Since, I have had so few issues (just some minor bugs) running iOS 10 Beta on my iPhone, I decided to go ahead and download iOS 10.0 Beta on my iPad Pro 9.7.  The main reason is that I wanted to get a look at the new Apple Music app.

Unlike, the iPhone version of the app, you aren't greeted with a long list of choices.  Instead, you are treated with your most "Recently Added" music.  I still prefer having the "For You" page as the landing page, but this is better than opening up a list of choices.   The list is still there, but you access it from the a pull down menu in the top left corner of the screen.  The app still has the basic menu at the bottom of the page to get  to different areas of the app.

Below is a video showing how Apple Music works on the iPad.

By far, the best feature of Apple Music on the iPad is the ability to use the split screen.  I complained in my iPhone Apple Music video about how there is no artist information on the artist page of the app and the same holds true here.  However, with the split screen feature, you can pull  up info on All Music Guide or Wiki without every leaving the app.

The cool thing is the app actually morphs into something similar to the iPhone app when you go to split screen.  Obviously, Apple thinks that the drop down menus aren't as useful without the full iPad screen size, so the Library page, for example, now shows the same list you get on the iPhone.

One of the best new features in the app is the ability to pull up a list of options (by pushing down on the screen) from pretty much anywhere inside the app.  In the picture below, I held down the button on the "Sinatra" Sunday Playlist and got a list of options.  Notice that there is now a  "Dislike" button. I would expect that this will help Apple with future recommendations.

This is a beta, so bugs are expected.  However, I was surprised that when I put a search term in the iOS "Spotlight" search and got a bunch of suggestions on the iPhone, but received zero suggestions on the iPad.  (In the pic below, I searched for "Sketches of Spain" on both systems).

Note: I have submitted this as a bug.

All in all, I really like the new version of the app on the iPad.  It seems a bit more "buggy" than Apple Music on the iPhone, but it has to do more with the split screen option.  I am looking forward to seeing the improvements they make over the next few months before the official release of iOS 10.

I must be a glutton for punishment because I decided to go ahead and download iOS 10.0 (Beta) on my only cellphone (iPhone 6s Plus).   So far, it has been a little glitchy, but not too bad.

The main reason I updated the phone was to be able to take a look at Apple Music.  I still have an iPad that is running the old version, so if the wheels came off, I could still listen to music.

Below is a quick video showing the new Apple Music app:

The app looks a lot different now, but the core functionality is still there.  It now has descriptions in large fonts of different categories.  Before you just had to wing it.  

I never felt that it was much of a hardship to figure stuff out on my own, but if Apple wants to continue adding subscribers that have never used a music app in the past, they needed to dumb it down a bit and make things more simplistic.   They have done that with titles in your own Library section that tell you exactly what is behind each link.  You can even edit the page so that it contains even more or scale it down to just what you want to see (they require you to keep at least one item in the editable list).  

​Their "For You" section once had playlists and albums blended together into one mishmash (that I actually liked), but now the page has defined sections for suggested playlists, stuff you listened to recently, and much more.  

Even the basic layout has changed.  If the app is closed, you will land on the "Library" tab when you open the app.  The Library tab replaces "My Music" and "Playlists" with a much more organized layout.  

The "For You" page is still there, but it is no longer the landing page.  

The "New" page is replaced by "Browse" which is probably a better description since it contains more than just new music.  

​The Radio page is still around, but they no longer have a tab for Connect.  Instead, Connect can be found at the bottom of the "For You" page.  They also added a tab in the bottom row for Search rather than having it at the top right corner of the app.

In addition to the new look, they added some cool new features.  One of them is the ability to dislike an artist, playlist, or song.  This should make it easier for them to suggest music without giving you suggestions you don't like.

They also added lyrics for some songs.  Right now, we are in beta, so there are still a lot of missing lyrics (it took me a while to find the example in the video), but I expect that will get better as time goes by.  

The also added an "up next" area below the album art for the music that is playing.  You can also move songs up and down the "up next" section.   I had a playlist with hundreds of songs and it loaded at least 150 (if not more) of them.

The "Search" section now keeps your last three searches.   This is very nice since I often want to revisit a search I did at home when I get to work.  They also have trending searches that give you some idea what others are listening to.

The Genre section on the "Browse" page now has "Genres You Follow" at the top.   

All in all, they simply gave the app more organization.  I expect that they will continue tweaking the design as we go forward.   However, this is a pretty decent start if they want to attract and hold onto new users.  

