Live data from Hacker News

Apple Music is the last library focused music service

erdaltoprak.com

181–190 of 246 posts

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#181

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.

That's not correct. iTunes Match, which the author mentions, is responsible for exactly 1 of the features listed: > Uploading your music to the cloud and streaming them as any other song Everything else is part of Apple Music, the streaming service: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Music

Since all the apps are just called "Music" anyway (remember the iPod app?) I think it's a difficult distinction to make. It's the Music app by Apple, which has an optional subscription that is also called "Apple Music" verbatim.

Match is just hidden legacy, because the standard subscription includes it's features anyway.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm around 18-24 months ago I gave Apple Music a try but found there were TONS of tracks from my personal library that the service would not play. Perhaps they’ve improved things since then? I went all-in using Plex as a personal media server since then and while the UI isn’t as nice, it lets me steam my personal library anywhere from any device.

You may have chosen not to subscribe to iTunes Match which is the feature which gives you access to Apple's servers to host all your songs instead of keeping them strictly local. At least that is how I understand it.

I’m pretty positive I did this actually as I recall the ‘match’ service being an additional fee. I was stoked to have a cloud option for my library as I’d been maintaining it for 10+ years and always griping about backups. I recall it working great for tunes I’d purchased from Bandcamp but when it came to tracks which had been in my library for many years (originating from many different sources), they simply didn’t show up in my library. Again- this was around 2 years ago so it’s possible this is no longer an issue.

I’ve since setup a Synology NAS with Plex and it’s mostly great.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm around 18-24 months ago I gave Apple Music a try but found there were TONS of tracks from my personal library that the service would not play. Perhaps they’ve improved things since then? I went all-in using Plex as a personal media server since then and while the UI isn’t as nice, it lets me steam my personal library anywhere from any device.

You may have chosen not to subscribe to iTunes Match which is the feature which gives you access to Apple's servers to host all your songs instead of keeping them strictly local. At least that is how I understand it.

You don’t need to subscribe to Match if you’re an Apple Music subscriber.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#184

Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Google Music or whatever now is called. I tried them all. They are all the same to me. There is one big thing that all these streaming services are missing: *METADATA* Give me all the album by this label, all the songs produced by X or all the songs where in Y plays drums. All the albums recorded at some studio in the year Z. With tools like this I will spend years (and whatever money) on…

please god, do not buy out discogs and leave it the hell alone. i already stopped last.fm after CBS ruined it. I've used every music service and quit for a multitude of reasons. Libraries that "have everything" but manage to be missing albums or have albums takne down all the time, "shuffle" functions that don't work (Spotify), apps that prioritize and shove music in your face that you have no interest in (Tidal), or…

> apps that prioritize and shove music in your face that you have no interest in (Tidal)

Tidal’s ML algorithm has a pretty strong prior probability set to match their owner’s taste.

However, their recommendations are excellent for other genres once their suggestion algorithm has had time to digest your library and listening habits (about a week or two for me).

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#185

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…

Like several other comments here, I had the same experience as you and decided to go with plex. What no one mentioned is that plex allows you to add a tidal library in addition to your self hosted content. It's not a perfectly seamless experience because you have to mark tidal albums one at a time to add to your self hosted library and I don't think you can cache them offline on plexamp (for android at least), but it…

Roon is great, both for personal listening and for parties. I've discovered great music by leaving a cheap tablet with the Roon UI open at parties, and hearing what people come up with. Several times we've had groups passing the tablet back and forth with comments like "Well, if you like that, then try this..."

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I’m not sure if this solves your issue but you can uncheck ‘add songs to library’ then only songs/albums that you actually add to your library show up and others only live in playlists!

Oh, that’s super interesting! I see the setting and I’ll check if it solves my issue (it sounds like it does). I wonder if this setting got introduced or changed in the last year or two, because I don’t remember having the problem before that.

This setting is going to change your life (maybe hyperbole...). It's one of the things that makes me really appreciate Apple Music.

With this setting, and an interface that can group playlists by album and filter them by artist, you can get as many additional "virtual libraries" as you want, kinda like Twitter lists. Remember you can also put playlists themselves into folders and create dynamic playlists.

You can assemble music for various situations or events, manage things like "planning to check out" etc without polluting your core library.

If you want to go deep on this and use iOS, check out Marvis Pro also.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#187
post #174
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify is actually the only one of the big 3 (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music) that doesn't have a cloud music locker feature, and it's basically the entire reason I can't use it. However, both YouTube Music and Apple Music treat your uploaded stuff as second-class citizens to the stuff streamed from their music collection. Which is one of the biggest reasons I miss GPM, since it was much better for that. YouTub…

In what way are they second class? I actually feel the opposite way, because I can use only uploaded/matched tracks in apps like Djay, Capo or GarageBand.

My only lament is lack of family sharing, other than that it's been seamless for me.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#188
post #56

Apple Music is library focused if you have very simple requirements and if your "library" was created, or coincident with, the iTunes ecosystem. The OP notes "Folder based navigation" and "... Folder based playlists" but note the use of the word "folder" and not "directory". Take a look at this dialog box: https://www.tech-recipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/itun... ... and note all of the fine-grained ways to sor…

I don't think it's fair to say that it only works for simple library situations. I happily tend to a large and intricate library with it.

You just need to give up on real files and folders. If you want the fusion of library focus and streaming service, they don't make sense anyway. iTunes is going to take over all management of the filesystem. You just have to surrender all that, than it can be very powerful.

If you actually wanted to migrate, you could copy the filename into the comment tag on the way in, but that seems dirty.

Re: Apple Music is the last library focused music service

#189
post #87
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.

I'm considering taking a break from spotify premium and I'm wondering what the cheapest way to buy music is these days. It seems like buying and ripping used cd's might actually be the way to go. Of course you don't get FLAC that way.

What? Ripping CDs is one of the best ways to get a high-quality FLAC.
Post reply on HN