I was curious and just installed it on my Android phone, signed in and am using the one free month offer. So far my impression is that it is at least equal to Spotify (which is my reference) in as...
I was curious and just installed it on my Android phone, signed in and am using the one free month offer. So far my impression is that it is at least equal to Spotify (which is my reference) in as far as features go and has a cleaner interface. It also doesn't look like they left out any settings as there is an abundance of toggles for sound quality, cellur data, etc.
In short, I get the impression they put in the effort to really make the app work. Likely as a sort of flagship product to entice android users to try out the rest of the Apple ecosystem.
So from a functional level to me it seems like you have very little to worry about there.
One minor annoyance though, two factor authentication will be a bit of an annoyance if you don't have any other apple devices anymore. Which I don't (at least none charged) meaning I had to use sms fallback to get the code. It is a minor annoyance but figured I'd let you know.
I briefly had Apple Music, so I did get to use it, but very limited in scope. From what I’ve heard and my little experience, it’s a really well-polished app. That being said, there are...
I briefly had Apple Music, so I did get to use it, but very limited in scope. From what I’ve heard and my little experience, it’s a really well-polished app. That being said, there are alternatives other than Spotify.
I’m using YouTube Music which has been really good and because of its access to YouTube, has the largest library of any streaming service as far as I’m aware. I have some music in my playlist that isn’t officially distributed, but because it’s on YouTube, it’s there.
I also had a great experience with Deezer, and if it weren’t for YouTube Premium’s other options, I would probably still be with them for their HiFi.
As someone who loves the Grey Album, this is such a key feature for me. I do wish YTM supported high fidelity audio files, though. Bonus: A rather unknown DJ released this Lord of the Rings x...
I have some music in my playlist that isn’t officially distributed, but because it’s on YouTube, it’s there.
As someone who loves the Grey Album, this is such a key feature for me.
I do wish YTM supported high fidelity audio files, though.
Bonus: A rather unknown DJ released this Lord of the Rings x Wu-Tang collaboration called Enter the Fellowship a few years ago and it has been in my regular rotation since. Apparently it just got onto Spotify a couple of weeks ago.
omg, this Enter the Fellowship mix is sick. I was looking for something like this a couple months ago and was kind of shocked I couldn't find anything. Thank you!
omg, this Enter the Fellowship mix is sick. I was looking for something like this a couple months ago and was kind of shocked I couldn't find anything. Thank you!
Hello! Using Apple Music on Android currently because of a lengthy free trial I got. I'm using it right now as I type this. There are 3 things that immediately come to mind when talking about my...
Hello! Using Apple Music on Android currently because of a lengthy free trial I got. I'm using it right now as I type this. There are 3 things that immediately come to mind when talking about my experience using the app:
Bugs
Clearly they don't have a QA team, because I've never come across a music app as buggy as this one. I recorded my screen to show you the most annoying bug I'm facing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzc2uGt3d6I. Even though I specifically searched for Something About Us by Daft Punk, it plays Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, which was my last liked song.
If this was some open source project, I'd gladly submit a detailed bug report. I'm not doing free labor for a $2.8T company.
I can submit my feedback to this form, but the latest Android version I can select is Android 10. I'm on Android 14. That shows me how much they care. I also doubt they'd go through the effort of reading it or communicating with me to get it fixed.
Android Auto shenanigans
Apple Music's Android Auto functionality is pretty decent - far more usable than Tidal. There's just one issue that annoys me. Let's say I have a Queen album in my queue but decide I want to listen to another song. I press the mic button on the Android Auto touchscreen in my car and ask it "Play Aerodynamic by Daft Punk on Apple Music". After a brief pause, Google Assistant replies saying that Apple Music isn't responding. That's because when you check your phone, this menu pops up: https://i.imgur.com/NpYcUmP.png. Someone at Apple needs to realize that I cannot unlock my phone and take my eyes off the road to make a selection. Just play the damn song I requested.
Slowness
I've gone in the settings and turned off all motion/animations. I find that they greatly reduce the performance of the app even on a recent phone like my Pixel 6a. With them off, the app performs fine.
There are multiple other UI/UX issues, but I'm not sure if they're specific to the Android version or if they also occur on the iOS version. I don't have an iPhone for to compare the experience.
It's not all bad. The integration with Shazam is great - I can access all my Shazamed songs in a playlist. (There's a Spotify integration as well.) Apple Music's recommendations are slowly improving. I like how it's focused on music, and doesn't shove podcasts down my throat when I don't want them. It doesn't have a terrible TikTok-esque UI. They pay artists better than Spotify and offer lossless at no extra cost. Aside from 2 songs, I haven't had issues with missing songs as compared to on Spotify.
