Apple Music Has Failed

For many Apple users, October’s credit card
statement will be the first that has a line on it
for Apple Music. With the ninety-day free trial
rolling over to a paid subscription, this is the
key moment for Apple Music. Will people
continue to stay subscribed to Apple’s model of
a subscription music service? Has the service
delivered enough value? Does it compare
favourably to the current leading streaming
players?
Personally, the answer is no.
Apple and U2 (image: Apple.com)
Close to four months have passed since launch,
and the Apple Music experience has not been
improved in any substantial way. The package
that Apple delivered out of the box was horribly
mainstream, with a huge focus on popular
artists. In my time exploring the playlists and
radio it has been hard to find niche music in the
package. Having seen countless people set up
their Apple Music profile when they were forced
to move to the updated Music app in iOS 8.4, I’d
be confident that every single Apple Music user
was offered Taylor Swift as a musical
recommendation. Those bubbles forced
mainstream pop music recommendation into
everyone’s system, so is it any wonder I’m
offered Katy Perry, One Direction, and Miley
Cyrus, when a quick glance through my music
collection would show that a focus on more
Progressive Rock and East European Dance
music would be more appropriate?
Apple Music still hasn’t worked this out. Why is
it not using the data it can collect to
better effect?
Just as the Apple Music recommendations have
not been updated, the actual application itself
has not seen any major changes. Beyond
fighting the huge firestorm of bugs that caused
Apple Music, iTunes, and the iCloud Music
Library to clash in the cloud-sync process with
little clear information on what was going on,
the application has maintained a steady state
since launch.
There is no app in the world that is perfect, but
the new iOS Music app is a sprawling mess, it
can easily hang on opening if it can’t find a
solid internet connection, and it makes it harder
to search and locate your own music on a
handset. Album and Artist lists are compressed
into a single drop down box, while Apple’s
attempt at a global radio station is given a tab
all on its own. Prioritising Zane Lowe’s vanity
project over easy access to my own music
collection is a courageous call for Apple to make.
And that’s before I look at the bloated bolt-on
nature of Apple Music in the iTunes desktop
app. It’s just painful to navigate.
Who sat down and thought this was the way to
make a subscription music ‘just work?’