Why Apple Music? 15 Unique Cool Functions & Features

With Understanding Comes Appreciation

As I promised on other posts, here's my take and 2 cents on why I'd rather Apple Music over other streaming platforms when all has been said and done regarding playing digital music, so while you might take some of my considerations to subscribe to Apple Music, I highly recommend you to do your own due diligence and subscribe to the streaming platform that suits better your needs and preferences. Also and just to be clear, Apple isn't paying me a penny for doing this –although they should LOL! JK! Trust me, I have tried most of the streaming services out there and this is my honest take.

So here we go....

1. Apple Music allows you upload your music from other sources (Figure 1.0), when an artist/album/song is not available in its catalog in Lossless and even HI-RES resolution. Unfortunately some albums in my library are not available for streaming, so the latter takes a lot of relevance if you want to upgrade/complement/edit your catalog by uploading your own CDs/purchased digital music to your library and eventually to your playlists; i.e. you will be able to play the best of both worlds; what is available for streaming on Apple Music AND your own physical/digital music in the SAME LIBRARY.

Figure 1.0. Example of an Uploaded Album which is not Available in its Streaming Service

Figure 1.1. Example of an Uploaded Album in Lossless Resolution

2. Apple Music lets you edit the tags of your songs (Figure 3.0), either you want to create cool smart playlists by doing simple or complex queries through the metadata of your files (songs) (Figure 2.0), or simply to order your music properly, by filling some information of the metadata of your songs which typically come in blank like the name of the composer, lyrics, group/lineup/credits, comments, bpm, etc., or by correcting some information which is at times inaccurate like the year or genre of a certain album or song.

Figure 2.0. Example of Assembling a Smart Playlist by Several Criteria

3. In most streaming platforms, you cannot assemble playlists over 10,000 songs. Here there’s no limit.

4. You can buy all the music of its streaming service on iTunes Store and listen to it on other digital jukeboxes. Albums include the digital booklets.

5. It arguably has the largest music catalog —Over 100 million songs.

6. Plenty of songs include not only the lyrics but its Apple Music Sing feature, which basically allows you to do Karaoke while turning up and down the volume of the vocals of a song at the level of your preference. The latter is a pretty cool feature if you ask me. (Figure 8.0)

Figure 8.0. Example of using the Apple Music Sing feature to Do Karaoke

7. It lets you rate your music in two ways (Figure 1.0). You can give to a song either a “Love-tag,” and/or being more specific, and rate it from 1 to 5 stars, depending on how much you like that tune. You can rate your albums and playlists as well in the same way. Again, this is a great feature when you try to assemble smart playlists based on “Love-tags” and/or the “Number of Stars” of your songs/albums, combined with other criteria like the year, genre, versions, etc. (Figure 2.0)

8. In the "Comment-tag" of a song you can add commentary/notes or as I do, to create key words to classify your music in more specific ways. For instance, I use for example the following symbology to classify my music better, and create more detailed and cool smart playlists based on this information (En. St. Ly. SR. ASP. AR. AAP. Aw. Cp. S. T. M). (Figure 4.0). Below are the details of this symbology. Yes, you must do it song by song. Yes, it is an uphill task. And yes, I'm that nerd when it comes to organize my music. (Figure 3.0)

Figure 3.0. Example of tag/metadata Editing on Apple Music

Symbology:

Language (En, Sp, It, etc.). Language of the lyrics. En= Song in English. SP= Song in Spanish. It= Song in Italian, etc.

Version (St, Lv). Version of the song. St= Studio Version. Lv= Live Version.

Lyrics (Ly, In, M). Song with lyrics or instrumental. Ly= Song has lyrics. In= Instrumental song. M= Lyrics are not available or unknown.

