Apple Music, Apple's much-anticipated music streaming service, is finally here for all ears to hear -- but should you sign up for it?
That's the question we're here to answer, but be warned: That answer may vary depending on who you are. Available for iOS, Mac and PC (Android and Apple TV will get it this fall), Apple Music is the latest music-streaming service vying for your hard-earned dollar. It's meant to be the be-all and end-all of music services, combining streaming, your existing collection and live radio all into one app.
Apple Music gives subscribers on-demand access to a library of over 30 million songs, but so do Spotify and Tidal. The real differentiator, as Eddy Cue told us earlier this week, is with the experience the service provides.
To that end, Apple is hoping that the integration with your iTunes purchases, access to live radio and curated stations, integration with Siri and tons of killer recommendations will make the service worth your time and money. But is it? Mashable Senior Tech Correspondent Christina Warren and Product Analyst Raymond Wong have immersed themselves in the service to find out.
Playlists with a human touch
Christina: Hands-down, the best part of Apple Music is its “For You” section. As I said in my first look, this is what makes me excited about Apple Music.
Apple took the best parts of it predecessor, the discovery-focused, curation-rich Beats Music, and brought them to Apple Music. The recommendations, both for artists and playlists, get better the more you use the service.
I’ve found the recommendations to be totally accurate. The best part is that I’m getting recommendations for bands or albums I haven’t heard before. And when I listen, it’s stuff I like. This is good. This makes me excited to listen to music again.
Raymond: Agreed, the recommendations are fantastic and get better the more you use it. Apple Music’s trending search is also lovely. For instance, one of my favorite K-pop groups, BIGBANG, was trending on Wednesday. It turns out they had just released a two-track mini album that day. The two brand-new songs are also on Spotify, but there’s no way I would have known about them without seeing the news on a site or Twitter.
Christina: I also like the editorialized approach to the “New” section. Sure, there are charts highlighting the top-selling or most-played music videos, albums and tracks -- but the section is also driven by Apple Music’s various section editors. As a result, the recommendations in each genre are coming from people who are totally obsessed with that genre.
The various playlists on Apple Music -- all created by humans and not algorithms -- are awesome. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Songza, the great service Google purchased in 2014. I still think Songza -- which is now part of Google Music -- is better for activity-based playlists. But I enjoy the hand-picked playlists Apple’s editors have created.
“Death Cab for Cutie Deep Cuts,” as an example, actually does have what I would consider deep cuts from one of my favorite bands. There are also great playlists that are related to music history, such as the “Inspired by Joni Mitchell” playlist that includes songs from artists inspired by the world’s greatest songwriter.
Raymond: At WWDC 15, Jimmy Iovine said “Algorithms are really great, of course, but they need a bit of a human touch in them, helping form the right sequence.”
He’s absolutely right -- the human-curated playlists are spot-on, not only for their song selection, but for the sequence. Songs flow into one another, stirring up emotions.
I’m somewhat of a big hip-hop fan and the 18 tracks in Best of Detroit Hip-Hop Vol. 1 nail it. “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, rolls into “Boom” by Royce da 5’9” rolls into “Cry Now” by Obie Trice, etc. Bravo, Apple. Bravo.
Christina: I’ve also been really impressed with Apple Music’s general music library. It might not be as deep as Spotify (there is certainly more collegiate a cappella on Spotify), but all the majors and even most of the minors are represented.
There are some exclusive artists too. In addition to Taylor Swift (whose latest album, 1989 is only available to stream on Apple Music -- at least for now), Thom Yorke (an artist famously anti-Spotify), Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and albums from Dead Kennedys are all on Apple Music and noton Spotify.
Exclusive Apple Music features
Christina: I really like what Apple is trying to do with Beats 1. It’s opinionated and fresh, which is odd, because it’s also a total throwback. Headed by former BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe, Beats 1 is a total throwback to a time of great radio programming and even 1980s and 1990s MTV.
Lowe and his fellow DJs play sets across genres, mixed with commentary and artist interviews. There are also radio shows from other artists that play at night. I’ve only had a few days to listen to Beats 1 but I really like it so far. I don’t love every song, but I love that Apple is willing to invest in radio, especially this way.
And I won’t lie, I love the retro aspect of having a singular live radio station that is accessible only live. In our on-demand driven world, the fact that everyone could enjoy the same thing at the same time is fascinating.
Will Beats 1 ultimately work? I don’t know. But I love that Apple is willing to try.
Raymond: I’m torn on Beats 1. I’ve been listening to it almost nonstop during my waking hours since the 24/7 station went live and there are aspects that I really like and aspects that I don’t like at all or don’t get.
