Apple Music first look: visually appealing with creative playlists

NEW YORK — I got to test Apple Music a day early, and what I wanted to test was Taylor Swift's 1989 album.

Funny what a little social media squabble gets you to do.

As anyone following music knows by now, the pop superstar recently took on Apple via Twitter over a royalty payments issue surrounding the company's nascent music service, which became available to the public Tuesday. Apple swiftly surrendered.

"I'm a big part of that and Tim (Cook) is a big part of that and we did it together," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services, told me in an interview. "For us this was a really simple call. We did something we thought was compensating them, artists didn't feel that way, and we could address it. Why wait? Luckily I work at a company where Tim and myself could make it happen very quickly."

Beats co-founder and Apple executive Jimmy Iovine adds, "I had floor seats for this one. It was extraordinary what Eddy and Tim Cook did. We got up in the morning and I talked to Eddy. How these guys move in a company of this size, and to understand the nuance of what is going on with an artist and an industry, to get that, was nothing short of mind-blowing to me."

The episode brought big-time attention to both Swift and to Apple — as if either party has any trouble generating publicity.

The real test: Time to pay

I'm guessing most of you will be enticed to try Apple Music, given there are some 800 million iTunes accounts. The real question is whether you'll want to stick around once a 90-day free trial period for the on-demand part of the service expires. That's when you'd have to pay $9.99 a month for on-demand subscription access to a library of 30 million-plus tracks, or $14.99 monthly for a family membership covering up to six people.

After more than a day's listen, I can't tell how readily listeners will agree to pay. But here's what I found out.

Apple Music certainly looks visually appealing on the iPhone 6 Plus preloaded with the iOS update, especially the way Apple extracts the colors and themes from an album cover and displays it across the entire display. But it also took me awhile to get comfortable finding my way around — there's an awful lot packed into a section labeled "New." The fresh version of iOS you'll need to access Apple Music came out Tuesday,.

Some old favorites hang around

The service is an amalgam of Apple's own iTunes and Beats Music, which Apple spent $3 billion to acquire last year. If you still prefer the iTunes model of plunking down $1.29 a pop to buy music, the iTunes store remains.

Beats remains too, for now, though it is no longer accepting new members, and will eventually be replaced by Apple Music. Sonos sent emails to owners of its streaming music players warning them that if they try Apple Music now on Sonos, they won't be able to go back to Beats. But Beats playlists can move over to Apple Music.

The core of a paid subscription on Apple Music is that you can listen to almost any track or album whenever you want, as if you owned the music. In that sense Apple Music is similar to Spotify, Google Play Music, Rhapsody, Rdio, Deezer and other services. Stop paying and the only tracks you can play in Apple Music are those that you purchased or ripped off a CD, which makes the free part of Apple Music more restrictive than on Spotify. Non-premium members of Spotify can listen for free on desktop PCs and tablets, and in shuffle mode on mobile.

Tap once

The similarities to Beats itself are apparent. Upon signing up, your first step is to tap on circles representing musical genres (Classic Rock, Hip-Hop, Classical, etc.). Tap once on a genre you like, twice on one you love. Next you do the same for favorite artists.

Apple uses your selections, as well as the music you've previously purchased in iTunes or indicated you liked (by tapping a heart-shaped icon) to recommend playlists and albums that show up in a "For You" section.

My For You recommendations were pretty on target and included music from many familiar artists — Herbie Hancock, Barbra Streisand, Lena Horne, and Coldplay — but also a few artists I didn't know.

In a "Banging the Keys: Piano Pop Rock" playlist that was surfaced, I discovered a song, Little Numbers from BOY, that I liked.

I also appreciated the "Hipster's Guide to Jazz" suggestion in For You, with selections from Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and other jazz legends.

It was fun exploring numerous playlists that fit general themes such chilling out, cooking, and romancing.

You can tap a button to add any song or playlist to your existing My Music library, the Apple Music equivalent of the iTunes library. Without otherwise knowing, you can't easily distinguish between the songs you're effectively renting as part of your subscription and those that you own. Either way, you can also download copies of songs to play on your phone or tablet while offline.

No streaming Beatles

Not all the artists whose music is available for purchase in iTunes are also available for streaming, most notably The Beatles: "There always some folks to come later that we would all like," Cue says. "Over time I certainly would expect The Beatles to be there." Of course if you own Beatles music it can reside next to the on-demand tracks in the library.

Apple has high hopes for the Connect feature that connects artists to fans. The artists you follow may post extra music and videos, photos, in-progress song lyrics, info on tour dates and more. Having indicated an interest in classical music, I found myself connected to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra where conductor Sir Simon Rattle in a video discussed streaming classical music.

For all its promise, the Connect area seems pretty thin at the outset. "It's somewhat of a discovery social network and you can't do that until it opens. Day one is day one," Iovine says.

The streaming-music market is competitive and fragmented , so the onus is on Apple to explain how it's different.

The live Beats 1 radio station is part of Apple's strategy and promising on first listen. It broadcasts globally around the clock, hosted by prominent DJs in Los Angeles, New York and London. Even if you don't subscribe, Apple is making it available for free.

Other radio stations include ESPN Radio and NPR, plus some holdovers from iTunes Radio. And as with Pandora, you can seed your own custom radio stations based on favorite performers.

Another would-be differentiator comes through the human element, with Apple not just relying on computer algorithms to drum up music recommendations.

Yes, a rival service such as Slacker also employs human curators and DJs, but it doesn't have near Apple's marketing muscle.

Let us know what you think of Apple Music, day one and beyond.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow @edbaig on Twitter