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Q: I can't transfer Apple Music to iPod Nano

I started Apple Music trial, and I added some songs to My Music library, when I connect my iPod Nano 7g and try to sync. It says that song was not copied to the iPod because it is a subscription item.

 

It is supposed that I can play them offline, right?

iPod nano, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), null

Posted on Jul 1, 2015 2:00 PM

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Q: I can't transfer Apple Music to iPod Nano

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  • by John Hall,

    John Hall John Hall Jul 8, 2015 12:39 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 12:39 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    Thanks for your feedback Roger. I would not expect any of the music I downloaded to work when I terminate my subscription to Apple Music on any device. I wasn't trying to do this to play the system, I just had a different expectation of what Apple meant by using offline at first. I can rent a movie through the iTunes store and play it on my iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and computer (since they are internet connected I guess). I just thought maybe Apple would set themselves apart from the other streaming services by letting people use on other devices, but it's their service. I'm not going to waste any more of my time on this. I'll use it for 3 months then purchase what songs/albums I like that I got to preview then move on without Apple Music.

  • by starvin,

    starvin starvin Jul 8, 2015 12:48 PM in response to John Hall
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 12:48 PM in response to John Hall

    John Hall,

     

    Your response above fits precisely with my feelings. I also thought that playing offline would mean on any device that we own and connect to Apple software. In my case iPod nano 7th gen connects to and has both content and playlists controlled by iTunes.

     

    EXCEPT for Apple Music downloaded for offline use.

     

    Perhaps they will modify.

     

    To paraphrase - - -  I'm out!

     

    [and we are the early adopting fans!! ]

     

    Regards,

     

    Tony

  • by hhgttg27,

    hhgttg27 hhgttg27 Jul 8, 2015 1:24 PM in response to starvin
    Level 5 (5,407 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 8, 2015 1:24 PM in response to starvin

    As I noted before, non-iOS iPods have no means to verify the status of media downloaded from Apple Music, so unless there are major firmware revisions (which I would assess as highly unlikely) offline use of Apple Music content will be restricted.  The restrictions are not Apple's, these are imposed by the media companies.

  • by matt_brady,

    matt_brady matt_brady Jul 8, 2015 1:31 PM in response to hhgttg27
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 1:31 PM in response to hhgttg27

    They could implement a system where you would have to connect your iPod to iTunes once a week or once a month for it to verify that you still had a valid subscription. That way if you did cancel Apple Music, you wouldn't be able to just keep your offline music indefinitely.

  • by hhgttg27,

    hhgttg27 hhgttg27 Jul 8, 2015 1:48 PM in response to matt_brady
    Level 5 (5,407 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 8, 2015 1:48 PM in response to matt_brady

    Great idea, but how do you enforce it?  Without developing a firmware update for every model of iPod there has ever been and requiring every user to update to it what would force them to connect to iTunes every week or month?  How would you even enforce the firmware upgrade?  Without those changes - which simply aren't going to happen - there would be nothing to stop someone downloading several hundred albums "for offline use" and transferring them to an iPod classic where they'd be available permanently.  Even putting the checks into iTunes code wouldn't work - people would exploit this by just using a USB charger to keep the iPod's battery topped up and never connecting to iTunes.

  • by matt_brady,

    matt_brady matt_brady Jul 8, 2015 2:05 PM in response to hhgttg27
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 2:05 PM in response to hhgttg27

    It would just be a matter of not allowing the offline Apple Music tracks to be copied to an iPod unless the iPod was already upgraded to a new firmware that had Apple Music support in it and it required the periodic connection.

     

    I agree this is unlikely to happen though. The old non-iOS iPods are barely supported anymore and I don't think Apple sees it as a high priority to do any updates to them.

  • by deggie,

    deggie deggie Jul 8, 2015 2:07 PM in response to matt_brady
    Level 9 (54,434 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 2:07 PM in response to matt_brady

    I doubt the firmware in the Nano and others can be updated to work with Apple Music DRM. You still would not be able to enforce connecting it.

