Apple Music - help a noob! (5 Viewers)

[DaveF]

Moved to the other thread sorry. It says Apple lossless is $0 and changes everything about music quality.

Its funny. recommended.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/apple-lossless-and-spatial-audio.282123/post-5011980

I’ll read any article. And I can listen to audio (podcasts). But my lifestyle is not conducive to watching long youtube videos.

 

[DaveF]

…
The web interface, while a bit clunky for that favorites list (strictly by time/date added), isn't too bad otherwise and they seem to tweak its operation regularly. The most annoying thing is they tend to play the same grouping of 3 or 4 commercials in the same order for days on end. That said, a typical album is only interrupted a couple of times for that commercial break and I often just hit mute while it plays. They have a desktop client but I've not used it in over a year. I'd tried it to see if it manages your liked music better. IIRC it does but I'm happy with the web interface and it's easier to mute.
…

I gave Spotify a quick look. The web interface worked fine. I would have tried it more seriously if Apple Music didn’t work.

Either way, I had no interest in free ad-supported. For work, if I’m listening to music, it’s to help get into a work flow and ads kill that.

 

[Sam Posten]

I’ll read any article. And I can listen to audio (podcasts). But my lifestyle is not conducive to watching long youtube videos.

Yep more general purpose in that thread anyway

 

[TonyD]

I subscribe to Amazon Music.
Johnny, when in the phone app go to Library, tap Playlists.
to the right of each playlist will be three …
Tap that and many options will appear including shuffle.

If I cancel the subscription later, am I at risk of losing music? (

You will only lose the music you add while you are subscribed.
You will not lose music your paid for.

Apple Music shows lyrics and I’m completely amazed and I feel so incredibly old man now.

Amazon also includes lyrics for any song that has it available.

I have subbed to Amazon Music for maybe 7-8 years.
Was previously using Google’s music service but since Amazon was the same price I switched.

All these services offer just about all the same music.

I don’t like Spotify for a reason I can’t mention here plus I don’t think you can listen to albums on the free version in it’s pressed order. It only shuffles. Minor but don’t like it.

I want to listen to Harry Potter soundtracks. I search and get the albums shown in random order. I find and play the first movie. When it’s done, it goes to random movie soundtrack songs from Avengers and LOTR and etc. Not stupid, but not the second Harry Potter movie. How do I get that? Search again. Find it in randomly ordered list of HP movies. Play. It ends, enters random sound track playback. How do I get obvious-to-me choice of playing Harry Potter albums in movie order? <I’m-too-old-to-figure-this-out-shrug>

Dave, you can add music without downloading it but you have to switch off auto download in the app settings.
This way anything you want to hear will be in your library without it taking up space.
You can make make a playlist of those albums and listen to them that way.
I don’t do any of this on the laptop or in the iTunes (or whatever it’s called now) laptop app. All can be done easy enough on the iPhone Music App.

Seriously, WTF with this useless widget???

Use the App.

I own the songs I want and I’ll occasionally buy and download a new song that I happen to hear on the radio.

Download them where, to what?

 

[TonyD]

I have the individual plan for $8 and I enjoy it almost always on me Denon AVR. I’ve been using it thru HEOS, but I just discovered the standalone app on my phone. With X-ray it will give tidbits on the album and song. Trouble is if the album is a reissue, you’re getting info on the album. So “American Pie” tells me the album came out in 2012. I made a playlist for the 4th for guests and then discovered random played a song and stopped. I had to play the list in order.

HEOS on Denon might be one of the worst apps I’ve ever used.
Don’t like it.

Unfortunately it’s the only way to access The Hi-Rez music Amazon offers.

If you aren’t worried about that there is an Amazon Music app on the Appletv box.
If you have Comcast and one of their X1 boxes there is an app there too.

Otherwise it’s super easy to send music f a phone to the Denon using a chrome cast if you have one.

My big issue, complaint with the Amazon Music album and song listings is the dates and order of the albums.

Apple Music does it too to some extent.
When you look at a list of available albums for a band they don’t seem to be in any particular order. Certainly not chronological anyway.

Pricing.
Amazon is $9 a month for single play.
Anyone with the password can access the account but only one person can use it at a time.

I believe it’s $15 for unlimited friends and family.

Apple Music is $10 a month for a single person and it is connected to one Apple ID.
Snce most iPhones are connected to one specific Apple ID sharing won’t really work.
I don’t know how there family plan works as I haven’t looked into it.

