Apple Music is the last library focused music service • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#21

Post by LeoPanthera » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 8:12 PM UTC

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #11

The product referred to as "Apple Music" isn't library focused. The app now known as Music and the service known as "iTunes Match" is. Apple Music is the music as a service subscription that keeps pushing adverts in app and keeps turning itself back on even if you're not subscribed and have turned it off.

All the features of "iTunes Match" are included in Apple Music as long as you have "Sync Library" turned on.

For a while there was a subtle difference in that music uploaded to Apple Music would have DRM applied to it, and iTunes Match would not, but this is no longer the case.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#22

Post by LeoPanthera » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 8:13 PM UTC

I use Plex to stream my local music library. The "Plexamp" client player is, well, buggy as hell, but it mostly works, and will transcode on the fly if it needs to.

As a bonus it works for videos too.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#23

Post by grumpyprole » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 8:15 PM UTC

etchalon wrote: post #13

shmerl wrote: post #6

I prefer to buy, not rent music. Bandcamp is good for it and they sell FLAC. This is also fitting comparison to cassettes library a lot more than Apple Music where it's not your library, but Apple's. Other stores like 7digital are also good.

You can buy DRM free files from Apple. So the file is yours, transferrable, but you also can always go back and get another copy from Apple. The combination of the iTunes Store, Apple Music, and iTunes Match is the most expansive music service offering I can think of.

iTunes won't even play FLAC files, so it's rather inconvenient for people with existing libraries. Yes I know I could convert it all to some proprietary Apple format, but it's easier to just not buy an iPhone.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#24

Post by lolsal » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 8:16 PM UTC

jl6 wrote: post #15

lolsal wrote: post #3

The more I use a streaming music service like Spotify, the more new music I find, but the shorter my musical memory becomes.

I believe memory formation is aided by multi-sensory perceptions. The experience of going somewhere to buy a CD, unwrapping it, opening it, putting it in a specific player at a certain time of the day, getting up to hit the next track button… this is a much richer set of experiences that form a much tighter web of recollection than just the audio alone. These experiences may all be totally mundane or even tiresome, b…

I don't know about all that - I can easily look back at my music library and browse through what I listened to 2 years ago. That is nearly impossible on Spotify (I assume on purpose).

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#25

Post by willis936 » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 8:18 PM UTC

andrewla wrote: post #16

Google Play Music was extremely album-focused, but their move over to YouTube Music has basically scrapped that. GPM even let you modify the metadata for albums; I had used this to strip out things like "(2020 Remaster Special Gold Edition)" from album names, and to cut "bonus" tracks off of albums (nothing as fun as playing an album and then getting a two hour long spoken word interview with Quincy Jones), and final…

I've been on the same journey. My plan is to self host plex. Cache the music I want, VPN/stream when I want to add more to the cache.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#26

Post by devmunchies » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 8:18 PM UTC

shmerl wrote: post #6

I prefer to buy, not rent music. Bandcamp is good for it and they sell FLAC. This is also fitting comparison to cassettes library a lot more than Apple Music where it's not your library, but Apple's. Other stores like 7digital are also good.

From the article: > Uploading your music to the cloud and streaming them as any other song

You can purchase music from Bandcamp and upload it to your apple collection. I bought an album from Bandcamp today.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#27

Post by amelius » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 8:21 PM UTC

gglitch wrote: post #4

Music-as-a-Service is fantastic as a convenience, and I too have discovered a lot of great music this way, but (a) I all the time want to listen to a record and find it missing from their catalogs; and (b) as with so much else on the web, I'm so over the constant minor psychological drag of knowing that my interactions are being tracked, logged, and gamed.

Minor conveniences will destroy the world.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#28

Post by echelon » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 8:23 PM UTC

andrewla wrote: post #16

Google Play Music was extremely album-focused, but their move over to YouTube Music has basically scrapped that. GPM even let you modify the metadata for albums; I had used this to strip out things like "(2020 Remaster Special Gold Edition)" from album names, and to cut "bonus" tracks off of albums (nothing as fun as playing an album and then getting a two hour long spoken word interview with Quincy Jones), and final…

The degradation of Google Play Music into YouTube Music has to be one of the most disappointing product merges in history. All of the power functionality disappeared. I can't even find the music I want anymore without great effort.

As a consequence, I'm listening to my favorite artists less frequently, and haven't even thought about concerts, festivals, albums, etc.

A dumb but rich tabular music + metadata store would be a game changer. Add in tags and multi-dimensional ranking, and I'd be in heaven. Add an API, and I'll gladly pay $50/mo.

I want iTunes 1.0, but with the ability to sync between the cloud and all of my devices. With smart playlists that can operate over my tags and ratings.

That's it. No music videos, no real need for album art or lyrics, but certainly no UI removed for simplicity or dumbing down the product.

I want to index and traverse my music in my own way.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#29

Post by AlexandrB » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 8:25 PM UTC

LeoPanthera wrote: post #21

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #11

The product referred to as "Apple Music" isn't library focused. The app now known as Music and the service known as "iTunes Match" is. Apple Music is the music as a service subscription that keeps pushing adverts in app and keeps turning itself back on even if you're not subscribed and have turned it off.

All the features of "iTunes Match" are included in Apple Music as long as you have "Sync Library" turned on. For a while there was a subtle difference in that music uploaded to Apple Music would have DRM applied to it, and iTunes Match would not, but this is no longer the case.

Is DRM applied to iTunes Match too now? That's unfortunate.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#30

Post by victorbstan » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 8:26 PM UTC

This is why I find it extremely irritating when non apple users can’t understand why I use apple stuff. On many levels, not just music, they offer things others don’t.