else noticed a change here?

Yeah, they did a couple of weeks ago. You can also remove/change artwork without it changing it back.

 

[KtSlime]

My biggest gripe with the service just now is that I don't want songs I add from Apple Music to a playlist to also be added into My Music. I'd like it seperate like they have it in Spotify. My library went from being well organised to an absolute mess.

You should be able to click on the view options right under recently added and at the bottom there is a switch to show only songs that you have 'made playable offline'. Maybe this will be close to what you want.

 

[infiniteloop]

Dr. Dre’s album “Compton: A Soundtrack” — a loose tie-in to the film “Straight Outta Compton” — had 25 million streams around the world in its first week, and also sold nearly half a million downloads through Apple’s iTunes store.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/b...um-serves-as-a-test-for-apple-music.html?_r=0

 

[Quasar]

Well. Turned icloud sync on again to see if it still had issues. It does.

Still matches albums I have with compilations that feature some of the same tracks. Even though apple music has the albums it should match to. Like matching Daydream by Mariah Carey to her Greatest Hits album.

 

[SmackCrackleNPop]

Apparently Apple posted some new Youtube videos for Apple Music.


Kind of cool to hear Trent Reznor narrate stuff
Discovery


Discover Kygo

Discover James Bay

 

[RoKKeR]

Yeah, they did a couple of weeks ago. You can also remove/change artwork without it changing it back.

Nice. That was my biggest gripe with the service.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Decided to try this to check out the new Dre album and I am getting this weird bug when listening to either radio or entire albums where it will constantly skip around and if I select certain songs outright refuse to play them. Something about operation failure. Anybody else get this?

 

[SmackCrackleNPop]

Decided to try this to check out the new Dre album and I am getting this weird bug when listening to either radio or entire albums where it will constantly skip around and if I select certain songs outright refuse to play them. Something about operation failure. Anybody else get this?

Are you on the latest version of iOS (8.4.1)? It doesn't seem to be an issue anymore, but I'm on the iOS9 public beta. This was something that happened a lot when it first started out and for some reason it happened to me only on my home WiFi (200 down/20up) but worked smooth when on cellular for some reason.

Try quitting the app and maybe rebooting the phone perhaps.

 

[LyleLanley]

This "Just Chillin'" playlist by Apple Music Hip-Hop is awesome. The curated playlists are a seriously underrated part of Apple Music.