The Problem with Apple Music's Continuity

There is still a problem that hasn’t been fixed today. Another problem that hasn’t been fixed is Apple Music’s lack of continuity between devices. If I’m listening to a song on my iPhone, I can’t pick up where I left off on my Mac. Which is odd since app continuity has existed on Apple's products since 2014. But the good news is Apple has fixed many of the issues with their streaming services since its launch in 2015, which has made it much more competitive with other services like Spotify.

First, in 2016, complaints were addressed about Apple Music’s unintuitive navigation with a user interface refresh in iOS 10. Apple tweaked the look and functionality of Apple Music, which made the platform easier to use. The update featured more white space, larger and bolder fonts, and a reorganized navigation bar that offered useful functions. For example, the ‘Connect’ social network feature that very few people used was removed from the navigation bar. In addition to ‘New,’ which featured random recently released tracks and playlists, and ‘My Music,’ which separated your streaming library from your playlists in a very confusing way. In place of those tabs, Apple added ‘Library,’ ‘Browse,’ and ‘Search.’ Which were much more functional since users navigated to those pages more often than ‘Connect’ or ‘New.’ I should also mention that in 2018 Apple removed the ‘Connect’ feature from Apple Music together. Which just goes to show that no one is interested in a social media platform for music. Not in 2010 with Ping, and not in 2015 with Connect. But one of the best things Apple did to improve Apple Music came back in June, with the announcement that iTunes would be discontinued. Something that people like me have been looking forward to for years. And why is that exactly? Well, iTunes has become a bloated, slow, resource-heavy application that many users avoid opening as much as possible. And Craig Federighi actually joked about this on stage So by rebuilding a new application for the Mac called Music, Apple’s streaming service will finally launch quickly and load pages faster. But Apple took things to a new level that many people, myself included, were not expecting.

Just last month on September 5th, it was revealed that Apple Music would be getting a web player. Which means, like Spotify, you’ll be able to access the service from web browsers like Safari or Chrome without the need for a dedicated app. And I must admit, even though the player is still in beta, it performs much better than the dedicated iTunes app ever did. Now although all the updates of Apple Music over the past four years have definitely improved the service, it’s worth discussing why many of those changes weren’t made before Apple Music was released in the first place. Just consider how many big names were involved in its creation: Jimmy Iovine, co-founder of Interscope records and Beats, Dr. Dre, Trent Reznor, and of course all of the talented executives and engineers at Apple. And despite all of that brainpower, Apple Music debuted as a streaming service that underdelivered in almost every category. Speed, ease of use, music discovery, and library management. In fact, I think the service’s shortcomings were a result of too many big names being involved in its development. Apple Music was simply trying to do too much. It was trying to be a music streaming and discovery service like Spotify, it was trying to be a traditional radio station by integrating Beats One, and it was trying to be a social media platform with the Connect feature. By pushing Apple Music in so many directions at once, its key purpose of simply listening to music sort’ve felt like an afterthought.

So despite its rough launch in 2015, Apple has definitely focused their attention on all the right areas to ensure Apple Music’s steady improvement year after year. And although Spotify has always been my go-to music streaming app, that may soon change as Apple Music becomes more appealing. And when it comes to appealing services, you can’t forget about NordVPN. Which is what I use to protect my privacy online. Their service allows me to unlock Netflix so I can view region-exclusive content from anywhere in the world. This is enabled by 5,500 super fast NordVPN servers that are available in sixty countries. All with unlimited bandwidth and no data logging so you can be sure your internet activity isn’t being tracked. NordVPN was kind enough to give us a deal of 70% off a three year plan which comes out to just $3.49 a month, plus an additional month for free. To get started just click the link in the description and use code apple to take advantage of this fantastic deal.

