Apple still doesn’t understand music fans and their listening habits.

The Problem:

I’ve been using the iOS 10 Music app for a few months now and I’m convinced that Apple still has a lot to learn about how people listen to music.

First and foremost, I’d like to say that this app is a big step up from the iOS 9 app. It’s simpler, it’s more legible, and there’s less cognitive load because everything is more consistent and front-facing, as opposed to the iOS 9 app, which had so many different types of menus, toggles, and switches, that it became overwhelming to the point of confusion.

So as a visual user interface, Apple knocked it out of the park here. Yes, some people don’t like the bigger fonts and the elimination of the cool algorithmic background colours used in the iOS 9 app, but I’m talking purely from a usability standpoint. The new Apple Music is simple, intuitive, and easy to understand. It’s a home run in terms of visual UI. When I say visual UI, I don’t mean aesthetics, but how it works and how easy it is for the layman to understand it and navigate through it. And Apple did a great job here.

HOWEVER, there’s a big caveat. The app is great from a visual design perspective, but in terms of understanding music listening habits, it still feels like Apple just doesn’t ‘get it’.

The biggest problem is that everything in Apple’s worldview is focused entirely around recommendations. Think about how you use the app. Whether we’re talking about the ‘Browse’ section, all the ‘For You’ recommendations and playlists, the entire ‘Radio’ tab, and even the ‘Create Station’ function when you 3D Touch any artist, album, or song, everything is based around Apple providing you with music recommendations.

That’s not how music lovers listen to music. Sure, I like recommendations so that I can continually expand my palate and learn about great new music, but music fans like collections. We like to create our own music library, from which we can select what we want to listen to. We have our tastes from which we assemble a library and then select what to play. This is where Apple Music is still lacking. While it’s nice that Apple made the ‘Library’ tab the default in iOS 10, the fact is that the music selection process has been stagnant for over a decade. It’s still the same basic menu tree that we’ve used since the iPod days: you select a category (ie. Artist) and then drill down into the sub-folders until you find what you like. Either that or you create a static playlist that you can refer back to.

The point is that it’s all static. We need something more dynamic. We need a better way for a music lover to select the music he or she has in his or her large library.

iTunes cracked this problem many years ago with Smart Playlists and Star Ratings.

iTunes cracked this problem many years ago with Smart Playlists and Star Ratings. You could assign ratings to the music you like and then you could create playlists based on these characteristics. So, for example, if I’m in the mood to play all my favourite metal songs, I could do just that. Or if I feel like creating a playlist of all my favourite tracks by the Red Chili Peppers, I could do that. Or if I want to play my favourite songs from the 90s, I could do that. The point is that there was a way on your computer to customize what you wanted to listen to and these customizations were based on what you actually liked, not merely based on what some curators and algorithms thought you MIGHT like.

For some reason, that ability never made its way to the iOS world. And because of that, Apple Music still feels like a series of radio stations based around your tastes instead of being a music selection process that is your tastes.

What’s the solution?

So with all of that said, here are two ideas I’m humbly proposing for how Apple could solve this problem and cater more to music fans. The first suggestion is more thorough and customizable, while the second is simpler and more streamlined:

1. Create a filter system. Remember ‘The Sentence’ from the old Beats Music app? Do that, but with specific characteristics rather than just moods. Here’s how it would work: In your main ‘Library’ tab, one of the items in that list (along with Playlists, Artists, etc…) would be an option where you’d access this feature. Let’s call it. “My Choice” (I’m sure Apple could come up with better branding). In this “My Choice” option, you’d be able to easily add or remove characteristics like Star Ratings, Genres, Play Counts, ‘Added Within the Last’ and so on. Think of how Smart Playlists work in iTunes, but instead of creating these permanent playlists, you’re simply adding filters. In other words, instead of creating a new playlist, all you’re doing is selecting certain metadata characteristics that iOS will use to dynamically create a temporary playlist from your library. So I could select “Pop”, “5 star”, “Added in the Last 6 Months” and I’d immediately see a playlist of all the pop songs I added to my library in the last 6 months that I love. And this playlist would be temporary. You could choose to save it if you like, but if not, the second you change the characteristic to “indie”, you’ll now see all the indie songs you added in the last 6 months that you love. It’s all about quick, dynamic customization and simplicity. It’s the same basic premise as iTunes Smart Playlists, but dramatically simplified and streamlined for an iOS world. And the key is that it’s all taken from your own library. Apple Music’s curated playlists are still an important feature in the music experience, but they’re only half the puzzle. The other half is having the ability to sift through and play your own music in an intelligent way, and that’s exactly what this does.
2. 3D Touch Favorites. Instead of the above, imagine if you could 3D Touch anything to get a playlist of all your Loved options from within that category. For example, if I were to 3D Touch on Pink Floyd, I’d see a “Loved Tracks” option, where selecting it would immediately create a playlist composed of all the Pink Floyd songs that I’ve hit the ‘Loved’ heart for. I could do the same with “Classic Rock”. Or any genre or artist. Of course, I’d need to start using that heart throughout my library for this feature to work, but this would encourage users to ‘Love’ things, which is exactly what Apple wants anyways. This would get them involved in selecting what they like so that they can go back and create these playlists of ‘Loved’ tracks by Artist or by Genre. ‘Loved’ would no longer just be about improving the ‘For You’ algorithms; now it would actually serve as a sort of flag to help you get back to the tracks you love. This 3D Touch feature could complement or even replace ‘Create Station’. It would be like a better version of classic ‘Create Genius Playlist’ feature.

Ideally, I’d prefer option #1, as it’s more powerful, but in a world where Apple would rather err on the side of oversimplification than on the side of excess complexity, #2 is probably a less unlikely request and I think it would add A LOT to the music experience.