I really don’t expect to not pay for a music service from here on out.
I use it every single day.
Never have to organize anything. Don’t have to manage anything.
It’s all there, whatever I want anyhow. The interface on Amazon and Apple works just fine.

Amazon is married to the Dots and Echos that we have around the house so that’s one reason why we’ll likely keep it after our six month Apple free sub expires.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Amazon is married to the Dots and Echos that we have around the house so that’s one reason why we’ll likely keep it after our six month Apple free sub expires.

If I’m using the Amazon app to play music on my Denon, I wonder if it’d be considered a second stream to play it on an Echo? I’d guess yes.

I’ve always used HEOS for Amazon music until I discovered I couldn’t create a playlist with it. Then I tried the standalone app and it also works with the Denon. I seems ok. And many songs have lyrics. Hey, I gotta see if they have lyrics for “Louie, Louie”.

 

[BobO'Link]

I don’t like Spotify for a reason I can’t mention here plus I don’t think you can listen to albums on the free version in it’s pressed order. It only shuffles. Minor but don’t like it.

Sure you can... I'm currently listening to Pink Floyd's "The Wall" in album order. All I listen to is complete albums and always play through in track/album order. I'm using the web interface and free version and there *is* an option on the playback bar to "Enable shuffle" but I don't use it. It's the commercial interruptions at odd times that most annoy me. Since I'm using the free version I put up with the commercials but when they break into a segued song it's very annoying and throws off the listen.

 

[TonyD]

Maybe it’s Pandora or maybe it was changed to allow it.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Download them where, to what?

I download them to my MacBook Pro from the Apple Music store then sync it over to my iPhone.

 

[fdabbott]

I'm 100% anti Apple ecosystem... Even if I got it free I'd not use it.

I use Spotify free at work. It has almost everything I own (and that's over 1400 CDs) and lots of stuff I've always been curious about. There are complete albums from the 50s through to current - many I've been surprised are available at all, much less on a free streaming service. The ability to "like/love" something is dead easy but I don't use it as I prefer to select albums I like and listen to the complete thing. I have hundreds of favorite albums in my tagged area.

The web interface, while a bit clunky for that favorites list (strictly by time/date added), isn't too bad otherwise and they seem to tweak its operation regularly. The most annoying thing is they tend to play the same grouping of 3 or 4 commercials in the same order for days on end. That said, a typical album is only interrupted a couple of times for that commercial break and I often just hit mute while it plays. They have a desktop client but I've not used it in over a year. I'd tried it to see if it manages your liked music better. IIRC it does but I'm happy with the web interface and it's easier to mute.

Even with the free version you can create playlists though I've never used this or the artists list. I use it quite often to sample albums for possible purchase. I have no idea how much "premium" costs and don't care as the free version does everything I want and need.

I've tried Amazon music (I have Prime) and have found its interface to be quite clunky and mostly non intuitive, plus their catalog isn't that deep unless you subscribe to the add-on service.

I agree, I also won't use or buy anything that is from Apple.

 

[Sam Posten]

Nobody cares. If you can’t be helpful or at least funny take your Apple hate somewhere else. At least Bob offered a suggestion that works for him. Future shitposts will simply be removed.

 

[DaveF]

You will only lose the music you add while you are subscribed.
You will not lose music your paid for.

Amazon also includes lyrics for any song that has it available.

Dave, you can add music without downloading it but you have to switch off auto download in the app settings.
This way anything you want to hear will be in your library without it taking up space.
You can make make a playlist of those albums and listen to them that way.
I don’t do any of this on the laptop or in the iTunes (or whatever it’s called now) laptop app. All can be done easy enough on the iPhone Music App.





Use the App.




Download them where, to what?

Thanks, good insights.

• I didn't understand at all why I'd add music to my library since i thought all of Apple Music was my Library now. But I see what you're saying about manually creating playlists from music "in my library". But I have little interest in making playlists so I can maybe ignore this.
• And music in my library will dowbloaded to my iPhone (storage allowing). Not of paritcular need for me, but I see how normal people would like that
• Harry Potter and Playlist: the thing was I was playing music in the moment with friends over. I wasn't going to search albums, create a playlist, then play that playlist. I just wanted to play HP soundtracks in order. Which to my brain seemed like an obvious thing for a machine-learning backed music system to make easy. But apparently not.
• The Music app constantly rearranges the channels and the "My Station" is always in a new random locaiton that I have to hunt and find. I just want to smash the button to get that playing, and to also get into the now-playing view. I thought the Widget would do that. Nope, it's trash. So I'm using the app now.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Thanks, good insights.

