How do Apple Music subscribers get the most from their subscription?
Over and above the more obvious methods Apple Music can be used, here are some of my ideas that I have developed to get the most from AM…
I realised quite early on that not being able to place the Apple Music playlists inside my existing playlist folder structure or even create folders just for AM playlists was going to lead to frustration.
The way I get round this for ‘older’ music playlists that will never date is to simply duplicate the AM playlists into my own playlists. For example, I added ‘The Beach Boys: Deep Cuts’ as an AM playlist then created my own version of ‘The Beach Boys: Deep Cuts’, copying the relevant songs in, deleting the AM version and placing my version where I want it to be in my existing iTunes playlist folder system.
The above doesn’t really work for the playlists designed to help discover new music. I really like the ‘Untitled’ and ‘Loud Places’ playlists, but was getting frustrated that shuffling these playlists led to the same tracks playing, especially when the purpose of the the playlist is to discover new songs/artists.
Now, I set a regular reminder to review these AM playlists and add any songs I have never listened to into my own music discovery playlist. This playlist is accessed via a one touch shortcut on my iPhone lock screen (using Workflow).
I also use Workflow to get around the crazy lack of a ‘Love’ button on the iPhone lock screen. I simply use a Workflow button to add songs I ‘Love’ to a playlist that can be reviewed at a later stage. I go through this playlist to dig deeper into the artists of songs I’ve ‘loved’, finding new/old albums I may want to listen to.
My final idea is based around the 100’s of Apple Music playlists that exist beyond the daily recommendations within iTunes or the IOS app. For example, there are far more than the 15 or so ‘60’s’ playlists available when you try and search the AM playlist library. I found this website which is brilliant for digging far deeper into the AM playlist archive http://mixing.io
Does anybody have any feedback/further ideas on the above?
How do people use Workflow etc with Apple Music/iTunes?
I always want 50 or so current favorite songs quickly available, and offline for plane rides.
For this, I have a playlist called “A1” so it sorts to the top in the app and CarPlay when sorted by Title; sorta in iTunes. I would use a symbol in front and maybe a more descriptive name like “~Now” to guarantee no other list goes to the top but I tell Siri to shuffle this playlist more than any other and it doesn’t get punctuation very well. This playlist is also set to download on iOS for plane rides.
When I get tired of a song or its been in the mix for a few months, I move it to a playlist called Z2018 (or whatever year it is). “Z” prefix to make it sort to the bottom. The annual playlists are fun to look back on for a stroll down memory lane. These playlists are not set to download, just stream.
Here’s where I’d love the option to move, not just copy a song(s) to another playlist in the app & iTunes. I’d create a Workflow.is for this but have never found a way to delete a song from a playlist. If anyone has, please let me know!
I have found someone who is interested in Apple Music/Workflow combinations! Could you share your workflows? Hopefully we and others could add to the Workflows category?
FWIW - I have an AM workflow that I created from another I found online that I would be happy to share but not sure I know how on this new forum. I call it “Daily Playlist” which I usually run when I startup the car. presents a menu for you to choose style (Mix, Rock, Electronic) and then creates a new playlist with 50 random tracks. You can of course easily change the styles, etc. as desired in Workflow. I am always pleasantly surprised with the results especially with the “Mix” which chooses from ALL genres - and I have a lot of genres.
Unfortunately I haven’t come up with many useful Workflows for Music other than the basic “choose a playlist” type button from the Today screen. I’m going to try out your idea of using Workflow to make up for the lack of Love button on the lock screen!
Hopefully there are some other MPUers that have other ideas for us!
Toddler mode - pick one of five songs and play it on repeat
Shuffle downloads - play music which is not cloud item (also not genre children’s or christmas )
KCRW top tune - when playing the podcast in Overcast, share to this workflow - it scrapes the title and artist from the output and tries to add the track to Apple Music
Radium - ditto for current track in Radium . Sadly Radium seems to be abandoned & performance is awful in iOS 11
Play entire current album - replaces the current up next with the album containing the current track & starts playing
