Differences Between iTunes, Apple Music, and Music App

[jayne_cobb]

Thanks all I appreciate the input.

I do understand now. I am sorta torn which way to go. As I mentioned earlier my digital music library started long ago. For what It's worth it is all from legal CD's that I owed. I've always enjoyed a variety of music. The reasons I use it on FCP are purely personal and not for profit. I'm that guy in my family that makes the wedding/vacation/birthday/funeral slideshows. I probably do 2-3 a month and depending on the video have 2-5 songs on them. My current setup is the music in my house plays through my desktop so the ability to make playlists available on the desktop was handy. Changing this actually wouldn't be a huge undertaking.....but again just something different than my current setup.

I understand the argument of owning a CD vs listening to the radio.....and the argument is easily made that Apple Music is much more friendly and accessible than listening to the radio. However I do find that there are limitations(which again probably are understood considering the content you get vs licensing agreements) . I suppose if wishes were reality I could have the best of both worlds its just a matter of deciding which is option makes more sense for me.

Thanks again for all the help, I at least understand the decisions I'm making now.

If anyone is bored on a Saturday, google Jayne Cobb. I'm a sci fi nerd. Jayne is a boys name

Cheers and thanks again

 

[IWT]

Nice reply. I am much obliged. Really.

Ian

 

[pm-r]

Ah, Jayne, if only it were that simple! Apple Music is a service from Apple while Music is the app on the desktop. They aren't necessarily related.

Ahhh... Such a beautiful truthful understatement as to how Apple can confuse things that should be so simple And obvious!!!

Thanks Jake for such a nice simple explanation. I keep getting confused myself but don't really use any of them, At least Not The Way, Apple wants me to use them.

But hey, I did purchase a single Song from the iTunes store sometime last year. The rest are all my music.




- Patrick
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[ferrarr]

Did you see this,

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207542

You can make playlists with Apple Music

 

[jayne_cobb]

Hey Everyone

I am back. I have been fiddling with this for a day.

So first unless I am mistaken the playlists you create on iPhone/iPad cannot appear on your iMac desktop. The article seems to suggest it can be done from a desktop but when I hover over the designated area I do not see a "add to playlist" option on my desktop. (Indeed it is probably my phone I listen to music the most on but as mentioned my desktop was setup to play music around the house so it wouldn't have been uncommon to play playlists from my desktop)

Beyond that I have a further question now.

It seems to add music to download music from Apple Music to my phone (I live in a somewhat rural area and signal drops all the time) I have to sync it to the iCloud, this of course in a bubble makes sense......having all your music synced across all your devices.

However it seems to disable the music I have properly purchased from iTunes and edited to suit my needs. For example the Lumineers have a song that appeared on the Pete's Dragon Soundtrack. When synced normally it appears in the dreaded "Various Artists Folder" I had slightly edited the metadata so it appeared in the Lumineers folder. However when I turn on iCloud syncing (which appears to be a must when using Apple Music) it seems that it recognizes that I have downloaded the song but it no longer recognizes any changes I have made(and thus it again appears in the Various Artists Folder)

I certainly recognize the argument that one never really "owns" a song, but it seems that Apple Music will enforce the same rules for its streaming music as it does for my purchased music.

Over the last 24 hours I had kinda come to terms with the fact that I would continue to try Apple Music and when I needed to buy a song for the purposes I previously explained I would do that. However if Apple Music is also putting those restrictions on the songs I have already purchased that makes life even a little more challenging

For what its worth I don't have a horse in this race. I'm not trying to "expose" the flaws of Apple Music......if anything I really want to like it so my posts are hopeful that there are work around for me to enjoy my large collection of previously owned digital music with the new streaming services but I do seem to continually find roadblocks with that.

If someone does have a work around I'd be pleased to try it. I have actually enjoyed the way Apple Music finds me new artists I might like......I just don't know if I can justify ignoring all the time/money I have put into my previously purchased music.

