Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

First look: Apple's revamped Music app in iOS 8.4

Last updated

The launch of Apple Music on Tuesday brought with it a nearly all-new Music app, with a host of new functionality that blends the best of Beats Music with Apple's long-standing iTunes platform.

After configuring Apple Music —  choosing artists and genres that you like from a Beats-like bubble menu — you're presented with For You, a new addition that mimics similar functionality from Beats. For You contains a selection of playlists and albums tailored to your tastes, which Apple says are chosen both algorithmically and by real people.

Tapping a playlist or album will list the tracks within, while tapping the small "play" icon that floats above the cover photo will unsurprisingly play your selection. You can quickly add content to your music library, "like" it, share it, or create a new radio station based on it from this detail view.

The new New section shows the latest additions to Apple Music's collection, both in terms of artists and songs as well as playlists and music videos. You can choose to view all genres at once, or select a single specific genre from a pull-down menu at the top.

While Beats's "The Sentence" feature has been removed, a series of activity-based playlists can still be accessed via the New section. Apple has provided tracks for everything from "Breaking Up" to "Getting It On."

Playlists created by Apple's own in-house editors are available via "Apple Music Editors," while those made by outsiders —  like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone —  are housed under "Curators."

The Radio tab is much the same as its previous incarnation, though channels have been rearranged and renamed. Beats 1 occupies a prime position at the top of the list, and tapping on its logo reveals a complete schedule and station lineup.

Connect, Apple's new social network for music, is presented much like Tumblr. A stream of posts is included from artists you follow —  which is by default built from artists in your library —  and can include images, songs, or videos.

The final My Music tab combines your local music library, songs stored in iTunes Match, and any Apple Music playlists that you're subscribed to. It's divided into two sections —  Library and Playlists —  and a universal search feature can be used to search through playlists, local tracks, or Apple Music content.



41 Comments

robin huber 22 Years · 4026 comments

Something that was not clear to me is that Apple Music doesn't work on MacOS, Only iOS. Save yourself a lot of trouble by not attempting to download iTunes 12.2 which does support it—it's not available yet. The other thing that was not clear to me is that the Family Plan allows everyone to charge music to my credit card! I had hoped to include my married son and his wife who live 30 minutes away on my subscription, but I certainly don't want to pick up the tab for all their music purchases! Finally, it's not clear how to add my wife who is already on Family Share. Does she use my Apple ID to log in when prompted to join? Or her own?

wdowell 15 Years · 235 comments

I presume she would use hers as that's the whole point of Family Sharing - that youre not passing around your user /passwords!

paxman 17 Years · 4729 comments

[quote name="wdowell" url="/t/186983/first-look-apples-revamped-music-app-in-ios-8-4#post_2742502"]I presume she would use hers as that's the whole point of Family Sharing - that youre not passing around your user /passwords! [/quote]Yes, absolutely. Only I have logged in so far but if my family have to sign in as me it completely defeats the point of everyone having their own playlists and collections. That was the point of the family plan. The point was also that there was one person paying so Robin Huber, I am not sure what you were thinking.

robin huber 22 Years · 4026 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by paxman Yes, absolutely. Only I have logged in so far but if my family have to sign in as me it completely defeats the point of everyone having their own playlists and collections. That was the point of the family plan. The point was also that there was one person paying so Robin Huber, I am not sure what you were thinking.


I was thinking that I was paying once for everyone's Apple Music service, not for everyone else's songs, books, movies, etc.

thewhitefalcon 10 Years · 4444 comments

The app is leaps and bounds better than the one from iOS 7-8.3. The scrubbing bar works, the translucency is beautiful, and overall I find the layout better than before. (not sure why they default to "sort Album by Artist Name" but at least it's fixable). I do think the iPad version could stand a little more tweaking but it definitely uses the screen real estate much better than it did before.