Apple Music, Cupertino
Signing Up
A quick refresher for
those of you who are considering signing up for Apple Music: It is not the
iTunes Store app from which you buy digital music files on iOS hardware.
Instead, Apple Music is a streaming music service that brings 45 million songs
(and a strong music video crop) to your iPhone, desktop iTunes app, or Apple
TV. Confusingly, however, it only gets its own dedicated app on iPhone
and Android. On all other platforms, Apple Music’s streaming functionality is
built into iTunes.
Apple Music offers a
three-month trial, which is a significant amount of time to try before you
subscribe (you’ll still need to supply credit or debit card info, though).
After that, you’ll need to sign up for a subscription plan. The $9.99 per month
Single Membership and the $14.99 Family Membership (for up to six people using
iCloud Family Sharing) grant ad-free music listening, ad-free video watching,
offline listening, and access to Beats 1 Radio.
I like seeing Apple Music and
other streaming music services adopt family plans, which is something that
Slacker Radio still lacks,
unfortunately.If you’re a college student who’s enrolled in an
eligible college or university, you can subscribe to Apple Music for a
wallet-friendly $4.99 per month. Students can take advantage of the discount
for up to four years. Spotify and Tidal offer a similar student deal.
Apple Music for Android
Apple Music for Android is very similar to its iOSsister, with a few exceptions. The most obvious one is that Android phones and
tablets typically receive Apple Music software updates later than iOS devices.
Android fans may find that irritating, but it (theoretically) gives Apple the
chance to sort out any potential problems before pushing it to the rival
platform.
And, of course, Apple Music for Android lacks Siri
integration. I’ll touch on the Siri voice command features later in this
review.
Putting the Needle to the
Groove
The white-and-red layout features large, eye-catchingicons that invite you to explore the app. Honestly, that’s something that
you’re likely to do anyway, as the interface features a menu structure that
helps you find content quicker than before. Library, Playlists, Artists,
Albums, and Songs are all prominent and easy to navigate.
If you just want to play the music
you’ve bought, the Purchased playlist is where you should focus your attention.
It let me stream songs from my iCloud Music
Library that I bought in the past, even though none of them were downloaded on
the iPhone 7 I used for testing.
Playlists and saved albums from the Beats Music app transfer over, too.
Thankfully, Apple Music lets you download music for offline playback. Unlike
the majority of rival streaming music services, Apple Music doesn’t let you
access your library from a web browser.
As yet another music-related Apple app you’ll
frequently be using on iOS, Apple Music does a good job separating itself from
the regular My Music section where purchased tracks are stored, even though
they are both technically the same app. However, it would be nice to see iTunes
Store merged with Apple Music to create a one-stop iOS music shop, as the
divide can lead to confusion. In testing, I often forgot which app was the
streaming app versus purchasing app,
which proved frustrating.
Apple Music is also for discovering new music, not just
for listening to old favorites. So I hopped over to the revamped For You
section and swiped through numerous themed playlists, such as Eric Clapton: The
Early Years and Lady Gaga vs. Madonna. Apple must have discovered that people
really dig these prefabricated playlists, because the previous For You iteration
was an entirely different beast. The older For You tasked you with manually
selecting genres using brightly colored bubbles and creating stations around
those picks. So, basically, the new For You removes the extra step. Of course,
you still have the option to use the search box to find new tunes.
Digging Into the Library
Apple Musicfeatures a vast selection of songs taken from the iTunes library, including Dr.
Dre’s The Chronic and other exclusive albums, as well as
tracks from Taylor Swift and other pop acts. I found many Prince albums, too,
including 1999, Batman, Controversy, Purple Rain, and Sign ‘O’ the Times.
You can also listen to radio stations dedicated to
certain themes, such as Hip-Hop Workout Anthems and Disney Princess Radio.
Apple Music takes a page from Slacker Radio’s playbook with the addition of
non-music stations, such as NPR News and ESPN Sports.
Meanwhile, Apple’s
flagship radio station, Beats 1, features tracks curated by DJ Zane Lowe, along
with artist interviews. That said, the idea that a single radio station like
Beats 1 can be all things to all listeners at all times is antiquated at best
and arrogant at worst. Meanwhile, the more specialized stations aren’t as well
crafted as what Spotify and
Slacker Radio offer. Still, one
of my favorite uses for music streaming services is queuing
up chill instrumental tracks to listen to while editing text like this review.
Apple Music does deliver on that front. It’s easy to select a favorite song or
artist and listen to a station full of similar tunes.
Apple Music’s audioquality is about what you’d expect from songs downloaded from iTunes, but not
as high as Tidal’s Hi-Fi
offering. Only hardcore audiophiles will notice the difference, as the audio
streams at 256 Kbps. That’s a lower bitrate than Spotify’s 320 Kbps streams,
but Apple’s use of the AAC format enables its streams to retain more audio
data. In addition, the app now supports lyrics (when they are available), so
you can sing along to your favorite song, even if you don’t know the words.
If you dig music videos, you’ll be happy to know that
Apple Music now has a dedicated section for that medium. Though Apple Music has
always contained music videos, the service’s iOS 11.3 update highlights
exclusive content (like A Tribe Called Quest’s “The Space Program”) and themed
playlists (such as “Beats 1 Video List” and “Today’s Video Hits”). The videos
are tailored to your preferences, too, so it was not at all surprising that I
was fed plenty of hip-hop tracks.
Social Connections
Speaking of artists, Apple Music lets you follow your
favorite bands, signed or unsigned, using its Connect social network. Here, artists
can share thoughts and material that fans can comment on and interact with. For
example, Pharrell used his page to debut his single, “Freedom.” Other social
features include the ability to share playlists, albums, and music videos
through Facebook and Twitter. But, again, while this is a pretty, glossy feature,
it doesn’t offer much that you won’t find on other, more open, and more popular
social networks.
Connect reminded me of MySpace’s major rebranding as amusic-focused site a few years ago, and few things are less reassuring than
MySpace comparisons. It is cool, though, that your Connect profile
automatically follows artists whose songs you’ve purchased. I like having a
big, fat Insane Clown Posse news feed waiting for me without lifting a finger.
What would an Apple
service be if it didn’t encourage you to use other Apple services and products
along with it? You can use Siri to tell Apple Music to play specific songs or
ask for recommendations, like The Top Songs of the 80s. Apple Watch owners can sync music to their devices
and keep listening even when not paired to an iPhone.
A Fresh Take
The 90-day free trial should be plenty of time to
determine whether Apple Music is a service you want to invest in. Just make
sure to turn off auto-payments in case you don’t dig it.
That said, if you want to use one of the best musicstreaming services currently available for iOS devices, check out my top picks,
Slacker Radio and Spotify.
Bottom Line: Apple Music boasts exclusive albums and
Siri and Apple Watch compatibility, but this well-rounded streaming music service
falls just short of toppling Slacker Radio and Spotify.
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