Interesting. A big reason why I got away from Spotify is the poor local media library support. Relying on just their cloud library for playlists means I’ll end up with playlists that only have half the songs available after a year because of the shuffling on their end for song versions/songs not on the service anymore.
Do you experience that with Apple Music?
No because playlists that have my library tracks don’t disappear, my music doesn’t require the label to agree for it to be streamed, I own it.
As for the Apple Music streamed tracks, I haven’t seen one disappear but I do use an app to track that, all its shown so far is occasionally the label updates some metadata on some of the albums.
For now – music added locally is either matched in iTunes Music or uploaded and converted to AAC256 in the process. Apple has said that lossy local tracks won’t be converted to Lossless in iTunes Match – but how this pans out in Apple Music (or if tracks that are added locally in ALAC are uploaded losslessly) remains to be seen, AFAIK.
All my local music that I accumulated for over a decade is on my desktop in Apple Music. All I do with Roon is point to it.
Roon took a stance, that Apple(is evil) will never let us do what we need to integrate it. While it might not let them do all they want, it might give enough to make it functional.
If it just did that Amazon Echo can do - “Alexa play so and so from Apple Music”. Amazon probably went to Apple asked them nicely. May be if they set up an appointment with Apple and tell them what they want to do, it could actually happen. In the end Apple needs to sell subscriptions.
I do have runtime subscription to Roon, but I have never stopped using Apple Music for streaming. My streamer is RPI with wonderful RopieeeXL, supports both RAAT and Airplay, so switching is not a problem.
If Roon never manages to integrate AppleMusic it is not bad for AppleMusic, it is bad for Roon, because, thanks to MQA, Tidal is off my list and while Qubus is great, with lossless in AppleMusic, it is more expensive, especially for a family tier.
Technically that’s not always true. If you have ALAC files (I do) they will be uploaded in that quality:
Not exactly: Apple does not allow for third party integrations of any kind outside of Sonos.
Roon does take a stand when integrating services though – fully integrated or not at all. API-based ‘integrations’ like hardware manufacturers offer would make for a confusing and pretty half-baked product.
Yep. Apple One is EUR20 for a family of five. Music, games, tv and cloud space included. Hard to match.
No – that’s not the case (and not what the Reddit thread you linked to says):
I can confirm that iTunes doesn’t touch your original files when uploading to AM, but you are also right about the alac files being transcoded into AAC.
Your local files remain untouched, but the version that lives in your Apple Music cloud is converted to AAC. Here’s an album of mine that was added as ALAC:
I’ve read this reply many times.
Tell us that you talked to Apple and they denied you access. So we can be sure they are evil.
If Amazon Echo can play apple music it is also an integration. Amazon and Sonos, that’s already two precedences. Roon can be third.
Apologies, my mistake.
Mods are just Roon users weeding this garden a bit – I am neither part of the company nor can I speak for Roon. That said – I like Apple Music. And Roon. So nah – while I don’t think anyone is particularly evil here – I just don’t get my hopes up.
It looks like right now you can get a 3 month free trial of Apple Music on the individual plan.
Here in the USA at least.
I figure by 3 months they should have their act together and I would have a good feel for it.
And against this Tidal has to stand up. Something they simply can’t win.
A Tidal sub for one user is € or $ 19.99 a month
Same in the UK and Europe.
Does anyone know if Apple will update your bought downloads for free like they did last time?
Lossless is for Apple Music only, it appears – not for iTunes purchases or iTunes Match:
Appreciate it thank you. Disappointing though, it appears that they are appealing to the new crowd and not the old.
If Roon cannot add Apple Music, it may be possible for them to allow the Apple Music app on Mac to still play through Roon somehow.
I know apps like BitPerfect do that.
Great news for Qobuz.
I still do not quite understand their ‘download’ pricing model, but it still gives them a unique position in the streaming market.
Maybe a (very) limited target public, but big and special enough to be able to survive this fight for the music ‘consumer’
Dirk
The DAC has to be connected to a Mac. No way to get hi res (192/24) files to any networked device with Apple [Music Software] currently.