Cheers

 

[exncite]

I recently cancelled Apple Music. It made a mess of my libraries. I keep the main library I work with on my iMac (running Mojave). I used to be able to synch it to my iPad and iPhone, but Music screwed them all up. I have almost 2000 songs in my library. Most have been downloaded from CDs or converting my albums to MP3 or downloading from sites such as Utube and Frostwire. Never had an issue until signing up with Apple Music. Complete playlists were duplicated with some songs deleted, albums were empty and in general, songs just disappeared. I cancelled Apple Music and was able to then synch what was left back onto the iPhone and iPad. The only downside of doing that apparently is songs that I have downloaded from Apple Music will disappear at the end of the month.

 

[chscag]

I don't use Apple Music, but from the many complaints and other anecdotes of things going haywire it makes me wonder if Apple Music is more complicated than it should be. ???

 

[MacInWin]

I don't use Apple Music, but from the many complaints and other anecdotes of things going haywire it makes me wonder if Apple Music is more complicated than it should be. ???

Charlie, what I have read about it is that it is very aggressive. Basically, it looks at your music and what it has in the central library, and if it has what you have, it erases your copy and replaces it with a link to the central online copy. But if/when you end the subscription, it doesn't put back any of that for you, which leaves it up to you to find the original source and rip it again. When it first came out it was hammered for that aggression, particularly as it didn't warn or offer any alternatives. It may have been softened since the initial release (I don't know, I never signed up because some of the music I have ripped I have lost the CDs and they are no longer available anywhere) but I've heard lots of complaints.

Apple seems to be assuming that everyone, everywhere, has super high speed connectivity with zero interruptions and unlimited traffic limits, so having everything in the cloud makes sense. Sadly, reality is something slightly different...

 

[chscag]

Thanks Jake. I can see why so many folks have complained.

 

[Slydude]

Thanks for that summary Jake. Initially, I didn't sign up because I don't need another monthly expense. Then I started hearing about some of the complaints and decided I wasn't in any big hurry. I don't stream music at work, so most days, a subscription would get very little use.

I strongly suggest making a full backup of your music library before signing up. Keep that backup safe, updated, and separate from any device using Apple Music.

 

[chscag]

LOL, I'm still trying to figure out how to use car play to get my favorite music to play thru the system. Of course I can always subscribe to Sirius XM and get all that music commercial free. Too bad it's not free.

 

[Slydude]

I'm finding CarPlay easy to manage on our Subaru except for the day we had our lightning cable start to fail mid-trip. Fortunately, we were near a Best Buy and could pick up a replacement. I shouldn't complain. It was a cheap cable.

I'd love to have wireless CarePlay, but there are only a few cars that support that at the moment. The first person that does a practical third-party module that does wireless CarPlay will likely get a chunk of my money.

 

[MacInWin]

I don't have CarPlay but my Toyota supports BT streaming, so I connect both for hands-free telephone and streaming music. Works pretty well, although my older 2013 is slow to connect. My wife's 2018 Toyota connects in seconds.

 

[Slydude]

BT streaming works well for us as well. My wife is starting to use it regularly for audiobooks, It works well for music too, but we don't use that often since we have a SiriusXM subscription. Nice to know it works, though, in case we ever decide to cancel the subscription.

I wish BT had more bandwidth. That might make wireless CarPlay an option now. We have navigation features built-in, but I prefer Apple Maps or Google Maps.

 

[MacInWin]

I stream music from ClassicFM, a UK-based classical music station (Picked it up while visiting a few years ago) as well as multiple podcasts. BT works well to stream the music, handle the phone calls (muting the music, of course) and also handling navigation on the iPhone. I do have a nav feature built-in but the maps quickly fell out of date and Toyota is both slow to update and overpriced, so I just use my iPhone for navigation. BT is quick enough to handle them all. I got a good suction cup mount to hold the iPhone just below my sight line, so it doesn't interfere with my vision, but high enough to easily be seen without having to turn my head too much. Cupholder and vent clip holders didn't work too well for me. Cupholders are too low and require too much of a head movement to be safe and I never found a clip holder that I felt was firm enough. As a bonus, my suction cup holder has an IQ wireless charger that keeps my iPhone 11 Pro nicely running. I used to have SiriusXM, let it expire because I wasn't using it very much. Haven't tried audiobooks as I don't like them in general. Much prefer my Kindle app for reading.