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I signed up to play with it on a homepod, I generally still think it's a lot worse than Spotify (particularly when you consider Spotify's discover weekly playli

I signed up to play with it on a homepod, I generally still think it's a lot worse than Spotify (particularly when you consider Spotify's discover weekly playlist). I'll likely just end up using the homepod as an overpriced Spotify airplay speaker. There was an app to transfer playlists/songs from Spotify to Apple music (for $10). It did an okay job.

techman9 9y ago
On a slightly tangential note, how do you like the Homepod?
- fetus8 9y ago
  I'm not the OP commenter, but uh, I've had a Homepod since launch, and am quite pleased with the device. It has incredible sound quality, but Siri is seriously lacking. If the sound quality wasn't as good as it is, I wouldn't have kept it. I have been using Apple Music since launch, so the fact that it's locked down to Apple Music didn't cause me any concern.
  - DenisM 9y ago
    I don’t suppose it’s as good as an 8” studio monitor? Who know what’s possible today.
    - fetus8 9y ago
      Probably not, I have a pair of Mackie CR4s in my office that sound a bit better, and are significantly louder. The highest volume on the Homepod is a little quieter than I would have expected. I got the Homepod as a replacement for the Bluetooth speaker I used in my bedroom and bathroom and I think it does a great job at that...
- fossuser 9y ago
  It’s okay - I’d probably say not worth the cost, but if you’re buying it as a toy it’s fine. Siri is bad - can’t tell me calendar information. When I say “play kqed fm” she fails because I didn’t say “play kqed”. When I ask her what podcasts I have she can’t do it - if I name a specific podcast it’ll work. She’s bad at pretty basic stuff and it’s irritating to use as a result.
- edm0nd 9y ago
  Get a Google Home or Amazon Echo instead.
- reagan83 9y ago
  HomePod setup was annoyingly buggy when I tried to do it last week. Got a generic “6699” error which Apple support docs said I needed to install Home and Music apps. Did that and got a new error. Apple docs literally said to wait “30 mins” on Home app for a mode to reset configuration. Documented screenshots @reaganbwilliams on twitter. Returned the device this morning.
cityzen 9y ago
What is spotify’s Discovery weekly playlist? Apple has a weekly, personalized New Music Mix every Friday. They also have “see what friends are listening to” as well as human curated playlists. I have found all the music apps to be lacking but Apple Music really needs to work on the app, it is a pain to navigate on many levels.
- rrdharan 9y ago
  This article goes into some detail on how Discover Weekly works and why it's pretty awesome: https://hackernoon.com/spotifys-discover-weekly-how-machine-learning-finds-your-new-music-19a41ab76efe https://hackernoon.com/spotifys-discover-weekly-how-machine-...
  - cityzen 9y ago
    Awesome, thank you! I have heard a lot about it but don’t really understand the hype.
- spike021 9y ago
  The New Music Mix playlist isn't nearly as good as Spotify's Discover Weekly, unfortunately. Wish they could figure something else out. Most of the time it's music I've already heard before, including songs I never listen to and from genres I never listen to.
- jasonlotito 9y ago
  Just to add to the praise for Spotify's discovery mechanism, here is my little story. I was recently offered another trial of AM, and decided to give it another go. Now, I have Apple Music Match, the thing where the music I put into iTunes basically gets put up into the cloud and is available everywhere. The point is, Apple has a list of what music I enjoy, as well as existing play lists, and what I've been listening to recently. So, I expect their recommendations to be somewhat good. Maybe not as good as Spotify, as I use them more frequently. But, and this is a big but, 1) Apple can easily get access to my Spotify history I imagine by having me give them permission to access it, and 2) they still have access to my existing music library. So, when their personalized Music mix played crap I absolutely hated, and then the next few songs were just so far out of left-field that I had to stop... well, let's just say I hated it. I decided to see what Spotify had in store for me in my Daily Mixes. And the first song was perfect and I just loved listening to it (it was Dirty Paws by Of Monsters and Men, btw). Couple this with Siri not understanding me asking it to play the Beatles (I have all their albums loaded into Match), it's just not worth the frustration. One other thing I like is the Shared Playlists. I can find other people's public playlists, and basically subscribe to them. Other people discover music for me. This has lead me to buying new albums (usually I can find albums on Amazon for cheaper than iTunes, and I get a CD), which I can rip and put into iTunes where Match takes over. It's even better when Amazon's AutoRip is available for the CD. I get cheaper digital music then Apple along with an actual CD, which I like for music.
LeoPanthera 9y ago
I've never used Spotify, but what is the "weekly playlist"? Because Apple Music offers me three weekly playlists, "Favorites", "New Music", and (for some reason) "Chill". They seem pretty good, with regards to matching my music tastes.
- spike021 9y ago
  He's speaking of the "Discover Weekly" playlist. I won't claim to understand Spotify's algorithms, but it basically curates music that you may not have ever heard before but matches your interests. When I used to use Spotify it was incredibly accurate, so much so that I'd duplicate most Discover Weekly playlist week's as a new playlist because it just flowed so well with what I liked, despite being probably 80% new music I'd never heard before. AM has nothing like it, and I say that after using AM for about a year or a little longer now.
  - lulmerchant 9y ago
    It's the one thing I really miss about Spotify. When I got into work on Monday, I'd just fire up the weekly playlist, and it would always have enough new content I liked to keep my playlists fresh for the week.
- fossuser 9y ago
  Discover Weekly is like the page rank of playlist recommendations. I think it works by looking at songs you have in your playlists and then finding playlists of other users that have those songs. From there it’ll make a playlist for you using songs those other users have in their playlist that you don’t have in yours. Rather than trying to do some matching based on song properties it abstracts the hard part to humans. It works extremely well and it refreshes every week. Spotify also has all the generic playlists that Apple has too. I also find Spotify’s UI to just work better especially between devices.
ehsankia 9y ago
Why does Google Play Music never come up in any of these discussions? I've found Google's recommendation engine to be far beyond competitors. They also allow uploading your own library which no other service out there does. Plus, you get Youtube Red for free with GPM, which is great value. They have the same family plan, and 320kbps. What is it lacking that no one ever considers it?
- fossuser 9y ago
  I pay for YouTube red and I still use Spotify. Originally it was because I didn’t like google music’s UI and they didn’t have native applications. I’m not sure if it’s improved since then.
- acomjean 9y ago
  I use apple match (not apple music), which allows uploads of your own music to play anywhere. I'm not sure why google doesn't get much mention, neither does napster (formally rhapsody) which a friend uses and likes. or amazon music for that matter..
- mythz 9y ago
  I pay for ad-free YouTube Red and got Google Play Music for free, IMO best value music subscription bundle available.
- paulcole 9y ago
  > They also allow uploading your own library which no other service out there does. For the overwhelming majority of customers this is a non-feature. Consider anyone under the age of say 20-25 today. How many will ever have a "real" mp3?
  - ehsankia 9y ago
    That's fair, but it's still not a negative. I'm curious what it lacks that makes everyone go towards other services. My point is that it has everything, and more.
    - 9y ago