Bloomberg is reporting that several changes to Apple Music will be coming soon:

"Apple Inc. is planning sweeping changes to its year-old music streaming service after the first iteration of the product was met with tepid reviews and several executives brought in to revive the company's music strategy departed."

The first part of the statement really doesn’t make much sense for a service that has grown from zero to 13 million in less than a year.  The last couple of months they have reportedly added a million new users per month.  Personally, that doesn’t sound like much of a reason to make “sweeping” changes, unless they care more about “tepid reviews" than the number of people that are happily using the service.

That being said, Apple is known for constantly tweaking their hardware and software, so no one would be surprised by a change to the service now that they have data to see what people use, don’t use, like, and don’t like.  In other words, I have no doubt that we will see changes, I am just not sure that I believe that "tepid reviews" has anything to do with it.

Since they are changing the service, I decided to make a list of  five things I think they need to change and why they need to change them.

Matching is basically a process that scans your local music files and attempts to make versions of them available from Apple’s library in the cloud.  Personally, I was using iTunes Match before Apple Music was even a service.  The main difference between Apple Music Matching and iTunes Matching is that Apple Music Matching has DRM (digital rights management) and iTunes Match does not.  Apple has a very good article about the two services here and I would recommend anyone contemplating either service to read the article closely.  

(As a side note, anyone with or without Apple Music should have up to date backups of their files.  Human error and hard drive failures are all too common.)

The thing they need to change first is the iTunes check boxes that are for “iCloud library” and “Show Apple Music”.  They need to separate the options for Apple Music and iTunes Match and give you a much better idea of what happens when you check the boxes.  I realize that some people do not read and just click through processes.  However, at least careless people could not as easily blame confusion as their excuse for deleting their own files.  (Note:  I am not saying that we wouldn't still see click-bait articles by people that somehow lost their files, but maybe they would be met with more scrutiny than they are met with these days.)

The second issue is that Apple needs to do a better job of reading and matching metadata.  They often mismatch files and match the wrong version of an album in the cloud or match it with the wrong artwork.  While I have been forgiving of this problem because I have the actual original files available, it doesn’t fit the Steve Jobs idea that it should just work.

I have read suggestions that they should just upload all original files rather than trying to match them.  While I would love to have all of my Apple Lossless files in the cloud, I just can’t see them doing this.  Many people don’t have internet speeds that can handle this much data quickly moving to the cloud.  The second problem is the data cap limits on many of the most popular internet services.  Comcast caps at 300GB a month in this area, so people could end up going over their limits and have to pay more or have their internet shut off for the rest of the month.  You think they get “tepid reviews” now, what do you think the consequences will be with the services eating up all your bandwidth when you have work to do from home?

Clearly, matching is a difficult issue to solve.  Even if they can't find a perfect solution, they at least should move toward something that is more idiot-proof.  I actually think the best solution may be to remove the feature all together unless someone pays extra for iTunes Match.  That way they could get away from the DRM versions of your own matched music, which is where I think a lot of the confusion comes from.

Below is an example of the wrong artwork being applied to an album:

I think Siri is the best, most distinguishable, feature of Apple Music.  To be honest, there isn’t much I would change with Siri in the actual Apple Music iOS app, other than giving it the ability to play music based on styles.  I should be able to say “play saxophone jazz” and it should know what I want to hear.  

That being said, I have bigger issues with how iOS handles audio, in general, and how it works with Siri.  It should know that I have Bluetooth headphones or speakers in range.  It should know that I have Airplay speakers in range.  As a result, it should allow me to say “Play Chris Stapleton on Kitchen Speaker” and it show direct the music to that speaker.  While Airplay is fairly easy to access from the Control Panel, Bluetooth requires a trip into settings to select the speaker.  It feels like they could do so much more in this area.

Also, their Apple Music advertising need to focus on Siri.  It is the one killer feature that makes it a "no-brainier" for iOS users.  The recent Taylor Swift commercial (below) would have been much more effective  if she had just used Siri to start music playing rather than needing so much interaction with the app.  

​Actually, it would have been so much better if they had showed the iPhone on a shelf across the room with the "For You" section up on the screen with Taylor getting on the treadmill while holding up her Apple Watch to say "Hey Siri, play treadmill playlist".  Next, the phone starts playing her playlist.  Just a lot more effective than needing to hit the screen 5 times to get to the music she wanted to hear.

First, let me say that I think Apple needs a lossless or high resolution solution for audiophiles.  Why lose clients that care about audiophile quality to Tidal or Deezer?  Assuming they don’t plan to do that, at the very minimum, they need to add a logo to let people know when an album is Mastered For iTunes.  The iTunes Store supplies that information, so there is no excuse for not providing the information to Apple Music users.