  • by matt_brady,

    matt_brady matt_brady Jul 8, 2015 2:51 PM in response to deggie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 2:51 PM in response to deggie

    They already support the old iTunes DRM, there's no reason they couldn't be updated to handle the new DRM (assuming it's even different).

    Enforcing connection would be through software on the iPod. It would stop playing DRM songs after x days without a connection to iTunes.

  • by Roger Wilmut1,

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Jul 8, 2015 3:01 PM in response to matt_brady
    Level 9 (77,913 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 8, 2015 3:01 PM in response to matt_brady

    matt_brady wrote:

     

    They already support the old iTunes DRM...

     

    Actually they don't: they just ignore it. Since (in theory) you can't copy songs back from an iPod to iTunes they just pick up what is fed to them by the last sync with iTunes. Even if you could extract the songs using a third-party program they wouldn't play except in an authorized iTunes. There's no way of making non-internet connected iPods handle the rental expiry situation; as said above you would have to enforce a firmware upgrade on every single iPod ever made, which would be quite impossible.

  • by Kinnick,

    Kinnick Kinnick Jul 8, 2015 3:31 PM in response to deggie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 3:31 PM in response to deggie

    What error message?

  • by matt_brady,

    matt_brady matt_brady Jul 8, 2015 3:55 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 3:55 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    There's no way of making non-internet connected iPods handle the rental expiry situation; as said above you would have to enforce a firmware upgrade on every single iPod ever made, which would be quite impossible.

     

    Why would that be impossible? Apple could release a new firmware for iPods that supports a sync of Apple Music. iTunes would be updated as well so that it would know to check for the correct iPod firmware version before allowing the music to be copied over. And then the new iPod firmware would have a counter that would start as soon as it disconnects from iTunes. When/if the counter runs down, the firmware would no longer allow those songs to play. When you connect back to iTunes and you still have a valid Apple Music subscription and if so, it resets the iPod timer again.

     

    If you didn't install the new firmware on your iPod, then iTunes would refuse to copy over music, as it does now.

  • by deggie,

    deggie deggie Jul 8, 2015 4:34 PM in response to matt_brady
    Level 9 (54,434 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 4:34 PM in response to matt_brady

    The systems being used now for DRM are far different that Apple's Fairplay which was instituted 14 years ago. The OS on the iPod Nano and the Shuffle is not robust enough for the firmware updates you are referring to. There is also other software available that can put music on the Shuffle and Nano so a person could load all the songs they wanted then just don't connect to iTunes again.

     

    It is possible that Apple could release new versions of the Shuffle and Nano with the DRM decoder on a chip but again how do you force someone to connect it to a computer with iTunes?

  • by hhgttg27,

    hhgttg27 hhgttg27 Jul 8, 2015 4:45 PM in response to matt_brady
    Level 5 (5,407 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 8, 2015 4:45 PM in response to matt_brady

    "Apple could release a new firmware for iPods that supports a sync of Apple Music"

     

    There is no "firmware for iPods" - every model and every generation is different: are you suggesting that Apple should develop, test and release new firmware for the iPod Classic (6 gens), Mini (2), Nano (7) and Shuffle (4)?  iTunes itself would also need a substantial update to support an entire new set of functions within its sync operations.  Apple have stated explicitly that Apple Music is only available for iOS devices - do you really expect them to reverse that decision and allocate significant development resources to support legacy products?

  • by deggie,

    deggie deggie Jul 8, 2015 4:47 PM in response to hhgttg27
    Level 9 (54,434 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 4:47 PM in response to hhgttg27

    While I agree with you on other points all of the iPods share an OS called Pixo but we are talking very low level and very weak CPU.

  • by matt_brady,

    matt_brady matt_brady Jul 8, 2015 4:53 PM in response to hhgttg27
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 4:53 PM in response to hhgttg27

    Apple have stated explicitly that Apple Music is only available for iOS devices - do you really expect them to reverse that decision and allocate significant development resources to support legacy products?

     

     

    From one of my earlier comments:

    >I agree this is unlikely to happen though. The old non-iOS iPods are barely supported anymore and I don't think Apple sees it as a high priority to do any updates to them.

     

    We're basically just blue-skying ideas. I don't think anyone expects these things to actually be done.

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