Apple Music Is a Usability Nightmare • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Music Is a Usability Nightmare

#41

Post by throwaway3453 » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 2:36 AM UTC

GauntletWizard wrote: post #34

throwaway3453 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you want a reply, or the catharsis of getting downvoted from "stupid" users who like rap?

I want an argument about how often I am seeing people being offended by having their preferences criticized. I can take somebody disagreeing with me (except on this issue, of course :) ), and civil society relies on criticism, and people accepting criticism. Berating people because they are dismissive of things they don't like is a path that lies madness. Feedback should not be purely positive, truncating the negativ…

Right, there's disagreement to teach or learn about another's opinion, but you're engaged in something more indulgent.

I don't believe you're interested in the merits of civil discourse, no, you just enjoy the declaration of your opinion.

"Feedback should not be purely positive," right, it should at least be constructive.

Re: Apple Music Is a Usability Nightmare

#42

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 2:36 AM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #25

[deleted] wrote: post #15

[deleted]

It's pretty basic. The advantage of Apple Music is the hand curated content, integrated 24/7 radio station and ability to view artist posts. As it stands now it really isn't worth the money.

[deleted]

Re: Apple Music Is a Usability Nightmare

#43

Post by threeseed » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 2:37 AM UTC

mbell wrote: post #38

shadowfiend wrote: post #12

The criticisms here are 100% fair… But it's worth remembering that Spotify's fundamental unit is the user playlist. It's what the social experience is built around, it's what the user's experience is built around, it's what the consumption experience is built around. Apple Music, on the other hand, has a pretty strong bent towards curation and suggestion. It's clearly oriented to encourage you to use the curated play…

> But it's worth remembering that Spotify's fundamental unit is the user playlist I don't think that is true. My interaction with Spotify is much more about listening to an artist or song and using 'more like this'. And the fundamental unit of sharing is 'friend x listened to this song'. If I know I like their tastes I tend to list to that song then, if I like it, listen to 'more like this'. I spent about an hour ear…

Weird for me it seems exactly right. I tend to share and follow playlists not individual songs.

Also I have had no issue getting Apple Music to work the way I want including what you were trying to achieve. I just clicked on Top Songs and it opened as a playlist where after the first song finished it played the next one. Maybe you were clicking the indvidiual songs ?

Re: Apple Music Is a Usability Nightmare

#44

Post by baddox » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 2:37 AM UTC

I don't think I'll ever be interested in radio or "music discovery" services, but I'm already a huge fan of the Apple Music app update, because it finally adds the "play next" and "up next" feature that has been conspicuously absent for so long.

Re: Apple Music Is a Usability Nightmare

#45

Post by baddox » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 2:37 AM UTC

iLoch wrote: post #18

cezarywojcik wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bad - I removed the quotes. I was just feeling annoyed over the course of using Apple Music.

Not sure what you were expecting though? I mean, it's a radio station. They're going to play all sorts of music. Today was the first time The Chronic by Dr. Dre has been streamable and so they played it on Beats 1 (the whole album I think?) - but that came after they were playing indie/alternative music for an hour. Perhaps you tuned in at the wrong time.

Especially a radio station called Beats.

Re: Apple Music Is a Usability Nightmare

#46

Post by bhauer » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 2:39 AM UTC

I don't use or care about Apple Music. But had to upvote for Opeth in the screenshots.

Re: Apple Music Is a Usability Nightmare

#47

Post by GauntletWizard » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 2:44 AM UTC

obstinate wrote: post #40

GauntletWizard wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want an argument about how often I am seeing people being offended by having their preferences criticized. I can take somebody disagreeing with me (except on this issue, of course :) ), and civil society relies on criticism, and people accepting criticism. Berating people because they are dismissive of things they don't like is a path that lies madness. Feedback should not be purely positive, truncating the negativ…

Saying that rap is not music may be criticism. But it is certainly ignorant and unconstructive criticism. It is criticism in the same sense that "your mom" jokes are.

Your mom is an ignorant and unconstructive critic.

Re: Apple Music Is a Usability Nightmare

#48

Post by braythwayt » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 2:54 AM UTC

gress wrote: post #13

This is basically clickbait designed to capitalize on the new service. With zero observation of what people want and how they experience it, he conducts a dry and pedantic assassination of the UI. I've talked to 4 regular users today all of whom were having an enjoyable experience and expressing no concern about the UI - instead the conversation was all about what it was allowing people to discover and listen to. The…

It is not a usability analysis, it’s an experience report.

My only quibble is the title. If he personalized it (“My Apple Music Nightmare”), I would be 100% satisfied.

Re: Apple Music Is a Usability Nightmare

#49

Post by JohnyLy » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 3:37 AM UTC

I don't think the problem is the usability, the problem is that they don't propose anything new. I remember Steve Jobs saying something like we should not copy others but we have to do things different. With Apple Music, they just try to copy existing services. For example, iMap was a failure but at least they tried to propose something different from the competition. Not with Apple Music.

Re: Apple Music Is a Usability Nightmare

#50

Post by coned88 » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 4:04 AM UTC

Frankly I hate that spotify is so built around playlists. I have never made a playlist in my entire life and don't plan to. It's a great tool for making a list of songs for a party or maybe a road trip. Maybe a parent wants to get a kids favorite songs for a car ride to school. Things like that are of great use.

But overall why do we need a playlist to add songs to a library. I have so many gigs of music on my desktop. When I pay for a music subscription I want to replicate that.

Trying to do that in spotify is a disaster. Not only does the interface both web and fat client become slow and cluttered but you don't get a hierarchical view.

I went back to just following artists on spotify. Then when I want to listen to an album I just go through the semi hierarchy. I tend to listen to full albums not songs.

The fact that you can't save an entire artist on spotify says everything.

I really like Google Play music but google doesn't give it the care spotify does. Google takes the stance that their algorithms can solve every problem and spotify knows humans need to be there to fix some issues. One common issue I saw on Google Play Music was albums belonging to artists of the same or very similar names being listed on each other pages. The worst part is google gives users no way to alert them.

I truly hope apple shakes things up.