Apple could learn a lot from All Music in this area. All Music gives you a description of the artist, original release date information, genre (Rock), styles (Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, etc.).  critic review, star rating, user reviews, etc.   In comparison, for most albums in Apple Music you often get a very basic description of the album.  They need to give a lot more detail.  

If you want an idea of how this is done to perfection, get a trial run with RoonAudio (see picture below).  They provide all of the above, the genre and styles, and they give you a button so you can click to play music in that style.   Right now, I have to leave the Apple Music app and pull up All Music Guide or Wiki to learn more about an album or artist.  ​

This is really a two part problem and I don’t care how it is solved, but it is a problem.  Right now, the only way to get multiple room Airplay capabilities is with a computer in the mix.  It is a bit ridiculous that multiple source Airplay isn’t available with the Apple Music iOS app, but if there is some sort of issue that makes Apple shy away from adding the feature to iOS (Note: the WHAALE app can handle multiple room AirPlay in iOS, so it is already possible with other apps), they have got to give us more functional control of Apple Music running on a computer within the iOS app.

Right now, Apple has an iOS app called Remote that will enable the user to control what is playing on a computer and where the music is playing.  It will allow you to send the audio signal to multiple Airplay speakers around the house, which can be very convenient.  However, right now the Remote app is limited to only playing music in your library.  This means you can’t just start listening to another album on Apple Music without adding it to your library first.

Ideally, it would work like Rdio’s feature (which was later added by Spotify) that allowed you to control the Rdio program running on a computer from the Rdio iOS app.  It had full control of what was playing and you simply used the Rdio iOS app as the remote.   Apple needs to do more in this area for people that want multiple room audio or for those that have a computer plugged into their main system and want to utilize Apple Music more fully in this environment.

When Apple introduced the iPad Pro, they acted like you could replace a five year old Windows computer with an iPad.  That is ridiculous when even basic AirPlay multiple room options aren't available on the iPad right now. ​

(Below is an example from the Remote app of how you have the ability to use Airplay with multiple Airplay devices when a computer is involved.)

I have read that some of the Apple Music changes will be simply cosmetic, like larger artwork and a monochrome theme.  Personally, I wouldn’t call either of these changes “sweeping changes”.  In fact, I like the look of the iOS app now.  I do think we need some cosmetic updates to iTunes/Apple Music on the Mac, none as important as the addition of Siri, but I think  the major changes I mentioned above would be more useful to a lot of users. 

This is the third part of an ongoing series to list (via screenshots) the "Mastered for iTunes" albums that Apple Music has spotlighted.  This is my favorite list so far, but nearly each week there are some great "Mastered for iTunes" albums presented.  The last couple that I have posted can be found in the links below:

Essential Jazz Albums: Mastered for iTunes
Essential Metal Albums: Mastered for iTunes

I have mentioned that Apple Music is my favorite app of 2015, but I wanted to talk about "Mastered for iTunes" and what it means for Apple Music.

The Mastered for iTunes program was implemented by Apple to give artists and sound engineers the best opportunity to provide iTunes with the highest quality masters available in Apple's 256k AAC format.  

Loudness Wars

The program has the ability to actually give you a better sounding file than the CD you have owned for years.  The reason is the "loudness wars".  This was a technique that was popularized (it was around before CDs) during the CD era that had engineers pushing up the levels to make the song/album sound louder on the radio.  This process can lead to dynamic range compression, clipping of the peaks in the audio wave, audio distortion, and lower sound quality.  

The upside was that when you were listening on the radio, your ears might perk up because the song was louder than the last song that was played.   I am not saying that this dynamic range compression was all bad because it did allow you to listen to albums in the car without making you turn up the radio to hear the lower volume parts of a song over road noise, while also making you turn down the louder parts because they were blowing out your speakers.  However, I will say that when this process is abused, which is a huge portion of CDs, especially in the 90s, it made it less tolerable to listen to the music on a decent system.   In other words, decent sound quality was surrendered to loudness.

Mastered for iTunes 

As a result, the "Mastered for iTunes" albums could actually sound better than that CD you bought back in 1991.  To quote Bob Ludwig (famous mastering engineer):

"Apple has begun a new initiative called "Mastered for iTunes" which greatly improves the sound of iTunes AAC encodes without changing a single piece of hardware on the 250,000,000 players in the field. It can be so dramatic you can easily hear the difference between the new and old technology on your little laptop speakers.

