Apple Music streaming

[jyl]

Updated Mac OS and signed up for trial of Apple Music streaming service.

Any reactions, impressions from you guys yet?

We have been using Spotify but it seems to really bog down my Mac, and I figured Apple Music will integrate better with my iTunes music collection. Not sure which is cheaper for a family.

[Holger]

I have updated some minutes ago. Will be interesting!

[dennis in se pa]

Youtube. Free unlimited streaming.

[pcardude]

I have 800 songs on my phone now and I have little interest in paying to stream music. All my audio books got moved to the iBooks folder. I'm cool with that.

[imcarthur]

On my system, you can hear the low bitrate in comparison to Tidal's Lossless. It's time for Apple to make the leap to real quality. But of course, the best sounding service means nothing to the masses so imho Apple is fated to win this war.

Source for the table: The Verge

Ian

[GH85Carrera]

I will upgrade to the new iOS when the servers are done updating the early adapters.

I have Pandora One. 4 bucks a month for unlimited music but no real control of what is playing next. After several years of Pandora they very rarely throw out a song that sucks anymore.

I have over 130 CDs ripped to my iPhone from my personal music collection. I almost never listen to that. Pandora is painless for random music.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Why not just use Apple Radio? It's free and built into post-iOS 7 devices (or maybe it was iOS 8, but any current device should have it).

Incidentally all Apple and Mototola devices (probably others too) have FM radio receiver capability built into the hardware. It's deliberately disabled by the manufacturing companies at the behest of the big telco service providers (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) to force people to use data streaming to receive the same content (which people have to pay for). Total BS decision made by bean-counters and not engineers. The technology is (and could be) much further along than what we actually get to use.

[GH85Carrera]

Before I had my iPhone I had a Sony candy bar size phone. It did have a FM radio. I used to listen to FM radio a few times. I gave up when the endless commercials and the playing of just a handful of the same songs. FM radio sucks.

I will play with the Apple music streaming service.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Oh agreed it sucks - I don't even use the one in the car (iPhone connection, books on tape / CD or nothing) but I just wanted to point out yet another bit of sleaze from the big telco companies and yet another way they're bent on ripping off their customers any chance they get. I'll stop here before embarking on another anti-corporatist rant (I'll spare everyone today, I'm feeling charitable).

[willtel]

I can't say I'm blown away by it.

The app has crashed on me 3 times in about 20 minutes of use and I get this through iTunes on my work PC.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

On my system, you can hear the low bitrate in comparison to Tidal's Lossless. It's time for Apple to make the leap to real quality. But of course, the best sounding service means nothing to the masses so imho Apple is fated to win this war.

Source for the table: The Verge

Ian

I pay $20/mo for Tidal to get lossless. I won't be paying any money to Apple unless they offer lossless. The difference is real - whether it is worth it to you is another question.

[jyl]

I'm finding the Apple Music features in iTunes a little confusing to use. But then again, I find Spotify a big smelly mess to use, so maybe its just me. In general, I think the UI on these streaming services are too heavy on the eye candy.

[imcarthur]

Originally Posted by nostatic

I won't be paying any money to Apple unless they offer lossless.

Agreed. I did more comparisons throughout the day. Tidal kills it & even Rdio might have a slight edge. Make sure to turn the auto-pay off if you tried the service. Account Info>Subscriptions>Automatic Renewal>Off.

Ian

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by jyl

I'm finding the Apple Music features in iTunes a little confusing to use. But then again, I find Spotify a big smelly mess to use, so maybe its just me. In general, I think the UI on these streaming services are too heavy on the eye candy.

I set it up an picked some artists I like. I still have not figured out how to get it to play random songs. I don't want to listen to an entire album.

[dan79brooklyn]

I signed up for the three month trial. I have been trying to get it to play via my iPhone and then to Apple TV so it comes out of my home stereo. Generally this works fine with music stored on my phone, but it breaks apart using the streaming service. Also it only seems to play one album instead of shuffling through similar music like pandora does. I will play with it a bit more but so far I'm not very excited by it.