Apple Music is off to a shaky start, to say the least.
Three months after its launch in late June, Apple's music streaming subscription service is still riddled with bugs and usability issues. Many people originally complained about hundreds of songs simply disappearing from their music libraries, though that issue appears to be fixed.
I still use Spotify Premium as my daily music app, because its interface is intuitive and has features Apple Music doesn't, like the killer Discover Weekly playlist that magically seems to know exactly what I'll like.
But every now and then, I return to Apple Music, only to be disappointed — then frustrated, then infuriated.
I'll use the example of my commute to work via subway this morning. On the way to the station, I plugged in my headphones and Apple Music immediately showed up. (This is a pretty cool iOS 9 feature.)
Walking down the stairs of the station, I began playing some music from my offline collection, namely The Weeknd's new album, "Beauty Behind The Madness." So far, so good.
Around the second or third stop on my travels, my music stops. This happens a lot: Every time my iPhone randomly gets cell service underground, albeit briefly, it will pause my music. It happens every single time I emerge from a subway, and it often happens on my rides as well. I click the play/pause button on my headphones and the music continues.
The train stops again, and so does my music. But this time, I can't un-pause it. Though I'm squished between a man and a train door, I manage to get my phone out of my pocket, only to see Apple Music is not on my lock screen. It closed, for some reason. Annoyed, I re-open the app, find the artist I was listening to, and play the song that was interrupted.
I finally arrive at Union Square, and I leave the train station. Of course, Apple Music pauses, so I un-pause it with the button on my headphones. I only get about three blocks until my music stops for the fourth time in 20 minutes — like before, the Apple Music app is unavailable from the lock screen, and I must navigate to my music all over again.
These bugs, particularly relating to playback, can be infuriating. Apple prides itself on the fact that its products "just work." Apple Music is not one of those products. Not yet.