Instead of ingesting the music from a CD rip or 16-bit file, the new system uses 24-bit master files for the encode. The AAC encoder can make use of bits 17-24. An important addition is the realization that the act of AAC encoding can cause clipping where there was none on the original PCM .wav or .aiff file. In classical music this encoder induced clipping can occur at the occasional climaxes or in a typical over-compressed pop/rock recording, many times a second. Apple has created tools to log the number, severity and time of each clip so the mastering engineer can lower the level of the 24-bit master by fractions of a dB and the clips and resulting distortion from them is eliminated.

It is a complicated answer,but a 24-bit AAC encoded file can thus sound better and measure better in certain cases than a normal 16-bit Compact Disc, which unfortunately has been regarded as the gold standard for sound in these comparisons."

While I believe Apple still gives the artist/engineer enough rope to screw up an album, in the end, most of the albums I have heard in this format sound very good.  Steve Hoffman's forum has some of the most finicky sound quality fanatics on the planet, and overall,it seems that they are pretty happy with"Mastered for iTunes" releases.

So how does this fit into Apple Music? 

There is good and bad news in this respect.  Apple Music has a lot of "Mastered for iTunes" music.  The bad news is that there is no easy way to know which albums got the special mastering.  However, the good news is that "New" section has an area at the very bottom of the page that features "Mastered for iTunes" albums.  They have had everything from Classical, to Christmas, to Singer Songwriter, to Alternative Rock, to Pop and more already.  To be honest, I look forward to this section more than the new releases these days.  Here is an example from this month:

As you can see, even this month's "oldies" have some fantastic, all time great albums.  There are some great soul and rock albums that make it worth trying out all of them. Today, I have listened to Otis Redding, Elvis, Roy Orbison, The Beach Boys, and the Rolling Stones.  

I have read that most albums on Apple Music that have been remastered in the last few years are probably "Mastered for iTunes".  The album page typically has the date that the album was mastered.  However, I don't think that the mastering date absolutely guarantees that it was mastered for iTunes.

To Wrap Up:

Personally, I would love to see Apple provide lossless albums over Apple Music that take advantage of similar techniques.  However, the current process has the possibility of providing better sounding music despite the fact that the music is compressed.  For me, the fact that they aren't charging twice as much to hear better sound quality makes this music more obtainable that Tidal (which offers lossless audio for double the price).   I just wish they would make it easier to find these albums via the search option.  Also, I think the artist page would benefit from a special "Mastered for iTunes" section.  However, I don't want to complain too much because I am happy that Apple is providing them to us without raising the price for access. 

Apple Music is my choice for (most under appreciated) app of the year.  Thanks to one well known tech blogger not backing up his music files, Apple Music took a big hit right out of the gate.   Somehow, this person that writes about tech doesn't have a backup of his music and somehow lost his music.  I haven't seen anyone else with this issue, but he got picked up by so many tech blogs (it makes great click bait) that it soon seemed like it was a common issue.  Nope, just one person with an issue that also has a big megaphone.

 (As a side note: I was reading a year end article just today and his problem was brought up again.  If this issue is so widespread, why is everyone just quoting this one guy rather than talking about their own personal experience?  Yeah, it appears that the guy was one of the few people that had the issue and if some of the articles about his issue are true, he simply missed checking one of two boxes in the preferences on iTunes. )

While matching isn't perfect, it is better than not having any of your own music available. I have a 25,000 song library and I admit that I run into an issue with the wrong album artwork or wrong album showing up on occasion, but I don't think it is a federal crime. For one thing, I don't listen to my own music via the service that often (although it is a very nice perk that sets it apart from most of the competition).  Since they now have The Beatles, there is even less reason to listen to my own collection.

Secondly, the app has a home sharing button to get to my own untouched collection when I am home (it even supports 24/96 with the right DAC). Apple has millions of songs available and I have never been so desperate to listen to that one album that they may have matched incorrectly that I haven't been able to find something else to listen to.  It just hasn't happened. 

In short, I look at this as an extra, very nice, feature that has very little to do with the overall experience.  For one thing, my 25,000 song library is minuscule compared to their millions of songs. Of those 25,000 songs, a huge majority were matched properly.   

If I was so anal that missing one album in 1500 was a huge issue, I would probably just use Plex or DS Audio to access my music when on the road.  However, I like having my music combined with the streaming service so I can access nearly everything from one app.

Siri on iOS has been the real game changer here.  It is what sets this service apart from all of the other services and has made Apple Music my favorite and most used app this year.

