Early yesterday morning Apple released iOS 8.4 to the masses, as promised during its WWDC 2015 keynote. This update offers the overhauled Apple Music app that comes with a music streaming service and a 24/7 always-on internet radio, Beats 1. The OTA download is around 218MB for the iPhone 6 and 171MB on an iPhone 5.
Apple Music is available to over 100 countries, including Malaysia, for a three-month free trial. To our surprise, Apple decided to “localize” its Music subscription rates for the local market, at just US$3.99 (~RM15.02) a month, or US$5.99 (~RM22.55) a month for up to six users under the Family Sharing feature. During the keynote, it was announced to be US$9.99 (~RM37.60) or US$14.99 (~RM56.42) a month, respectively. At just RM15 a month, we’re looking at an extremely competitive pricing, because most major streaming services available here — Deezer, Rdio, Spotify, Tidal — are all at RM14.90 a month.
Apple Music screenshots (15 images)
Click to view slideshow.I may not have the time to do a full review or even a first look of Apple Music, but here are my initial thoughts, in a (long) paragraph. Though at the same price as competing music streaming service, Apple Music arguably offers a bit more. For starters, the Connect feature is cute, following artists and all, and sometimes they’ll share exclusive contents too. Beats 1 is also peculiar; it’s a 24/7 internet radio station, complete with DJs, but at the same time allowing you to skip songs too. You can even request songs by calling or iMessaging one of these numbers. Apple Music streaming has Taylor Swift’s latest ‘1989’ album, when no one else does at this point. While Apple Music may not have the whole iTunes catalog available to stream, deals are still being negotiated and struck, so we may see new additions soon. AC/DC also took this opportunity to release their whole discography on Apple Music, as well as on Deezer, Spotify, and Tidal. Ironically though, the Joan Jett song Apple SVP Eddy Cue played during the keynote, is not even available to stream, yet. The app is a bit buggy and incomplete at this point; for instance, when listening to a song, there is no option to go to the artist page. This could be a long wait for us since the Music app is not updated via App Store and we’ll have to wait for the next OS release for any improvements. But here is the killer feature of Apple Music — iCloud Music Library. Just like iTunes Match, you could upload up to 25,000 songs to it, and anywhere you have access to Apple Music, you could stream your own MP3s. Apple is also working to up the limit to 100,000 songs by the time iOS 9 is out. The two are independent of each other, so if you’re using Apple Music, you don’t need iTunes Match, though the latter is much cheaper, at US$25 (~RM94.24) a year. Sure, Google Play Music has personal music uploads too, but you’ll need a VPN to even register for it, in this part of the world.
Part of Apple Music, iCloud Music Library lets you upload your MP3 files to be streamed anywhere you have access to the service.
In a sentence or two, I might consider subscribing to Apple Music one the trial ends, replacing Spotify and Tidal (just like how Spotify replaced Deezer for me last year). But then, I probably won’t, due to the lack of a Windows Phone support.
The rest of the changelog of iOS 8.4:
iOS 8.4
This update introduces Apple Music—a revolutionary music service, 24/7 global radio, and a way for fans to connect with their favorite artists—all included in the redesigned Music app. iOS 8.4 also includes improvements for iBooks and bug fixes.
Apple Music
- Become an Apple Music member to play from millions of songs in the Apple Music catalog, or keep them offline for playback later
- For You: Members can see playlist and album recommendations, handpicked by music experts
- New: Members can find the latest, greatest new music available – direct from our editors
- Radio: Tune in to music, interviews, and exclusive radio shows on Beats 1, play radio stations created by our editors or create your own from any artist or song
- Connect: See shared thoughts, photos, music, and videos from artists you follow, then join the conversation
- My Music: Play from all of your iTunes purchases, songs from Apple Music, and playlists in one place
- Completely redesigned music player that includes new features such as Recently Added, MiniPlayer, Up Next, and more
- iTunes Store: Still the best place to buy your favorite music—one song or album at a time.
- Availability and features may vary by country
iBooks improvements and fixes
- Browse, listen and download audiobooks from inside iBooks
- Enjoy the all-new Now Playing feature, designed specifically for audiobooks
- Books that are Made for iBooks now work on iPhone in addition to iPad
- Find and pre-order books in a series right from your library
- Improves accessibility of widgets, glossary and navigation in books made with iBooks Author
- New default Chinese font
- New setting to turn off Auto-Night theme in your library
- Resolves an issue that may have prevented Hide Purchases from working
- Resolves an issue that may have prevented downloading books from iCloud
Other improvements and bug fixes
- Fixes an issue where receiving a specific series of Unicode characters causes device to reboot
- Fixes an issue that prevented GPS accessories from providing location data
- Fixes an issue where deleted Apple Watch apps could re-install
- For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:
As shown by the release notes above, this update may not contain as many fixes as iOS 8.3 or even iOS 8.2, but it does have an important fix. There was an issue discovered last month where a specific string of text sent to iMessage could crash the whole phone, and iOS 8.4 fixes this. The update also include fixes to iBooks and Apple Watch apps, plus compatibility improvements with GPS accessories.
If you do not own an iOS device, fret not for Apple Music is also available on iTunes 12.2, which came out a few hours after iOS 8.4 went live. It is independent of the OS X 10.10.4 update, though I’m not sure if you can run it before updating the OS. On Windows side, I’m also not sure whether the three-month free trial of Apple Music is available or not, if you don’t own an Apple hardware. I activated my trial on the iPhone, and Apple Music was already there on iTunes when I updated it to 12.2. However, there is no harm trying it out; if you do not have an iPhone, just install iTunes on your Windows machine and let me know if the free trial of Apple Music is available or not for you.
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