is thankfully not turning a deaf ear to the myriad of complaints users have expressed thus far about Apple Music, the company’s nascent music streaming service. In an interview with The Guardian, iTunes VP Oliver Schusser said that the company is working hard to address a number of usability and performance issues before bringing the music service to Android.
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“There’s a lot of work going into making the product better,” Schusser explained. “Our focus is on editorial and playlists, and obviously we have teams all around the world working on that, but we’re also adding features and cleaning up certain things.
Schusser’s remarks should undoubtedly come as welcome news to legions of Apple Music users who, while appreciating the service’s curated playlists and song suggestions, have been frustrated by glaring usability issues and questionable design choices. As an illustrative example, many users have noticed that adding songs to custom playlists only works about 30% of the time. You might also recall Jim Dalrymple’s scathing takedown of Apple Music just a few weeks back. And as we highlighted shortly after the service launched, Apple Music on iTunes is a confusing mess riddled with head scratching and inexplicably contradictory UI elements.
Addressing such concerns head-on, Schusser said that improving the core functionality of the music service remains a top priority for the Apple Music team.
“The product is always our priority, and we are getting a lot of feedback,” Schusser added. “Remember, this was a very big launch in 110 markets instantly, so we get a ton of feedback. We’re obviously trying to make it better every day.”
“That’s more our priority than checking every hour the amount of people who have signed up,” Schusser continued. “We have more of a long-term perspective on this.”
That’s certainly reassuring given how frustrating Apple Music has been for users who were, perhaps naively, hoping for a music service that was a clear cut above Spotify.
If all goes according to plan, Schusser said that Apple Music will likely launch on Android sometime this fall, which might be Apple code for ‘the first day before winter’.
With Apple’s iPhone event slated to take place next week, it’ll be interesting to see if Apple drops any Apple Music related data on our heads. About a month ago, Apple noted that its music streaming service had already attracted 11 million trial members.