As I have mentioned in aprior review, the service is absolutely amazing on the iPhone.  I can be driving to work and simply say "Hey Siri, play songs from 1972" and music just starts playing.   I can also tell it to play songs, albums, artists and they just play.   

The new AppleTV was released with the Apple Music app.  I have used Spotify, Rdio, and SiriusXM on my Roku, but they are practically empty shells compared to their iOS counterparts.  On the other hand, the Apple Music app is simply amazing on the AppleTV.  For example, the videos look a lot better on the big screen when compared to the iPhone/iPad.

Siri has also been added.  While it isn't perfect, it is a lot better than other music services on other platforms.

Apple Watch 

It is easily one of the best apps on the Apple Watch.  It is simply an extension of the iPhone, but it is an ultra-convenient extension.  You can play music from your saved library, your saved playlists, etc..  However, the real magic is that it works with Siri for the entire Apple Music database and you can also control Airplay while your iPhone is docked in a separate room.

While other services think I want to hear what my friend is listening to, Apple Music is built around MY TASTE.  I prefer this approach.  I am old school and consider music to be a personal experience,  not a way to follow the crowd.

The "New" section is kind of a catch all for just about anything new.  I was mainly using it for new releases, but I noticed that Apple has added a new section at the bottom of the page for "Mastered for iTunes" albums.  

I think mastering is more important that bit rates once you get in the 224 kbps range and Apple has some of the best masters of many albums.  I look at this feature about once a week and it has varied from classical albums (some of the all time great albums at that), Christmas albums, and this week they have singer/songwriter albums (Dylan, Simon, Springsteen, etc.).  This section alone is almost worth the price of the service for me.

Be aware that my thoughts on this issue go against the grain.  Many think that iTunes is getting to be a swollen dumpster where Apple throws everything.  I am not going to argue that they might want to think about breaking it up, but I like Apple Music mixed in with my music.  I simply leave on Apple Music and uncheck iCloud Music in the preference section after I match new music.  This leaves me with everything I want to hear, including my own Apple Lossless files and doesn't include the music that was matched to the cloud.  

On the Apple Music app on the AppleTV, you have to listen to the "Computer app" to get your own local library and "Apple Music" for the matched music and songs available for Apple Music.  I prefer the iTunes approach, so I don't have to jump from app to app to listen to music.

\I was a bit baffled by this section when the app first came out.  However, I have it setup for genres now and the suggestions are great when you want to hear a suggested album/artist/playlist from "Jazz", "Rock", etc.  It supplements the "For You" section, but is better for quickly getting to a genre.  As an example, "Americana" had a "A Very Folk Christmas" playlist available at Christmas.

You can also get to genres by going to the "New" section, but this is just a way to flip on the app, click one button, scroll down to the genre you want to hear, and play it.

It really is mind blowing to hear all of the complaints about the service.  No, it isn't perfect, but I could nitpick just about any service or product out there.  I have tried pretty much all of them and none of them are perfect...for one thing, none of them, other than Apple Music, currently work with Siri.  If you are on Android, then you do get some similar features, but you have to buy into that ecosystem and I am not going that route (Note:  If I was on Android, I would have made YouTube Red my app of the year).

In this case, the features, the compatibility across hardware, and the exceptional Siri control made this an easy pick for my app of the year.  

All things being equal, I will take lossless audio over lossy audio.

Note:  For the purpose of this article, when I refer to lossless, I am talking about Redbook CD 16/44.1 quality audio.

As I have mentioned in a prior post, I am switching to Apple Music because all things aren't equal.  

I have seen several articles about Apple's decision to use 256k AAC files.  Some are fine with compressed lossy files, some think they should have used lossless formats instead, and some think they should have a premium tier for those that want lossless.  I agree with those that would wish for at least a premium, lossless tier.

One of the most memorable and discussed parts of Walt Isaacson's Steve Jobs Biography was the part where Steve Jobs was talking about the lessons he learned from his father.  To quote the book:

"He loved doing things right. He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn’t see.”

To me, this represents Apple's brand and image more than anything else I have read or heard.  

With that note, I realize that Apple started with 128 Kbps files on iTunes and have since increased their bit rates to 256k AAC files.  In the past, I have always thought that these lossy bit rates were a necessary trade off to work with slow internet and cellular speeds and caps. 

With Tidal (and Deezer on Sonos) proving that a modern service can offer lossless format streaming and HD Tracks showing us that high resolution downloads are possible, it begs the question of why Apple doesn't have a premium tier for downloads or streaming?

