Coming from a pure streamer since Rhapsody Music came out nearly 20 years ago, I am now using Apple Music as my primary source for music enjoyment.
What struck my fancy with Rhapsody Music back in the day (~2004) was that is it maintained a library, and whenever I added an album, the application automatically add the artist and all the songs to their respective categories. After a short period of time, I had what was similar to having my own record store. (old school Tower Records style) I was enjoying music in a manner that I never could have imagined back in the 70's, 80's, and 90's.
Anytime a new streaming service came out, I would test it out. I got bogged down in the audio quality mud, and to be fair, some of the earlier streaming services has mediocre sound quality. Most of the time it was inaudible to me, but on some occasion it would become apparent, and I blind tested hundreds of tracks and worked to improve my ability to identify differences. After giving a few services a trial, I settled on MOG music for a few years.
This was great for sound quality, as the lossy format was at a quality level that few people could reliably hear any difference when compared to a CD, though the interface was not as user-friendly as my experience with Rhapsody. There was more work and upkeep, but I was happy. I did try new stuff, Spotify was nice, but it did not check all of my boxes. I wanted something like Rhapsody's library management, but with the same audio quality or better than what Spotify was providing with Ogg Vorbis lossy.
I hate playlists, especially with limits on the number of tracks. Having a base library that includes all albums, artists, songs, and a genre is essential to me. And I need to be able to shuffle the entire library. Spotify just could not provide this, and it seems that my style was rare and not likely to be part of the new generation's preference. I was content with MOG, but I was always on the lookout for anything new, as it also had limitations on the library structure I was hoping to enjoy.
Then, out of the blue, Google Music came out around 2011. It offered 320 kbps lossy files, had an enormous catalog of music, and it behaved even better than Rhapsody with regards to library management. As a beta tester, I was grandfathered (and still am with YouTube Music) at a monthly rate of $7.99. This was practically music heaven to me. Great album cover art, information and photos about the artists, my entire library could be randomly shuffled, and the sound quality was arguably identical to lossless, at least for a great portion of the planet's population. This was approaching nirvana-like status with my music enjoyment.
During my Google Music period, I was discovering all kinds of great stuff. My listening sessions were frequent and long with my diverse selections of songs ranked at the very top for eclectic habits according to last.fm tracking. However, as great as Google Music was for me, there was still some room for improvement with regards to audio quality, from a purely technical perspective. And this technical perspective would provide peace of mind once and for all, or so I would assume.
Enter Tidal Music. What, what, what!? Lossless streaming music that delivered millions of CD-like songs to me. I jumped right in with glee, only to be saddened by the same restrictions that saddled Spotify and prevented it from meeting my metrics that determine a good music streamer. The library management was a hot mess. If I added an album, it was only in the album section of the library. If I added an artist or song, those were only added to their respective sections in the library. I could not simply add the album when I hear a great song or found a new artist to explore more thoroughly. To get the songs to a library that could be fully shuffled and enjoyed for casual listening, I had to add the music in 3 places, or just to songs with no association to the album or artist in any other play format. It was such a drastic deviation from what I loved, that I would sign up for a few months and cancel from a few months for over 4 years, hoping that the next update would add features that would correct the terrible user interface.
Google Music was my mainstay during this period, but in my mind I wanted lossless streaming, and I knew it was available, though I could not stomach the poor user interface compared to what I was already enjoying. When Google started to abandon their application in their migration to YouTube Music, I finally bit the bullet and tried Roon with Tidal. It was, for the most part, on equal terms with the perfect library management to go with lossless music. When Qobuz was available, I immediately signed up for their highest streaming quality service. With Roon running the interface, having both Tidal and Qobuz audio quality was bliss.
Things were great. Though, Roon is a bit flaky at times for my purposes, and the development is slow and not many people want the same things that I do from a streaming experience. To make matters a bit more complicated, bugs and system changes have come about that took days to correct or I had to find some alternate workaround to resolve. And I was stuck to my Roon core. It was a Windows laptop that I could easily move around and travel with, but it wasn't perfect or useful at work in my office or when I was driving.
I had been an Android/Google/Windows user for the most part, but in 2017 I purchase an iPhone 7 Plus. Also, I did grab the iPad when it first came out in 2010, and I am now using an iPad Pro with my eyes on a new version soon. So I was already familiar with Apple product when I got my 2018 VW GTI that had Car Play built-in. I have an unlimited Verizon plan that allowed me to connect my iPhone to the vehicle's Car Play system, where I was able to stream music and control everything with Siri just by talking. I was playing music from artists, albums, genres, and making custom radio stations just by asking Siri to do it. This was really cool and a lot of fun.
