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Opinion: Apple Music in major need of search improvements as Apple plans more original video content

Before Apple Music even launched on iOS I knew there would be a difficulty in finding a way to balance the iTunes Store, Apple Music, and a user’s current music library. What I never expected was how long it would take for Apple to begin addressing the issues that were introduced. The most exasperating part of Apple Music on iOS has to be searching for video content. Nearly every time I search for a specific video (music video or otherwise), I end up getting frustrated and just head to iTunes on my computer instead.

THE CURRENT STRUGGLE

When Drake’s now infamous “Hotline Bling” music video was released, it was available exclusively through Apple Music before hitting other online video channels. I remember seeing the Apple Music tweet announcing the video, and getting excited to check out what kind of work the team put into it. Imagine my annoyance when I couldn’t find the video through searches within Apple Music on iOS. I had to keep referring back to the original tweet just to find and share the video.

[tweet https://twitter.com/AppleMusic/status/656277907212365824]

That was last October, and the situation has yet to change. Searching for “Hotline Bling” in Apple Music today hasn’t gotten any better. The music video is listed under the Top Results section, but without clear indication that it’s even a video. The song in Apple Music’s search is shown as Hotline Bling; Song by Drake, the single from the album as Hotline Bling – Single; Album by Drake, but the music video is shown as just Hotline Bling; Drake.

Apple Music Video Search

I personally know that the second option listed is the music video I’m searching for, but that’s only because I’ve seen the video so many times and the thumbnail makes it evidently clear. How would a new user discern this, and why would they select one over the other two? Of course, the user could just scroll down and go through the listed Apple Music search sections: Top Results, Songs, Albums, Playlists, Connect, Artists, Music Videos, and Stations. Scrolling through this list is not perfect, and it presents the current major problem with Apple Music search and videos.

A new user searching for video content wouldn’t want to and may not know to scroll all the way down to the Music Videos sections to find the video they want. When a song has reached a certain level of success, wouldn’t it make sense to clearly indicate the song, music video, and album in the top results? What about artist’s that release music videos through their Connect page? Those aren’t even shown in the Apple Music search results at all.

About four months ago, Skrillex released a music video for his remix of GTA’s “Red Lips” on his Apple Music Connect page. Unless you actively monitored the page or someone told you, you would never find it on Apple Music. A few days later after Skrillex’s release, the video was posted officially under GTA’s artist page. Once posted there, it was shown under the music video section and became discoverable through Apple Music searches.

THE FUTURE DILEMMA

Let’s break this problem down a bit further. Apple is reportedly working on multiple original shows exclusive to the Apple Music platform. Originally it was reported that Dr. Dre was working on a sex-filled and violent drama for Apple Music’s first original series, and just yesterday news came out about a new original TV show based on the app economy. With the current state of Apple Music search on iOS, how does Apple expect to surface this content? Will a new section dedicated to TV/video or original series exist? Could Apple break out video entirely into its own section of the app or its own app?

Last year we discussed thatJust this week Apple partnered with Vice to release an original documentary series following various music scenes around the globe. The series falls in-line nicely with Vice’s documentary stylings, and Apple Music’s push to surface interesting and unknown musical content. Except for the fact that this series was crazy difficult to find, if not impossible, without a direct link. If Apple does have plans to release a cable-replacement service priced as low as $40 per month, then Apple Music’s current video content might be better suited in a separate app all together. This could help create a better content discovery experience across iOS and tvOS.

When I published the article discussing Vice’s new series, I couldn’t find it through Apple Music on my iPhone. I found Vice’s official page, except going there just brought me to a list of playlists and their Connect page. The series, The Score, was nowhere to be found. I had to: jump onto my computer, head to Vice’s site, find the series’ trailer page, select a link to the official series on iTunes, and only then I was able to start watching what I wanted.

Today, the situation is worse, if that’s even possible. I began searching the series on iOS again hoping that it would have surfaced by now. I typed “The Score” into Apple Music on iOS, and lo and behold the series is not shown on the first page of the results at all. That’s fine, I expected there to be hundreds of other items matching the title. I decided to search for “Vice” instead. I found the official Vice page, and scanned through for the official series, and it wasn’t even shown at all. Annoyed, I decided to head back a page and go section by section on the initial results page.

VICE Pages

I finally found the series under the Music Videos search results section. While The Score is a video series about music, it was definitely not a music video. Directly below the series’ title, I noticed it showed the artist as “VICE”. I thought this was strange considering I already went to Vice’s official Apple Music page and didn’t find the video there at all. I clicked through to this potentially different Vice page, and discovered another official Apple Music page. This page only included the series’ content, and nothing else. How would a user ever be expected to find this content easily?

It’s stranger to me that this is a series that was reportedly worked alongside Apple Music. With that mentality, why isn’t the content being promoted more or pushed higher up top in search results?

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Possibly the greatest challenge to Apple Music’s service is its name. The name feels too inclusive to what they’re trying to accomplish with all the different content. Services like Spotify, Tidal, and Pandora have names that are less limiting to immediate expectations. Apple Music may be focused on music for now, but if any of the reports are true, more and more original video content will begin hitting the platform that may not directly relate.

Apple Music has a serious video discovery issue that is counter-intuitive to the content being published. I don’t expect Apple to change and update it all overnight, or even over a point release, but I do hope that iOS 10 brings major improvements to the search functionality as a whole. We’ve yet to see Eddy Cue’s iTunes refresh, and I continue to hold out with bated breath. Not only because I’m a daily user, but because I like the Apple Music platform and know it should be improved if it’s going to continue to into the future as Apple’s new content service.