techman9 9y ago

On a slightly tangential note, how do you like the Homepod?

fetus8 9y ago
I'm not the OP commenter, but uh, I've had a Homepod since launch, and am quite pleased with the device. It has incredible sound quality, but Siri is seriously lacking. If the sound quality wasn't as good as it is, I wouldn't have kept it. I have been using Apple Music since launch, so the fact that it's locked down to Apple Music didn't cause me any concern.
- DenisM 9y ago
  I don’t suppose it’s as good as an 8” studio monitor? Who know what’s possible today.
  - fetus8 9y ago
    Probably not, I have a pair of Mackie CR4s in my office that sound a bit better, and are significantly louder. The highest volume on the Homepod is a little quieter than I would have expected. I got the Homepod as a replacement for the Bluetooth speaker I used in my bedroom and bathroom and I think it does a great job at that...
fossuser 9y ago
It’s okay - I’d probably say not worth the cost, but if you’re buying it as a toy it’s fine. Siri is bad - can’t tell me calendar information. When I say “play kqed fm” she fails because I didn’t say “play kqed”. When I ask her what podcasts I have she can’t do it - if I name a specific podcast it’ll work. She’s bad at pretty basic stuff and it’s irritating to use as a result.
edm0nd 9y ago
Get a Google Home or Amazon Echo instead.
reagan83 9y ago
HomePod setup was annoyingly buggy when I tried to do it last week. Got a generic “6699” error which Apple support docs said I needed to install Home and Music apps. Did that and got a new error. Apple docs literally said to wait “30 mins” on Home app for a mode to reset configuration. Documented screenshots @reaganbwilliams on twitter. Returned the device this morning.

cityzen 9y ago

What is spotify’s Discovery weekly playlist? Apple has a weekly, personalized New Music Mix every Friday. They also have “see what friends are listening to” as well as human curated playlists. I have found all the music apps to be lacking but Apple Music really needs to work on the app, it is a pain to navigate on many levels.

