3 Reasons We Struggled to Like Apple Music: Part 2 of 3
Much like the anticipated Google+ with social media, Apple Music was a thinly veiled attempt to monopolize the music streaming industry. As Spotify and Apple-product lovers, we naturally had to put it to the test. And so, the Apple Music Experiment was born.
Today we discuss Part 2 of our Experiment, check out the nitty gritty details of what’s actually offered, and compare the offerings to other products on the market.
In case you missed it, you can find Part 1 here.
Features
Let’s be honest – we can deal with outdated features for a while as long as we know the content is worth it.
The first step to exploring Apple Music is to open the music app and log in to your Apple ID*. Well, technically, you have to find the sign-up page for Apple Music within the Music app.
The next step is just as tedious and largely ineffective: building your taste profile. About 15-20 bubbles appear on the screen, each with the name of a genre.
Tap once to like, twice to love, and hold to dislike (the bubble bursts). While this seems like an easy way to sort your likes, it ended up being counterproductive, since it’s hard to get granular here.
For example, I don’t like Bubblegum Pop, but I love Pop/Rock. I don’t like Spoken-Word Poetry, but I like standup routines.
With the Apple Music profile setup, you have to pick the whole category.
Then on the next screen, it’ll give you as many as 20 artists from the various genres you selected, and you vote on those the same way. This can somewhat improve your taste profile, and you can even have it add more bubbles and give you more artists, improving it further.
However, if you like a wide variety of music, or, alternatively, very specific music, this puts you at a frustrating disadvantage. The result of the taste profile is a bunch of artists and playlists you don’t want to “Follow,” and a lot more you have to search for yourself.
In a world with millions upon millions of music artists, such generalized music genres make it difficult to enjoy streaming and find new music you actually like. T
o give you an idea of what Apple is up against, Spotify has 32 genres or “moods,” each with hundreds and hundreds of playlists and artists to choose from and diversify your taste with.
They have all the traditional genres, like R&B and Pop, plus Mood playlists like, “Chill,” “Workout,” and “Trending.”
They also have a whole playlist – updated weekly – with the best of the newly released music in the industry. In addition to exploring the world of music easier, Spotify also makes it really simple to connect with your friends and other users and see their playlists. Now, I don’t usually like apps syncing with my Facebook, but I always enjoy seeing the personality in what my friends and family listen to, and how they name their playlists.
Next time, we’ll TALK ABOUT HOW APPLE MUSIC RANKS WITH THE COMPETITION…Stay tuned for Part 3!
