Hey everyone. Mixed feelings from me. So glad I can rate my music again on my iPhone. Star ratings as an option to turn on and off is fine. Then people who don't want them, don't have to have them. I'm very concerned that they may decide to remove them again in the future. If iTunes looses the metadata then there's nothing I/we can do. That would be so very upsetting.
In terms of user experience, I much preferred the previous way of rating. Touching on the album art bringing up the stars that you had rated or greyed out ones if you hadn't rated it yet. Much quicker to check. I'm going to suggest they bring that back in http://www.apple.com/feedback/.
In terms of how this discussion has gone a little haywire, I'd like to insert my 2c about that. I'm scared and worried about some of the things happening with iOS and iTunes. I will still say though, Smart playlists, Apple Music and my iPhone are still such great tools. While things like the stars getting removed can be seen as us losing control, I have such amazing control with playlists and metadata in iTunes and the sync to my phone. It's still the best I've used.
Let's hope Apple continues to listen. I mean hey, they added the star ratings back in. 🙂
Feedback I submitted about Apple Music:
Thanks so much for adding ratings back. Opt in or out in settings is great. The user experience has degraded when you turn it on and rate a song. The previous way was far superior, it was activated by touching on the album art bringing up the stars that you had rated or greyed out ones if you hadn't rated it yet. Much quicker to check and required fewer button presses. The current one is options > rate song... > touch the number of stars > done. That's 4 touches instead of 2.
Feedback I submitted about iTunes:
I have heard that recent iTunes beta versions have removed star ratings. Please don't remove this. A lot of people still love this feature. I understand that you may think this is reducing complexity and therefore making it easier to use. If that's the case, then just add it as an option to turn on or off. Thanks.