The Klassic Note Apple Music Japan Review (2017 Follow-Up)

Thursday, 29 June 2017 arrow_back_ios arrow_forward_ios

I'm not going to take a lot of screenshots or show images or previews or whatever here, so don't be surprised to just see a block of text. Then again, if you want to know what's happening in Apple Music recently I can share with you guys. Of course, if you're not into Japan please leave now.

I refer you to the initial reviews of Apple Music Japan back in 2016 and recently when my free trial ends in 2017 a couple of months ago, and yes, I've signed another year since April. It's been two months in, not like it matters, but there are a lot of changes in various areas from user experience to content availability, so let's talk about it.

THE STATISTICS

Regular updates on older releases (eg. TrySail, Satou Satomi though incomplete, [Alexandros] "EXIST!" album etc.) are appearing more than ever, allowing me to add them into the collection/library/whatever you call it. All in all, as of today's post (29th June) there are 1007 discovered songs in Apple Music Japan out of the potential (if you check Hall of Fame from the official website) 1881 songs as of June 2017. Pretty good considering many artists I hear belong to music label companies who have yet to open up. Although seeing artists like THE ORAL CIGARETTES and Satou Satomi (King Records, now King Amusement Creative) who have never appeared before take it to the digital platform, I'm optimistic to say that we will no doubt see more of the releases, though incomplete, in Apple Music Japan. Then again, if it will appear, as I know of most of the time, it might just be international, but that really depends. For example, LILI LIMIT's new EP is internationally released yesterday. So yeah, it depends.

I will no doubt constantly check on artists or music label companies from time to time to see if there is any, ANY chance of hearing classics on this platform. I mean, Aki-chan's new single which was released a month ago, has yet to see itself on iTunes. I'm not complaining.

THE APPLICATIONS

Soon after my previous review, the Android app has updated itself to the next major version 2.0, which introduces a new and familiar iOS-like interface (don't ask me why the gray bar on top it's part of the thing I checked with iOS) which now streamlines even in terms of user experience, to iTunes. For example, the categories in your library can be seen in iTunes can also be seen on the app. Loading times are significantly better, and it's been a while since I've experienced lag from playing songs, taking them out for weekend cycling trips and stuff. (I mean, I've got data to burn now that it's holiday hehe) An even newer update aligns the Now Playing section to behave like the desktop equivalent, for before this there is NO WAY to clear the playlist even if you exit, and can cause overlap of play lists and not allowing repeating of songs within the player. For example, if there is a list that has been played will stay on the player, and anything that is played will stack on top of it, meaning I have to listen to both even though I want to listen to the latter. This resolved issue has now made it work like iTunes, which is great.

THE EXPERIENCE THUS FAR

The link for the page above

A recent server-side update on Apple's website revealed that the old iTunes preview page has been added with Apple Music Preview (website address hasn't changed though) (it's a click back to the old page, but still new interface), and now shared links from iTunes or the app itself will bring you to a similar preview page like iTunes, but with a better-looking UI, and most of all, playable previews. I mean, I needed a Chrome extension to listen to those previews, mind you, when I didn't have Apple Music. So yeah, thanks Apple. I've also touched on English artists lately, so... yeah. Glad they are available on Apple Music Japan. I expect it works for Chinese songs which I don't listen today, but still, at least it's there. The experience of the platform thus far, however, is still far from perfect.

What I've added recently.
Notice TrySail's album and single from May last year at the bottom
(Yes, their latest isn't in, and their upcoming album is in August haha)

There are still persistent performance issues from the desktop application in Windows, mainly iTunes unable to load releases when I want them too. I guessed because it requires time to load or whatever, but after you click on a release (eg. if I want to listen to the new release) I wouldn't be able to play whatever I want from the list but play them in bulk, by clicking on the release itself instead of selective songs. It sometimes resolves itself or I will have to reinstall or this to fix itself, but it's ridiculous. Why, Apple? Don't like Windows? Or lazy to fix stuff? I'm not going to buy a Mac just to get a good user experience, you know. Good news is, there is hope.

WHAT IS AHEAD

Thanks to Windows 10 (which I don't have here lol) (okay there's the Surface Pro 3, but) and its recent announcement of more Windows Store apps appearing including Spotify (pfft) and iTunes, we now know there is better chance that we'll get a better version of the application in the near future. Well, near as in when I decide to upgrade this OS when Windows 7 support ends (~2020 FYI), and even then Spotify (which is why I mention them) has proven that doing an app for the Store means porting the desktop version and nothing else, as easily proven by Windows allowing developers to do so in a few steps. Ugh, I wish iTunes wouldn't end up like that, but I'm not keeping hopes up on that. On the other hand, I won't have to worry about this Win32 application hogging all the resources when it shouldn't (I mean, I don't hear songs all day), so that may be good news.

If you can guess which release I'm loading I'll give you all the money from my PayPal account.
Hint: It's not the song that's playing

And yes, there is still the uncertainty (despte the hope) of if the rest of the songs in my list will EVER appear in Apple Music. I mean, there's iTunes, but that doesn't guarantee a streaming experience. And I'm not even talking about those that aren't even in iTunes. But that, I'm keeping to a minimum. I mean, I will support indie artists even if they can't afford to get their songs on this digital platform, seriously. In the meantime, I can still enjoy the songs which have been available on Apple Music not as its original release I reviewed ie. single song in album, amongst all common exceptions. THE ORAL CIGARETTES is a good example of that, because there are only albums thus far, really. And that also means their new single released this week is nowhere to be seen.

Because their discography isn't just like this.
And I swear months ago this page was empty.

This is it then. Wow, that was a lot. I hope the screenshots aren't boring, but we're talking about serious business here lol. Still, I only do this because there aren't many resources on the experience, especially with people apprehensive to take this route like me, back then in November last year when I wanted to support the artists I know more. Cya guys next time then, and until then... no APoL Chapter 17 is not done yet. I have to finish writing that car accident first haha

Edit 2017.07.07: From my sis who has learnt about a thing or two on Apple Music Japan because she also subscribed to it (thanks to Ikimonogakari, as mentioned) and she found out that the downside of 90 days only applies to switching of iCloud libraries which is apparently separate from iTunes, Apple Music and the rest of the App Store, which are considered together. So yeah, theoretically you can stream music while keeping a separate iCloud music library. So yeah, I could've been testing both my local Apple Music streaming with Japan in free trial simultaneously back then. Damn.