By Is Apple Music Making Consumers Eager for the First Byte? Or?
Apple Music is the restaurant that’s touted as the next big thing, a modern lounge filled with stainless steel and portions fitting for a teacup puppy. Spotify and Pandora are the funky, off the wall local shops that offer unexpected dishes and eclectic décor. The issue is that you won’t know which you prefer until you try that new restaurant that promises an out of this world experience. Is it necessary to wait more than 9 years for Apple to release it’s music genius on this world? Probably not. Is the hype still there? Definitely.
“The issue is that the app is stuck on Apple devices.”
Apple Music probably won’t hold many surprises by way of user experience. Apple products are fairly interchangeable with a clean, uncluttered user interface and an offering of almost too many songs to handle. But as the world has taught us, the best music usually doesn’t come free. Case in point, Apple offers 3 months of free service then a monthly fee kicks in. 3 months is more than enough time for users to determine whether Apple Music is their new savior or if the free services of Spotify and Pandora will continue to suffice.
The issue is that the app is stuck on Apple devices. For some, Apple Music will die a slow, electronic death with fellow soldiers Stocks and Voice Memos. Much like the unexpected U2 album, users are powerless to protest, it’s a gift delivered straight from the Apple gods. Apple promises a simple interface, a music experience with a calming color palate and Beats 1 radio offered 24 hours a day. The question is, what makes this 24-hour radio stand out from all the other streaming services available? Spotify services don’t clock out at 7:00 p.m. each day. Apple is also offering listeners the entirety of the Apple Music library, and exciting and almost overwhelming prospect. Never fear to those concerned about losing their perfected playlists and extensive personal libraries, Apple Music will keep all the music data previously uploaded/downloaded to iTunes.
Maybe it’s going to be the best thing to happen to mobile music since the anti-skip technology Walkman, maybe it still needs to find its place with the public like Google Glass. We’ll find out as soon as June 30 rolls around and we finally clear enough space on our phones to update to iOS9.