My friend used Apple Music on Android a while ago, and it seems like it's basically the same as on iOS. Just out of curiosity though, why are you so adamantly against using Spotify? And have you...
My friend used Apple Music on Android a while ago, and it seems like it's basically the same as on iOS.
Just out of curiosity though, why are you so adamantly against using Spotify? And have you considered things like YouTube Music and Deezer, as mentioned by @Jedi?
Not OP, so probably different grievances. I personally really don't like Spotify pushing "features" on me that actively impede my listening. The new Smart Shuffle being a pretty bad offender....
Not OP, so probably different grievances. I personally really don't like Spotify pushing "features" on me that actively impede my listening. The new Smart Shuffle being a pretty bad offender. Spotify doesn't have a great idea of what I listen to, and it forcing me to have their songs shuffled in if it don't catch the switch when I hit the shuffle button is a huge annoyance to me. Especially if I'm driving and can't interact with my phone for safety
Spotify also seems vehemently opposed to finding a good state for its UI and leaving it that way. They’re constantly running A/B tests and twiddling with things to try to squeeze out whatever...
Spotify also seems vehemently opposed to finding a good state for its UI and leaving it that way. They’re constantly running A/B tests and twiddling with things to try to squeeze out whatever fraction of increased profits, which gets irritating.
For me personally another thing that keeps me away from Spotify is their hostility towards standalone third party players. They used to maintain libSpotify which was a library that allowed developers to build custom players for subscribers to use, but they deprecated that a few years ago and have yet to provide a fully capable replacement (current APIs/libraries allow only browsing of music and control of the official client). They’re hell-bent on forcing everybody to use the official client no matter how awful it is. While reverse engineered third party players exist, one risks getting banned by using them.
By contrast, Apple maintains a library that allows full streaming of Apple Music, and as a result several third party clients for it exist should one not like the official client. It’s wild that Apple is the more open between the two.
There are other options than Spotify for Android. I personally use Deezer, and have been quite happy with it. If you'd like to keep likes and playlists instead of starting from scratch, they make...
There are other options than Spotify for Android. I personally use Deezer, and have been quite happy with it. If you'd like to keep likes and playlists instead of starting from scratch, they make it easier for you to port those over.
Just to throw out an option everyone seems to overlook, YouTube Music works more or less like all the other streaming music services, but it also comes with ad-free regular YouTube.
Just to throw out an option everyone seems to overlook, YouTube Music works more or less like all the other streaming music services, but it also comes with ad-free regular YouTube.
I didn't even know Apple Music existed at all on Android. When I switched from Spotify I switched to Youtube Music (which I'd already paid for bc of the ad free Youtube anyway lol). I think my...
I didn't even know Apple Music existed at all on Android. When I switched from Spotify I switched to Youtube Music (which I'd already paid for bc of the ad free Youtube anyway lol). I think my wife switched to Tidal or smth instead. So I'd recommend switching to a non-Spotify alternative personally.
My wife is actually switching off Tidal bc she wants an offline music collection instead lol... but she seems generally positive about Tidal still so hopefully it works well for you!
My wife is actually switching off Tidal bc she wants an offline music collection instead lol... but she seems generally positive about Tidal still so hopefully it works well for you!
I can't answer about the Apple Music on Android question but I just have to say I fell your pain about the photos situation on iOS. I moved to android (GrapheneOS) and it is amazing. I use...
I can't answer about the Apple Music on Android question but I just have to say I fell your pain about the photos situation on iOS. I moved to android (GrapheneOS) and it is amazing. I use syncthing to sync photos and everything else directly with my Linux computer.
For music, I went back to a full mp3 library and I love it. I've got a large CD collection that I ripped and I purchase songs from 7digital. All my music is synced between my phone and computer using syncthing as well.
I was curious and just installed it on my Android phone, signed in and am using the one free month offer. So far my impression is that it is at least equal to Spotify (which is my reference) in as far as features go and has a cleaner interface. It also doesn't look like they left out any settings as there is an abundance of toggles for sound quality, cellur data, etc.
In short, I get the impression they put in the effort to really make the app work. Likely as a sort of flagship product to entice android users to try out the rest of the Apple ecosystem.
So from a functional level to me it seems like you have very little to worry about there.
One minor annoyance though, two factor authentication will be a bit of an annoyance if you don't have any other apple devices anymore. Which I don't (at least none charged) meaning I had to use sms fallback to get the code. It is a minor annoyance but figured I'd let you know.
