Apple Music for Android moves past beta period, growing pains linger

Its public beta period behind it, Apple Music for Android has just been updated to version 1.0 and it has brought along a set of equalizer settings to mark the milestone. There are also a ton of performance improvements, but Apple may have a hard time convincing early adopters of that.

The equalizer settings likely took longer to arrive on Android because they had to be built into the Apple Music app, while the iOS version of the app has the controls baked right into the Settings menu.

The Apple Music team indicated that it has imparted the Android app with a host of playback, performance and stability enhancements. The team didn’t detail those improvements in the app’s release notes.

Apparently those improvements haven’t been enough for many Android users, as the app’s aggregate score from over 88,000 reviews sits at a 3.3 out of 5. Reviewers have been venting about the app’s performance and decrying the lack of features such as the ability to conserve data with lo-fi streaming options.

While off to a strong start, Apple still has a lot of ground to cover in catching up with rival Spotify. Google’s Play Music appears to be in the streaming music market for the long haul, and France’s Deezer just made landfall in the US late last month.

On top of that, Apple’s iTunes app is no stranger to performance issues of its own. A few months ago, iOS users were accusing the company of programming Apple Music to delete DRM-free music from iTunes libraries and replacing them with protected copies of the tracks it erased.

How has your experience with Apple Music been? If you’ve been plagued by performance issues, have you noticed any improvements after updating to version 1.0?