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Suggestions to improve Music playback on Apple TV 4th Gen

Finally using my 4th gen Apple TV to play my music via Home Sharing but finding it a step back compared to 3rd generation.

There needs to be some UI improvements. My suggestions


1) bring back the track progress bar, essential as you now need to pause the track to see how long is left to play

2) increase the artwork size. It looks a lot smaller compared to the old artwork on 3rd generation

3) dark mode. The light screen is hard on the eyes and should come with a darker version, esp when you listen to music in a darkened room

4) an icon to represent when you are playing music in shuffle mode

5) perhaps a track number indicator, I've you are track 6 of 12 in the current album/playlist


any others?

Posted on Mar 22, 2016 12:03 PM

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Posted on Mar 22, 2016 12:12 PM

All great suggestions. Looks like the interface was designed to be "simple" by removing all useful information form the display. There should be an option to enable a more descriptive interface for those that want more than the cover art and names.

18 replies

Mar 22, 2016 6:26 PM in response to XRayLexx

I brought this up a while back, and I was hoping tvOS 9.2 might fix it, but I can't understand why the ability to "Browse Artist" and "Browse Album" by holding down the glass (or play button) has been removed. As far as I can tell, the only way to get to the proper artist page in My Music is to scroll endlessly down—thumb swipe after thumb swipe, depending on how far down the alphabet the artist has the misfortune to be—until you find them. The new Search is pretty much useless if you're looking for something in My Music, and I can't for the life of me figure out why the "search" option within Artist, Album and Song has been removed. So what's strange to me is that if I find a song within My Music (for instance, if a song appears in "Recently Added"), I am able to hold down and select "Browse Artist." But if I find the song using "Search," no dice.


And to make matters worse, while nothing has been improved on the Music app in tvOS 9.2 (with the minor exception of being able to avoid the Search on-screen alphabet by using Siri—except that I already switch to the Remote app on my iPhone when the keyboard is required), now when I find a song using "Search," my Apple TV is playing the *wrong* song (albeit by the same artist, as if that's any consolation) about half the time. Amazing.


Step backward? Yes. As far as I can tell, the Music app on my ATV3 is superior to its successor in every conceivable way. And while we're at it, what happened to the iTunes Music Store?!?

Mar 22, 2016 7:14 PM in response to Airsculpture

So where are you within Music when you're holding down the glass and finding the "Browse Artist/Album" options? When I use Search and then click on an album, on *some* (not most) albums, if I hold down the glass I get these options: Play More Like This; Play Next; Add to Up Next; Start Station; Remove from My Music; or Add to a Playlist…none of which are what I want. For most songs within searched albums, nothing at all happens from holding down the glass on a song. If I hold down the glass on a song option directly fro the Search, nothing happens. If I play the song and go to the menu at the top of the screen, the only options are Start Station from Song or Add to a Playlist. The only place where I've been able to summon "Browse Artist/Album" by holding down the glass is with the "Recently Added" songs.


I have tried looking for some kind of settings to adjust, but I can't find anything relevant.


Also, the only options I have at the top of the screen are Radio (which does nothing because I'm an iTunes Match customer, not Apple Music), My Music (which is kind of like in ATV3 but with the convenience removed), Playlists and that horrible Search mode. But I feel like there was more when I first bought my ATV4…like iTunes Music Store? Or am I just imagining that? Anything you can suggest to help this Music app work more like a proper Apple concept than an intro-to-programming project would be appreciated.


Added to the new and decidedly not improved Netflix interface, I'm really not finding much joy in my ATV4 so far.

Mar 22, 2016 8:42 PM in response to Steve Martin7

Steve Martin7, is that within the confines of the Search page? Also, are you an Apple Music subscriber? I feel like those of us who subscribe to iTunes Match rather than Apple Music are kind of getting the treatment of the second-class citizen.


I may just wind up having to try resetting/wiping my ATV4 because I can't get a "Browse Artist/Album" from anything within the Search interface. It allows me to do plenty of things I don't want to do, and can never imagine wanting/needing to do, but getting to an artist's primary page within My Music is not among them. And I'm still finding that songs I find via Search, while they will play normally if I go through the cumbersome scrolling process of finding them in My Music, are refusing to play in the Search page (from which I cannot click directly to the My Music artist page).


I have never had *any* problems like these with ATV2 or ATV3, and I continue to primarily use the latter for listening to music around the house because I find the ATV4 version so annoying. I would be delighted if the ATV3 version of Music was made available in the App Store (and the ATV3 Netflix interface too!).

Suggestions to improve Music playback on Apple TV 4th Gen

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