With revamped Apple Music is iCloud Music Library still necessary for offline listening?

[VSG]

Hi there!

On the WWDC-Keynote there was a lot of talk about how many changes there were coming to Apple Music. My question to anyone who has the iOS 10 Beta installed, is it finally possible to download songs from Apple Music for offline listening without having to activate the iCloud Music Library?

That was the deal breaker so far for me and a lot of people around me.
We all gave Apple Feedback accordingly and I'm still hoping. I'd love to use Apple Music but not if I have to share everything on the device with Apple and not if it means Apple dictates my tags and album art.

Thanks in advance for any info!
Best regards,
VSG

 

[navaira]

This is what I need to switch from Spotify (which just broke gapless playback for no reason and redesigned interface from OK to disgusting) – syncing offline music without iCloud "matching".

 

[bilibug]

As far as I can tell, there have not been any functional refinements in Apple Music. All changes thus far have been cosmetic only, and not necessarily an improvement.

You are still required to replace or merge your libraries. Artwork and tags are still hosed, and non-catalog songs are still replaced with those available/licensed on Apple Music, despite having different tags, lengths, etc.

The only major addition is that your media library is now protected from 3rd party apps, which you must grant access permission. However, this clearly does not apply to the Music app itself, which is the biggest culprit of crimes against your music collection.

 

[VSG]

Thanks for the info!
So still no Apple Music for me.

Without offline listening it is as useless as when it screws up my entire library. If Apple doesn't listen to feedback, they can't expect people to flock to their service. Pity, would have loved the integration.

 

[Loge]

And me. Complete ring-fencing of my library is required before I will consider doing the trial.

 

[M. Gustave]

And me. Complete ring-fencing of my library is required before I will consider doing the trial.

Why? You can simply back up your iTunes folder to another location, then try out AM without any risk.

And for the record, I didn't have any major problems. A few albums have incorrect art, and a few got duplicated, out of 13000 songs. And really, if you're that worried about every detail, AM probably isn't a good choice for you.

 

[whsbuss]

Thanks for the info!
So still no Apple Music for me.

Without offline listening it is as useless as when it screws up my entire library. If Apple doesn't listen to feedback, they can't expect people to flock to their service. Pity, would have loved the integration.

iCloud Music Library - just what the words say. Music that's in their cloud. Makes sense to me. I understand why you don't like it (because it screws up local stuff) and Apple has to fix it.

 

[bilibug]

Seriously, all it would take is to relax the aggressiveness of the matching algorithm. If the tags and song length don't match, leave the file alone. Or at least give us the option to exclude certain tracks from matching as Navaira has suggested multiple times.

 

[VSG]

Seriously, all it would take is to relax the aggressiveness of the matching algorithm.

Why not give us the option to opt out of the iCloud Library completely? I have audio files on my phone that were part of a training seminar. I had to sign I won't share these with anyone - and even though Apple's servers appear safe, I would have to upload these files to their servers. Sorry, can't do that.
Let's see what Amazon has planned as a music service. Competition is good!

 

[bilibug]

Why not give us the option to opt out of the iCloud Library completely? I have audio files on my phone that were part of a training seminar. I had to sign I won't share these with anyone - and even though Apple's servers appear safe, I would have to upload these files to their servers. Sorry, can't do that.
Let's see what Amazon has planned as a music service. Competition is good!

You currently can, but then AM turns into a browse and play experience only.

 

[Brenster]

As far as I can tell, there have not been any functional refinements in Apple Music. All changes thus far have been cosmetic only, and not necessarily an improvement.

You are still required to replace or merge your libraries. Artwork and tags are still hosed, and non-catalog songs are still replaced with those available/licensed on Apple Music, despite having different tags, lengths, etc.

The only major addition is that your media library is now protected from 3rd party apps, which you must grant access permission. However, this clearly does not apply to the Music app itself, which is the biggest culprit of crimes against your music collection.

Appreciate the clarifications. Still love Apple Music with iCloud Music Library on my iPad and Sonis, but iCML is not getting turned on in my phone or Mac iTunes library. Maybe an iPod touch for iCML and keep the phone with my own library. Tried a copy of my iTunes library with iCML and it hosed my mono Beatles for stereo etc. Just no.