• I didn't understand at all why I'd add music to my library since i thought all of Apple Music was my Library now. But I see what you're saying about manually creating playlists from music "in my library". But I have little interest in making playlists so I can maybe ignore this.
• And music in my library will dowbloaded to my iPhone (storage allowing). Not of paritcular need for me, but I see how normal people would like that

Hmmm... dowbloaded may be apt enough if you don't want lots of these in lossless hirez on your storage challenged phone, hehheh...

I just tried adding an album, but of course, it won't let me because I haven't "synced" my library. Looks like it probably can't be done unless I allow Apple to do the merge thing for me... and I'm not too keen on going that route (at least not yet), especially during this trial period and not knowing the full impact nor whether it can be completely reversed...

Guess that was always gonna be a hurdle w/ using Apple Music (w/ one unified app) instead of other 3rd party services w/ separate app...

_Man_

 

[TonyD]

Hmmm... dowbloaded may be apt enough if you don't want lots of these in lossless hirez on your storage challenged phone, hehheh...

 

[DaveF]

Anyone understand how Music works with the Watch? Anyway to get my station or playlists to auto sync maybe with daily updates to watch?

 

[Clinton McClure]

Sorry Dave. I don’t sync music to my watch. I play music from my phone and only use my watch as a remote for volume control and skipping songs.

 

[Ted Todorov]

The music of my youth is Edison’s wax cylinders. Most of what I hear currently, is just noise to me. All the performers have limited emotional range and iffy voices. There are a few I like, like Ed Sheeran. His music resonates with me.
...

I like streaming music because I’m finding old stuff I haven’t head since the dinosaurs roamed the earth (The Limeliters) or music I’ve never purchased when they were current. Speaking of old, there’s an old song “If I Only Had a Match” by Al Jolson. Trust me, it’s an enchanting song but not on Amazon music. Anyone know where it is?

I think many (most?) people are just interested in the music of their youth, (the oldies du jour) -- that is perfectly natural.

But even there streaming can be extremely helpful, because one can discover fantastic music from that very same era that for one reason or another you've never heard. In my case we are talking about the late '60s & the 1970s (I graduated from High School in 1981). Thanks to Apple Music I got tons of stuff from that era. Recent examples:
Cymande

Rodriguez - Cold Fact

Fanny

These aren't bands or musicians I knew about but had never bought one of their albums. I had absolutely never heard of their existence. I won't bore you with a far larger bunch of examples from jazz or classical music. In other words you don't need to find someone whose 2021 music you like because it recaptures what you liked when you were young -- you can find stuff which was recorded when you were a kid and you had no clue existed. And like better than the stuff you were aware of at that time.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I think many (most?) people are just interested in the music of their youth, (the oldies du jour) -- that is perfectly natural.

But even there streaming can be extremely helpful, because one can discover fantastic music from that very same era that for one reason or another you've never heard. In my case we are talking about the late '60s & the 1970s (I graduated from High School in 1981). Thanks to Apple Music I got tons of stuff from that era. Recent examples:
Cymande

Rodriguez - Cold Fact

Fanny

These aren't bands or musicians I knew about but had never bought one of their albums. I had absolutely never heard of their existence. I won't bore you with a far larger bunch of examples from jazz or classical music. In other words you don't need to find someone whose 2021 music you like because it recaptures what you liked when you were young -- you can find stuff which was recorded when you were a kid and you had no clue existed. And like better than the stuff you were aware of at that time.

Thanks for that list, I’ll see if Amazon has some of them.

 

[DaveF]

I think many (most?) people are just interested in the music of their youth, (the oldies du jour) -- that is perfectly natural.

Many, definitely. But I know a lot of people into music from well beyond college and continue look for new stuff in their 40s and 50s.

What surprised me was, as you’re saying, is finding music by favorite artists I missed.

I was super into Linkin Park in grad school. I’ve got the first three albums. I’ve found they’ve got a bunch of albums I had no idea existed and have started exploring those!

And also I’m able to listen to newer artists that I think I like, but never would have bought their albums, like Billie Eilish or Lorde.

 

[TonyD]

Here’s a Music question.
How do I force apple Music to play more of the songs I have saved rather then the same approx 25-30% that it seems to repeat.