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Comments

  1. el3v3nty - 8 years ago

    100% agreed! could definitely use search improvements.

  2. taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

    How about having a Apple Music web app or desktop app like Spotify that is just online streaming and playlists.

    • tewestblog - 8 years ago

      Ditto! Just put iTunes on the web, and be done with it already! Add you a small footprint desktop app (i.e. google music), and BAM, you’re in business!

  3. Jamison.IO (@Jamison_IO) - 8 years ago

    yep, just left Apple music back to Spotify. Sucks because the “for you” are a was spot on. Would play Rancid and Fleetwood Mac right after each other and it would be perfect.

  4. Dil Ribeiro - 8 years ago

    I have to agree with the writer, searching for something on Apple Music is a pain in the arse.

  5. davidt4n - 8 years ago

    Include live lyrics. In China, this is very common and I don’t knkw why US people don’t need this.

  6. David Kaplan - 8 years ago

    I agree with this. iTunes has a bigger issue than search, the issue there is that it’s trying to do too much at once. There’s 2 areas for an iPhone, 1 to sync and one that shows the content. I often find that the content that iTunes says is on my iPhone actually isn’t. Additionally, the amount of free space that my phone tells me there is and iTunes reports is different 100% of the time. Finally, in the music app on iPhone, there’s not even a way to determine how many songs are downloaded to the device itself unless you dig into settings.

    • David Kaplan - 8 years ago

      Also, Apple Music needs a sharing element. Spotify shows you what your friends are listening to and you can create playlists and collaborate. I would love if Apple Music would offer that.

  7. uniszuurmond - 8 years ago

    Apple Music is the single biggest disappointment ever, even including Apple Maps (who still show a restaurant in my private security complex, even after reporting it twice).

    The options to customise music was way out of line with my library, with artists I don’t even know.

    The genres was all wrong, listing a language as a genre (that like saying French music cannot be categorised into Jazz, Rock, Pop, etc), and my favourite genre, Folk, nowhere to be found.

    Needless to say, the recommendations were therefore way off, and I had to rely on search. Which, as you’ve explained, is an equal mess.

    There were also many other issues, including small tap spaces, unclear action spaces and other interface nightmares.

    So I left Apple Music. Only to find that songs from my library no longer will play, and there’s no re-download option (from iTunes Match, to which I subscribe).

    This single piece of software and my experience with it is so bad that I am now seriously considering Android. Also because they fixed a mistake on their maps within a week.

  8. Ray Grant - 8 years ago

    Until they fix syncing of offline content, I am going to avoid Apple Music. But I also need explanation how exactly “series based on app economy” relates to Apple MUSIC.

  9. Thomas Massengale - 8 years ago

    I am so tired of having to endure Apple Music come ons when I open music. I don’t want the stupid streaming service and I shouldn’t keep seeing the messages. It’s spam on an app that I’ve paid for to play MY music in buying the iOS device(s). Stop advertising to me on my phone Apple!

    • uniszuurmond - 8 years ago

      In fact, another reason why I may be leaving Apple altogether. Pull me in, Apple, don’t push me in.

  10. triankar - 8 years ago

    Apple Music also needs to address more tastes. It seems like they’re focused on promoting music styles around the branding they are trying to promote (think of the official radio station selection). An easy example is that there is no decent lounge / chillout stations selection. There’s maybe one or two, of a very particular style, and then we’re left with browsing for the odd customer-created radio stations.

  11. galley99 - 8 years ago

    I would happy if the search field was active when I select the Search tab. It’s a pain to have to select the field before I can begin typing.

  12. Jake Becker - 8 years ago

    AM is so much suck for no good reason…

  13. Louis Hurr (@LouisHurr) - 8 years ago

    Apple Music is in need of a lot more than just search:
    http://youtu.be/DdAnUitXJzw

  14. Louis Hurr (@LouisHurr) - 8 years ago

    I’m so frustrated with Apple. I’ve been using Apple 2.0 products since the iPod mini, and I love the hardware. However, Apple services have been such an epic disaster for me. I really want the integration of Apple software with hardware, but the software side is awful compared to what Google offers. Apple Music has been just terrible. My family subscription keeps dumping my family members for no reason, I can’t create playlists with full albums without it adding completely different albums to my playlist, issues, uploading music, etc. And I have tried asking Apple for help, but they have no idea. I have had an open incident case with them for 3 months! And don’t get me started on iCloud web browser calendar, photos, or iCloud itself. Then I go over to Google, and everything works awesome. Google Photos, Sheets, Docs, Keep notes, it all works awesome. But my dilemma is I really want to use Apple hardware, and I’m not a big fan of Android’s clunkyness. Google services work on iOS but not as well as they work on Android. And Siri integration doesn’t work…only with Apple services. Ughhhh! So, I’m so frustrated. Apple, I want to give you my money. I am happy to give you my money. Just make your software work as advertised. That is all I want….

  15. Evgen995 (@mcMAXmc95) - 8 years ago

    And also it needs Labels support. I can’t follow them, but i listen EDM and Labels are huge part of EDM genres

  16. Alexander Fox - 8 years ago

    I wish Apple would finally address all those poor quality low-res SD music videos in iTunes, which still sell for up to $3. SD in 2016? That’s really a joke. We want at least 1080p HD music videos, if not even 4K for the latest content.