r/AppleMusic • u/Trayceopolis32322 • 9h ago
Discussion After ~2 Weeks With Apple Music: My Thoughts
I’ve been using a one month free trial recently for AM, and figured I would share my thoughts now that I’m halfway through the trail and have my opinion on the app. (Would also like to mention that I’m coming from the green app)
Pros
- Much cleaner UI. It feels focused on music instead of constantly pushing podcasts, audiobooks, and extra features.
- The Now Playing screen, animated artwork, lyrics, and lock screen integration all look fantastic.
- The app is noticeably faster. Almost everything loads instantly.
- Discovery Station has been excellent and consistently recommends songs I’d actually listen to.
- Queue management is better in some important ways. Apple Music remembers your queue and playback history much more reliably.
- Great Apple ecosystem integration. AirPods, Apple Watch controls, AirPlay, etc. all work seamlessly.
- Gapless playback seems better. I’ve noticed more songs transitioning between each other with zero silent moments.
- Being able to use songs from your library as alarms is a surprisingly nice feature.
Cons
- Playlist management is noticeably worse than the green app.
- It’s often unclear whether a song is saved, favorited, or already in a playlist.
- Search is weaker overall. Results aren’t always intuitive, and album abbreviations don’t work as consistently.
- Library search only searches items actually added to your library, not everything you’ve favorited or placed in playlists.
- You can’t search for songs in playlists by album name the way green app allows.
- It’s harder to tell what playlist or album is currently playing.
- Shuffle status isn’t always obvious.
- User-created playlists are much harder (or impossible) to discover through search.
- Some albums seem to become available later after release compared to Spotify.
- Having app settings buried in iPhone Settings is slightly annoying, but in the end really not that bad since there is a button that redirects you to it.
- I’ve encountered a recurring “Cannot Decode” error with several downloaded songs.
- Apple Music prioritizes downloaded files over streaming higher-quality versions, which can be frustrating.
Mixed
- Dolby Atmos is hit-or-miss. Some mixes sound incredible, while others don’t. Plus you would need a true supported surround sound system to get the full experience.
- Audio quality sounds great, but on AirPods and Bluetooth speakers I can’t confidently say it’s noticeably better. Though I’m sure you could possibly notice it with higher end wired headphones.
- Apple Music is clearly designed around albums and libraries, while Spotify is built around playlists. That adjustment takes time.
Verdict So Far
I still think the green app has the better library and playlist management experience, as well as app navigation.
However, Apple Music has a cleaner design, better integration with Apple devices, a more reliable queue system, and surprisingly good music discovery through Discovery Station. And its overall music listening experience is a lot better.
In the end, I’m leaning a lot more towards Apple Music now.


