29 comments

  • Maciej ZadykowiczMaciej Zadykowicz, almost 8 years ago

    You kinda lost me at criticising Apple's algorithms or playlist curation as being 'so 2010', whereas in 2015 it's Spotify that still can't give me a single meaningful music recommendation.

    16 points
    • Spencer HoltawaySpencer Holtaway, almost 8 years ago

      Apple Music has the best playlists I've seen/heard out of Spotify, Rdio, Google Play Music, and Pandora. It actually seems to try to recognize my taste in music rather than buzzfeed me a bunch of popular stuff "I should like".

      4 points
      • Brendan McDonaldBrendan McDonald, almost 8 years ago

        100% agree. The Apple Music mobile app is a mess: basic actions like adding things to a playlist take way too many taps. However, the killer feature of a music app is the actual music. Apple has the deepest library by far and makes it the easiest to discover a genuinely cool playlist that I like.

        Also, user behavior I hadn't noticed before: I'm way more likely to discover a new artist in playlist that sounded like something I'd like than to listen to a recommendation from an app and listen to an artist I don't know. If this is true of users generally, playlists should be pushed much more than artists. That does require the service to have great playlists, which I've only found Apple to have. (I loved Songza's playlists, but haven't noticed the quality transition with the team to Google Play Music. Which makes no sense, but was my experience.)

        4 points
    • Tom Koszyk, almost 8 years ago

      So i think it depends on a suer. I love my weekly spotify recommendations in "Discover Weekly" playlist. Beside that I'm discovering tons of great music from my friends activity feed - something Apple Music doesn't have

      0 points
    • Ian GoodeIan Goode, almost 8 years ago

      This is totally a case of YMMV. In my case Spotify Discover serves up exactly what I like but have never heard of before, it's spooky. Apple Music on the other hand was giving me "Intro to X" playlists where X was a band I'd been listening to for years.

      I've no doubt Apple's algorithms and curation would be better with more time spent using the service, but right now it's not worth it.

      2 points
    • Luke JonesLuke Jones, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

      Echo Nest, the system that drives Spotify's recommendations, does an admirable job, whereas Apple does a mediocre job at best. Check out Discover Weekly. The only people I know who it doesn't work for so far are those who either share their Spotify account with someone, or who don't use Spotify often enough for it to have an opinion on your music taste.

      1 point
  • Robin RaszkaRobin Raszka, almost 8 years ago

    No

    9 points
  • Brandon SoubaBrandon Souba, almost 8 years ago

    "Users continuously explore music library searching for a new music that suits their tastes. It should be easy. "

    Which is why you included a prominent and obvious search area. Or not - wait, where the heck is search?

    7 points
  • Joshua MillerJoshua Miller, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

    First impressions...looks a lot like Spotify. Those recommendations with the full screen background/ artist mood...Spotify.

    Digging deeper...OS X is pushing more toward a full screen approach and has been since 10.7. With the new split screen views of 10.11, think more in terms of adaptive layouts and how that is going to affect the user. From mobile to TV, the same app, similar experiences. Because of an adaptive layout, you got it right when you mentioned navigation is key. iTunes still seems to be very confusing for most folks in that regard.

    Left to right and top to bottom are still appropriate methods for navigation [see Mail OS X], but we can do more than that with context up front in an adaptive layout. On a Mac for instance the sidebar can be substituted for the ever present menu bar.

    We also can't forget that iTunes is a one stop shop for all syncing, playback, and management of all media - not just music.

    7 points
  • Diego LafuenteDiego Lafuente, almost 8 years ago

    Designers get lost on prettyness but I still miss something so simple and effective as Winamp with a little tunning for nowadays uses. I don't give a **** fullscreen images or typography or fullscreen apps, just make something tiny usable for listening music, something that doesn't each 2gb RAM.

    3 points
    • Aaron WadeAaron Wade, almost 8 years ago

      Vox is heading down that path. UI isn't killer, but it's dead simple compared to most other music players on OS X currently.

      2 points
    • JC .JC ., almost 8 years ago

      Those big images you see in Spotify actually entices me to check out artist I do not know about (such as when I go to an artist page or the Spotify landing page where they recommend me artists/curated playlists).

      I do agree that if you know exactly what you want to listen to, a winamp UI would be more ideal.

      1 point
  • Jim RenaudJim Renaud, almost 8 years ago

    Kind of interesting that you wouldn't start with the overwhelming use case, mobile. I'd venture to say an overwhelming majority of people are using Apple Music on mobile, and I'd venture to say, the mobile experience is even worse than the desktop version.

    3 points
    • Tom Koszyk, almost 8 years ago

      I was using Apple Music on Desktop, so I know the problems of Desktop users, that's why i started with desktop version: I know this side of the service better

      1 point
  • Antonio PratasAntonio Pratas, almost 8 years ago

    I love the design, but again, as someone already said, it's spotify.

    2 points
  • Jim SilvermanJim Silverman, almost 8 years ago

    confused by the capitalization of "kanYe West"

    2 points
  • Jono HerringtonJono Herrington, almost 8 years ago

    If the idea is to take Apple Music and make it look exactly like Spotify and nothing like any of the other Apple native apps ... then you got a winner. Else ... I think this looks like a rip off of Spotify. Sorry man!

    1 point
  • Renee PRenee P, almost 8 years ago

    Totally agree with the need to improve Apple Music's navigation. At the moment I find it so irritating and confusing, and some of the labels just don't make sense

    0 points
  • Moeed MohammadMoeed Mohammad, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

    The biggest problem with Apple Music (on Desktop) is that you have to use iTunes to access it. I think it would've been much better if they had made it web based and separated the Connect feature as a standalone app — think Instagram for Musicians and their followers.

    Having Apple Music web based would also let them be a little more adventurous in terms of design, have better on boarding, better sharing with friends and learning what they are listening to/curating.

    0 points
  • Tom Koszyk, almost 8 years ago

    Nice redesign concept of Apple Music service and iTunes

    0 points