The Klassic Note Apple Music Japan Review (2016)

Wednesday, 30 November 2016 arrow_back_ios arrow_forward_ios

Hi guys. I think I've calmed down. I think. Because over the past few hours ever since I started the journey that is even just starting that 3-month free trial of Apple Music in Japan, and now I must say I'm not pleased. I may have been disappointed already. Allow me, to bring to you guys the experience I've been in just a few hours how Apple has managed to change my mind about music streaming.

BACKGROUND
To give you guys a head start, let's start with a crash course. In case you're as n00b as me who hasn't touched any Apple software at all (well I kind of did use a MacBook before, but), I shall give you guys an insight. You guys know of iTunes, right? That service that has served many to be one of the successful pioneers of digital downloads we see today. Well last year Apple introduced its own streaming service Apple Music, and it met with a lot of reactions. Back home here in Klassic Note my general opinion was quite obvious, and I see it to be a gap I could use to bridge between my conundrum of supporting artists and receiving up-to-date reviews of releases without forking out money for songs I don't want, just like how we buy CDs. So yeah, you can find out more about how I discussed about making such a decision, and the time for action is today. I tested it out, and I think a few hours is enough for me as a consumer to make a decision already.

APPLE MUSIC FOR DUMMIES

So, Apple Music resides within iTunes (for Windows, MacOS) and your mobile devices (Android, iOS) and uses their cloud service iCloud to sync an "iCloud music library" as they state, and this allows them to keep record of what songs you have been interested in and marking it as part of your cloud library. The biggest difference in storage in terms of iTunes and Apple Music here is that Apple Music doesn't use any storage. It just plays. It behaves just like a music streaming service, and uses like a checklist to keep track of what you listen. It gives recommendations from time to time and even gives you a way to save playlists, start radio stations which is similar to mixing YouTube videos if you've played that before, and so on. You can try that out for yourself, but mainly, it's a lot like any other music streaming service that's out there. It's only advantage (and my purpose for trying it out) is that it hosts a lot of Japanese artists and their digital releases, and unlike other services, still has the biggest library of Japanese songs in iTunes till date. The cloud sync of data runs swiftly, it has to use an Apple ID tagged to Japan though, so using separate accounts is recommended. It's not tough to get it running, and once you do, you'll get the whole of Japan's music in your hands... well, sort of.

THE MAIN PROBLEMS


"Chatmonchy" new single	"ClariS" new single	"cinema staff" new EP

Firstly, what appears in iTunes Japan does not equal to listed in Apple Music Japan. This can be clearly seen in my initial test of checking out newest releases this week. It's November 30 as we speak, and since it's a Wednesday, it's a peak day of the week to release songs, in case you didn't know. On my list I have four artists (three of them above), and one didn't appear in Apple Music, even if it's in iTunes. Check this out.


"Hanazawa Kana". Ooh...	Kana-chan's new single on iTunes Japan

I then noticed this trend appearing not just on newest releases, but older releases too. Specifically, certain artists after transition typically list their releases in iTunes did not make them appear in Apple Music at all. So yeah, I can direct this cause by explaining a little bit of how companies work in Japan. Music in Japan has been strict for years, and releasing internationally has always been a challenge to them, sorting out copyright issues and licensing. So yeah, it so happens certain artists who belong to certain music companies still do not allow their artist releases to appear in Apple Music, despite being allowed in iTunes. (FYI Hanazawa Kana's music company is from Aniplex)

More can be evidenced by further searching terms like "HoneyWorks with sphere", where their music company (Lantis) has blocked releases but the company who hosts HoneyWorks (Sony Music Japan) did not put on that limitation. It may sound confusing, but to me it all makes sense. It's a little selfish, it's hard to negotiate terms on music streaming as to how much money is given, but yeah, this is precisely the result of those problems. So apparently only for most, Anime-related releases will be available, of course, which means artists like ClariS and Kalafina will not have problems listing their new songs. Yes, that includes LiSA, May'n etc. It only gets worse when regular artists in Klassic Note are searched out, and Ikimonogakari and Horie Yui (King Creative Records, ex.Starchild) did not make the cut. I barely saw an Ikimonogakari song on Apple Music but even that is banned from listening. And hey, I'm "already in Japan".

