New features and Apple Music ‘clean up’ coming soon

Apple has acknowledged there’s still plenty of work to do in order to improve the Apple Music streaming service.

iTunes International VP Oliver Schusser told the Guardian there’s “a bit of homework to be done” before the new platform can reach its potential.

The service has received praise for the Beats 1 radio station as well as the human-curated playlists, but a fiddly interface and an issue affecting the iTunes libraries of users has drawn criticism in some quarters.

“There’s a lot of work going into making the product better,” he said. “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.

“Apple Music Connect is growing big-time with more and more artists connecting to their fans, but we still have a bit of homework to be done for the rest of the year.”

Following the highly-publicised launch at the end of June, Apple boasted of amassing 11 million subscribers, although none of them are currently paying for the service.

A true measure of Apple Music’s initial impact won’t be known until the end of this month, when the three month free trial expires and customers will be asked to hand over £9.99/$9.99 a month.

See also: Apple Beats 1: 12 hours with Radio Apple

In response to negative feedback over the app and the iTunes Library issues Schusser added: “The product is always our priority, and we are getting a lot of feedback. 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.”

The exec also reiterated that a launch on Android and compatibility with Sonos multi-room speakers will come this autumn.

Will you be sticking with Apple Music once your free trial has expired? Or do you plan to hightail it back to Spotify at the earliest opportunity? Share your thoughts below.