Love: The exclusive song premieres like Pharrell's “Freedom” and Gallant’s “Weight of Gold.” Also love: Artist interviews like the one Eminem had with Zane Lowe. If Apple can keep locking in exclusives like this with bigger artists, then Spotify needs to start worrying.
I think the concept of Beats 1 -- a 24/7 live radio station with some of the best DJs brought onboard to deliver “the best music” is somewhat idealistic.
Music is too subjective for there to be one station to rule them all. I asked my mom to listen to Beats 1 and she couldn’t stand it. Beats 1 is clearly designed for a very specific demographic: millennials. True, there’s that old-school aspect of not knowing what the DJ will throw on air (it could be anything!), but we all lead busy lives and I just don’t see people having the patience to wait for something they like to be played.
I tweeted this on launch day and I still feel the same, despite the fact that I like a lot of the music that the DJs have played so far:
Apple's brainwashing officially begins with beats 1. The entire planet is listening to this one station.— Raymond Wong (@raywongy) June 30, 2015
Hearing “Beats 1” repeatedly echoed in between songs is a nod to the traditional radio stations, but come on, it only makes it feel more like subliminal brainwashing to me. And don't even get me started on the censored songs without any profanity. That's not the raw music.
Christina: When it comes to Connect, I’m conflicted. On the one hand, I love it when artists have a way of communicating with their fans. On the other hand, I fear that Connect will be viewed as just another promotional platform and fail to be a place where artists or users actually engage. Just as Ping failed and Spotify’s Follow program for artists fizzled, Connect is objectively the weakest part of Apple Music.
Still, I totally do appreciate being able to listen to rare tracks from my favorite artists. It’s possible it could become the next Soundcloud. I just doubt it.
Raymond: Connect has potential to be one of Apple Music’s key hooks, but how many artists will actually support it? So far, I’ve seen a few pics from the likes of Maroon 5, a teaser for Eminem’s Phenomenal music film and 1:21 minute vlog clip from the hotel room of one of the members of One Republic. These are all nice nuggets, but where’s the meat?
Where’s Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Kanye? People follow these artists on Twitter all day long, but none of them have Connect accounts. Interestingly enough, these artists are also Tidal supporters, and perhaps they’re working on exclusive content for them instead of Apple Music?
Whether artists will maintain it and consistently update their profiles is another question that we won’t know the answer to until much later. If artists don’t use it, it’ll end up like Ping -- a good try, but loved by nobody.
Christina: The new Siri integration is cool. I like being able to ask Siri to play stuff instantly, I also like the integration with Siri on Apple Watch. The real-language stuff is great too. Listening to the top song from 1995 or from my birth year on demand is cool. It reminds me a lot of the Amazon Echo, except of course, it’s with your phone and not a speaker. Still, I give the Echo the advantage because of its capabilities across music sources.
Of course, there are features other services have that Apple Music just doesn’t. Take Spotify’s ingenious new Running feature. Spotify Running adjusts the music tempo to your running speed. That’s cool and useful.
Ultimately, I don’t think these sorts of add-ons -- either from Apple Music or Spotify -- are going to be what sway users to one service or another. Beats 1 might be a draw -- but it’s available for free anyway -- but really, it’s the core listening experience that matters, not the extras.
Raymond: Siri integration is also a total gimmick. You can ask Siri from your iOS device and Apple Watch to, say, “Play the No. 1 song from 1995” and she’ll automatically play “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio, featuring L.V., which is cool at first, but you’ll probably never do so again after you’ve impressed all your friends. I don’t know anyone who listens to music by a specific year.
Jam-packed UI for better or worse
Raymond: I admit Apple Music looks beautiful. It really does. But there’s simply too much going on inside and I can’t decide if that’s a good or bad thing. On one hand, there’s tons of content and sections to explore. On the other hand, it’s a lot to take in, especially if you’re new to streaming music apps.
I’m used to having my streaming music separate from my local music. It was a nice Berlin wall. Apple Music seamlessly blends songs from the cloud together with your local music to create one seamless library, but it does so in one of the least navigable ways possible.
For instance, why the heck is sorting by songs, artists, albums, etc. crammed into a tiny drop-down menu under the Library tab inside My Music? When you scroll down, the only way to access the drop-down box is to scroll back up again. It’s not easy to get at. Sure, there’s a persistent search box in the upper right corner of Apple Music, but I just don’t listen to my music by searching. I’m all about the randomness. I often flick through the Artists and Albums section and re-discover bands and songs I forgot about.
