With public tiffs with Taylor Swift shoving Apples new streaming site into the publics eye, the pressure for Apple to deliver again was greater than ever. Having announced ‘Apple Music’ just over a month ago, music fans all over the world were eager to see how it compared to rival streaming service ‘Spotify’. The Swedish music brand were dealt a major blow to their service before Apple had even opened their site to the public, having landed all 5 of Taylor Swifts albums. Swift and Spotify came to blows last year, when Swift removed her catalogue from Spotify over pay. Now, Apple offers over 30 million tracks for listeners to choose from. But there are more things to analyse and nitpick other than their collection of albums and artists.
The most eye-catching element of Apple Music is the design. A beautiful transparency offers a subtle elegance to the site, with the colourful vibrance of the ‘New’ section a pleasant contrast. Working in tandem with Apples infamous iOS design, the app is a delight to use from the start. Every aspect of the app has its own personality and eccentric character to it. Even on your iPhone lock screen the appearance remains classy, with an easy, simplistic design.
Apple has reinvigorated their music service with a bucket load of improvements. The recommendations feature is long overdue, with Apple tailoring their suggestions to songs, albums and artists you like and love. This makes searching for new music easy and enjoyable, as a genius selection is always suggesting new music for you to taste.
Your music library also has new improvements, with the ability to choose what you play next and alter the order in which songs come on, just like you’re able to on a Mac. Apple have also included a collection of playlists for different moods, such as working out or licking your wounds after a break up, as well as creating a ‘curators’ tab, so you can see what the people in the know are listening to. Whatever you’re doing, there’s a playlist for it.
Apple Radio isn’t the newest feature, as it was included in a previous update, however, it has been improved greatly. With a fistful of radio shows and channels to choose from, you don’t have to always select the right playlist, you can just throw on one of the many custom radio stations on offer.
The ‘connect’ tab also allows you to see what your favourite artists are up to, and Apple have really stepped up the focus to make their new service more of a community. There is a strong social media feel to their service, as you are able to share customised playlists and comment and like news from your artists. This new service makes it incredibly easy to bring people together through music.
Finding criticisms for this service is proving extremely difficult, and with the service costing £9.99 a month, it is being to seem like an absolute steal. Although the catalogue of Apple’s music collection is impressive, there are still some noticeable absentees, particularly compilation albums like the ‘Now that’s what I call music’ albums. It is still early days in terms of this music service, so expect that catalogue to continue to grow.
Apple really have delivered this time, with thousands of customers singing its praises. Spotify face a real competitor in the music streaming business for the first time, and their response will be interesting. Apple seem to be coming up in the fast lane, and show no signs of slowing down.
Charlie Atkinson
