iOS 8.4's "Music" - The Worst Iteration EVER?

I find it to be the least intuitive, most (needlessly) feature-filled iteration of an iOS music app ever. I can't be the only one that feels this way.

One feature I really miss is the ability to have icons at the bottom of the screen where I can automatically bounce between "Artist," "Genre," "Song," etc, and then having a few extras to swap out with.

Oy vey...what do you guys and gals think about the new app?

With space at a premium, I guess they had to prioritize making room for buttons related to the streaming music service. Find yourself another music app that gives you what you need and call it a day.

Lifeisabeach said:

With space at a premium, I guess they had to prioritize making room for buttons related to the streaming music service. Find yourself another music app that gives you what you need and call it a day.

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I wasn't aware there was another music app that could seamlessly integrate your iTunes library with your iPhone.

MJG196 said:

I wasn't aware there was another music app that could seamlessly integrate your iTunes library with your iPhone.

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Not sure about the iTunes Library itself, but there are plenty of apps that will let you build a library for that app and put the music on your iDevice. Here's one:
EZMP3 Player Pro

"Not sure" = "nope"

I've been using iTunes 12 for months now, not having a problem with it. Loving Apple Music.

That said, I don't "hop around" between Artists and Genres. I use playlists, or do the shuffle of my songs, and that's basically it.

chas_m said:

I've been using iTunes 12 for months now, not having a problem with it.

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He's inquiring about the Music app on iOS. No one asked about or mentioned iTunes 12. And the "new" version is 12.2.0.145. You haven't been using it for months. Anyway, I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that you love the new Music app for iOS and think it's the bestest, most intuitive piece of software Apple has made to date.

Loving Apple Music.

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Of course you are. You love everything Apple does.

That said, I don't "hop around" between Artists and Genres. I use playlists, or do the shuffle of my songs, and that's basically it.

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I've been listening to Spotify a lot lately instead of the music on my iPhone, but I browsed over the new app this evening and must admit I'm a little miffed too that "Genre" is missing. Sure, I can make a playlist if I like based on each genre of interest, though my current method of syncing a single playlist that randomly matches a handful of genres of my choosing is (was) FAR easier to manage.

I was thinking the same thing - it sucks... It took me a couple days, but I did finally manage to figure out how to get to your Albums, Songs, Genres after a hint in another post.

Need to click on the "Artists" tag - you'll see a drop down there with everything we've been accustomed to having in the Music app. Don't reckon that's any harder to use than the More button we previously had.

Although, the "Connect" is a big waste of space as far as I am concerned and no way to get rid of that one even if you turn off the streaming service.

I will be giving the streaming service a go, however. I've only been using the free services and have tried Spotify and Rdio. Neither of which have quite a few artists I would like to see that have been available for purchase in iTunes. So, I'll get to see if iTunes will stream more of the artists I want to listen to - most of which are rarely if ever in the top 100 list.

bobtomay said:

I was thinking the same thing - it sucks... It took me a couple days, but I did finally manage to figure out how to get to your Albums, Songs, Genres after a hint in another post.

Need to click on the "Artists" tag - you'll see a drop down there with everything we've been accustomed to having in the Music app. Don't reckon that's any harder to use than the More button we previously had.

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Aha! I'm relieved to see it never went away, although this is a far from intuitive move here. *waits for chas to come defend it*

Although, the "Connect" is a big waste of space as far as I am concerned and no way to get rid of that one even if you turn off the streaming service.

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Agreed. My "Connect" list is littered with artists I don't even listen to, thanks to my father-in-law's use of the radio app on my old ATV that uses my Home Sharing iTunes account. It'd make more sense to have a "favorites" list that I can add to and search from to add more. Not list every artist I or someone in my household has listened to. This list isn't even in any order that I can make sense of. (EDIT: besides this ordering issue, the big problem is that this section opens up with all these "recommendations" and not the list of those that you'd actually want. It should start with artists and playlists you follow, with an option to pull up a list of those you've listened to in the past. The exact opposite of how it works now.)

I will be giving the streaming service a go, however. I've only been using the free services and have tried Spotify and Rdio. Neither of which have quite a few artists I would like to see that have been available for purchase in iTunes. So, I'll get to see if iTunes will stream more of the artists I want to listen to - most of which are rarely if ever in the top 100 list.

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You may want to hold off on this. I've read reports that some people are finding the existing music they own replaced with DRMed versions from the streaming service. Now apparently a lot of this is a misunderstanding on the part of the users... apparently the streaming service drops the music in your iTunes library, so people are deleting the copies they own, oblivious to the fact that they can only listen to the DRM versions as long as they have a subscription. If I'm understanding this correctly, then what Apple is doing here is completely insane. The music stream should be "hidden" to avoid this level of confusion. No one has these issues with Spotify, Slacker, etc. I would definitely wait to make sure the kinks are worked out, or at least make sure your own music is safely backed up.