I briefly had Apple Music, so I did get to use it, but very limited in scope. From what I’ve heard and my little experience, it’s a really well-polished app. That being said, there are alternatives other than Spotify.
I’m using YouTube Music which has been really good and because of its access to YouTube, has the largest library of any streaming service as far as I’m aware. I have some music in my playlist that isn’t officially distributed, but because it’s on YouTube, it’s there.
I also had a great experience with Deezer, and if it weren’t for YouTube Premium’s other options, I would probably still be with them for their HiFi.
As someone who loves the Grey Album, this is such a key feature for me.
I do wish YTM supported high fidelity audio files, though.
Bonus: A rather unknown DJ released this Lord of the Rings x Wu-Tang collaboration called Enter the Fellowship a few years ago and it has been in my regular rotation since. Apparently it just got onto Spotify a couple of weeks ago.
I haven't tested once I've uploaded them to make sure, but you can upload FLAC's to your personal library on YouTube Music.
The issue is that I subscribe to such services because I don't have my own personal library of music.
omg, this Enter the Fellowship mix is sick. I was looking for something like this a couple months ago and was kind of shocked I couldn't find anything. Thank you!
Hello! Using Apple Music on Android currently because of a lengthy free trial I got. I'm using it right now as I type this. There are 3 things that immediately come to mind when talking about my experience using the app:
There are multiple other UI/UX issues, but I'm not sure if they're specific to the Android version or if they also occur on the iOS version. I don't have an iPhone for to compare the experience.
It's not all bad. The integration with Shazam is great - I can access all my Shazamed songs in a playlist. (There's a Spotify integration as well.) Apple Music's recommendations are slowly improving. I like how it's focused on music, and doesn't shove podcasts down my throat when I don't want them. It doesn't have a terrible TikTok-esque UI. They pay artists better than Spotify and offer lossless at no extra cost. Aside from 2 songs, I haven't had issues with missing songs as compared to on Spotify.
My friend used Apple Music on Android a while ago, and it seems like it's basically the same as on iOS.
Just out of curiosity though, why are you so adamantly against using Spotify? And have you considered things like YouTube Music and Deezer, as mentioned by @Jedi?
Not OP, so probably different grievances. I personally really don't like Spotify pushing "features" on me that actively impede my listening. The new Smart Shuffle being a pretty bad offender. Spotify doesn't have a great idea of what I listen to, and it forcing me to have their songs shuffled in if it don't catch the switch when I hit the shuffle button is a huge annoyance to me. Especially if I'm driving and can't interact with my phone for safety
Spotify also seems vehemently opposed to finding a good state for its UI and leaving it that way. They’re constantly running A/B tests and twiddling with things to try to squeeze out whatever fraction of increased profits, which gets irritating.
For me personally another thing that keeps me away from Spotify is their hostility towards standalone third party players. They used to maintain libSpotify which was a library that allowed developers to build custom players for subscribers to use, but they deprecated that a few years ago and have yet to provide a fully capable replacement (current APIs/libraries allow only browsing of music and control of the official client). They’re hell-bent on forcing everybody to use the official client no matter how awful it is. While reverse engineered third party players exist, one risks getting banned by using them.
By contrast, Apple maintains a library that allows full streaming of Apple Music, and as a result several third party clients for it exist should one not like the official client. It’s wild that Apple is the more open between the two.
There are other options than Spotify for Android. I personally use Deezer, and have been quite happy with it. If you'd like to keep likes and playlists instead of starting from scratch, they make it easier for you to port those over.
Just to throw out an option everyone seems to overlook, YouTube Music works more or less like all the other streaming music services, but it also comes with ad-free regular YouTube.
And if you use Vi/RiMusic you get a better experience than ytm premium but for free.
I didn't even know Apple Music existed at all on Android. When I switched from Spotify I switched to Youtube Music (which I'd already paid for bc of the ad free Youtube anyway lol). I think my wife switched to Tidal or smth instead. So I'd recommend switching to a non-Spotify alternative personally.
Funny enough, I'm switching from YTM to Tidal. I'm curious how they'll compare.
My wife is actually switching off Tidal bc she wants an offline music collection instead lol... but she seems generally positive about Tidal still so hopefully it works well for you!
There are tools for backing up iOS photos on Linux, presumably you could point one of those to a place digiKam can pick them up?
I can't answer about the Apple Music on Android question but I just have to say I fell your pain about the photos situation on iOS. I moved to android (GrapheneOS) and it is amazing. I use syncthing to sync photos and everything else directly with my Linux computer.
For music, I went back to a full mp3 library and I love it. I've got a large CD collection that I ripped and I purchase songs from 7digital. All my music is synced between my phone and computer using syncthing as well.