There is also (to a less major extent) a release delay on certain releases. [Alexandros] and their new album "EXIST" (released November 9th) has not been listed in Apple Music yet even though it is available in iTunes, for example.

OTHER PROBLEMS
And here are some more problems that I found, mostly missing releases even if the artist has releases plentifully listed. Also, certain exceptions do occur when I say that the music library in Apple Music is ten times worse off than what's in iTunes.
(Not in chronological order)

Tags are terribly done. If you have noticed, and it's not with the anyhow assignation of "EP" or "single" titles, but auto translations from Japanese. Who decided on that that it was good? I mean, I can get used to reading Japanese, so don't give me a string of alphabets to read, okay?
Two NICO Touches The Walls "Tenchi Gaeshi" singles lol
Goose house released two albums last year and there was only one of them? ("Milk", missing "Bitter")

plenty's previous album was nowhere to be seen, from last year.
cinema staff's 2014 album only 3 songs available? That's what I meant about licensing.
I can hear one song from PHONO TONES' 3rd album? Then why bother display all of them?
No SID, Porno Graffitti...
Why is the Base Ball Bear singles all split in their individual single tracks? They need that much time to license them one by one?

There is no stop button, clear now playing list button, no play this only option... I mean, I'm not even complaining.

THE ITUNES APPLICATION (WINDOWS)
Let's then talk a little about not the music library that Apple owns, but their software. As I mentioned somewhere, somehow anything that is not done on their own software platform is not platform-friendly. So obviously I'll have problems dealing with the application at the start. I did say getting into this isn't difficult, but I didn't say this was a smooth journey. It's quite troublesome at this time to ensure they don't ask you for your credit card because then your cover will be broken, and that region lock on Apple IDs will ensure you can never use that other Apple ID that you have outside of Japan.

Also, I noticed of the following that will make any customer experience unpleasant:

Download bar pops up beside search bar, occasionally being an eyesore and not occupying a space in the UI. Does this even happen on macOS?
There is that subtle lag when I add a song to the iCloud music library, and no, it's still responding.
Crashes often when I started to authorise the account, the application (yes you have to do that), and if you start spamming songs to create your own playlist all at once you'll eventually crash the application. And it's Windows.
UI was a lot more difficult to navigate compared to years ago when I (sort of) used iTunes. Then again there isn't Apple Music, so I'll give that a pass.
Two delete from library options?? Damn the UI is terrible...
Horizontal scroll bars just doesn't work sometimes. And it's irritating, particularly you want to scroll through the album list on the artist's page. It's there, you just can't scroll it.

THE ANDROID APP
And it gets worse. Apple has proven it cannot handle Windows well, let alone Android. I know the reverse is very different, so... I don't know why.

Works like a typical music app eg. Google Play Music
Works slower than a usual music streaming app. Artist page, album art takes time to load and that maybe bad. And talking about that...
It lagged my phone!! So much that I, for the first time, have seen a stock Android phone (Nexus 5X) was performing this slow. That's what happens if you add too many songs and basically using the app without just listening to songs for a long period of time. And yes that's not even for 5 minutes.

And I'm not even done yet. Up until the time I post this I've not even covered a fraction of artists I know of. I'm afraid I may be disappointed in the results I find on Apple Music now.

CONCLUSION
I'd like to continue reading Japanese and not live a life reading a string of alphabets that doesn't even make sense. I know if I continue adding songs to the library eventually I'll notice it's useless because I'm going to quit anyway. Apple Music changed my mind so much about music streaming I think it's actually more troublesome than my wait for new songs to appear. Really, I want that on-time review without having to pay for the download. Apparently, it's tougher than I thought.

I guess I'll just go back to leeching the Internet, I guess. Thanks for the next 4 months, Apple.

P.S. I may sound critical, but hey, I'm paying for it, you know. Well, I can actually don't because it's a free trial and somehow I paid for a gift card already, so I'm not going to waste it. I hope. I was right about the limited music library available, though.

P.P.S. Also, things might change after the free trial period ends, and if I can find enough in pursuing digital releases fast enough which leads me to taking down some of the releases for myself then maybe I'll change my mind. That's why the year label on this post. We shall see.