I made two separate trips driving from Washington DC to Orlando, Florida, streaming Apple Music the entire time. It was an 11-hour, one-way trip each way up and down Interstate 95. There was so much joy in the way that Apple Music worked. "Hey Siri, what song is this"? "Hey Siri, create a radio station based on this song". "Hey Siri, play some music from Thievery Corporation". It was such a thrill.
When I was back home, I would take Sunday drives in the Shenandoah Valley just to enjoy the same experience. But Apple Music was lossy, and it didn't work nearly the same via iTunes on my Windows computers, and neither my iPhone nor my iPad was terrific with my USB DACs, so I kept Apple Music as a freebie as part of my Verizon unlimited plan, and continued to use Roon with Qobuz/Tidal streaming.
Then, a cascading effect occurred that moved me one step closer to where I am not with streaming music. I purchase an awesome 65" LG OLED TV. The picture quality simply blew me away. It was a smart 4K TV, and I am basically subscribed to nearly every streaming video service. That is my schtick, right, streaming. However, one streaming service was a hold out, HBOMAX. Even my Rokus were not cooperating with HBO to make an app available, and there were some interesting shows I wanted to watch on my beautiful big screen. After several long months, I grabbed an Apple TV 4K, that did include HBOMAX as one of the available apps.
The Apple TV 4K was expensive compared to the competition like Amazon Fire or Roku products. But honestly, there is not much competition for anyone that is already invested in the Apple ecosystem. There has been no comparison to the overall quality and user experience. I was so impressed that I now have three Apple TV 4K devices to go with each of my 4K TVs. They sync together and work flawlessly with my iPhone and iPad.
So Apple Music comes out with the lossless stuff and the new spatial audio. I gave it a spin on my TV's with their surround system. It was nice, but a bit limiting as I had a room dedicated to stereo music enjoyment, and it still was not convenient to get my Apple Music to my DAC, like the RME ADI-2 FS that was utilizing PEQ settings for my treated room.
But one night, I was playing on my iPad, and sending the music to one of my TVs via the Apple TV device. The interface was fun and engaging. I was able to quickly find music I had not heard in years. Before I realized it, a few hours had gone by and I was shocked at how much more enjoyment I was having during this time. It was like those road trips, but on my couch in my living room. One song reminded me of another. A blurb about the artists or something in the lyrics brought about a flood of emotions and sent me down another rabbit hole of music exploration. It was a late night, but one that I did not regret.
When I awoke the next morning, I check my emails and see a notification that Roon is about to renew. Qobuz just recently sent my an email about the price changes, and that annual subscription was due in a few weeks. I thought to myself, what would it take to make Apple Music my only streaming service? That morning, I spent most of my morning scanning the internet for options. I had considered getting a Mac mini, but then I would require a display and input devices. I wanted to keep the ability of moving the source around the house, and to take with me when I traveled. A Mac mini might be problematic and inconvenient. In the end, a laptop was probably the best choice.
And here I am now, with a new MacBook Pro M1. I cancelled Roon ($119.88/yr), Tidal ($11.99/mo with veteran discount), Qobuz ($129.99/yr). That is nearly $400 annually I dropped. The MacBook will be paid for in under 3 years from cancelling those other subscriptions. I LOVE the new MacBook. It works great in my particular environment. My music is all in one place. It is on my phone, my tablet, as a core server with my MacBook, and available on most of my TVs.
Apple Music brings back the greatest thing I love about music streamers. I have my giant library of albums, and all of the artists are included in an artists section, with all of the tracks from those albums appearing in a compete songs section. I can randomly shuffle the library. I can now talk to my music player and ask it question about the music I am hearing or any number or related or unrelated questions. The music player also observes verbal commands to play, pause, skip, replay, fast-forward, or reverse. I can ask my player to create playlists based on any criteria rationally imagined. When I take my music for a walk around the block with my phone, it is the same library and interface. When I go meet co-workers for lunch, I enjoy the same music and interface during my drive.
It is close to perfect.
Apple Music is fantastic. I truly enjoy the customized columns that can provide information at a glance on how many times a song has been played or when the last time that was, if ever. If some odd album is missing, I can purchase and/or rip it from a CD to add it so that it will be seamlessly integrated into the entire scheme. I have not had to do this for a couple of years now as most holdouts have caved to allow streaming. (Tool, Eagles, Bob Seger, and a few others)
I admit, not having exclusive mode and bit perfect music is a little disappointing, but the implementation is so awesome, and the quality is perfect for me, as I was never able to identify a difference between Apple AAC and any lossless or HD audio options when the same master is verified and the volume levels are closely matched.
That is my story. Apple Music is great.
It's like going back to 30 fps after 60-120... you can but it will take some time to get used to and to lower your standard.