One person offered the point that it would be more expensive for Apple to offer lossless because their potential user base is larger than Tidal's.  I don't believe it.  As more users pay a premium, theoretically, the fixed costs (the price to house the 30 million lossless files) should get cheaper on a per person basis.  The bandwidth required would go up, but I can't imagine a situation where Apple couldn't handle the bandwidth, not to mention that the extra users should easily cover the extra cost.  Apple is the same company telling us that 16 GB iPhones have enough memory because we can store all of our files in the cloud.  iTunes also streams 1080p movies with Dolby Digital soundtracks.  I don't believe bandwidth is the issue.

The other point is that "people can't appreciate or hear the difference".  First of all, I am waiting for any test that provides absolute proof of this assertion.  I have yet to read any test results that have conclusively shown that we can't hear a difference.  Most tests are set up based on statistical results of whether we can conclusively hear a difference. 

Just a quick analogy: I have two small chocolate milkshakes available and one has a giant cockroach mixed in and the other doesn't.  Next, I told you that we did a "blind test" and 8 out of 10 times our test subjects said they could taste the difference between the shake with the cockroach and the shake without the cockroach...inconclusive results under the typical audio ABX methodology.  

"Typically, a 95% confidence level is sufficient for psychoacoustic experiments. In other words, we want to be confident that less than 5% of completely random test results would indicate a perceptible difference.
http://lsbaudio.com/publications/AES127_ABX.pdf

Which milkshake would you drink if you had the option?  Most, I suspect, would choose the shake without the cockroach.  Why?  There is no conclusive test showing that a difference in taste exists.  It is because they know there is a difference between the two milkshakes.  If Baskin Robbins said that they had cockroaches in every milkshake, but it was inconclusive through ABX testing that you would actually taste the cockroach, how long would they be in business?  Do you think it would damage their brand?

In the Steve Jobs quote above, he doesn't seem to be professing that Apple doesn't care about the inside of a MacBook case because most people, under most circumstances, wouldn't notice a difference or care.  However, with audio they are taking the original file, removing bits, and hoping that under most scenarios, most people don't notice a difference or don't care.  Sorry, to these ears, it doesn't sound like the same degree of end-to-end quality is being applied...and I don't need an ABX test to figure that out.

The other issue that I mentioned is cellular caps.  That issue can be easily resolved by having the app default to a lower bit rate and making the user choose higher or lossless codecs.  Every other service, with the exception of Apple Music, that I have used, already gives you that option.

To wrap things up, I think lossless audio fits in with Apple's philosophy of end-to-end premium quality and providing a maximum of 256k lossy files doesn't.  That doesn't mean I will be switching to Tidal, it just means that in my mind, I know I have the equivalent of an unfinished, sloppy Mac enclosure that I have to live with in order to use OSX (Siri).  

If you know of some other reason that Tidal and Deezer can provide lossless streaming and Apple can't, please let me know.  My guess is that they have pushed the "Mastered for iTunes" at 256k for so long that they are ingrained in that bit rate, but I don't know for sure.

I have already written an article about the 20 things I would like to see Apple change with Apple Music, but I have decided to switch subscription streaming from Rdio despite the current issues.  

First off, I should mention that I mainly use iOS (iPhone 6 plus and iPad Air 2) for listening to music (Airplay or Dragonfly DAC at home, Bluetooth at work and in the car), so the switch from Rdio is mostly related to how the app works with iOS.   I do use iTunes on the Mac on occasion and don't have a major problem with it, although I feel the iOS makes better use of the service if only for Siri.  

Below are the main reasons for switching:

1.  Siri - When I was itemizing all of the things Apple Music was missing, I came to the realization that some features are just much more important than others.  There are many features on Rdio that I prefer to Apple Music (continue play, artist radio slider, and the ability to sort albums by different criteria, just to name a few).  However, Siri has made my life so much easier when I don’t want mess with the interface at all.  For example, I may be listening to sports radio in the car because the Griz just signed Marc Gasol.  However, three minutes in, they decided to discuss fishing…yes, fishing.  I decide to listen to music, but I don’t want to mess with the app.  I simply hit one button on the Nav control unit to change to bluetooth audio and one button on the iPhone. Siri then comes up on my car’s bluetooth, I tell "her" to shuffle all of my music and my music starts to play.  

When I am at home and just want to hear an album, I just pick up the iPhone and say "play the album Way out West by Sonny Rollins" or "play something by Sam and Dave" and music just starts playing.  It is great for home, the car, work, etc.

