Apple Music first impressions

[MajorFubar]

....I have checked new apple music and it's far from good...

I think that's a bit OTT, and yes I've seen the complaints elsewhere. Three of us using it in our house across four mobile devices and two Macs and we really haven't had any problems to report that didn't solve themselves very quickly. Are we the only three satisfied users worldwide? Four if we include Chebby? Dfference is bad news is always over-proportionally reported because more people moan than congratulate.

 

[Andy Clough]

C'mon JJ, I don't have much time. Are you going to call the editor a liar for a second time or not? If so i'm getting another coffee.

It was all in The Sunday Times last weekend. The lowdown on how Apple manipulates the press. It was also stated in the launch that the music would be 256Kbps, so why did What HiFi take 3 days and yet another advert/story to say so, while trying to claim they didn't know?

Remember the ipad 3? Heap of junk that got pulled after 6 months by Apple while still selling the ipad 2. The Economist told the truth and gave it 3 stars. They were never invited back.

Enjoy your coffee.

We've never been 'invited' anywhere by Apple. And there was no mention at the launch from the coverage that I saw that the music would be streamed at 256kbps, but then we weren't 'invited' to the launch - I watched the live stream on my Apple TV at home.

We genuinely didn't know at the beginning what the streaming bitrate would be as we certainly had no insider knowledge or confirmation from Apple.

And as a useful aside, I've been successfully streaming Apple Music through my Sonos system all day by simply connecting an old Airport Express I had lying around at home to the line-in on my Sonos amp. Works a treat.

 

[tino]

And as a useful aside, I've been successfully streaming Apple Music through my Sonos system all day by simply connecting an old Airport Express I had lying around at home to the line-in on my Sonos amp. Works a treat.

I believe this approach will work with any Airplay speaker or bog standard powered speaker / hifi arrangement with an optical SPDIF or line input. Unfortunately the Sonos PLAY:1 (which I have) and also the PLAY:3 won't work this way. I've read that proper Sonos integration won't be until late 2015/early 2016 which is a shame as I would like to listen to Beats 1 on my Sonos.

 

[bigboss]

It's frankly childish and lame to accuse What Hi Fi? for bias in any review they don't agree with. Getting tiresome now. The review is an opinion of the reviewer. Check other reviews if you don't like this one. Can the accusations be potentialy libellous? I think so.

 

[Craig M.]

I've been using it since launch day and have had no issues whatsoever, well maybe one, I'd like it if playlists I save on my laptop would also appear on my phone. Actually spent most my time listening to the 'for you' playlists and radio 'mixtape', out of about 10 hours of playlists there have maybe been about 10 songs I haven't liked - not sure how they've managed that, Spotify would've had the ratio the other way round for me. Hopefully it will also work well on the ATV when it's released. A big thumbs up from me so far, I pretty much gave up on Spotify after a couple of days but finding this a lot better, there is every chance I'll decommision my NAS and use this exclusively.

 

[MajorFubar]

I'd like it if playlists I save on my laptop would also appear on my phone.

Hmmmm....they sort of kind of do sometimes appear for me....think it's one of those early teething problems and inconsistencies that will eventually be ironed out. Bit like the other recent 'End of the World moment' where some of the album-art got screwy on iOS for a couple of days, and people took to the various Apple forums with unbelievable vitriol. I'm not sure if the lack of perspective some people give these niggles is sad or alarming.

Actually spent most my time listening to the 'for you' playlists and radio 'mixtape', out of about 10 hours of playlists there have maybe been about 10 songs I haven't liked - not sure how they've managed that.

Likewise and likewise, but I wish they'd bring back the profanity-filter checkbox that was there on the old iTunes Radio.

 

[Craig M.]

but I wish they'd bring back the profanity-filter checkbox that was there on the old iTunes Radio.

Yes, that would be very useful! I have a 4 year old daughter and aren't ready to explain what Ice Cube means when he says "I hear payback's a mother....... ......". *bomb*

 

[MajorFubar]

but I wish they'd bring back the profanity-filter checkbox that was there on the old iTunes Radio.

Yes, that would be very useful! I have a 4 year old daughter and aren't ready to explain what Ice Cube means when he says "I hear payback's a mother....... ......". *bomb*

I see there's an option to restrict 'music with explicit content' in the Parental tab of the Preferences window, but I don't know if this is just for the general store or if it affects the smart radio stations too (obviously not Beats 1)

 

[Craig M.]

Hopefully they'll stick a button that lets you toggle a filter on and off, maybe next to the heart button or something, when my daughters not around (the car is the biggest problem - not so easy to access my phone to skip track!) I want to hear the swearing.

 

[lpv]

Spotify & Apple Music both open. I want shuffle Harbie Hancock all available albums... let's see

Spotify:

1. click search

2. start typing Herbi.. yes, we have Herbie Hancock

3. click in Top Results ' Herbie Hancock'

4. click ' Shuffle'

5. hit ' play'

Apple Music:

1. start typing Herb.. yes, we have Herbie Hancock

2. click in Suggestions ' Herbie Hancock'

3. click ' Albums' ( there's 68 albums with ' Herbie Hancock' as an artist/ compilations/ live/ soundtrack/ colaborations).. no ' Shuffle' option anywhere.

4. click first album ' Head Hunters' ( next to album name there's ' shuffle' logo but here I can only ' shuffle' the album not all Hancock albums)

5. click 2 dots next to ' shuffle'

6. click ' add to my music'

7. go to ' playlists'

8. click ' new playlist'

9. name your playlist

10. hit enter

11. go back to ' new'

12. next to album name click 3 dots and add ' Head Hunters' to created in step 9 playlist

13. go back to Hancock list of albums

14. click second album on the list ' The Imagine Project'

15. next to album name click 3 dots and add album ' The Imagine Project' to ' my music'

16. click 3 dots again to add just added to ' my music' album but now to playlist..

17 ...........

... repeat until you have all Herbie Hancock albums added to your music and added to your playlist.. finally go to your playlist and hit ' SHUFFLE'

lol... slick design

 

[carter]

im really enjoying this service,i have it installed on all my devices now and im looking forward to it comming to atv.

other than having to have the music cloud turned off its working great,but i think this is an itunes match issue more than a problem with the new service,match is the one apple thing ive had issues with as i think they gave up on the service along time ago.

hopfully this will be fixed at somepoint but like others have said the family sharing bit is great and i think i will be sticking with this after the 3month trial

 

[ID.]

Finally got the update on my phone here in Japan. Interface works better than on my Mac. Now I don't even need to turn on my computer.

Love it. So this is what I've been missing all this time without a streaming service.