Alright guys thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enApple Music and Spotify are the top two playersin the music streaming game.But the services have very different histories,which has influenced everything from theirfeature sets to their user interfaces, withmost people having a preference for one serviceor the other.And in this video, I’m going to explainhow Apple Music has evolved to become a seriouscompetitor to Spotify, despite Apple enteringthe market seven years later.This is Greg with Apple Explained and I wantto thank NordVPN for sponsoring this video.If you want to help decide which topics Icover, make sure you’re subscribed, andthese voting polls will show up in your mobileactivity feed.So as you probably know, I’m a big Applefan.But that doesn’t mean I’m blind to theshortcomings of their products and services.And when Apple Music was released in 2015,there were a lot of issues with its navigationand performance.For example, there was no button to simplyshuffle all the music from one artist.Instead, you’d have to create a playlist,manually add every album from a particularartist, navigate to the playlist you justcreated, and then shuffle it.And as you can see here, that was a minimum14 step process compared to four steps withSpotify.But don’t take it from me, Business Insidersaid Apple Music had the worst received productlaunch since Apple Maps in 2012.Mainly because all of the bugs and technicalissues users were experiencing.One person who expressed their frustrationswith Apple Music was Jim Dalrymple with TheLoop.He wrote, “I love Apple.I love them because they take difficult problemsand come up with innovative, simple solutions.The things they make just work and we trustthem.Unfortunately, my experience with Apple Musichas been exactly the opposite.As of today, I’m missing about 4,700 songsfrom my library with little hope of gettingthem back.”He continued on, discussing problems he hadlike adding compilations and albums.Many of which were missing songs since thosesingles were already in his library, and AppleMusic was trying to prevent duplicates.He actually had add the missing songs to fifteenalbums manually, only to discover they hadbeen deleted by Apple Music the followingday.When trying to add a ZZTop album to his library,Apple Music decided to download the songsfrom multiple albums.So he was stuck will multiple ZZTop albums,each with only a few songs.But all of those headaches paled in comparisonto what happened when Dalrymple tried to stopusing Apple Music.It turned out that when he turned off theservice, it took 4,700 of his songs with it.Many of which were added from CDs that heno longer had access to.So although this was only one person’s story,it’s important to understand that Dalrymplerepresented thousands of users who experiencedsimilar bugs with Apple Music.And that’s why Apple Music received so manycritical reviews after it launched back in2015.I remember reading headlines like this onefrom cnet which read, “Apple's do-it-allmusic app has big potential (and some problems).”Writers often praised the huge music catalogand the service’s integration with Siri,but then criticize its confusing navigationand unreliable features like the iCloud MusicLibrary.And after using Apple Music myself back in2015, I remember feeling disappointed.The connect feature was simply a reimplementationof Ping, a failed social network added toiTunes in 2010, and discontinued two yearslater.And as it would turn out, Apple Music’sconnect saw the exact same fate.The feature was rarely used and after threeyears was discontinued altogether.But one of my biggest problems with AppleMusic was its slow navigation and poor musicdiscovery.The app was simply slower than Spotify.It took longer to launch, took longer to search,and took longer for a song to buffer.And this is likely due to it being integratedwith iTunes, which was perhaps one of thebiggest mistakes Apple made when creatingthe service.And when it came to discovering new music,I was shocked at just how little Apple Musicoffered.Spotify had a weekly playlist with singlespicked just for me, full of songs that I actuallyliked.Apple tried something similar with DiscoveryMix, but its algorithm was underdevelopedand rarely suggested songs I was interestedin.Spotify also curated daily mix playlists thatfeatured songs I already liked with similarnew songs that I might like.But Apple Music had nothing like this backin 2015, and I was stuck listening to artistradios to try and discover new music.Finally, as I mentioned at the beginning ofthe video, I found navigating Apple Musicto be very unintuitive.Not only did tapping on an artist name inalbum view not take me to the artist’s page,but the way Apple organized music was unnecessarilycomplicated.They actually separated your music libraryfrom Apple Music itself.So when you searched for a song, you had tospecify whether you were searching your existingmusic library, or all songs on Apple Music.And tapping one or the other was somethingthat annoyed me every time I searched forsomething.It made the experience unnecessarily