EDIT 2: I use Spotify's free service, and previously Slacker's. I wonder if the paid services for these have more choices of artists?

My understanding of both Spotify and Rdio is that the 'free' and 'paid' versions only differ in the services offered, not in the music availability. As pro the paid streaming services as I am, you'd think I was already signed up for one of them, but just don't turn on the music as much as I use to.

I've been reading about the glitches being caused between the streaming service and existing iTunes libraries. Fortunately, I have 2 backups (actually 3 since one of those is on a RAID 1 storage) of all my media separate from TM and cloned backups. I also don't use playlists, nor do I give a hoot about keeping track of how many times I've listened to my favorite vs non favorite songs. So for me, it's just be a matter of the time to blow it away and restore everything. I'll likely take that chance prior to an update from Apple to fix any of the current issues.

That 'Connect' list... omg, I use to download some of the free content iTunes was giving away. After I finally recognized, I was not their target, and literally ended up keeping 1 out of 100 of those songs, I quit doing that. All of that freebie junk, well guess what, I'm now "following" all that crap. So, it got turned off immediately.

edit:
Glad I wasn't the only one that couldn't figure out where all that stuff went. After somone else mentioned it was still there, I went to sliding, touching, scrolling everywhich way on the screen until I lucked into it.

'Connect' can be turned off and the icon eliminated.

Head for Settings - General - Restrictions

You will need to put in a code to use Restrictions - make sure it is something you will remember or you won't get back into it.

Just below the iTunes Store, you'll find 'Apple Music Connect'. You can turn it off here which will remove the icon from the Music app.

bobtomay said:

'Connect' can be turned off and the icon eliminated.

Head for Settings - General - Restrictions

You will need to put in a code to use Restrictions - make sure it is something you will remember or you won't get back into it.

Just below the iTunes Store, you'll find 'Apple Music Connect'. You can turn it off here which will remove the icon from the Music app.

Click to expand...

Nice find! I did the same and man the app looks soooo much cleaner now. I actually like what Apple did with the Artists/Genre/Albums (etc) buttons. There never was enough room for them all on the bottom row. I still don't think it's "obvious" what they did, though the little inverted ^ character should have been a clue. This is one of the downsides to the new "flat" look, which I generally like otherwise. Maybe it just will take more time for the UI hints like that to sink it. Heck, even chas missed it.

bobtomay said:

I've been reading about the glitches being caused between the streaming service and existing iTunes libraries. Fortunately, I have 2 backups (actually 3 since one of those is on a RAID 1 storage) of all my media separate from TM and cloned backups. I also don't use playlists, nor do I give a hoot about keeping track of how many times I've listened to my favorite vs non favorite songs. So for me, it's just be a matter of the time to blow it away and restore everything. I'll likely take that chance prior to an update from Apple to fix any of the current issues.

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Cult of Mac has a wealth of info about the new music service. I'll be going over some of it in the Sunday chat tonight (shameless plug). Among the tips is a possible fix for those whose libraries got borked by some of the new features. Essentially it involves replacing the current .itl file found in your iTunes Library folder with a previous copy of the same file.
Did iCloud Music Library break your collection? Here's a fix | Cult of Mac

I started using Spotify about 6 months ago. and used music for some of the songs that are not on spotify. Now that I am on iOS9 Beta I find the new music app to be very annoying and hard to navigate compared to the old music and spotify.

Lifeisabeach said:

I actually like what Apple did with the Artists/Genre/Albums (etc) buttons.

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Holy carp, will you knock it off with the constant praise of everything to do with Apple and Apple Music?! SO ANNOYING.

</sarcasm, but a bit tired of your abuse>

chas_m said:

Holy carp, will you knock it off with the constant praise of everything to do with Apple and Apple Music?! SO ANNOYING.

</sarcasm, but a bit tired of your abuse>

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My abuse? LOL! Don't like it, eh? For a guy who openly derides anyone who says anything critical of Apple and their products, I think you deserve it in return.

Lifeisabeach said:

My abuse? LOL! Don't like it, eh? For a guy who openly derides anyone who says anything critical of Apple and their products, I think you deserve it in return.

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I don't do any such thing, and have been critical of Apple when, in fact, it is at fault (see numerous posts on this forum about iTunes 12.2 for but one quick example).

You are confusing my optimistic nature (they'll probably fix that soon!) with "attacking people who are critical of Apple," which I don't actually do. You, on the other hand, routinely call me names that are both inaccurate and undeserved -- displaying something of a simple-mindedness about people and their character, preferring to put them in a checkbox rather than bother to find out more about why they think what they do.

So let me save you some time and add you to my "ignore" list so as to not disturb your pre-conceived and probably unswayable closed mind.

Neutral corners gents. This really is unnecessary.

Ok gents, I'll acknowledge I was out of line in needling chas at the start of this thread, and apologize to him for doing so, and to the OP for distracting the focus here. I'll leave it at that. Have a nice day all!