Human heart beats under the hood of Apple Music

Apple has finally joined the streaming bandwagon, but is Apple Music worth the effort and money?

After years of speculation and a $3 billion acquisition, Apple has finally released Apple Music, its attempt to capitalise on the streaming trend championed by the likes of Netflix and Spotify. With consumers committed to the idea of paying a monthly fee for an all-you-can-eat content buffet, the record labels are now all on board, Taylor Swift’s tantrums notwithstanding.

So what do you get when you sign up to Apple Music? There’s a three-month free trial to get used to the lay of the land and after that you get access to 35 million tracks, “expert” music recommendations and unlimited radio station skips, all for $11.99 a month. Access to Apple’s range of radio stations or its artist social network Connect is free.

First impressions are everything, and the Apple Music interface is extremely attractive albeit a tad intimidating at first. Signing up is easy, if you’re already in the Apple ecosystem. It’s a matter of entering your Apple ID and password. Opening up iTunes on your computer or Music on your iOS device gives you your local music library, Apple Music, Connect, Radio, the iCloud Music Library, and iTunes Match.

It’s a lot to choose from. Apple Music provides 35 million songs for streaming, including curated playlists including the likes of “best diss songs of the ’00s” and “college rock pre-party” (did I mention Apple seems to know me way too well?). That’s the bulk of what you’re paying the $11.99 a month for — the ability to stream millions of tracks and save them on your iDevices for playback whenever, wherever.

Connect is Apple’s attempt at a social network for artists, and it’s a neat idea but nothing more. Beats One, Apple’s “worldwide, always on” radio station, on the other hand, is undeniably great and provides a unique level of personalisation.

I can say I was there when Jaden Smith (son of Will) called up, live, and requested the Buffy theme song. It was played three times. And then there’s Josh Homme’s Alligator Hour, a show I tuned into when someone on my Twitter feed was talking about it.

I was walking home in the rain and the Queens of the Stone Age frontman called me — and probably about a hundred thousand other people — a sexy thing, before playing the Hot Chocolate classic. It was pretty special, and an experience I haven’t had listening to Spotify, Rdio or Tidal, or other radio-esque services like Pandora. Apple Radio is very much “human”, and begets a community feel that doesn’t exist on other platforms. This focus on people, and their personalities, is a really nice touch from a company that sometimes seems obtuse.

The iCloud Music Library is where things get complicated. When it comes to your own music library, you can either play the files themselves like you used to, or have the option to upload your music to the iCloud Music ­Library. This allows you to stream and download tracks on up to 10 devices and listen offline.

Where possible, Apple tries to match songs from your collection with songs from its catalogue, as opposed to uploading everything to iCloud. One week in and things have been messy — users are reporting that matched songs that download to a different device have DRM (ie. are locked down), and are often just flat-out wrong, with mismatched album artwork, duplicate files, and other issues plaguing the initial launch. The cloud is one area in which Google clearly has the jump on Apple.

And, should you decide to cancel your Apple Music subscription after the three-month trial, any matched tracks you downloaded to another device will not play.

Despite these teething issues it’s the little things that make you stick around. The radio stations are great, the editorial side of things is pretty solid, too. Streaming outfits are criticised for paying scant attention to the words and artwork that are just as valued by fans as the music. Apple Music does enough to address this deficiency. And if you’re into Siri, Apple Music is another great integration of that technology. Telling Siri “play 1989” will launch into Taylor Swift.

Apple Music is no revolution like the iPhone was, it’s too late to the party for that. Given the similarity between offerings, the battle won’t simply be won or lost on the size of the music library. It’s the outfit that rounds out the content with the best experience that matters. Apple may no longer be using the slogan “it just works” — because sometimes it doesn’t — but its “everything but the kitchen sink” approach with Apple Music is enough to crown it the best subscription music service available.