All Music’s Song Pick (ASP). It refers to a song recommended by allmusic.com

Song Review (SR). Song considers a review by a music consultant or collaborator from sumrc.com or reliable source like allmusic.com

All Music’s Album Pick (AAP). Refers to an album recommended by allmusic.com

Album Review (AR). The album considers a review by a music consultant or collaborator from sumrc.com or reliable source like allmusc.com

Award (G, GS, B, BS, FCR). The album and/or song won some award or recognition. G= Album won a Grammy. GS= The song won a Grammy. B= The album made a Billboard list. BS= The song made some Billboard list. F.C.R.=Distinction made by allmusic.com to compiled and/or remastered albums (Favorite Compilation and Reissues). FBS= Distinction made by allmusic.com to albums in different genres every year (Favorite Box Sets). The details such as the year in which an album/song won the Grammy or joined one of the Billboard charts, are detailed at the end of the "Lyrics-tag" of each song.

Compilation (Cp). The Album is a compilation of hits or a selection of songs of an Artist. Do not get confused with the "Compilation-tag," which refers to a compilation of songs by several artists when the box is checked.

Music Styles (S). Indicates the music styles an album matches better. The reference is allmusic.com. This, for example, can be used to create cool smart playlists of each "Music Style," or to combine this criteria with some of the above. For more information check out here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-9eSXylaWSaX94LcqVGkX8w9R3w80Pia/view

Themes (T). Themes that an album matches better. This, for example, can be used to create cool smart playlists of each "Theme," or to combine this criteria with some of the above. Ex. Action, Drinking, Early Morning, Late Night, Introspection, Faith, etc. Check out here for more: https://www.allmusic.com/themes

Moods (M) "States of mind" that an album matches better. This, for example, can be used to create cool smart playlists of each "Mood," or to combine this criteria with some of the above. Ex. Aggressive, Energetic, Cerebral, Happy, Optimistic, Passionate, etc. Check out here for more: https://www.allmusic.com/moods

Figure 4.0. Example of Using The Symbology in the Commentary-tag to Create Smart Playlists

9. Group-tag. I use the Group-tag to indicate the members of a band as well as their roles and/or instruments they used to play in a certain song. This tag is important, since an Artist could have had different members throughout its career, so each album and even a song in the same album could've had different members and/or roles. This tag often comes in blank so you have to fill it manually. This is pretty cool; for exampe, say you are a fan of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart and you want to creater a smart playlist which contains songs by Frank Zappa where Captan Beefheart was credited. You can do it as long the tags of the songs by Frank Zappa are properly filled, instead of identifying them first, and then dragging and dropping each song manually. (Figure 3.0)

10. Year-tag. I use the Year-tag to indicate the year in which a song was recorded either in studio (St) or in a live performance (Lv). This year might be different from the default year Apple Music assigns to an album, which typically reffers when an album was released, and not necesary matches when songs were originally recorded. It applies mostly for compilations, remastered, remixed, box sets and deluxe versions.

11. Unlike the "Comment-tag," which is limited to a number of characters to write down (up to 300), in the "Lyrics-tag" of a song you can add more and extended commentary like an album/song review, details of the awards earned by a song or an album, special notes, etc. and/or just fill the lyrics which at times come in blank, or modify them when they are inaccurate. For example, the version of Plastic People on Joe's Corsage by Frank Zappa is one of my fav tunes of all time, but its lyrics are inaccurate in its default pre-charged lyrics. Instead, Apple Music charged the lyrics of the original version which comes on Absolutely Free, which are quite different on Joe's Corsage, so I had to edit them manually while adding other key info (at least for me) like a song & album review and the Bio of Frank Zappa. By doing this, every time I listen to Plastic People on Joe's Corsage for instance, I'm always able to visualize this information not only in my computer, but in all my Apple devices to consult some data or simply appreciate the song even better —if somehow I forget some details. Again, I did it for every song of my library. Yes, it will take you months if not years to complete the whole thing depending on the size of your library (if you dare to do the same), but once you get it done, it is really rewarding because your listening experience will go to another level of satisfaction. Heck, it could be compared to the vinyl-listening experience because you will also read your own reviews and info that you pre-charged to each song while you listen to your music. (Figure 5.0 & 5.1)