Apple does deserve major props for replacing those horrible text-based based buttons that were introduced in iOS 7 with actual icons again. You know the ones: shuffle, repeat all and repeat song. I can’t tell you how many hairs I’ve lost from seeing those playback buttons show up as a list.
Christina: I agree with Ray. The app looks great. But there is SO much happening, it can be overwhelming, especially on the iPhone. On the iPad, the experience is a bit better because you have more space (on the iPad, Playlists and My Music get their own tabbed sections), but I can’t get over the feeling that this was the fusion of two apps into one.
In a lot of ways, it really does feel like they built the Apple Music app and then bolted on the My Music section with some legacy features.
Weirdly, iTunes -- an app that is in desperate need of a total overhaul anyway -- is better suited by the addition of some of the new features. Still, I think Apple would be wise to make the future version of iTunes on the desktop look a lot more like Music on iPad.
To social or not to social?
Christina: Music is unique in that it is an inherently social, yet personal medium. Over the last 15 years, countless companies have tried to create the ultimate music social network.
I would argue that that network existed back in 1999 and 2000, it was called Napster. What made Napster social was the ability to chat with users and browse their libraries. That made it easy to discover albums or artists, based on the tastes of someone you didn’t actually know, except that you both really dug those parodies of Sesame Street MP3s.
Aside from MySpace, which at its apex was the social network for music fans and musicians, almost every attempt at building a social experience around music has failed. (And MySpace failed, too, albeit for many reasons.)
Spotify has come closest to succeeding, thanks to its early integration with Facebook and its ability to search for playlists, follow users and musicians and send tracks to friends.
Although Spotify touted its “Follow” feature at a major event back in 2012, the company has shifted away from the more social experiences -- other than playlists dedicated to what is hot with your friends -- especially in the mobile app.
All of this is to say that with the exception of Connect, Apple Music is remarkably unsocial. You can share individual tracks, albums or playlists with friends -- you can share your own playlist with someone else -- but there isn’t a way to find like-minded music fans, to see what your friends are listening to, or a way to search through public playlists.
On the whole, that might be OK. After all, Apple’s last attempt at a social music network was Ping. And Ping was awful. It’s also true that given the already stuffed UI, adding a layer of searching for user playlists to the experience might be too much.
Still, the one thing I think Spotify gets right is its ability to make it easy to share music and playlists with others. Spotify lets you embed tracks, albums and playlists on the web. I can also search for user-created playlists that often save me time. Some of my favorites are dedicated to music from TV shows. Why should I have to create a playlist of every song played on Sons of Anarchy if someone else is already on it.
I like that Apple Music makes it easier to share songs and playlists via iMessage and online. That’s a good first step. The only real problem is that the person you share with needs an Apple Music subscription to hear that music. At the very least, Apple should offer 30-second samples so that someone knows what you are sending.
Raymond: Personally, I don’t care for having much social network-integration with for my music, so I’m not bothered that much that Apple Music’s social features on the weak side.
Even with Spotify, I don’t share my playlists, tracks or albums with friends. I’ve never really been interested in what my friends listen to, either. As far as I’m concerned, my music is my music -- it’s a reflection of my mood -- and while people bond over songs and artists, it’s still a deeply personal experience.
My playlists are painstakingly curated for me.
I don’t know, maybe I’m slightly embarrassed by my music tastes — remember how invasive it felt when someone looked at your iPod library that revealed the real you? Whenever I see my friends sharing what they’re listening to on Spotify through Facebook, I go into judging mode. Like, did you actually listen to that horrible song? And like it?
Apple Music on desktop
Christina: Over the years, iTunes has become a bit of a mess. The app has gone through a number of big UI and UX changes, but little by little, what was once the best way to listen to music on the desktop, has become something that more and more users despise.
Although Apple Music doesn't’ fix iTunes -- and I still firmly believe iTunes needs a ground-up rewrite -- it does make the experience better, especially for those of us who have shifted most of our listening experience to Spotify.
OK, “better” might be subjective. iTunes is still iTunes. At least I can now listen to everything without having two apps open.
The one thing I do appreciate -- but I could see some people getting irked by -- is that the My Music library truly is one library. Any album or song you add to Apple Music sits alongside anything you’ve purchased or uploaded using iTunes Match. And if you don’t have iTunes Match, you can now take advantage of those features, too (although those cloud features disappear if you stop subscribing to Apple Music).
Raymond: iTunes has totally become Apple’s Internet Explorer: Bloated, slow and crashy. It’s hard to even remember when iTunes was great, since years worth of adding new features, stripping away junk like Ping and then adding more stuff like iTunes Radio has turned it into an app you just never want to open until it’s time to do an iPhone backup.
