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Apple Music beta available on Android

Sweet! Looks like it requires Lollipop and also phone only. It caught my M7 and S4 but incompatible with my two tablets (KitKat and Lollipop).
 
Anyone make use of Apple Music on any platform?

How does it compare to Play Music, especially for music discovery using playlists/radio (radio based on a song or artist). Sometimes I've been happy with Play Music's radio playlists, but other times I find it extremely lacking. I always fondly remember how well Spotify's radio playlists work (amazing!), but I didn't feel it was justified paying into Spotify in addition to Play Music All Access Pass, as I am not a fan of Spotify's actual music storage (caching) and store methods.

If nothing else, perhaps I will look into a premium Pandora or other radio-specific service, not as much of an expense.

But if Apple Music can out-compete Play Music on all fronts, and it gets the typical iTunes-exclusive content as well, I may be interested.
 
I've used and subscribed to Pandora and Spotify, using Apple Music now, honestly, I like the other services better, but want to give it a shot...

I do like that the music is more current than Pandora, and it seems a little less buggy than Spotify.

It is free for the first 3 months, just cancel when the 3 months is up.
 
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I tried it on my iPad, so I'm not sure how the apps compare. I have tried most of the paid streaming services but have been on Play Music for over a year now. One thing about Play Music, the app interface sucks. Badly. At the same time however, I found for my music tastes that the radio was by far the best so I stayed with it.

I figured I would give the Apple service a try. Surely their app would be a polished piece of art? Nope. It sucks too. For me the Apple Music was better for discovery but worse for radio. Since the app wasn't much better than Google's I didn't continue with the service.
 
DaveStall said:
I tried it on my iPad, so I'm not sure how the apps compare. I have tried most of the paid streaming services but have been on Play Music for over a year now. One thing about Play Music, the app interface sucks. Badly. At the same time however, I found for my music tastes that the radio was by far the best so I stayed with it.

I figured I would give the Apple service a try. Surely their app would be a polished piece of art? Nope. It sucks too. For me the Apple Music was better for discovery but worse for radio. Since the app wasn't much better than Google's I didn't continue with the service.
Click to expand...
Hmm, thanks for the feedback as this answers the questions I had. I'll stick with Google Play Music.
 
destrekor said:
Anyone make use of Apple Music on any platform?

How does it compare to Play Music, especially for music discovery using playlists/radio (radio based on a song or artist). Sometimes I've been happy with Play Music's radio playlists, but other times I find it extremely lacking. I always fondly remember how well Spotify's radio playlists work (amazing!), but I didn't feel it was justified paying into Spotify in addition to Play Music All Access Pass, as I am not a fan of Spotify's actual music storage (caching) and store methods.

If nothing else, perhaps I will look into a premium Pandora or other radio-specific service, not as much of an expense.

But if Apple Music can out-compete Play Music on all fronts, and it gets the typical iTunes-exclusive content as well, I may be interested.
Click to expand...

I do. I'd say that the Apple and Google approaches reflect fundamental differences in how the companies approach... well, everything. Google is mostly about algorithms and search -- it's big on automatically generated playlists and radio, but it feels pretty cold and inhuman. Apple doesn't do the automatic stuff very well, but it's big on human-curated stuff. Its playlists were obviously made by real people, like a list of songs that sample the legendary Amen Break. Heck, even its main internet radio service (Beats 1) revolves around real DJs picking tracks. You may not always like what Apple chooses, but you're more likely to discover something new or interesting.

The interface isn't spectacular, but I do like how it handles queuing... at least, compared to Spotify. That service has an odd obsession with keeping albums in your queue after you've played them, and makes it hard to clear your queue or play something right after you finish listening to your current song. That and it's nice to have access to things like Apple Music Festival concert sets or the occasional album exclusive.
 
I did the whole 3-month trial of Apple Music on my iPod, and I found it great! The only other streaming service that I like is Spotify. I couldn't stand Play Music, and I tried it several times. The interface just feels confusing to me.

Of course, I am a dinosaur and I treated music streaming site exactly like I treated the awesome 5-discs CD changer I had installed in my car back in the early 90s (only a loooot more CDs). I don't care about discovery or curated stuff. Even the 'random' option is something that I never touched. When I wanted to listen to music, I know what I want to listen, so I grabbed the few CDs I feel like listening (searched it on the streaming site), put them inside my changer (add the whole albums to my playlist, maybe set several different playlist consisting of a few albums each), and listen to the music, in order, which I believe is what the artists intended the music to be listened to (I do have quite a high percentage of live performances CDs, so jumping around tracks wouldn't make much sense).

I currently have a Microsoft Groove subscription because of a sale they had early in the year. When this is over I'll probably go back to Spotify Free. I will consider doing Apple Music family, although seems like a waste for only two people.
 
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Megatomic said:
Hmm, thanks for the feedback as this answers the questions I had. I'll stick with Google Play Music.
Click to expand...

If you are curious though the trial is pretty painless. Just because I didn't see a reason to switch doesn't mean others won't. I use the web interface quite a bit with Play Music and that was really where I disliked the Apple service the most. The app you can live with if you like the service.
 
I keep an eye out for those discounted iTunes gift cards, reduces the subscription costs quite a bit, just scored a $100 GC from Paypal for $75.
 
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