Roger Fingas
Apple on Monday introduced a "Guided Tours" section to its Apple Music minisite, demonstrating some of the service's core functions in a series of videos.
Five of the tours concentrate on the tabs in the iPhone's Music app: For You, New, Radio, Connect, and My Music. The remaining two deal with playlists, whether curated or user-created.
None of the clips address the iTunes or iPad interfaces for the service, or the app for the fourth-generation Apple TV shipping in October. Third-gen Apple TVs will not support the service.
The videos may be meant to address complaints from some people that the service has a confusing interface. In both iOS and iTunes, for instance, Apple Music controls are mixed in with those for locally-saved content.
This week marks a critical period, as Apple is just two days away from the end of the initial trials for Apple Music. Starting on Wednesday, Oct. 1, subscribers will have to pay at least $10 per month for the service, and the company is expected to lose a number of people who are either dissatisfied or simply wanted to take advantage of the trial offer. The number remaining could be a sign of the service's prospects.
Because subscriptions are set to auto-renew, listeners must delve into settings if they want to cancel.
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37 Comments
I've not looked at their streaming radio service since it was introduced. Has there been any clarifying of the service or is it still terribly confusing with mysterious tabs and functionality?
A great UX doesn't require a "mini site" to explain how to use it. Just saying...
Music is still a horrible app, and they've yet to address the forced cloud storage and streaming model if you simply wish to listen to Apple Music offline...I have to upload 40 gb of music to Apple, only to stream it back to myself? It is moronic.
[quote name="John.B" url="/t/188555/apple-music-minisite-gets-guided-tours-page-to-explain-basic-tasks#post_2783396"]A great UX doesn't require a "mini site" to explain how to use it. Just saying...[/quote] Oh really? You do know the first generation iPhone had guided tours don't you? I guess that was a poor UX then?
Agreed, but the iPhone was revolution 1.0 in the world of phones - it was all very new.
Music has sort of devolved from an iTunes that was easily understandable years ago to something that is not well thought out now...its a bit of going backwards, despite all its polish...