Apple has expanded its Apple Music streaming subscription service to include thousands of music videos. The company wasted no time declaring Apple Music a "new home for music videos" and signing up for exclusives from heavy hitters like Beck and A Tribe Called Quest.
It looks like Apple is getting serious about its foray into music videos, with the potential to topple YouTube and VEVO as the new place for videos.
So here's how to access music videos, create your own “Music TV” channels, and some tips to get the most out of the Apple Music service.
You can access the Apple Music video catalog on any Apple Music compatible device. This includes iOS devices like iPhone and iPad, Apple TV, Mac and Windows computers through iTunes, and the Apple Music mobile app for Android.
To find them, go to the Glance tab and search for the Music Videos section. Here you'll find a list of new and exclusive videos at the top, with suggested playlists, artist highlights, and genre highlights below.
Apple Music treats music videos as if they were regular audio tracks. You can add them to your library, save them for offline viewing by clicking the little “cloud with down arrow” download icon, and of course add them to your Apple Music playlists How to get started with Apple Playlists Music How to get started with Apple Music playlists In this article, we explore how to create, populate, share, discover, and become a master of Apple Music Playlists. Read more.
Music discovery on Apple Music isn't great, and music videos are no different. There are currently no suggested videos under the For you tab (at least not for me, your mileage may vary). Instead, you're left to yourself, with few suggestions based on your listening habits.
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to find videos that match your taste in music. In my experience, this is easier on iTunes for Windows and Mac (how to make iTunes usable again), but there's no reason you can't do the same on other platforms:
Using the discovery tips above, you should be able to build a good library of music videos to suit your tastes. One of the best ways to enjoy them is by using a music video playlist, essentially your own personal music TV station.
This is as simple as creating a new playlist like you normally would, filling it with videos and then hitting Shuffle and letting it roll. You can add new videos to your playlist as you watch them, or do what I did and take 20 minutes to browse the current catalog of your favorite artists.
the Shuffle The feature is important to stop all your Kendrick Lamar videos from playing. You can search for other people's playlists (see above) and bulk add songs to your playlists, but be sure to Add Any of these playlists to your library first so you can Cmd / Ctrl + Click to select multiple entries at once.
Once you've put together a nice playlist, you can take things to the next level by giving it a silly name and creating a custom logo. 3 Free Ways to Create a Logo Fast with Zero Effort 3 Free Ways to Create a Logo Fast with Zero Effort If you don't have graphic design skills and can't hire a graphic designer, you can use a free online tool to create your logo. Read more . The final step is to post it to your Apple Music profile by checking the Publish to profile and search. on the playlist screen. Now everyone will know how great you are.
The service isn't perfect, and there are still some quirks to work out. I've encountered a particularly serious bug in iTunes (Mac and Windows) where Apple Music doesn't add videos to the correct playlist when specified from the right-click menu (see screenshot below). I found that waiting a few seconds between each video I added fixed the issue, but there is no excuse for this behavior on Apple's part.
When watching videos on Apple TV, you can hit the Menu button on the remote to “skip back” from the video and view song information, play time, and other controls. You can also swipe left and right to change songs here, all without interrupting what's currently playing (see screenshot below). It's a promising start.
Videos require much more space and bandwidth than audio alone. Keep this in mind if you're downloading a lot of videos for offline use or planning to stream music videos over a cellular connection.
And another iTunes issue I encountered was no video playback when connected to an AirPlay speaker. The best AirPlay speakers you can buy right now. The best AirPlay speakers you can buy right now. More information. iTunes doesn't bother to show you any video, it just plays the audio instead. Disconnect from AirPlay to watch the video on your computer.
Music videos aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they can provide a fun visual background for parties or gatherings. Some artists, like OK Go and Radiohead, have turned the music video into an art form. Others echo the past with memorable live performances, or push technical limits like A-ha did with Take On Me.
The fact that the service is provided alongside Apple Music for the same flat rate is a nice touch. The ability to watch consecutive music videos, without advertising or interruptions., y The ability to skip a song if you don't feel like it is a nice addition to any living room. Naturally, it works better on the Apple TV.
Apple Music's music videos aren't intrusive, and Apple isn't trying to push the service. You can choose to ignore them completely, and you'll probably never even notice they're there.
It's clear that Apple Music—the apps, interface, and implementation across devices—needs some work to enable music video playback and discovery. The ability to create a music video. “Radio” as you can with regular songs would essentially create an “automatic” Music TV Station whenever you want. Hopefully it's a feature Apple is working on.
While the catalog is pretty good, it doesn't compare to YouTube and VEVO music channels. It will never be able to compete with YouTube when it comes to much smaller grassroots artists, but that's probably not Apple's intention anyway.
However, in the future, the company must find a balance between new, exclusive videos and completing the catalog again.
I've noticed that some music videos sound noticeably worse than their audio counterparts. This is probably a combination of the age of the original video and the heavy compression that iTunes applies to some videos. Newer videos don't seem to suffer from this problem.
However, that compression can really take its toll on some videos, with heavy compression artifacts visible. This is noticeably worse than the videos I'm used to seeing on TV. Some videos are locked to SD quality, like they're ready to be transferred to your old iPod.
My only complaint about watching videos on Apple TV is that Music doesn't announce the song title and artist at the beginning or end of a song. Swipe down to reveal track info only shows the track name.
And as for iTunes, it's a mess. It's been a mess for over a decade, and it's a shame Apple Music is tied to the bloated media manager. He's just as callous and quirky when it comes to music videos as he is when it comes to regular music.
A dedicated Apple Music-only app could be much better. Many of us would take a web-based version at this point.
Most people already turn to YouTube for their music video needs as streaming what you want from the internet has obvious benefits over traditional media. However, the healing and discovery aspect needs work. Until Apple can find a way to automate the process, like good old TV music, but with more input from the user, the potential is unrealized.
If you are an Apple Music subscriber, I recommend you take a look at their music video vaults as there are many music videos to choose from, from MTV to YouTube:A Brief History of MTV Music Videos to YouTube:A Brief History of music videos While music videos are mostly seen on YouTube these days, this is just the latest stage in the evolution of a medium that can be as elaborate as film and as personal as photos. Read more . And if you have an Apple TV and subscribe to Apple Music, you'll have a blast.