Having Siri integration is a major game changer!

2.  iTunes Match integration - I have been using iTunes Match for years.  The problem is that I would be in the Rdio app, then want to hear The Beatles, and I would need to leave one app and start another.  It was a pain.  Apple Music mingles my music collection with Apple Music and gives me the ability to easily listen to The Beatles or Prince without leaving the app.

NOTE:  Please do not delete your local library after you put your music in the cloud.  That is not a smart thing to do.  

!!!ALWAYS!!! Keep more than one local copy of all  your files.  If Apple somehow messes up every file in the cloud or on iTunes, you can simply delete them and import the files from the backup again (after you create a new backup from the old backup assuming the worst case scenario and all of your old iTunes files are ruined).  I thought this was academic, but I see well respected tech bloggers that haven't figured it out.  Maybe I need a post on that subject ?  Actually, I have written about how I backup up files a couple of times.  Link 1, Link 2.

3. For You - The recommendations are outstanding for when I don’t know what I want to hear or I just want to explore.  I prefer this particular page over any suggestion page available on any other service.  

The playlists introduce you to new artists and they also mingle artists' albums they know you like with albums that they think you will like.   The playlists they recommend are often fantastic with suggestions like  "ON SAX:BOBBY KEYS"....that includes The Stones, Clapton, BB King, Harry Nilsson, and John Lennon.  I would never have the ability to easily put this playlist together myself.  


In fact, I rarely ever use playlists.  I have mainly been more album oriented which is why I like artists like Radiohead, Sinatra, Pink Floyd, etc.   However, Apple has the ability to put together compelling playlists that not only include artists and songs that I would theoretically put in a playlist, but new artists and songs that I may not even know.  This leads to new discoveries, and in short, it is AWESOME!

4.  Car integration - I mentioned Siri above, but there is more.  In fact, I may create a video on just how great this works in my car (2014 BMW).  With Rdio, I had the ability to use Bluetooth audio, album art, and the ability to skip songs (Spotify didn't work properly at all..which is one of the reasons I dumped them).  

With Apple Music, I get several new features like the ability to search for albums, artists, genres, right from the navigation screen.  It has all of my music and any album or song I have moved to my library from Apple Music. It also keeps the playlists that I save and radio stations I have saved.  When I play an album, I can see and select any song on the album from the nav screen or from the heads up display with just the steering wheel controls.  Keep in mind, this is the first version of the app and it is much more integrated than the services that have been around for years.  

5.  New - this fits my needs better than other services, as well.  The ability to see a page with new releases from all genres combined, but also with the ability to find new releases based on genre is perfect for my needs.  If I want to hear new blues albums, I know exactly where I need to go to find the newest releases.  

The "New" page for each genre also contains recommended Playlists like "Blues for the Modern World", "Best of Chicago Blues", etc. (to give you a couple examples from the Blues genre).  Song charts for the genre are also here along with video and album charts in the Top Charts section.

6.  The other features like Radio and Connect aren't game changers for me, but I wouldn't remove them if I had the option.  Sometimes I want to hear ECM Selected Recordings, Mixtape, or other stations I created recently and the Radio section is the place to find them.  I use the Connect page to keep up with new entries from Apple Music genres like Apple Music Jazz, Apple Music Country, Apple Music Classic Rock, etc.  and Beats 1 creators ( even though I rarely ever listen to Beats1).

While I am not saying that Apple Music is perfect, I do feel that even right out of the gate it is the best service for my needs.  Since I use iOS at home and away, the integration with Siri alone could have been enough to get me to switch.  Those that are complaining about the many features and confusion could just as easily hit one button and tell Siri to play something.  It is so easy a 5 year old could do it.  

The complexity comes from it having so many features and the way we interact with the app determines whether we think those features are worthwhile.  Personally, I would keep all of the features, including Beats1 that I could live without.  The reason is that I have always preferred having options available over not having them available.  Maybe I will hit that Beats1 button out of boredom one day and be introduced to an amazing artist.  I just don't want to throw away that option.  

In short, I spent months deciding on which service to switch to when MOG was first bought by Beats.  I compared Rdio to Tidal, Spotify, and Beats and it won in so many categories that I was very happy with the service.  However, Apple Music beats Rdio right out of the gate with convenience (Siri), recommendations (For You), music selection (I have easy access to The Beatles, Prince, and Neil Young albums I own), and it works better in my car (Bluetooth Audio integration with the navigation screen in my car).  Apple isn't perfect at this point, but we are essentially talking about a beta, even if they didn't call it that.  Of course, there are bugs, but I have been using the service for a month and the bugs just aren't enough to make me want to switch back to using Rdio, so I cancelled the Rdio subscription service.  