Figure 5.0. Example of adding personalized lyrics in the lyrics-tag on Apple Music

Figure 5.1. Example of adding an album review and bio in the lyrics-tag on Apple Music

12. You can mix the tunes with its crossfading feature up to 12 seconds. It is pretty cool because it's like having a Dj playing your music without interruptions/"silences" between the song-switching. And if you want to go more professional at djing your music, the DJAY App supports natively your Apple Music library for both kind of sources; music which is available for streaming and music uploaded from your CDs/purchased digitally. The latter is definitely a game changer regarding mixing and Djing music digitally if you ask me. (Figure 6.0 & 6.1)

Figure 6.0. Example of Tuning the Crossfading Feature

Figure 6.1. Djay Pro Supports Natively Apple Music. Includes What You Added From Its Streaming Service

13. Most album cover artworks come with cool animated visualizations. Man, I love this. Apple Music hit a home run here. (Figure 9.0)

Figure 9.0. Example of an Animated Album Cover Artwork

14. Another cool thing of Apple’s streaming service as well, is that its music ranges from 256 Kbps ACC to Lossless at 44.1 kHz/16 bits (CD quality) to Hi-Res Lossless at 192 kHz/24 bits (Arguably better than Vinyl and other physical analog formats), and plenty of albums are available as well at Dolby Atmos. You can switch from one resolution to another as you wish to say, save data consumption of your cell company service, or maybe you just prefer to listen to your music in a preferred resolution. (Figure 7.0 & 7.1)

Figure 7.0. Example of Available Resolutions

Figure 7.1. Example of Hi-Res Lossless Resolution

Sure, other music streaming platforms like Amazon Music Unlimited, Qobuz, Tidal, etc. offer Hi-Res Lossless music as well. IMO the music on Qobuz sounds bit better than others to my ears; in fact, when I'm doing my reviews or simply want to appreciate the tunes of an album, I'd rather listen to music on Qobuz; its sound is bright, surrounds and definetely shines; the soundstage is often very present and you can really appreciate all the nuances of each instrument and vocals; i.e. its sound is the closest listinening experience to what you experience on vinyls IMO —but again; neither of these platforms include all the cool features I just presented above.

15. Do you want to control the streaming of your music from your computer remotely in a party? You can do that with your mobile device like your cell phone or tablet with its Remote App. Through the Remote App you can not only control the play/stop/pause & forward/rewind features of your streaming, you can also rate your music, create playlists, set the next song(s) that will be played, etc. This is pretty cool especially when you are say in a party with your friends and you don't want to go each time to the computer to charge or change a playlist or a song that will be played. Always new song suggestions from your guests come on the fly when you are in a party and you don't want to be in-front of your computer all night, do you? (Figure 10.0 & 10.1)

Figure 10.0. Look and Feel of Remote App

Figure 10.1. Managing Playlists on Remote App

16. The Genius feature in Apple Music helps you discover songs that sound great together by creating personalized playlists and mixes based on a song you select or a random song from your library. It analyzes your play history, purchase history, and Apple ID data to find related tracks from your library and the Apple Music catalog. You can use Genius Shuffle, which plays songs that complement a random song from your library, or create Genius Playlists based on a song you choose.

So all-in-all that’s why I’d rather Apple Music. As alwyas you have the final word but hopefully this helps to make your decision.

Tip: I always try to make sure to select and add to my library “Remastered” versions of the albums from its streaming service as well. The improvements specially from music recorded say 50 or 60 years ago and even more recent are remarkable. So always try to take advantage of our today’s technology to improve your listening experience. I don’t recommend listening to “Mix” or “Remix” versions though. Those often change the original arrangements of the songs, and you don’t want to mess with your music, do you?