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Apple Music offers a smorgasbord of songs for a low monthly price. The tips in this article will help you get the most out of Apple Music.
The days of buying an album for $10-15 are over. Now, for a $9.99 monthly fee (even less, per person, with the family plan), listeners can enjoy just about any song or album on the planet. With a catalog of over 30 million songs, it’s hard to find something that isn’t on Apple Music.
Unfortunately, Apple’s typically excellent user experience seems to be absent from Apple Music. Many users are finding the user interface to be confusing. Some are losing their iTunes libraries. Even basic tasks may involve unconventional workflows. Settings are scattered all across the iOS user interface.
Apple Music was rushed in order to attract Tidal customers coming off their free trial. We can only hope the service continues to improve. The basics, such as playing music, are quite stable and reliable.
Getting Started with Apple Music
Before you begin using Apple Music, it’s helpful to have an overview of the process. There are some things you need to consider, such as whether to sign up for a family membership or individual plan. For a complete walk-through of the process, please read “Getting Started with Apple Music for the iPhone“. The rest of this article assumes that you have completed the Apple Music setup process. Now let’s take a look at some tips to improve your Apple Music experience.
Get Help with Apple Music
Apple Music has caused a lot of problems and Apple is trying to make it easier to get help. In addition to the Apple Music support website, Apple Music subscribers can ask for help on Twitter. Simply send a message to @AppleMusicHelp on Twitter, and you should get a reply. You can also browse the Twitter feed for tips and tricks. If you need immediate help, Apple’s support website is the best option. You can call a customer support representative right away and find a solution to your problem.
Get More Recommendations
The For You screen is displayed whenever your launch Apple Music. The screen is a colorful mosaic of playlists and albums, based on your musical preferences, iTunes library and listening history. You can actually get more recommendations by scrolling to the top of the screen and “pulling down” as you would with Mail or other apps.
This gesture tells Apple Music that you would like to refresh the For You screen. After pulling down on the For You screen, you will see new recommendations at the top. Keep in mind, the additional suggestions don’t go on forever. After a few refreshes, no new recommendations are offered.
Turn Off Connect on Older Devices
Connect is Apple Music’s social networking feature. I actually think it’s pretty cool. I have seen major artists already using it, but not many fans participating. If you want to shout out to your favorite artist with a comment, it won’t get lost in the shuffle just yet.
I expect the feature to gain traction in the coming months. It’s actually a great way to experience more than just liner notes for an album. In theory, it can more than make up for the lack of liner notes and photos that come with CDs and vinyl. Artists can post demos and songs in development. Connect can be updated after the album’s release, unlike liner notes. Artists can add behind-the-scenes videos, so you can see how the album was made. Tour dates and other events are often posted on Connect. You won’t have to leave Apple Music to experience this media. It is integrated into the app.
Like many Apple customers, I have an older iPad 2 and a newer iPhone 6. My iPad is now four years old, but really hasn’t fared well with the iOS 8 update. In fact, there was a span of weeks where Apple Music was unusable on my iPad. They eventually patched the issue, but it can still be a little slow. You can speed up your Apple Music experience by turning off some of the extraneous features.
You can turn off Connect by tapping Settings > General > Restrictions. If you haven’t enabled Restrictions, you must do so in order to turn off Connect.
You need to create a Restrictions Passcode in order to enable the feature. This prevents your wards from altering restrictions. You will be prompted to enter it twice.
Next, slide the switch to turn off Connect.
In time, Apple Music should improve and you can probably use Connect, even on a slower device. (continue…)