complicated.Just consider how searching for music workedon Spotify.You simply typed in a song, album, or artist,and began playing your choice of music.If that music happened to be in your library,Spotify would play it from your library.If it wasn’t, then the song was simply playedfrom the album or artist page that you selected.It was a seamless, straightforward experiencethat users didn’t even have to think about.But for some reason Apple couldn’t replicatethat experience on their own platform andit’s a problem that still hasn’t beenfixed today.Another problem that hasn’t been fixed isApple Music’s lack of continuity betweendevices.If I’m listening to a song on my iPhone,I can’t pick up where I left off on my Mac.Which is odd since app continuity has existedon Apple's products since 2014.But the good news is Apple has fixed manyof the issues with their streaming servicesince its launch in 2015, which has made itmuch more competitive with other serviceslike Spotify.First, in 2016, complaints were addressedabout Apple Music’s unintuitive navigationwith a user interface refresh in iOS 10.Apple tweaked the look and functionality ofApple Music which made the platform easierto use.The update featured more white space, largerand bolder fonts, and a reorganized navigationbar that offered useful functions.For example, the ‘Connect’ social networkfeature that very few people used was removedfrom the navigation bar.In addition to ‘New,’ which featured randomrecently released tracks and playlists, and‘My Music,’ which separated your streaminglibrary from your playlists in a very confusingway.In place of those tabs, Apple added ‘Library,’‘Browse,’ and ‘Search.’Which were much more functional since usersnavigated to those pages more often than ‘Connect’or ‘New.’I should also mention that in 2018 Apple removedthe ‘Connect’ feature from Apple Musicaltogether.Which just goes to show that no one is interestedin a social media platform for music.Not in 2010 with Ping, and not in 2015 withConnect.But one of the best things Apple did to improveApple Music came back in June, with the announcementthat iTunes would be discontinued.Something that people like me have been lookingforward to for years.And why is that exactly?Well, iTunes has become a bloated, slow, resource-heavyapplication that many users avoid openingas much as possible.And Craig Federighi actually joked about thison stageSo by rebuilding a new application for theMac called Music, Apple’s streaming servicewill finally launch quickly and load pagesfaster.But Apple took things to a new level thatmany people, myself included, were not expecting.Just last month on September 5th, it was revealedthat Apple Music would be getting a web player.Which means, like Spotify, you’ll be ableto access the service from web browsers likeSafari or Chrome without the need for a dedicatedapp.And I must admit, even though the player isstill in beta, it performs much better thanthe dedicated iTunes app ever did.Now although all the updates of Apple Musicover the past four years have definitely improvedthe service, it’s worth discussing why manyof those changes weren’t made before AppleMusic was released in the first place.Just consider how many big names were involvedin its creation: Jimmy Iovine, co-founderof Interscope records and Beats, Dr. Dre,Trent Reznor, and of course all of the talentedexecutives and engineers at Apple.And despite all of that brainpower, AppleMusic debuted as a streaming service thatunderdelivered in almost every category.Speed, ease of use, music discovery, and librarymanagement.In fact, I think the service’s shortcomingswere a result of too many big names beinginvolved in its development.Apple Music was simply trying to do too much.It was trying to be a music streaming anddiscovery service like Spotify, it was tryingto be a traditional radio station by integratingBeats One, and it was trying to be a socialmedia platform with the Connect feature.By pushing Apple Music is so many directionsat once, its key purpose of simply listeningto music sort’ve felt like an afterthought.So despite its rough launch in 2015, Applehas definitely focused their attention onall the right areas to ensure Apple Music’ssteady improvement year after year.And although Spotify has always been my go-tomusic streaming app, that may soon changeas Apple Music becomes more appealing.And when it comes to appealing services, youcan’t forget about NorVPN.Which is what I use to protect my privacyonline.Their service allows me to unlock Netflixso I can view region-exclusive content fromanywhere in the world.This is enabled by 5,500 super fast NordVPNservers that are available in sixty countries.All with unlimited bandwidth and no data loggingso you can be sure your internet activityisn’t being tracked.NordVPN was kind enough to give you guys 70%off a three year plan which comes out to just$3.49 a month, plus an additional month forfree.To get started just click the link in thedescription and use code apple to take advantageof this fantastic deal.Alright guys thanks for watching and I’llsee you next time.\n"