Is Apple Music All Gimic?
Most of you (if you're my friend) know that I am a BIG tech head. And what tech fan skips the Apple Keynote? However, as a former Apple fan, all I care about is iTunes & iPod. So I decided to wait until later and watch clips of the keynote later. I didn't have much time to watch much, but what I DID see was very interesting. Apple announced Apple Music, a service that offers unlimited streaming of iTunes content, better suggestions for what you might like and one (ONLY ONE?!?) internet radio station.
One thing I noticed when I was looking at the Apple site was that many features incorporated into Apple Music are already provided in other services. Let's take, for instance, their one live radio station. Why lock me into only one radio station. I do realize that Apple plans to add more stations, but do I want to be at the mercy of yet ANOTHER DJ? (I already listen to the Boom Channel and Rapzilla on TuneIn). Plus, for Christians (like me!) what about Christian music? We may very well have to suffer through more Hillsong and Chris Tomlin, with no alternative. Besides, Apple also claims that they plan on launching genre-specific radio stations. We already HAVE those.
Next, they feature this thing called Connect. Now, critics seem to LOVE to compare this to Apple's doomed social network experiment, Ping, but don't be fooled. This is NOT Ping.Connect allows artists to release phrases, photos and videos. But we have Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for that. Apple claims that artists should use this to hype their next releases. But in the past they've had no problem doing that. Family Force 5 had no issue using YouTube to tease their album Time Stands Still. Connect has little appeal to me.
Then, lastly, is their best feature; iTunes streaming. Not much to say there. They totally win here. Nearly all songs can be found on iTunes.
What I like about Apple Music: Apple Music plans to usher in an era of "unscattering" your music experience. I often look at both Capital Kings' Twitter AND Instagram, as they often make different posts on both sites. Apple is having none of that. I also LOVE the idea of unlimited streaming of iTunes content, not to mention the fact that they will FINALLY bring iTunes to Android.
What I don't like: I still don't really like the idea of Connect though. While it was created with a noble ambition, artists will likely have to manage THAT account in addition to normal social media. And I doubt much Connect-exclusive content will be very noteworthy. Another thing I dread is the threat to iTunes. iTunes is great! I don't want it to go away, but it may very well do so if Apple Music get real popular. What about us, cheapskates not willing to pay the small $10 a month price? That's my biggest fear with Apple Music.
So in closing, there's a lot to like with Apple Misuc, but a lot to dislike. I still think it's better than Spotify, because of its much larger library. What I don't like is how it forsakes us penny pinchers. But overall, it is VERY good.
