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A day with Apple Music: What it is and what it isn't

Apple launched its streaming service on Tuesday. Here's a hands-on experience of a user's first day with Apple Music.

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Screenshots of Apple Music
Apple's music streaming service, Apple Music, launched on Tuesday. Users are given the first three months of the service for free before being charged $10/month.

Apple unveiled its Apple Music streaming service on Tuesday after it was first announced at the company鈥檚 Worldwide Developers Conference last month. It's been hyped by Apple for being the successor to Beats Music and the tech giant鈥檚 return to music. But other than the inclusion/exclusion/inclusion of Taylor Swift鈥檚 鈥1989,鈥 no one really knew what to expect from the service. Would it be a serious competitor to other music streaming programs such as Spotify or Pandora, and, more important, would users pay $10 a month after the free trial ends?

After a day with Apple Music, there are some important things to note: first, it doesn鈥檛 feel like a music streaming service. Visually, and the non-obvious search makes it difficult to find the music you鈥檙e looking for. The queue system changes rapidly, and the 聽that the company has been promoting feels more like an e-mail list you鈥檙e not able to opt out of than something you鈥檇 want to use every day. Overall, the app is more difficult to navigate than expected, but that is likely to improve.

Many see Spotify as聽Apple Music鈥檚 main competitor, and if that鈥檚 the battle, Spotify comes out on top 鈥 at least in terms of usability. But Spotify has also had years to test its user-experience design, so the first-round clunkiness of Apple Music makes sense. But Apple Music is certainly not Spotify, and the differences between the two may show to be greater than the similarities. With three months of free-trial for users, Apple also has a head start in learning how to manage the program before users are forced to choose whether to pay for the service or not.

As someone that uses streaming services to mostly mirror the personal library I have on my hard drive, I find that Apple Music was difficult to manage. It鈥檚 initially unclear what has been added to your music library and how to create and manage your music. As far as simply being able to sift through the tens of thousands of songs I'd want to add to my library, it seems almost counterintuitive. It's difficult to add songs to playlists and organizing the music library centers on a single filter, rather than the range of controls in the previous Music application for iOS.

But after a while, it becomes clear that that wasn鈥檛 what Apple was going for. This isn鈥檛 that kind of music library streaming service and it鈥檚 important to make that distinction.

Apple Music is very much a service for music discovery more than it is for music curation. Where the navigation and library organization system fall short, the playlist features and Beats 1 Radio fight back with robustness.

But is that enough?

When opening the app, after maneuvering through an artist selection process, the user is greeted with a feed showing playlists and artist recommendations. These are compiled with playlists by 鈥淎pple Music Editors,鈥 and each of those covers multiple genres and highlighted artists. Users can also start a station based on a singular track, artist, or album, similar to Apple鈥檚 鈥淕enius鈥 feature or to Spotify鈥檚 radio stations.

This certainly builds on Apple鈥檚 鈥淕enius鈥 radio, using its library instead of just your own. It also seems like the suggestion and discovery feature is built to introduce users to artists they may not know. On the first day of Beats 1, DJ Zane Lowe of both popular and underground artists. For the conventional listener, most of the music played was unfamiliar, but not unpopular.

Apple is gearing Music to the average user who isn鈥檛 as avid at discovering new music, or hasn鈥檛 found that 鈥渋t鈥 new artist in the past few years. It allows users to take a break from the music they always listen to in a curated fashion.

痴耻濒迟耻谤别鈥檚 , 鈥渋t gives me an opportunity to make a clean break from my usual tunes and find something foreign to my ears.鈥

While it鈥檚 not clear how Apple will use its users鈥 libraries to improve recommendations, they do employ at least some noticeable machine learning capabilities. After "starring" Chicago hip-hop artists The O鈥橫y鈥檚 and Noname Gypsy, Apple Music recommended Mick Jenkins, an artist I like but didn鈥檛 have in my library.

While it鈥檚 easy for a service to recommend artists that top the charts, it鈥檚 much more difficult to curate music that may be less known. Apple Music鈥檚 access to the iTunes library may help with drawing connections between lesser-known artists, based on user purchase and playback information.

So will users be willing to pay $10 a month for an improved radio?

Apple Music has many more features, but its execution is somewhat ham-fisted. In addition to the playlists, radio, and music library, users also are given access to Connect, a social media stream where artists post photos, songs, videos, or text. The company markets it as a way to keep up with your favorite artists鈥 lives in one place, but for now, , 鈥渋t doesn鈥檛 feel more exciting than following artists on Twitter and Instagram.鈥

With so many features bundled into a single package, it鈥檚 hard to figure out what exactly Apple Music is trying to do. Your music has been relegated to a single difficult-to-organize tab, and in many ways, it feels more like an extension of iTunes than its own service. Apple Music also allows a user to view and purchase media in iTunes, for those who wish to own their music.

Apple Music mimics iTunes in more ways than one: the once minimal music library app now serves as Apple鈥檚 central hub for all media, devices, and product management.

With attempts at radio, streaming, and social media, the company may be trying to do the same with Apple Music.

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