We're a completely Mac and iOS household but it's my husband William who is the techie one. Look left a bit and there's me. Hello. I just want to use the stuff without understanding the innards. So
MacNN asked me for a non-geek review of Apple Music.
My first experience was not a promising one. I'm not a big muso but I do like to play the tunes when I'm doing the long drives I have to do for work, so it was on one such trip I chose to try it out: in hindsight not such a smart move. Admittedly it was more a Siri problem but I ended up shouting "play me some Newton Faulkner!" like (an increasingly frustrated) demented thing. I don't know what passing truck drivers thought. Siri clearly had problems with the name and similarly - 'cos I might as well go all out with the challenge Siri thing - a request for Gorecki yielded Gretzky. And then of course I discovered I hadn't set it up before I set off. I gave up. I couldn't do this on the move.
At my second attempt I managed to navigate the bubbles (I like that, but do I love it? Is there any genre I hate? Are there others lurking off the edge of the screen?) Now to actually use it. I'm someone who doesn't have a lot of patience, and needs things to just work, like most of the iOS users in the world. I need to be able to see straight away how something can help me -- I'm not spending time exploring and getting into the nooks and crannies of software or apps and if it's not easy to use from the off I'm out of here and usually not coming back.
So with Apple Music I find I'm a bit confused by what I can do with it. Playing an album that's new to me I try to add it to My Music but seem to be only able to do it track by track as it's playing or is there an option I haven't found yet?
I was quite excited by Apple Music in a nebulous kind of way. I thought it would be an easy route to listening to all that music languishing in cupboards on vinyl that I haven't accessed for years, and of trying new things before committing to purchase. And maybe it is but it's lacking the usual Apple intuitiveness I so appreciate, so I don't know.
Will I be subscribing? Not for now, but I want to be convinced, so if William does -- and especially if he goes for the family version -- then I'll probably be looking over his shoulder and continuously asking questions of him. But if you don't have a William in the house you might not find your answers. On the plus side I did at last get to enjoy
Newton Faulkner's Rebuilt By Humans. It's really good.
-Angela Gallagher
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