Huh. I held off on the subscription services for a long time, but I eventually pulled the trigger for two reasons. First, OTA access to everything was simpler

Huh. I held off on the subscription services for a long time, but I eventually pulled the trigger for two reasons. First, OTA access to everything was simpler and easier than cable sync from my (enormous) library. This may or may not be a unique feature of Apple Music, but I'm in the world so it works for me. By signing up to AM, I can get everything on my phone on demand, including weird or esoteric things that aren't actually available on Apple Music because AM will read my actual library and upload anything it doesn't have to facilitate easy access. (Now, YOU can't get access to the weird stuff I have, but that's fine.) The second reason, which I admit is actually the first forcing function, is that while I understood perfectly well how to go to the music server and plug in my phone and sync music, it was just a Bridge Too Far for my nontechnical wife. She wanted it simpler, and so rather than complain was just not listening to music on her phone. :( So I signed up for AM, and holy crap it's been pretty much an unalloyed boon. I still buy stuff (mostly local, since I live in a place with a record store), but I sample FAR more widely than I did before because the incremental cost to trying something because I read an article about this-or-that artist is zero. That aspect is pretty great. And the way I have AM configured, everything I listen to gets downloaded, so if I'm in a place with no coverage (or an airplane) I still have everything I want.