I am no expert on Classical Music - but I don’t see it as ‘junk’ and as novice, I have found it interesting enough to explore. @gdp references the meta data problem - which is very valid and should be fixed - but the Music app has that problem aswell - as does Spotify. I don’t know anything about the app they bought, do we know if it is worse than that?
— John Philpin, in a conversation about Apple’s newest app
“interesting enough to explore” is valid in the existing Music app. This is specifically aimed at Classical music for which, as an expert has already told us, metadata is a core feature.
A bad experience with metadata in this app is the definition of junk, since the app is no longer useful. Apple often refuses indie third-party apps for being non-functional (“you can’t use it without an account”, and all that other bullshit) and so it’s only fair to hold them to the same standard.
The aforementioned Spotify, along with other companies such as Meta and Uber would be rightfully criticised by you for such a thing. I don’t know why you’re defending such a sloppy release by the so-called premium brand.
As for Primephonic, I was aware it had a good reputation, and if this What Hi-Fi? review is anything to go by it seems like it was well earned. Certainly its customers were upset at being bought by Apple and I don’t imagine that’s purely based on them being too lazy to try an alternative.
Even so, again, I don’t care if it’s better than Primephonic. This is Apple; the whole point of this company is to be the best no matter what they do. It should be better than Primephonic from the start and get better from there. When it does get better — which I hope it does though I don’t feel as confident in that as I should — I don’t think they’ll deserve praise until it is much better, and even then it should not be forgotten that they should have done a much better job from the start.