First, let me say the new iTunes icon is hot. Just hot. Yeah, I’m a design nerd, got a prob?
Christina: I really do hope Apple redesigns a separate Apple Music app for OS X and puts the App Store, Movies and iOS device management stuff in a separate app. If all the stuff from Apple Music was put in its own app, it would actually be pretty good.
I haven’t had a chance to use the new version of iTunes on Windows, but I suspect it is still iTunes on Windows. Which is just no fun for anyone.
Raymond: Now, in terms of Apple Music, I’m right there with Christina. I like not having to open two separate apps and the My Music library is pretty neat. Otherwise, it’s mostly the same experience as you’d get on iPad. There’s the same, For You, New, Radio, Connect, My Music and Playlists tabs at the top menu bar.
One thing I noticed is that there’s essentially two UIs in the new iTunes: one for Apple Music and one for iTunes. Like, why
I’m not exactly sure what’s going on with the Connect tab, though. The layout is very Tumblr-esque in that it feels like there’s a ton of wasted space everywhere. Can we get some larger images (in their original resolutions or something!) please? You can expand music videos to fullscreen, but nothing else. It’s quite obvious the Connect tab was where Apple took the easy way out.
I also haven’t tried out the Windows version, so I can’t say if it’s still the same stinkin’ bad iTunes for Windows or not.
Coming from other services
Christina: I think it’s only fair to acknowledge that I’ve had a lot of experience with various streaming music services. Like, a lot a lot. Like, I had a Rhapsody account in 2002 or 2003 before iTunes was even on Windows.
Over the years I’ve used Rhapsody, Spotify (since 2009 or 2010), Rdio, MOG (which was the precursor to Beats which of course is now the precursor to Apple Music) and a few I’ve probably forgotten about.
I’m a current Spotify Premium subscriber and for the last few years, that has been my streaming music service of choice. I’ve settled on Spotify because of its catalog, its ubiquity and the fact that it is on virtually every platform known to man.
In the five and a half years or so that I’ve used Spotify, I’ve managed to amass a substantial collection not just in my library, but in playlists.
Sadly, there is no way to import those valuable playlists from other services into Apple Music. If you’re coming to Apple Music from Beats Music, you can bring your playlists over by opening the app and performing a migration maneuver. Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to bring in playlists from other services.
This is disappointing because Beats Music provided a nice playlist conversion tool for Rdio and Spotify. I would like to be able to bring back some of my Spotify music, just to get a grasp of the differences in the two catalogs.
The truth is though, playlists aside, there isn’t going to be a lot in Apple Music that will be new to the streaming music aficionado. Instead, the differences hinge on execution.
Raymond: I don’t have quite the same amount of experience with music streaming services like Christina does. I dabbled with Pandora, Rdio and even flirted with Zune Music Pass (don’t judge me!) for a little.
In the end, I also picked Spotify Premium. It took years to curate my Spotify playlists and I still spend hours pruning them, adding and plucking songs that I like and don’t like anymore.
I’ve put in way too many hours to give up on it. I’m can’t see myself abandoning all that work and starting from scratch on Apple Music. I don’t have the time or patience to recreate them.
If there was a way to import my playlists from Spotify to Apple Music, my stance would be different, but there isn’t (and likely won’t be). I’m willing to bet a lot of Spotify Premium users will feel the same.
Christina: I really do think that the discovery-focused interface of Apple Music is a good way to approach streaming music. For years, I’ve been writing that the biggest challenge digital music services face is with discovery. It becomes a bit of a paradox of choice. When you have access to everything, it can be overwhelming to know where to start or what to choose.
As a result, I find that individuals end up just listening to the same stuff over and over again. Apple Music helps solve that problem in a way that is to me, better than competing services.
Still, if you have a built-up history in Rdio or Spotify, it might be hard to make the transition to Apple Music.
And that’s OK. As Eddy Cue told me earlier this week, “around the world, the number of paying subscribers is still very low. As a result, everyone doesn’t have to leave Spotify in order for Apple Music to win.” He’s right. Spotify can continue to co-exist with Apple Music.
That said, if I’m Spotify, I’m fucking scared of Apple Music. This is a real offering that is robust in features and with solid execution. It might not push paying Spotify members over, but it has a very good shot at capturing undecided or non-paying customers first.
Apple lock-in
Raymond: One of the biggest downsides to Apple Music is the limited platforms it’s available on: iOS, Mac, PC (and later Android and Apple TV).
Apple Music is yet another way that Apple wants to lock you into using its hardware. In comparison, Spotify, Pandora, Rdio, etc. are available on tons of platforms. Spotify, for example, is accessible on set-top boxes like Roku and Fire TV, PlayStation 4, certain smart TVs and even on the web through a web player.