You may remember I had a pre-launch wish list blog post that I released back in May.  Well, now that I am past the initial thrill of finally having music streaming with Siri integration and having my iTunes Match library merged into a streaming service, I am now ready for an updated wish list.  These are the top twenty things I would like to see addressed in the near future by Apple:

1.  Remote control features - The ability to control a computer app with the iOS app was the main reason I stayed with Rdio when Tidal came out with lossless streaming.  Apple had this built into their Remote app, but you can’t control Apple Music with it.  They need to add the ability ASAP.

2.  Airplay multi-room streaming from iOS.  It can’t be a post-PC world if I have to go to a computer to have access to features that should and can work with iOS. 

3.  Continue play - when an album ends, it should start playing music that it has curated around my tastes or similar music rather than just stopping.  Rdio can do this and Apple needs to do this.

4.  Playlists - you should be able to create a new playlist right from the song/album.  Right now it feels clunky because you have to navigate away from the page, add a new playlist, and make your way back to the song/album (it is easier to do if you started playing the album before navigating away, though). 

5.  Better Siri interaction - When I say “Play Classic Jazz from 1955", the service should know what I want to hear.  Don’t get me wrong, the way Siri works now is amazing, they just need a few tweaks.

6.  Similar Artists - On iOS, sometimes I pull up an artist and look for similar artists.  They have each artist present in a round icon with their photo.  Half the time, I click on it and it does nothing.  Probably a bug, but there is missing links that should be there.

7.  Bugs…  Too many of them.  People should not have to worry about messing up their entire library when installing the new version of iTunes.  When I open the app, I should not get a screen telling me to sign up for Apple Music after I have already signed up.  The iCloud music merging was buggy, as well.  I had to toggle the “switch” back and forth before my library showed up.

8. Better instructions - An explanation of how DRM works with your files that are uploaded, what it means to have the iCloud music library box checked in iTunes preferences, etc.  I think a lot of the stuff you can figure out if you have ever used an app, but these basic features need to be spelled out.

9.  Videos - I should be able to Airplay video to my AppleTV.  Instead, I hit the Airplay button and only get music.    

10.  Video should have a full screen option on the iPad.  Instead, it is in a small box that does’t utilize the entire screen in landscape mode.

11.  Speaking of landscape mode, I got a 6 plus to be able to turn the phone on the side and use it in landscape mode.  In this case, it works for video, but the rest of the app is inexplicably only in portrait.  

12.  AppleTV app - If I can’t Airplay videos, I should be able to play them natively on my AppleTV, but there isn’t an Apple Music app.  The entire point of having an AppleTV instead of a Roku/Fire is that it interacts with Apple stuff.  Not having this capability at launch is a disappointment.

13. An option for lossless or hi-rez versions of the music for an additional fee.  Right now, Tidal has lossless audio that sounds fantastic.  I realize that Apple has “mastered for iTunes” songs that sound great, however, I don’t see a way to know when or if you are getting “mastered for iTunes” quality.  Also, no matter what they do with their lossy compression, lossless has the potential to sound better.  

14.  Speaking of compression, I want the ability to dial down the bitrate from 256k.  AT&T is nice enough to send me a text when I am nearing my monthly data cap.  I would love to be able to tell the app to steam at a lower resolution on cellular only.

15.  Album/Artist Reviews - Rdio uses AllMusic/Rovi reviews to populate their reviews.  Apple apparently has their own method and it is awful.  I thought I would just go to AllMusic’s website to get reviews, but it has pop up ads that steal the audio steam, so your music cuts off.   Apple has spent a lot of time on the “For You” recommendations, but when a new album turns up, you usually have no way to read about it in the app.  

16.  Pick up where you left off - When I close the app, I want the music I was listening to when I closed it to show up in the que when I restart the app.  

17.  Sorting albums by release date, alphabetical, or its popularity.

18.  Search/Listen to music by music label. ECM, a Blue Note, etc.

19.  Bring back Homesharing - I don’t want to waste my data cap streaming from the web when my music is sitting on iTunes in the office.  Also, my music is in lossless formats.  I don’t want to stream in 256k when the lossless file is available.

20.  Instead of putting Beats1 at the top of the page (on iOS) with a huge icon, they need to put “recently played” at the top.  If people are listening to Beats1, it will be in the recently played.  If they aren’t, it should show up below their recently played music.