rrdharan 9y ago
This article goes into some detail on how Discover Weekly works and why it's pretty awesome: https://hackernoon.com/spotifys-discover-weekly-how-machine-learning-finds-your-new-music-19a41ab76efe https://hackernoon.com/spotifys-discover-weekly-how-machine-...
- cityzen 9y ago
  Awesome, thank you! I have heard a lot about it but don’t really understand the hype.
spike021 9y ago
The New Music Mix playlist isn't nearly as good as Spotify's Discover Weekly, unfortunately. Wish they could figure something else out. Most of the time it's music I've already heard before, including songs I never listen to and from genres I never listen to.
jasonlotito 9y ago
Just to add to the praise for Spotify's discovery mechanism, here is my little story. I was recently offered another trial of AM, and decided to give it another go. Now, I have Apple Music Match, the thing where the music I put into iTunes basically gets put up into the cloud and is available everywhere. The point is, Apple has a list of what music I enjoy, as well as existing play lists, and what I've been listening to recently. So, I expect their recommendations to be somewhat good. Maybe not as good as Spotify, as I use them more frequently. But, and this is a big but, 1) Apple can easily get access to my Spotify history I imagine by having me give them permission to access it, and 2) they still have access to my existing music library. So, when their personalized Music mix played crap I absolutely hated, and then the next few songs were just so far out of left-field that I had to stop... well, let's just say I hated it. I decided to see what Spotify had in store for me in my Daily Mixes. And the first song was perfect and I just loved listening to it (it was Dirty Paws by Of Monsters and Men, btw). Couple this with Siri not understanding me asking it to play the Beatles (I have all their albums loaded into Match), it's just not worth the frustration. One other thing I like is the Shared Playlists. I can find other people's public playlists, and basically subscribe to them. Other people discover music for me. This has lead me to buying new albums (usually I can find albums on Amazon for cheaper than iTunes, and I get a CD), which I can rip and put into iTunes where Match takes over. It's even better when Amazon's AutoRip is available for the CD. I get cheaper digital music then Apple along with an actual CD, which I like for music.

LeoPanthera 9y ago

I've never used Spotify, but what is the "weekly playlist"? Because Apple Music offers me three weekly playlists, "Favorites", "New Music", and (for some reason) "Chill". They seem pretty good, with regards to matching my music tastes.

spike021 9y ago
He's speaking of the "Discover Weekly" playlist. I won't claim to understand Spotify's algorithms, but it basically curates music that you may not have ever heard before but matches your interests. When I used to use Spotify it was incredibly accurate, so much so that I'd duplicate most Discover Weekly playlist week's as a new playlist because it just flowed so well with what I liked, despite being probably 80% new music I'd never heard before. AM has nothing like it, and I say that after using AM for about a year or a little longer now.
- lulmerchant 9y ago
  It's the one thing I really miss about Spotify. When I got into work on Monday, I'd just fire up the weekly playlist, and it would always have enough new content I liked to keep my playlists fresh for the week.
fossuser 9y ago
Discover Weekly is like the page rank of playlist recommendations. I think it works by looking at songs you have in your playlists and then finding playlists of other users that have those songs. From there it’ll make a playlist for you using songs those other users have in their playlist that you don’t have in yours. Rather than trying to do some matching based on song properties it abstracts the hard part to humans. It works extremely well and it refreshes every week. Spotify also has all the generic playlists that Apple has too. I also find Spotify’s UI to just work better especially between devices.

ehsankia 9y ago

Why does Google Play Music never come up in any of these discussions? I've found Google's recommendation engine to be far beyond competitors. They also allow uploading your own library which no other service out there does. Plus, you get Youtube Red for free with GPM, which is great value. They have the same family plan, and 320kbps. What is it lacking that no one ever considers it?

fossuser 9y ago
I pay for YouTube red and I still use Spotify. Originally it was because I didn’t like google music’s UI and they didn’t have native applications. I’m not sure if it’s improved since then.
acomjean 9y ago
I use apple match (not apple music), which allows uploads of your own music to play anywhere. I'm not sure why google doesn't get much mention, neither does napster (formally rhapsody) which a friend uses and likes. or amazon music for that matter..
mythz 9y ago
I pay for ad-free YouTube Red and got Google Play Music for free, IMO best value music subscription bundle available.
paulcole 9y ago
> They also allow uploading your own library which no other service out there does. For the overwhelming majority of customers this is a non-feature. Consider anyone under the age of say 20-25 today. How many will ever have a "real" mp3?
- ehsankia 9y ago
  That's fair, but it's still not a negative. I'm curious what it lacks that makes everyone go towards other services. My point is that it has everything, and more.
  - 9y ago