Apple Music and iTunes

[Balloonmeister]

It's been awhile since I purchased music on iTunes and then moved from my library to an Apple device, eg. an iPod or my iPhone. Mrs. Balloonmeister wanted to add some songs to her iPod so I went into the now called Apple Music app on my Mac Mini and could find the songs she wanted but no way to purchase the individual song, ie, the little box to the right of the song which had a purchase price and a box to click for purchasing were no longer there. This was for several different artists.
I called Apple support (sure is nice to have someone in the US answer the phone) and the tech told me that one now has to subscribe to the Apple Music (AM) program (first three months free, then $9.99/month) in order to be able to purchase music for your individual library. Frankly, I found that answer somewhat astonishing as I would think that the music artists would be totally pissed that Apple was forcing people to subscribe to AM before they could purchase a song or maybe Apple is sharing part of the subscription service payments with the artists which I asked about and the tech claimed to not know, though I highly doubt. So my questions are:
1. Is the above explanation from the Apple tech even correct, ie, the only way I can purchase a song is to subscribe to AM program?
2. I am a long time subscriber to Sirius XM (SXM) and have it in nearly every car I own because a) I like the fact that it is GPS based and will work basically anywhere I am driving, and in the SW USA there are spots where there still is no Verizon cell service (and VZW is probably the best there is out here) and b) I like the 'stations' on SXM as they seem to do a good job of finding the kind of music I like in a few different genres but c) I don't like the hassle every year of finding the best price on SXM and I have to threaten them with stopping the service until I get the price I want and have to do that for each car that I have SXM in, currently four cars. AM may be the way to go if the 'stations' seem to be as good as SXM and the fact that I can stream from my iPhone to the head units in each car would mean that only one AM subscription is necessary instead of four SXM subscriptions. However, AM is based on cell reception and there may be times when I am driving that I am out of cell range and then lose AM services (and BTW, Apple Maps, which is a total PITA). Thoughts on this 'first world' issue?
3. Mrs. B'meister said that she could go into her AM app on her iPhone and purchase the song there but I wondered if I were to do that on my iPhone, would AM also put that song in my AM library so that I could move the song to my Apple devices also or would it just reside on the Mrs.' iPhone? We both use the Apple iCloud services. If I could purchase the song on my iPhone and have it moved to my AM library I could then move it to each of our Apple devices - does that method work?
Thanx in advance for any help here.

[Bob Kontak]

Paragraphs every couple sentences, please. Makes it easier for old men to read.

My daughter has Apple Music and added me. I don't buy a thing (individual songs) and the clarity coming out of my phone is astounding.

[GH85Carrera]

Any mention of iTunes makes me have to say it is the single worst piece of crap software ever written. It is illogical, and deliberately makes it hard to use. I only use it to back my phone up to my computer. Why it will not even see the photos or sort them is beyond me. I did load my library of 100+ CD is ripped to MP3 onto my phone with iTunes after beating my head on the wall for awhile. I still can't get the movies I have to load on it.

You can share your songs and photos with your wife on the iCloud and it will work over to the iPad if you have one. Apple makes a great phone, and mostly it works very intuitively. iTunes is designed to make you cuss and hate Apple, and it does that very well.

For most music I use Pandora. I buy the yearly subscription and listen to it all day at my computer, even right now. And I use it to stream music to my headphones when I mow the lawn or in the garage to my old iPad.

For the cars, I just made a 16 gig thumb drive and have the stereo play the entire thing in random order. Way easier than messing with Bluetooth sync from the phone.

Did I mention iTunes sucks?

[stealthn]

I can still purchase individual songs, I just checked.

[Balloonmeister]

OK, my bad, I should have done more research.

One can purchase individual songs with their Apple iPhone. The song is then uploaded to your Apple Music library, where you can then download to any number of other Apple devices. (Sure wish the Apple tech I spoke with last night had told me that...)

My apologies for not having done that research first. Anyone who would share their experience with Apple Music playing through Apple Car play in their vehicles would be appreciated.

[Nostril Cheese]

I stopped using Itunes 15 years ago. I'm around musicians every day. None of them use it.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Balloonmeister

Anyone who would share their experience with Apple Music playing through Apple Car play in their vehicles would be appreciated.

Daughter, four year Apple salesperson, says it is a game changer but she does not have it in her car as it's older so she would not be the one to talk to. You have it in the Macan?

She suggests YouTube videos to assess functionality.

[GH85Carrera]

My wife has it in her Macan. She just listens to Sirius satellite broadcasts in her car.

[Rodsrsr]

Using Itunes is comparable to using a flip phone.

[RANDY P]

Apple music works fine on carplay. No problems.

[Cajundaddy]

I still manage to use Apple Music/itunes and get done what I need done. My current library has nearly 5k songs that will play anywhere and I make playlists regularly for specific needs. It is no longer intuitive but a tool that works.

I wonder what music management app y'all are using that works better and more intuitively?

[RANDY P]

Apple music to load ipods and my phone.

Qobuz for the music. No lossy music only