The current Spotify redesign didn’t fill me with confidence on the platform’s path for the longer term, so it was excessive time that I sought out some new tunes elsewhere for a bit to see if the grass was greener over on the Apple Music aspect of the music streaming panorama. It’s been nice to this point — however one surprising function has actually enamoured me to Apple’s platform.
And strangest of all? No-one actually talks about it. Like, in any respect.
Apple Music has numerous wonderful options that the corporate often sings the praises of. For starters, there’s the tens-of-millions of tracks obtainable to stream right away from its library, the usual for all good streaming platforms. However Apple throws in some further bells and whistles to make it stand aside from the competitors: hi-resolution lossless audio comes as a part of the usual subscription value, relatively than as a premium tier further, as does Spatial Audio, a processing method for suitable headphones and specifically combined tracks that makes it seem as if music is coming from throughout you. After which there’s the recently-added ‘Apple Music Sing’ mode which strips again vocal elements and gives up the lyrics for a real in-the-home karaoke expertise.
That’s earlier than attending to all of the curated stuff Apple gives. In addition to the very, excellent Music 1 radio station, there’s a ton of interviews (normally lead by the very good Zane Lowe) and cherry-picked playlists from big stars together with Elton John.
Curation vs AI creation
Which leads me properly onto my favourite a part of utilizing Apple Music to this point. It’s a part of that curation: the straightforward accompanying textual content descriptions that sit alongside album listings within the app on each cellular and desktop.
Someplace between a ‘behind the music’ explainer and a assessment, they add context to a hear, together with trivia that basically faucets into my obsessive music love. Do you know, for example, that Neil Younger debuted his basic ‘Harvest’ album to fellow musician Graham Nash by taking him out on a rowboat on a lake close to his home and blasting the album to the pair of them over big audio system he’d arrange in his barn? I do now, due to Apple Music.
Barmy, wonderful factoids like this are littered proper throughout Apple Music, and it’s solely attainable as a result of Apple employs actual, human music consultants to curate its platform. It makes sifting by means of Apple Music akin to visiting a document store, or settling down with an outdated copy of NME journal, or getting suggestions from a well-informed good friend.
Spotify does supply some related content material within the type of artist bios, supplied by the Rovi music database. However the per-album write-ups are lacking. And whereas Spotify’s AI-driven suggestions are genuinely excellent, I’m beginning to have the ability to see the 1s and 0s its code connects between artists to outline my tastes. There’s one thing extra pure, private even, about being supplied a human’s opinion of an album, and also you then being left to resolve whether or not to delve deeper based mostly on that take.
A Classical training
My solely criticism is that there aren’t extra of the album descriptions throughout {the catalogue}. It’s seemingly comparatively random as to which albums get the write ups, and which don’t. Why does Lana Del Rey’s model new ‘Do you know that there’s a tunnel below Ocean Blvd’ launch get one, however not Amy Winehouse’s now-classic ‘Again to Black?’ And if Neil Younger’s ‘Harvest’ will get an outline, why not the equally-legendary ‘Pet Sounds’ by The Seaside Boys?
That’s the value of getting people doing a really human job, I suppose. There’s solely so many hours in a human’s day, and in the event that they’re spent guiding me expertly by means of a small nook of the Apple Music catalogue with love and care, versus an impersonal AI description, much less (on this case no less than) is the extra I’m searching for.
It makes me notably excited for the Apple Music Classical launch that’s simply ready over the horizon. I get pleasure from listening to classical music, however must admit my information of the style begins and ends with no matter snippets of information I’ve picked up from late evening listening classes with the DJs of the Traditional FM old-school radio station. If as a lot element goes into the information for the classical app’s launch as exists within the present Apple Music app, you may discover me subsequent within the orchestra pit relatively than the mosh pit.