Apple’s whole schtick is for you to AirPlay Apple Music to speakers around your home or connect to a Bluetooth speaker if you want to hear it on something other than the supported platforms. That’s fine, but Sonos, arguably the biggest name in home speakers won’t even support Apple Music until later this year. How lame is that?
Christina: Look, the product is called Apple Music, so it’s clearly going to be focused on Apple platforms. That said, the fact that Apple Music is coming to Android is a reflection that Apple recognizes that to win at music, the company needs to be everywhere.
It will be interesting to see the Android app when it launches in the fall. I’m especially interested to know whether iTunes purchases will be available on Android.
The big advantage Spotify has is platform ubiquity. But it isn’t just that Spotify is available on nearly every platform -- it’s also that developers can build Spotify support into their apps. I hope Apple opens up some Apple Music APIs to developers so that mobile apps can take advantage of that library.
Pricing and value
Raymond: As it stands right now, Apple Music is a great deal. A single user subscription costs $9.99, which is the same as Spotify. Where Apple edges out Spotify is with its Family Plan, which costs $14.99 a month and gives up to six users access. Spotify does have its own Family plan, which is $14.99 for two users and $29.99 for up to five users, but they’re not quite as sweet as Apple’s.
$9.99 for all the streaming music you can listen to (minus The Beatles and some bands) and you get Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and Beats 1?
At the very least, Apple Music is worth trying out for three months. You get three free months. And if you don’t like it at all, just don’t renew.
Can’t stomach even $9.99 a month for streaming music? Apple Music also has a free option (Apple ID sign-in required) that still gives you access to the 24/7 Beats 1 station, Apple Music radio stations (with 6 skips) and Connect.
Android users won’t be quite as lucky, though -- they won’t have a free option at all. It’s $9.99 a month or bust. Sorry!
Christina: Apple is really throwing down the gauntlet with its $14.99 family plan. For $15, up to six people can have their own accounts and stream unlimited music, plus get iTunes Match-like features and access to their local music libraries. That’s a tremendous value.
And for $10 a month, I think Apple Music is a great value. The “For You” section alone really makes me excited as a music listener.
The bigger question -- and the one I’m just not sure about yet -- is whether Apple will be able to get people who don’t pay for music to pony up $10 a month for its new service. This is why the three-month free trial is so brilliant. Get people hooked and hope they stick around.
I’m very comfortable paying for music, but a lot of people aren’t. I think it makes sense that Apple doesn’t have a free offering, a la Spotify -- because frankly, the free plans don’t make financial sense for the artists or for Spotify. Still, I do wonder how many people who have gotten used to not paying for music will be willing to part with the cash for Apple Music.
Still, it’s easy for me to recommend that the non-paying music lover try out Apple Music. I think it’s worth $10 a month. We’ll see how many others agree with me.
The final note
Christina: Apple Music is an extremely compelling music offering. It provides access to essentially all of your music in one app. Plus you get streaming radio, plus live radio with Beats 1. For $10 a month, I think it’s superb.
That said, convincing consumers to actually pay for music is still going to be a challenge. And the app, while easy to use, is a bit cluttered. The desktop experience works -- but I still want a brand-new version of iTunes.
Still, as someone who has been willingly paying for Spotify for more than four years (and had a free account a few years before it officially hit the United States), Apple Music is the first service to actually make me consider giving up the green music wave. For me, I’ll probably continue to subscribe to both. But if you’re new to music streaming and you’re part of the Apple ecosystem already -- especially if you have a big iTunes collection -- Apple Music gets my unequivocal thumbs up.
Raymond: It’s still early days, but Apple Music, despite its somewhat confusing user interface, is off to a good start. At the very least, it competes with Spotify on a level other streaming services like Tidal can’t even compare.
Like I said, I can't just throw out my Spotify playlists that I’ve spent years curating. I can’t. I suppose that’s why Apple’s giving you three free months -- it’s hoping you’ll have made new playlists by the end of the trial. For me, I won't be canceling my Spotify Premium account.
That said, if you’ve never subscribed to any music streaming service before, Apple Music has a lot to offer at a competitive price.
Apple Music
The Good
Human-curated playlists are excellent
Great recommendations
Beats 1 and exclusive song premieres
Family plan is a steal
The Bad
Cluttered app
No way to import playlists from other services
Meager device support
Local music feels shoehorned in
The Bottom Line
Spotify should we be worried: Apple Music is a superb music service with tons to offer, especially if you’ve never streamed before.
Header photos by Mashable/Lili Sams, Miles Goscha