robobunny

Q: Will the iOS iTunes Remote App support Apple Music?

For some years we've been using a Mac as a media server running iTunes controlled by the iOS remote app with multiple airplay speakers throughout the condo. Often times with less than satisfactory results, including frequent drop outs and often times iHome airplay speakers that needed resetting.

 

When Apple Music came out we very enthusiastically signed up, because, you know, everything from Apple "just works" together. Only, the iTunes iOS remote app indeed does not yet support Apple Music. Yes I know I can "add music" to my library, but all the music discovery has to be done on iOS or OS X. But hey, it looks like the remote app at least has some support for Apple Radio.... er, oops, not with this last release.

 

Now it feels like the final straw... Sonos has built-in Apple Music support now before Apple's own remote app. Question is, does anyone know if Apple has plans to add Apple Music support to the iOS client app?

Posted on Dec 22, 2015 6:41 PM

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Q: Will the iOS iTunes Remote App support Apple Music?

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  • by Mobile Blues,

    Mobile Blues Mobile Blues Dec 23, 2015 3:11 PM in response to robobunny
    Level 4 (1,799 points)
    Dec 23, 2015 3:11 PM in response to robobunny

    I guess I'm not understanding your question fully. The remote supports all of iTunes playback features as well as Apple TV. Make sure you have "Home Sharing" turned on under iTunes preferences and on the remote app.

     

    As for adding music or playlists and such, you use iTunes and Music for that. Picture iTunes and Music like a giant CD Player and the Remote App as your Remote. Once you have loaded up your music on your "Giant CD Player" you use the remote to Playback, Start, Stop, Search, Play by Artist, Play by Playlist, etc.

  • by felsmann,

    felsmann felsmann Jan 14, 2016 12:15 PM in response to Mobile Blues
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2016 12:15 PM in response to Mobile Blues

    Seriously your kind of reply is insulting to the OP  You can clearly see he has a high level of understanding and experience with Airplay.  The real issue is Apple Remote app's inability to control iTunes like it used to before Apple Music came out.  For example, Changing radio stations.

     

    If you can't help just don't reply.  And Apple please update the App!!

  • by Mobile Blues,

    Mobile Blues Mobile Blues Jan 15, 2016 8:22 AM in response to felsmann
    Level 4 (1,799 points)
    Jan 15, 2016 8:22 AM in response to felsmann

    Whoa....felsmann...I am just trying to help. Robobunny did not indicate their level of expertise and I was simply offering a few suggestions based off of my experience with iTunes. I'm not trying to insult anyone, just trying to help.

     

    As a follow-up if there is something you or robobunny would like to include in a future release you can leave your comments here:

    http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

  • by Mark 42,

    Mark 42 Mark 42 Feb 15, 2016 10:07 AM in response to robobunny
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 15, 2016 10:07 AM in response to robobunny

    I also have a problem with Apple Music and Remote.  This may expand on robobunny's problem:

     

    I am trying out the "3 months free" Apple Music, with both a desktop Mac and an iPhone. In most ways, it's great. I use the "Search" button on either the Mac or iPhone and get a choice to either search my own music or search the Apple library - so far, just a few words will let me find any music I can think of. BUT - and it's a big "but"- I cannot do it using the "Remote" app. So if I want to play an album on Apple Music on the Mac, I can't do it with Remote. The best I can do is set it up on the Mac, start it playing, and then use Remote to adjust volume, etc.

     

    This may sound a bit trivial - but in my case it is especially important because I am a handicapped person and find it much easier to use an iPhone rather than get up, go to the desktop Mac and find the album there and start it.

     

    Ome obvious solution for me is to just play Apple Music through the iPhone - but I have my desktop Mac linked to a good speaker system.   The iPhone can't link to it from the iPhone. (I can establish the link from iPhone to speakers, but it keeps stopping and stuttering, makes listening to music impossible).  This leaves me wanting to play Apple Music from the desktop Mac - but I can't do it with Remote. 

     

    One setting is possibly relevant to the problem: I have iCloud music library turned OFF. This is to protect my own music from getting accidentally overwritten by a read-protected Apple version, which would disappear if I ever cancelled my Apple Music subscription.

     

    This is why I am hoping the Remote app will be fixed or expanded to let me go to Apple Music through a Mac, find music and play it.

     

    Any suggestions are welcome! 

  • by bill kapra,

    bill kapra bill kapra Mar 15, 2016 7:41 PM in response to Mark 42
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 15, 2016 7:41 PM in response to Mark 42

    I have the same problem.

     

    My library is on a mac mini connected to speakers throughout house. I want to be able to sit in any room and control from iphone or ipad. This is a great alternative to Sonos, etc. Except Apple keeps undersupporting the remote app.

     

    Please, Apple, spend some time on this. It's a fantastic way to wed your users to your hardware/software/cloud ecosystem. If you don't, someone is going to fill the niche.

  • by rwdragon,

    rwdragon rwdragon May 22, 2016 6:27 PM in response to robobunny
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 22, 2016 6:27 PM in response to robobunny

    It's unfortunate that Apple continues to lag behind others when it comes to audio technology.  It really makes me wonder if anyone that works on Apple tech owns a serious home audio setup.  With Spotify you can easily remote play on any other device that is logged into the Spotify web app.  So you can run Spotify on your iMac and have the music play on your MacMini, or control it from your iPhone.  This really seems like a basic feature that any cloud connected service can easily offer.  Yet .. if you run iTunes on your iMac ... you can't get it to play your music on your MacMini.  From an iPhone you can control either.  Yet again, we see that with Apple Music, you can start song/artist radios via the iPhone remote, nor can you select the 'For You' play lists.

     

    So at best, you have to save For You playlists as local playlists, then you can use the iPhone remote to play those in turn.  In the iMac to MacMin scenario, we just use remote desktop, lame, but that's what apple offers.  Sure you can get airplay devices, but they are unreliable and low fidelity, again showing that Apple isn't serious about audio playback.  Shall I mention lack of FLAC support?

     

    Honestly I don't mind these hacked up scenarios so much, but my wife and kids always have trouble getting the multi speaker house wide sound system to work with Apple Music.  They have no trouble with Spotify.

     

    That said, Apple Music does offer a LOT of great music!

  • by bill kapra,

    bill kapra bill kapra May 25, 2016 1:38 PM in response to robobunny
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    May 25, 2016 1:38 PM in response to robobunny

    I have EXACTLY this problem.

     

    Please Apple, task someone to this. As others have posted, a mac mini (or, I assume, apple TV) can be a great house-wide music hub. But if you can't control it with a phone or tablet, it's essentially useless.

     

    Maybe I misunderstand engineer tasking at Apple but I can code and my sense is that this is a very minor undertaking.

     

    Please support the remote app!

  • by Farinosa,

    Farinosa Farinosa Aug 27, 2016 6:49 PM in response to robobunny
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple Music
    Aug 27, 2016 6:49 PM in response to robobunny

    I too would like to control Apple Music remotely from my phone to computer and am disappointed that Apple hasn't addressed this.