Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Apple Music: Taking a dump on…, in reply to nzlemming,
But surely it wasn’t meant to work like this?
Of course it was. How can they keep you in their walled garden if they don’t tightly control what you do. The only time I ever run iTunes is when I open it by mistake,
Nah, there's really no possible benefit to Apple in making that action difficult. It's a flub.
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Polity: The overconfidence man, in reply to Tinakori,
“Key doesn’t actually believe Labour is in do-nothing mode – he just wants the public to believe that. Hence the interview.”
In NBR, behind a paywall? Please, even if half their audience (no matter how affluent) read the article that is still a tiny sliver of the electorate. You are taking the piss, Rob
Rob might be if NBR was the only place Key was saying it. But it was his main line in Parliament this week too: howling about how the Opposition hadn't released any policy this year.
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Hard News: Whakamomori: Raw, open and honest, in reply to ,
I get the impression, Sasha, that you are dissaproving of the none ministarial effort. Are you uncomfortable?
No, I don't think that's what Sacha's saying. Just pointing out that there was a coordinated official effort to go with JK's ad campaign. It is quite different to what Mike's doing.
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Hard News: Apple Music: Taking a dump on…, in reply to Peter Johnston,
However it is worth noting that until recently saving albums in Spotify was a laborious process. So Apple may just need a little while to get it right.
Good point. I still find Spotify a struggle.
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Hard News: Apple Music: Taking a dump on…, in reply to BenWilson,
The gateway drug of having music and playlists as simple files on a device like how they were before Apple ever invented the iPod and iTunes* has him in its vice-like grip.
The first music app I can recall using was was Cassady & Greene’s SoundJam MP, which Apple bought in late 2000 and turned into iTunes in January 2001 – after realising they were missing the boat on music. The first iPod was released in Octber 2001. By that time WinAmp et al were well established and there were other portable players on the market.
The iTunes Music Store launched in April 2003 and we tend to forget what a lifesaver that was. The big music companies were obsessed with DRM and some of the ways other companies were doing it were insane. I recall once buying a much-ballyhooed Kylie Minogue track made available in Windows Media format. I had to plod along and download the track – and then go to a completely different page to obtain a licence to use said track!
The iTunes Store made it easy and seamless to buy music downloads, not least because Apple’s FairPlay DRM was painless compared to everything else (except eMusic, which didn’t have any major label music). Eventually, everyone stopped caring about DRM on music downloads. It’s only come back to enable offline play from streaming services.
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Hard News: Apple Music: Taking a dump on…, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
So that’s the challenge of online – being able to make accurate recommendations of new music that will appeal to people. Whether it’s done by clever algorithms (the red circles) or clever people (Zane Lowe), this is what Apple needs to get right.
And so far, that’s the part it is getting right. It’s just the technical usability that’s borked.
I have read that the discovery elements of Apple Music are very similar to those of Beats Music, which is interesting. Maybe it was worth some of that $3bn.
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Hard News: Apple Music: Taking a dump on…, in reply to Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere,
However, even though they are functional equivalents, they have very different features: you can see what you've listened to on the radio - and add tracks to your library - but can't add tracks from playlists or the playlists themselves to your library. Why?
Odd. I can do both via the "..." menu.
But Apple, why on earth can I not add a playlist to a playlist folder? Why would I have to add a playlist to a playlist?
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Hard News: Apple Music: Taking a dump on…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Pogue has a review of Apple Music and finds fault with the lack of simplicity, but declares: "The good news is that all of this works flawlessly on day one."
Er, no, it doesn't. It does seem that most of the reviews so far have been very superficial.
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I've updated the post to note that, on inspection, I've realised that my desktop iTunes is now full of randomly duplicated (even triplicated!) playlists.
I've seen suggestions that having been an iTunes Match customer is part of the problem. Fortunately, I don't seem to have had my matched tracks replaced with DRM-hobbled Apple Music ones, like one poor guy on the internet.
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Status update:
On the Mac, I've established that I can:
1. Click "Add to My Music" on an album in Apple Music.
2. Once back in My Music, select all the tracks and choose the old-fangled "Create playlist from selection".
3. Locate the playlist and drag it up the column into the folder where I actually want it to be.
That's two steps too many.
On my phone, the requirement for iCloud Music Library to be switched on remains an absolute showstopper when it comes to adding to My Music anything I might want to listen to repeatedly. Just can't do it.
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