Friday, February 11, 2022

Things I learned switching from Spotify to Apple Music

I'll keep adding to this list. For historic reasons going back over 10 years all my owned music is under one Apple ID and my iCloud services are under another. 3/5 family members use the same Store Apple ID. Because of the way family sharing works that legacy Apple ID is a six family member.
  • On the individual plan you can stream to one device at a time. On the family plan you can stream to up to 6 devices at one time. On the individual plan if two devices share the same Store Apple ID only one can stream at a time. (I think you can play Music you own on more than one device.)
  • If you are on a free plan and upgrade to family plan you don't get any special credit, just go to full price.
  • When you do upgrade from the Music app (good luck figuring this out) you get the monthly $15 renewal. There's no yearly discount.
  • I think music that you have in legacy iTunes that is not part of Apple's library is uploaded and available. For example (from 2003!). I don't know if I play from streaming if I get this one or a newer version.
  • In addition to iTunes you can use music.apple.com to access your library on a Mac.
  • FreeYourMusic.app on iOS $10 works pretty well to transfer Spotify playlists to Apple Music. The $10 is a lifelong subscription but it is not family shared.
  • When you cancel Spotify you revert to ad-supported Spotify, your playlists don't go away.
  • To Share Playlists you need to create a Profile.
  • Apple Music includes iTunes Match
Additional notes on results of moving Emily from using a shared Store Apple ID to her iCloud Apple ID for media and purchases given family sharing:
  • Playlists that were on her phone seemed to stay on her phone
  • Downloads on her phone are still there and they synced to the Cloud
  • Still TBD how this will impact movies, apps, etc given family sharing (our legacy shared Store Apple ID is a 'family member').

No comments:

Post a Comment