Apple Music – 25 Things You Need to Know

The estimated reading time for this post is 7 minutes

The biggest news in tech this week, and maybe this summer is the arrival of Apple Music. The streaming music service was launched on Tuesday giving you (and everyone else) a free 3-month trial.

Apple Music gives you access to over 30 million tunes plus lets you stream your own music in case you want to blend your songs with theirs. Stations, playlists, Beats One Radio, songs, all of these are included in Apple Music, giving you loads of ways to listen to music. Feel free to play around and explore!

Using Apple Music involves a bit of a learning curve, it’s not very intuitive to use. Many Apple products can be figured out by a 2-year old. Apple Music may take you some time to learn to navigate if you want to utilize all of the many features of the service.

Here’s what you need to know to make the most of Apple Music:

Getting Started with Apple Music

• How to get Apple Music: You can get Apple Music by downloading iOS 8.4 to your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and/or updating to iTunes 12.2 on your computer. You’ll see the new Apple Music logo, complete with a rainbow music note, on your iDevice.

• Apple Music is Free for 3 months. You can sign up for your free trial at any time and get 90+ days to see if you like using it.

• Price. At the end of the trial period, Apple Music will cost you $9.99/month for a single subscription, $14.99 for a family subscription (up to 6 people who are linked to your iTunes account. After your free trial period is over, your credit card linked to your iTunes account will be charged for your monthly subscription price.

• How to turn off auto-renewal for Apple Music. Turn off auto-renewal to make sure your credit card isn’t charged at the end of the trial period. If you decide to keep using Apple Music you can always turn auto-renewal back on. See, Wired, How to Keep Apple Music From Billing You After the Free Trial

Availability

• Apple Music is available in over 100 countries. You can see a list of where Apple Music is available at the Apple Music Availability page.

• Apple Music is coming to Android. (I hope you’re sitting down for this one.) Yes, Apple is making Apple Music available on Android devices. It’s not available yet, but expect Apple Music to be coming to Android in the Fall.

• Apple Music is available on your desktop, including Mac and Windows computers. Update to iTunes 12.2 to get Apple Music on your computer.

• There’s no free version of Apple Music after the three-month trial period is over. You’ll have to pay for it if you want to continue to use Apple Music once your trial is over.

[warning] Be aware you’ll be using your monthly cellular data if you stream Apple Music on your iPhone when you’re away from Wi-Fi. [/warning]

• Make sure to mind your data usage.  Streaming music on your phone when you’re not connected to Wi-Fi can use up your monthly data allotment quickly. See, Yahoo Tech, Will Apple Music Kill Your Data Plan?

If you find that Apple Music is using too much of your monthly data, use it when you’re connected to Wi-Fi or download songs for offline use (more on that below).

What’s Included in Apple Music

• Apple Music includes 30 million songs, so you should be able to find something you want to listen to. iTunes sells 46 million songs in case you run through the 30 million songs on Apple Music and want more to listen to.

• You can start your own stations with songs or artists. When you’re listening to a song you like, tap the ellipse … to open a menu that includes Start Station as an option. You can find the ellipse in the mini-player and the Now Playing screen.

• Beats 1 Radio is included. You can listen any time from anywhere in the world you’re connected to the Internet. The same song is playing around the globe on Beats One. Tap the Radio icon to be connected.

[tip]Learn how you can request your favorite song to be played on Beats 1: Mac Rumors, Beats 1 Radio Accepting Song Requests from Listeners [/tip]

• You can hear DJ’s announce songs on Beats 1 Radio, just like the good old days, before music got digital. If you like the personal touch of listening to a DJ but don’t like the intrusion of ads, check out Beats 1.

• You can follow artists using Connect, Apple Music’s service to help you learn about your favorite artists and discover new ones. Learn more at Cnet, How to Use Apple Music Connect.

• You can access your own music via streaming. You can merge your music with Apple Music to get access to your music via streaming.

• You can download Apple Music songs for listening off-line. If you’re away from the Internet you can still listed to music from the Apple Music service if you download the music while you’re connected to the Internet. Note that you do lose these downloaded songs if you quit Apple Music. See, Phone Arena, How to download your Apple Music tracks and play them when you’re offline

• You can use playlists with Apple Music. You can listen to your own playlists or playlists created by music pros though not by your friends or other random folks whose taste in playlists you admire. You can search for playlists according to your mood, such as dinner music, working out, or breaking up with someone. Go to the For You section to find playlists suggested by Apple Music.

[warning] Updating to iOS 8.4 on your iPhone and adding Apple Music deletes your playlists from your device. Don’t update yet if you have carefully created playlists you don’t want to lose and aren’t willing to take some steps to get them back. If you want to listen to both Apple Music and your playlists (or have already updated), follow the instructions in the Apple Discussion Forum to merge your playlists with those of Apple Music. [/warning]

• Music streams at the same quality as iTunes downloads, according to Mashable. See, Apple Music streams songs at the same quality as iTunes downloads

• No ads. Nope. None. The trade-off is that there isn’t a free version as you get with Pandora or Spotify.

• Taylor Swift’s songs are on Apple Music. Yea! Apple Music is your only streaming option if you want to listen to 1989 or other Taylor Swift tunes.

Learning Your Music Tastes

• Apple Music tries to learn what genres and artists you like, right from the beginning. One of the first steps of Apple Music, after you agree to the terms and conditions, is for you to choose which genres of music you like.

Red Balls of Choice float on the screen with names of genres you might like, such as Pop, R & B, Alternative, Metal, Classic Rock, etc.

Tap a ball once if you like the genre and twice if you really, really like the genre. Press and hold a ball until it disappears for genres you don’t want polluting your ears on Apple Music.

You next do this ball-tapping exercise for artists you like/dislike to teach Apple Music about your preferences. Revisit your choices by tapping on your silhouette icon in the upper left corner of the screen. Tap “Choose Artists for You” to see the Red Balls of Choice again.

• You can teach Apple Music which songs you like as you’re listening to them. Let Apple Music learn your preferences by tapping the heart next to songs that you like in the Now Playing screen.

Navigation

• You can search for songs, artists, albums, and genres by using the magnifying glass icon or Siri. Search for songs in your own library or in the Apple Music collection.

• You can use Siri with Apple Music. Siri is pretty smart when it comes to Apple Music. You can ask her things such as “Play the top songs from 2014.”

[tip]Just don’t ask her to divide zero by zero. Siri can be pretty harsh when you upset her…[/tip]

• You can switch between the mini-player and Now Playing. Apple Music shows you a mini-player at the bottom of the app as you’re exploring different sections.

Tap the mini-player to open the Now Playing screen to have more control over your listening and Like your favorite songs.

• You can skip unlimited songs on Apple Music. Don’t like a song? Tap the fast-forward button in the Now Playing screen to move to the next song. Note that you can’t skip songs on Beats 1 Radio.

Your Thoughts

Are you excited about Apple Music? Are you going to sign up for the free 3-month trial? Which features of Apple Music are the most appealing to you? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!