Serenity Caldwell, writing for iMore:
When you try to sync offline Apple Music tracks to a nano or shuffle, you’re met with this rather disappointing message: “Apple Music songs cannot be copied to an iPod.” You’ll have to rely on your purchased music for those devices, instead.
As to why, Serenity speculates:
It’s probably a record label requirement: In theory, you could sync an iPod shuffle or nano up with Apple Music tracks, then cancel your Apple Music subscription and continue rocking out to those “copied” tracks forever.
Homing in on this a bit, I think the issue is a lack of a keyboard, the lack of an ability to log in to your iCloud account, the lack of accountability.
As Kirk McElhearn pointed out in this post:
Since the DRM on the files links to a time-limited account, you can’t copy them to a device that can’t check if your subscription is still active.
I’ve got no issue with the incompatibility between the nano/shuffle and Apple Music. It is what it is. That said, I do think this ranks up there with the smaller footprint iPhone as an issue that the consumer should be made aware of when they click the Buy button.
It might also have something to do with them not being iOS devices. They both run Pixo OS and the nano is just skinned to look like iOS (an old iOS at that). Maybe some sort of Core Services handle the DRM.
I posted a similar comment yesterday, but I would be happy with restricted plays between syncing on the shuffle. I know it’s not the best experience, but limiting an Apple Music song to 5 plays between syncing is better than 0 plays. I also don’t see why the shuffle can’t be linked to a single iCloud account when connected to iTunes.
The shuffle is pretty useless without iTunes, so I think it’s reasonable to require frequent syncing (and connection to iTunes to log in to iCloud) to enable Apple Music on the device. It’s been a long coming update, so I don’t buy into the argument of time being the issue, but I do hope it gets figured out in the future…I absolutely love my shuffle!
gruber wrote, that he heard that what was left of the ipod software team is now working on the watch. i think it’s probably not the time-limitation but just that the shuffle & nano would need a software update for those DRMd files.
There are still many who have little interest in Apple Music and prefer to just create a few playlists of their favourite songs.
Similarly, and probably unsurprisingly, the iPod Classic won’t sync Apple Music content nor with any Apple iCloud-hosted music, including your own Matched music that’s cloud-hosted. Content must be downloaded locally to sync with iPod Classic.
I do not see it as a deal breaker at all. Still, even MS was able to handle that correctly on the Zune years ago… Files remain valid for the current paid subscription cycle (so, normally one month) and require contact to a computer for a refresh then. That is not exactly hard to achieve.
P.S. Could it be that this is indeed a licensing restriction of another kind… People can’t buy tracks on these devices and on all supported devices they can. Maybe that was figured into the overall agreements?
yes – it can and should be better and the “recording industry” should care a bit about the customer experience. I know the people at “Ultraviolet” have no clue.
I would argue thought hat 5 plays sucks – maybe 25? And what’s a “play” … I mean if you listen the half the song, 30 seconds of the song or if the song is drowned by the noise from the street or subway – though if you dont have single in the subway – o yeah, streaming sux.
MS Xbone – 24/7 internet connectivity – championed by the idiot in charge – until upper management realized he is an idiot (hopefully he learned something).
engineering … some day they may work. Maybe Steve Jobs or The Woz was the only real engineer, ever? OK, in say the post Nikola Tesla era (yes, the man, not the car company).
so this will help to keep it that way! Is that good or bad?
It is good that you do not see it as a deal breaker. I think the bigger issue is, many wont even know what the deal is – until its “too late” – or just retardedly annoying. Technology is great